dissertation on video marketing

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• Published: 21 February 2024

How short video marketing influences purchase intention in social commerce: the role of users’ persona perception, shared values, and individual-level factors

• Xiangdong Shen 1 &
• Junbin Wang   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2933-7892 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  290 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Business and management

The purpose of this study is to expand the stimulus‒organism‒response model to explore the impact of short video users’ persona perception on their purchase intention on short video platforms in the context of Chinese short video marketing. The model is empirically tested using structural equation modeling and survey data collected from 350 short video users. The results show that 10 of the 11 hypotheses in the research model are supported and have reliable prediction accuracy. Short video users’ persona perception of each dimension has a significant positive impact on shared value creation. This study thus constructs mediating and moderating variables by exploring the internal correlation and intermediate mechanism between short video users’ persona perception and purchase intention. First, shared value creation plays a mediating role between persona perception and purchase intention on short video platforms. Second, two individual-level moderating variables play a moderating role between shared value creation and purchase intention across short video platforms: Regulatory focus and social presence. This research therefore provides useful implications and guidance for brands and merchants seeking targeted and efficient precision marketing on short video platforms. It also enriches the theoretical research on consumer behavior on short video platforms.

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Introduction.

Amid the rapid development of the internet, China has entered an era where all people are online. The Statistical Report on Internet Development in China has indicated that as of December 2022, the number of Internet users in China reached 1.067 billion (CNNIC, 2023 ). Technological innovation and development in the field of digital information have generated a series of short video application platforms. In terms of the fast-growing network entertainment lifestyle, short videos have become an emerging popular culture and social communication language. Similar to Instagram, Snapchat Story, Houseparty, and Micodeng are owned by Twitter and Facebook. TikTok, Kwai, and Volcano videos are customized based on the usage habits of Chinese users and have become the main components of the domestic short video ecosystem. As of December 2022, the number of short video users reached 1.012 billion (CNNIC, 2023 ). Short video marketing meets the entertainment needs of people in regard to their busy lives because of its low threshold and fast entertainment (Louisa and Yang, 2023 ). Short video content consumption has also successfully broken through barriers and entered the public’s field of vision.

Different from static pictures or traditional videos, short videos have a low entry barrier, rich information, and fast transmission speed, which can fully arouse consumers’ virtual senses (Xiao et al., 2020 ). Bhardwaj and Sharma ( 2020 ) indicated that short videos can activate vision and hearing simultaneously, thereby fully activating the human brain, and are easier for audiences to remember. Sun ( 2020 ) showed that short video marketing can enhance the authenticity of video content and make audiences feel more interactive. Sedej ( 2019 ) also found that short video marketing has high information density, which is conducive to awakening the emotional needs of an audience and creating conditions for direct communication between enterprises and audience members. On the psychological level of users, Cheng and Li ( 2023 ) found that short videos like TikTok news with negative sentiment and more second-person perspectives were associated with higher viewer engagement. In the research regarding short video marketing’s impact on consumers’ purchase intention, the content characteristics of the short video itself and the impact of the short video marketing platform on consumers’ purchase intention have mainly been studied (Boman and Raijonkari, 2017 ; Alexandra and Scarlat, 2017 ).

Such studies have extensively explored the impact of various factors on purchase intention in social commerce, such as brand equity (Huang et al., 2022 ), social learning (Chen et al., 2017 ), digital influencers (Wang et al., 2021 ), and video creation capabilities (Cuesta-Valiño et al., 2022 ). However, little attention has been given to the role of persona perception in short video marketing. Persona perceptions refer to consumers’ perceptions and evaluations of the personalities, characteristics, and attributes displayed by individuals or characters in short videos (Salminen et al., 2020 ). Understanding how such perception shapes consumers’ purchase intention is crucial for marketers to optimize their short video marketing strategies (Gan et al., 2023 ). Therefore, further research is needed to reveal the direct and indirect effects of persona perception on consumers’ purchase intention, potentially, by considering factors such as authenticity, relatability, and likeability (Salminen et al., 2020 ). Such research could also draw upon theories from consumer psychology, the notion of social influence, and media effects to provide a comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms.

In the era of big data in the 21st century, short videos have become an indispensable tool for daily entertainment and corporate marketing. Although short video marketing has many advantages over traditional marketing methods, in actual marketing, the understanding of the effectiveness of such marketing promotion is also uneven. Hence, motivated by this academic and practical significance, this study explores how users’ behaviors and individual characteristics affect their purchase intention when they have value resonance with streamer perception. Specifically, we seek to answer the following research questions:

Do consumers generate purchase intention while watching short videos?

What persona perception factors create shared value with the focal platform?

What factors affect shared value and consumers’ willingness to purchase on short video platforms?

This study takes short video platform users as the research object; through field survey data, it uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to process and empirically analyze the collected data and then explores the relevant factors that affect shared value and consumer purchase intention in short video marketing. It therefore enriches the theory on short video marketing and consumer behavior and provides salient references for relevant companies involved in short video marketing.

The introduction is followed by a literature review and hypothesis development. Then comes the research framework, followed by the data analysis and results. The fifth section is discussion and implications, as well as thoughts on future research. The research design is shown in Fig. 1 .

Research design.

Literature review and hypothesis development

The stimulus‒organism‒response framework.

This study adopted the S-O-R paradigm in framework construction for three reasons. Firstly, although the S-O-R paradigm was initially used in the field of environmental psychology, marketing research has also shown that consumers’ consumption behavior is influenced by environmental stimuli (Eroglu et al., 2003 ; Mazaheri et al., 2011 ). Chinese people are dominated by collectivism in a multicultural social environment and are particularly sensitive to various environmental factors (Shobeiri et al., 2018 ). Therefore, the S-O-R paradigm can be used to study the response of Chinese consumers to short video stimuli. Secondly, under the S-O-R paradigm, when consumers receive multi-sensory input from the external environment, their internal state also affects their behavior. Some studies use the S-O-R paradigm to explain consumer behavior under various external environmental stimuli, resulting in certain predictions (Russell and Mehrabian, 1974 ; Wu et al., 2019 ; Ebru et al., 2023 ). Therefore, the S-O-R model can be used to explain the relationship between persona perception, shared value creation, and purchase intention on short video platforms. Thirdly, with the continuous expansion and deepening of short video platforms in China, studying which persona perception can capture consumers’ true intentions, meet their internal needs, and further increase their willingness to purchase goods through short video platforms has high research and practical significance (Chai et al., 2017 ; Li et al., 2019 ; Eroglu et al., 2003 ; Imene and Lolwah, 2023 ). Therefore, this study is suitable for applying the S-O-R paradigm to examine the relationship between persona perception and purchase intention on short video platforms. Finally, the S-O-R paradigm is an effective and direct approach adopted in this study to examine the impact of persona perception (S) through shared value creation (O) on consumers’ purchase intention (R) on short video platforms.

Hypothesis development

Porter and Kramer defined shared value as follows: The “policies and operating practices that enhance the competitiveness of a company while simultaneously advancing the economic and social conditions in the communities in which it operates” (Porter and Kramer, 2011 ). According to this definition, the interaction between short video influencers and viewers through formal channels constitutes shared value creation. Studies have shown that trust can promote interactions between influencers and viewers in e-commerce (Chang and Chen, 2008 ). Wongkitrungrueng and Assarut ( 2020 ) have also confirmed that customers’ trust in a seller is positively correlated with their engagement. In addition, credibility plays a crucial role in viewers’ positive attitudes toward influencers (Belanche et al., 2021 ). Therefore, short video influencers strengthen their credibility to gain viewers’ trust, which is conducive to promoting consumers’ participation in interaction and shared value creation. In addition, credibility has an impact on consumers’ purchase intention. Weismueller et al. ( 2020 ) found that source credibility significantly enhances consumers’ purchase intention. In a similar manner, decision use and active use intention concerning gamified e-commerce websites influence viewers’ buyback intention (Aparicio et al., 2021 ). Hence, short video platforms enhance their credibility through real influencers and work to ensure viewers have a positive attitude toward using them, which increases product sales and economic contributions. When viewers can create jobs for themselves by continuing to use short video platforms to make videos, they also make great contributions to society. Based on this, the following hypotheses are proposed:

H1: Credibility has a significant positive impact on shared value creation.

H2: Willingness to use has a significant positive impact on shared value creation.

Shared value creation requires platforms to convey appropriate information to viewers through short videos. Regarding the important role of information, myriad academic studies have been carried out. For example, Hartono et al. ( 2010 ) illustrated that the quality of shared information affects the performance of an operational supply chain and then improves overall firm performance. Kim et al. ( 2021 ) also confirmed that qualified information and services have a positive impact on customer satisfaction and ultimately enhance customer loyalty. This improvement in firm performance and customer loyalty can be regarded as an embodiment of shared value creation; thus, shared value creation is also positively affected by the quality of information provided by a platform. Therefore, what characteristics should information convey to have a positive impact on shared value creation? Chang ( 2018 ) proposed that high perceived information consistency is vital for the success of brands. In addition, Shamala et al. ( 2017 ) demonstrated that objectivity, completeness, reliability, and verifiability have a significant impact on the quality of information collection in information security risk management and can guide practitioners to make effective plans and reach successful decisions. Chu et al. ( 2018 ) have also used completeness, relevance, and accuracy as the criteria for judging information quality. Accordingly, based on the above research and the characteristics of short videos, we argue that the information provided by short video platforms should convey the characteristics of consistency, completeness, and clarity. Clarity is also an important factor for any platform to consider because the information provided by short video platforms should be expressed with clarity and ease, which is conducive to viewers’ understanding thereof and affects shared value creation. Based on this, the following hypotheses are proposed:

H3: Consistency has a significant positive impact on shared value creation.

H4: Completeness has a significant positive impact on shared value creation.

H5: Clarity has a significant positive impact on shared value creation.

Shared value creation is influenced not only by the platform itself but also by the emotional factors among viewers. For short video platforms, short video influencers are the most able to influence viewers’ emotions. The “similar-to-me” effect (Cotter, 2011 ) shows that individuals are more likely to respond to others whom they deem similar to themselves. Similarity to others helps generate empathy (Bornet and Brangier, 2016 ). Moreover, empathy is positively correlated with overall corporate social responsibility as well as the relevant social and environmental factors (Chourou et al., 2021 ). In a new relationship, customer-perceived relationship empathy also contributes to increased trust (Mangus et al., 2020 ). Therefore, when viewers on short video platforms find similarities with influencers, they are more likely to have a favorable impression thereof, generating empathy and contributing to shared value creation. Via empathy and similarity, viewers are better able to understand and trust influencers, better promoting stable relations between these two parties and thereby contributing to society and the economy.

Viewers’ affection for short video influencers is equally important. Akarsu et al. ( 2020 ) have demonstrated that the likability of Airbnb affects the willingness of users to visit it again and recommend it. Teng and Tsai ( 2020 ) also showed that tour leader likability at once directly affects viewers’ value cocreation behavior and indirectly affects it through the intermediary impact of tour leader attachment. Influencers with more likability on short video platforms can make viewers recognize similar aspects of themselves, reducing the sense of distance between them, which plays a positive role in shared value creation. Chen et al. ( 2020 ) have indicated the importance of research on shared value creation from a public perspective, as this contributes to the development of shared value creation from the perspectives of the public and organizations. Likability, empathy, and similarity are salient variables in the research on shared value creation from the perspective of viewers’ emotional factors. Therefore, we suggest that likability, empathy, and similarity contribute to shared value creation. Based on this, the following hypotheses are proposed:

H6: Likability has a significant positive impact on shared value creation.

H7: Empathy has a significant positive impact on shared value creation.

H8: Similarity has a significant positive impact on shared value creation.

As a new form of online shopping, shopping on short video platforms has gradually attracted the attention of consumers in recent years. To further enhance consumers’ purchase intention on short video platforms, it is particularly important to explore the antecedents thereof on short video platforms. The antecedents of continuous use intention have thus attracted academic attention. Li et al. ( 2018 ) have noted that a platform should create a warm environment that can promote emotional development between its audience and users to promote the purchase intention of the latter. Shang et al. ( 2017 ) also showed that consumer resonance on social networking sites has a significant positive impact on consumers’ purchase intention and that this phenomenon originates with sellers who release appropriate product information on social networking sites while actively interacting with consumers through appropriate channels. Fan et al. ( 2020 ) have also shown that mobile live video interactivity improves users’ identification with influencers and their experience when watching live videos, thereby promoting users’ continuous use intention. In sum, to improve users’ purchase intention, short video platforms must provide appropriate products and have sufficient formal channels for interacting with audiences and selling more products to realize economic contributions. In addition, they also must be able to stabilize their emotional relationships with audiences to create better social contributions. Such economic and social contributions embody shared value creation; thus, shared value creation generates and increases viewers’ purchase intention. Based on this, the following assumption is proposed:

H9: Shared value creation has a significant positive impact on purchase intention.

The regulatory focus has two forms: promotion focus and or prevention focus. When individuals are promotion-focused, they pay more attention to positive results. When individuals are prevention-focused, they pay more attention to the negative outcomes they want to avoid (Higgins et al., 2001 ). The academic community has carried out many studies based on the theory of regulatory focus. For example, Kim et al. ( 2012 ) have indicated that the influence of CSR activities on consumers’ attitudes and purchase intention depends on the type of hope inspired by CSR advertisements. While CSR advertisements that describe the negative state of the current environment and show how the contrasting improvements caused by CSR activities can trigger prevention hope, those describing a positive future image may generate promotion hope. Similarly, Zhang ( 2016 ) has found that consumers with a high degree of narcissism (promotion focus orientation) have a strong purchase intention for products presenting promotion-focused advertisements but that consumers with a low degree of narcissism (prevention focus orientation) have a strong purchase intention for products presenting prevention-focused advertisements. Thus, according to regulation focus theory and the above research conclusions, when a short video platform arouses prevention hope via shared value creation and by delivering avoidable negative information to consumers, it stimulates the purchase intention of prevention-focused consumers. When positive information is delivered to consumers and arouses promotion hope, it better stimulates the purchase intention of promotion-focused consumers. Based on this, the following hypotheses are proposed:

H10: Regulatory focus plays a moderating role between shared value creation and purchase intention.

H10a: When shared value creation reflects positive results, the purchase intention of promotion-focused consumers becomes stronger than that of prevention-focused consumers.

H10b: When shared value creation reflects negative results that must be avoided, the purchase intention of prevention-focused consumers becomes stronger than that of promotion-focused consumers.

Moreover, the mediating role of shared value creation may be moderated by social presence. When Short et al. ( 1976 ) first proposed social presence, they suggested that social presence is the degree to which a person is regarded as a “real person” and his or her perceived degree of connection with others in communication through media. The sense of presence plays an important role in communication and interaction. Similarly, social presence has an important impact on the interaction and trust between online shopping platforms and users. Due to their lack of consumer trust, many newly opened online stores end up failing. Further exploring the influence of social presence, Ogonowski et al. ( 2014 ) have found that consumers are more likely to trust a website if it offers the impression of a high level of social presence. In addition, when verifying the trust scale with the four dimensions of integrity, predictability, ability, and benevolence in the electronic product environment, Gefen and Straub ( 2004 ) also showed that social presence has a certain influence on these trust dimensions; specifically, benevolence has the strongest influence and affects online purchase intention. Ye et al. ( 2019 , 2020 ) also concluded that social presence can indirectly improve customers’ trust and purchase intention through intermediary channels such as utilitarianism and hedonism. Hence, the greater the presence of a short video platform is, the greater its users’ trust due to the platform’s human touch and social sense, which stimulate viewers’ purchase intention. The lesser the presence of a platform is, the greater its users’ alienation, reducing their trust. Therefore, the quality of the interaction between the platform and the user is affected by the degree of social presence of the former, which affects the purchase intention of the latter. Hence, social presence modulates the impact of shared value creation on viewers’ purchase intention on a platform. Based on this, the following hypotheses are proposed:

H11: Social presence plays a moderating role between shared value creation and purchase intention.

H11a: The greater the sense of social presence is, the stronger the influence of shared value creation on viewers’ purchase intention.

H11b: The lesser the sense of social presence is, the weaker the impact of shared value creation on viewers’ purchase intention.

To test the validity of the research model, it is also necessary to add control variables that have an impact on purchase intention. Chen et al. ( 2021 ) have noted that personal factors (such as age, gender, income, education, impulsivity, and emotional susceptibility) affect shoppers’ impulsive purchase decisions to varying degrees due to the different types of shopping partners. In live streaming, for example, entertaining content is more likely to cause men to buy virtual gifts (Li et al., 2018 ). Therefore, the effects of age, gender, and income should be controlled for in the study. The content quality of the products provided by a brand on social media and the interaction between users and the company increase users’ enjoyment motivation and strengthen users’ brand awareness, especially among millennials. As a company provides increasingly high-quality web content on social media, the interaction between consumers and this company and its brand is enhanced, which attracts more consumers and establishes consumer brand awareness, thus promoting consumers’ willingness to buy offline (Dabbous and Barakat, 2020 ). Hence, consumers with higher brand awareness of products have a stronger purchase intention when shopping on short video platforms. Therefore, brand awareness should also be included in the model. Regarding the authors of each variable, the relevant paper information and hypotheses are shown in Table 1 .

Research framework

This study proposes 11 hypotheses and constructs a theoretical model adopted to short video platform users, as shown in Fig. 2 .

Research model.

To ensure content validity, the measurement items mainly refer to mature scales from previous research. Credibility was measured using four items adapted from Weismueller et al. ( 2020 ). Consistency was measured using four items adapted from Shamala et al. ( 2017 ). Completeness was measured using four items adapted from Kim et al. ( 2021 ). Clarity was measured using three items adapted from Chu et al. ( 2018 ). Likability was measured using four items adapted from Bornet and Brangier ( 2016 ). Empathy was measured using three items adapted from Mangus et al. ( 2020 ). Similarity was measured using four items adapted from Xiao et al. ( 2020 ). Willingness to use was measured using four items adapted from Aparicio et al. ( 2021 ). Shared value creation was measured using eight items adapted from Ham et al. ( 2020 ). Purchase intention on short video platforms was measured using three items adapted from Kim et al. ( 2012 ).

All measurement items used in this study were pretested with a sample of 20 volunteers, all of whom were short video users, similar to the target sample to be investigated. Conduct personal interviews to correct potential deficiencies and anticipate any doubts and issues that may arise during the information collection process. After the pretest, we removed the problematic indicators, and the questionnaire with 41 items was finally formulated. The final survey questionnaire is presented in Table 2 . Participants involved in this pretest were not included in the main sample.

Since the original text was in English, we conducted a back translation to ensure the translation validity. Firstly, a native Chinese researcher translated the source project from English to Chinese. Next, another researcher independently translated these contents back into English. Subsequently, the two researchers compared two English versions and jointly revised the first Chinese version of the project. Then we invited a panel of experts in the field of consumer behavior to test the surface validity of the survey tools. Based on their feedback, we have made minor modifications to improve the comprehensiveness and user-friendliness of the measurement project. The measurement items of the questionnaire design were tested using a seven-point Likert scale, which ranged from 1 (not agree at all) to 7 (absolutely agree).

Data collection

Although the current popularity of short videos in China is very high, young people are more likely to view short videos. Therefore, this study is mainly survey research, carried out in Chinese universities. First, based on its purpose, this study did not invite subjects lacking familiarity with short video platforms to participate in the survey; thus, the final sample has good validity. Second, the surveyed students completed their questionnaires during class to ensure the highest quality thereof. Finally, to help them understand the items more clearly, this study collected data through face-to-face structured interviews with the respondents rather than allowing them to complete them on their own. The average completion time of a single questionnaire was approximately 18 min.

Data collection was conducted during the summer of 2022. A total of 400 responses were received over a four-week period. Therefore, 350 responses were used for subsequent analysis, after 50 incomplete and invalid responses were dropped. Table 1 summarizes the demographic information of the final sample. As Table 3 indicates, among the 350 respondents, 98 were male, and 252 were female. There were significantly more women than men who watched the short videos. According to the <Tiktok Research Report> released by Beijing News, female users account for 65.4%, which is much higher than the 34.6% of male users (Tiktok Research Report, 2023 ), which is consistent with the results of this study. This is because short video content is relatively easy and entertaining, as well as more intuitive and convenient shopping channels, attracting more female users. The age group of 21 to 29 was the largest, containing over half of the respondents, or 53.7%. Approximately 94.9% of the respondents had a monthly income of less than RMB 3000 (equivalent to US $500). Concerning short video viewing frequency, 163 participants stated they view short videos for less than 1 h a day.

Data analyses and results

Common method bias.

To minimize the impact of CMV, this study adopted control measures such as anonymous filling, setting antisense items, and disrupting the order of items. Harman’s single-factor method was also used to test for common method bias in the research. These results show that the measurement items are all aggregated into 10 factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 and that the first factor explains 28.587% of the variance in all items, which is less than the critical value standard of 40%, indicating that this study effectively controlled for data variance and thus, CMV.

Reliability and validity

The Cronbach’s α and composite reliability (CR) values were above the recommended threshold of 0.7 (Straub et al., 2004 ) and exhibited a satisfactory level of reliability (as in Table 2 ). In Table 4 , this study verified the convergent validity using the average variance extracted (AVE) and factor loadings. The results show that the AVE value is higher than the recommended threshold of 0.5 (Fornell and Larcker, 1981 ) and the standard loadings are higher than 0.7, thus indicating good convergent validity (Chin et al., 1997 ).

By comparing the correlation coefficients with the square roots of AVE (Fornell and Larcker, 1981 ), the study found that all square roots of AVE were greater than the interconstruct correlation coefficients. Therefore, the discriminant validity of the study is good (as shown in Table 5 ).

Hypothesis testing

After examining the measurements’ validity and reliability, we tested the proposed hypotheses using AMOS. Table 6 and Fig. 3 indicate that nine of the hypothesized relationships were supported by these results. Credibility significantly influenced shared value creation, thus supporting H1 ( β  = 0.122, p  < 0.01). Consistency significantly influenced shared value creation, thus supporting H2 ( β  = 0.152, p  < 0.001). Completeness significantly influenced shared value creation, supporting H3 ( β  = 0.121, p  < 0.05). Clarity significantly influenced shared value creation, supporting H4 ( β  = 0.213, p  < 0.001). Likability significantly influenced shared value creation, supporting H5 ( β  = 0.105, p  < 0.05). Empathy significantly influenced shared value creation, supporting H6 ( β  = 0.113, p  < 0.05). Similarity significantly influenced shared value creation, thus supporting H7 ( β  = 0.072, p  < 0.05). Similarity significantly influenced shared value creation, thus supporting H8 ( β  = 0.293, p  < 0.001). In addition, shared value creation significantly influenced purchase intention on short video platforms, thus supporting H9 ( β  = 0.878, p  < 0.001).

* p  < 0.05, ** p  < 0.01, *** p  < 0.001.

Mediating effect testing

Since this study suggests that shared value creation mediates the effect of persona perception on purchase intention on short video platforms, bootstrapping was used to test this mediating effect (Preacher and Hayes, 2008 , Shrout and Bolger, 2002 ). The use and testing of mediating effects is a main trend in management studies. SEM based on bootstrapping can overcome the shortcomings of traditional testing methods such as the Sobel test for small sample sizes and mediating effect values. Table 7 therefore shows that the indirect effect of shared value creation on the relationship between persona perception and purchase intention on short video platforms is significant, with a 95% bootstrap confidence interval, excluding zero. This finding suggests that shared value creation mediates the effect of persona perception on purchase intention on short video platforms.

Moderation effect testing

To verify Hypothesis 10, that is, the moderating effect of regulatory focus on shared value creation and purchase intention, we first set purchase intention as the dependent variable and then located shared value creation, regulatory focus, and the interaction term between them in turn. To eliminate the collinearity problem, shared value creations and regulatory focus should be centrally processed, and then the interaction term between these two variables should be constructed. These results show that the interaction term between shared value creation and regulatory focus is significantly positively correlated with purchase intention ( β  = 18.717, p  < 0.01), which indicates that regulatory focus has a moderating effect on shared value creation and purchase intention (see Fig. 4 ). Furthermore, in the measurement of regulatory focus in the research design, the 11 items of Higgins et al. ( 2001 ) were used to measure consumers’ regulatory focus attributes, and consumers were classified according to the measurement results. In the regulatory focus questionnaire, questions 1–6 measure promotion focus, and questions 7–11 measure prevention focus. In the classification method of this research, the difference between promotion focus and prevention focus is set as M; with M  = 0 as the reference line, M greater than 0 is classified as promotional focus, and M less than or equal to 0 is classified as prevention focus. Depicting these differences among different individuals in the relationship between shared value creation and purchase intention also proves that regulatory focus plays a moderating role between shared value creation and purchase intention (see Table 8 ). Thus, Hypothesis 10 is verified.

The moderating effect of regulatory focus.

To verify Hypothesis 11, the same method was used to centralize shared value creation and social presence to construct an interaction term between these two variables. These results show that the interaction item between shared value creation and social presence is significantly positively correlated with purchase intention ( β  = 11.470, p  < 0.05), which indicates that the greater the level of social presence is, the stronger the positive effect of shared value creation on purchase intention (see Fig. 5 ). Furthermore, social presence is divided into two samples (high and low) by adding or subtracting one standard deviation from the mean value of social presence and depicting the differences in the relationship between shared value creation and purchase intention among individuals with different levels of social presence. These results prove that social presence positively regulates the impact of shared value creation on purchase intention. However, the low social presence group demonstrates no significant moderating effect between shared value creation and purchase intention (see Table 9 ). Thus, Hypothesis 11 is verified.

The moderating effect of social presence.

Robustness check

To enhance the strength of the research conclusions, this study used PROCESS in SPSS 24.0 to analyze the robustness of the research model. Model 14 was used to test the moderated mediation effect of the model and indicated that the 95% confidence interval of Bootstrap contained zero. However, the mediating effect of shared value creation and the moderating effect between shared value creation and purchase intention was shown to be significant. These therefore fully proved the reliability and robustness of the hypothesis test results in this study.

Discussion and implications

Discussion of findings.

This study introduces the “S-O-R” model into the short video marketing context, focuses on the antecedent, mediator, and moderator variables of consumption intention, and explores the relationship among persona perception, shared value creation, regulatory focus, social presence, and purchase intention.

First, in short, video marketing, the perception of each dimension of persona has a significant positive impact on shared value creation, consistent with previous research (Salminen et al., 2020 ). According to the findings, willingness to use has the greatest impact on shared value creation. There are various persona positions in current short video marketing, and those that are more suitable for short video users create more shared value for both parties.

Second, shared value creation plays a mediating role between persona perception and purchase intention and has a significant positive impact on purchase intention. Moreover, shared value creation has a very strong impact on purchase intention. The research on shared value creation referenced (Ham et al., 2020 ) in this study has mainly discussed the economic value and social value provided by short videos. The short video marketing model extends the platform value chain, which is conducive to the integration of short video and e-commerce platforms and the creation of stakeholder value, i.e., shared value creation.

Finally, regulatory focus and social presence play a moderating role between shared value creation and purchase intention. Specifically, when shared value creation reflects positive results, the purchase intention of promotion-focused consumers is stronger than that of prevention-focused consumers. When shared value creation reflects negative results that must be avoided, the purchase intention of prevention-focused consumers is stronger than that of promotion-focused consumers. In addition, amid high shared value creation, users experiencing a greater social presence have a stronger purchase intention, consistent with previous research (Algharabat et al., 2018 ). In contrast, amid low shared value creation, social presence has no significant moderating effect on purchase intention. This may be because in this context users watch short videos for a very short time. If the social presence they experience is low, users directly scroll to the next short video, making it difficult for them to form a purchase intention.

Implications

First, at the managerial level, the managers should attach great importance to short video marketing as an effective means, as an important tool to promote sales growth and brand building. Our finding shows that optimizing short video anchors and content can enhance users’ persona perception and shared values, thereby increasing customers’ purchase intention. As a brand new form of media, firms can elaborate and release various types of marketing videos around their own products and services, transform the value of short videos into the value of specific brands, and produce an effective brand fission effect (Wang et al., 2023 ). At the same time, firms need to develop reasonable short video marketing plans, including target customers, marketing strategy, budget, and other aspects of planning (Dong et al., 2023 ).

Second, at the social level, firms should create a social presence for users through short video marketing. This study documents that a user’s social presence is closely related to purchase intention. Firms can realize users’ emotional release and entertainment needs through situational, funny, and personified soft advertising. In addition, firms can also use virtual technologies such as interactive artificial intelligence and mixed reality to provide users with a more authentic and pleasant shopping experience (Sung et al., 2021 ). In the context of social e-commerce, firms can also carry out social activities such as live-streaming through short video platforms to enhance users’ social presence (You et al., 2023 ).

Third, at the economic level, firms can improve the exposure and visibility of products through short video marketing, expand market share, increase sales, and thus obtain more commercial value. At the same time, firms need to formulate reasonable price strategies and promotion programs according to market conditions and user needs and pay attention to the integration and coordination with other marketing channels. In addition, firms can reduce costs, improve efficiency and enhance their competitiveness through short video marketing (Dai and Wang, 2023 ).

Finally, at the level of consumer behavior, consumers need to spend a lot of time and energy to find the information that meets their needs and hobbies in the mass information of short video platforms. Therefore, personalized functions can meet the needs of this audience. Brands and merchants can use the Internet and big data technology to recommend products or services with high similarity based on user profiles and recommend short video content that users are interested in through personalized algorithms (Xiao et al., 2023 ). In addition, firms can use the shopping cart function of the short video platform to package and sell multiple goods, carry out group buying, and other activities to attract consumers to buy at preferential prices. The short live video function is used to realize experiential consumption scenarios such as product trial and fitting, thereby enhancing consumers’ purchase desire and ultimately promoting the completion of transactions (Wang et al., 2022 ).

Limitations and future research

The limitations of this study should be accounted for before generalizing its findings. First, this research uses cross-sectional data to measure consumers’ cognition of short videos at a certain time, but data from different periods can have further implications for research. Future research could thus expand the scope of this study, increase the sample size, and collect more comprehensive data on live broadcast consumers to improve the external validity of the above findings. Secondly, the results of this article may have application limitations in different regions and cultures. This study was conducted in China, and due to the different psychological states of consumers in different countries and cultures, it may limit the applicability of its results in other cultures (Sun and Zhang, 2006 ). Therefore, it is crucial to conduct cross-regional and cross-cultural research in the future. Finally, although this study considers the relationship among the independent variables, mediator variables, and moderator variables, due to the ongoing development of short video marketing in China, new research phenomena continue to emerge. Hence, future research should also consider variables from other perspectives, such as the product perspective, using product involvement as a moderator variable.

Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the above study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Shen, X., Wang, J. How short video marketing influences purchase intention in social commerce: the role of users’ persona perception, shared values, and individual-level factors. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 290 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02808-w

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Research Topics & Ideas: Marketing

50+ Marketing Research Topic Ideas To Fast-Track Your Project

Finding and choosing a strong research topic is the critical first step when it comes to crafting a high-quality dissertation, thesis or research project. If you’ve landed on this post, chances are you’re looking for a marketing-related research topic , but aren’t sure where to start. If so, you’ve come to the right place.

Here, we’ll explore a variety of marketing-related research ideas and topic thought-starters, covering both traditional marketing (offline media) and digital marketing (including social media marketing, content marketing and the like). We’ll also look at actual dissertations and theses from marketing students to give you a view of what a well-defined research topic looks like.

NB – This is just the start…

The topic ideation and evaluation process has multiple steps . In this post, we’ll kickstart the process by sharing some research topic ideas within the marketing domain. This is the starting point, but to develop a well-defined research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , along with a well-justified plan of action to fill that gap.

If you’re new to the oftentimes perplexing world of research, or if this is your first time undertaking a formal academic research project, be sure to check out our free dissertation mini-course. In it, we cover the process of writing a dissertation or thesis from start to end. Be sure to also sign up for our free webinar that explores how to find a high-quality research topic. 

Overview: Marketing-Related Topics

• How to find a research topic (video)
• Traditional (offline) marketing topics/ideas
• Digital (online) marketing topics/ideas
• Examples of actual dissertation topics
• Free Webinar : Topic Ideation 101
• Where to get extra help

How To Find A Research Topic

Before we look at specific research ideas and topics, it’s useful to first understand what the topic ideation process entails and how to go about finding and refining viable topic ideas. In the video below, we cover exactly that. So, if you’re a first-time researcher, be sure to watch this tutorial before jumping into the collection of marketing research topics we present below. 

Now that you’ve got a big-picture view of the topic ideation process, we can dive into a few research ideas to get your creative juices flowing. Please note that these research topic ideas are intentionally broad and generic, so you will need to refine them a fair deal using the techniques we discussed in the video above.

To make life a little easier for you, we’ve grouped the topic ideas based on two main categories – traditional marketing and digital / online marketing . For the latter, we’ve divided it up into a few subcategories, including social media marketing, content marketing and search marketing. That said, there is naturally some overlap between topics, so keep this in mind.

Research Ideas: Traditional Marketing

• The perceived effectiveness of different types of direct mail campaigns (e.g., postcards, catalogues, brochures) among small business owners in New York
• The perception and use of traditional marketing in creating and nurturing customer loyalty and retention among UK Financial Firms.
• The impact of demographic targeting on traditional marketing performance among green businesses
• The perception of different types of sales promotion (e.g., discounts, coupons, contests) among GenZ consumers
• The continued use of celebrity endorsements in traditional marketing campaigns, post-2020.
• Exploring factors related to outdoor advertising recall in India
• Measuring the ROI of traditional marketing efforts: a review of current methods
• Comparing the effectiveness of different traditional media channels (e.g., television, radio, print) in driving engagement and conversions among established brands
• The use of public relations in traditional marketing campaigns among large insurance companies
• The role of event marketing in building brand awareness and engagement: perceptions among marketing professionals in the UK

Research Ideas: Digital/Online Marketing

Social media marketing

• The use of artificial intelligence in social media marketing among online fashion companies in Sweden
• The impact of social media on public relations and media relations: a Case Study of Nandos
• The role of Twitter in crisis communication and reputation management: a discourse analysis
• The impact of social media influencer presence on brand loyalty and customer retention among Gen X.
• The use of social media for market research and consumer insights among SMEs in Kenya
• The impact of social media on consumer buying behaviour of fast food in Italy
• The challenges and opportunities of social media in global and multicultural marketing: perceptions of marketing departments in large corporations
• The relationship between social media engagement and website traffic: an analysis of fitness brands
• The effectiveness of influencer marketing on social media platforms for household cleaning products in the UK
• The perceptions and understanding of paid vs organic social media advertising among Gen Z consumers in San Francisco

Content marketing

• The use and understanding of micro-moments in creating personalized content experiences among content creators in the USA
• Comparing the effectiveness of methods of personalization of content marketing: an evaluation of best practice
• The experiences and use of SEO in content marketing strategy among small online businesses
• The use of social media influencers in content marketing campaigns: a Case Study of Hello Fresh
• Comparing different content distribution channels for different types of content: perceptions of best practices among content marketing experts
• The use of user-generated content in building brand trust and engagement among green companies in the UK
• Measuring the ROI of content marketing efforts among luxury brands
• The perception and use of Chat GPT in content creation among small online businesses
• The perceptions of interactive and immersive content formats (e.g., virtual reality, augmented reality) in marketing among consumers: an experimental study
• Comparing image and text-based content formats in driving engagement and conversions on social media: a multi-case study of NGOs

Search engine marketing

• The effectiveness of different ad formats (e.g., text ads, shopping ads, video ads) in Search Engine Marketing for tourist destinations
• The impact of search engine algorithm updates on Search Engine Marketing performance – who are the winners and losers?
• The perception and use of AI and machine learning in Search Engine Marketing strategy and bidding optimization within a UK marketing agency
• The use of voice search and its impact on Search Engine Marketing among food retailers in Switzerland
• The role of local SEO in driving brick-and-mortar sales: a case study of a local fashion outlet in France
• The impact of mobile optimization on Search Engine Marketing performance and conversion rates in Nigeria
• Comparing analytical tools for measuring ROI of Search Engine Marketing campaigns
• The effectiveness of different types of keywords and search queries in driving traffic towards restaurants in Italy
• The use of remarketing and retargeting in search engine marketing campaigns among marketers
• The understanding and use of schema markup and structured data in improving Search engine marketing performance among Start-Ups

Email marketing

• The perception and use of AI and machine learning in email marketing among NGOs: a focus on personalized content and dynamic segmentation
• The effectiveness of email subject line strategies in driving open and click-through rates: an experimental study
• Comparing A/B testing and multivariate testing in improving email marketing performance: a case study
• The use of personalization on email marketing performance among craft bloggers
• The impact of automated email marketing among local online retailers on customer loyalty and retention
• The use of automation and triggered emails in increasing engagement and conversion rates for online courses
• The perception and understanding of GDPR and other data privacy regulations on email marketing among SMEs
• The role of mobile optimization in email marketing targeting Gen Z consumers
• The challenges of measuring the ROI of email marketing campaigns: perceptions of SMEs
• The effectiveness of different email formats (e.g., text-based, HTML, interactive) in driving engagement: A/B testing for a small online retailer

Marketing-Related Dissertations & Theses

While the ideas we’ve presented above are a decent starting point for finding marketing-related research topic, they are fairly generic and non-specific. So, it helps to look at actual dissertations and theses to see how this all comes together.

Below, we’ve included a selection of research projects from various marketing-related degree programs to help refine your thinking. These are actual dissertations and theses, written as part of Master’s and PhD-level programs, so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice.

• The Influences of Brand Personality, Culture, and Social Media on Iconic Brand Preferences (Whelan, 2021)
• Customer Success and the Transformation of Customer Relationships (Raines, 2022)
• The Effects of Online Incentivized Reviews on Organic Review Ratings (Jeong, 2020)
• Are You For Real? The Consumption-Driven Self-Authentication Process And Its Effects On Perceived Brand Authenticity (Kuchmaner, 2020)
• You Are What You Eat: How Food Texture And Packaging Influence Consumer Well-Being (Ning, 2020)
• Social Dialogic Listening: Connecting Marketing Activity To Strategy (Collins, 2020)
• Millennials’ Attitudes Towards Influencer Marketing And Purchase Intentions (Yu, 2019)
• Cannibalization between Two Mercedes-Benz Models and Consumer Behavior (Ma, 2020)
• Selling and Buying Aspects of Used Products That Are Brand Anthropomorphized (Kim, 2019)
• Global Identity: Conceptualization, Measurement, And Implications For Marketing Strategy (Yoruk, 2022)
• The Intersection of Organizational Frontline Marketing and a High-Tech World (Krotz, 2021)
• The Unexplored Impacts of Communication Elements in Marketing (Trinh, 2022)
• Founder Social Identity As A Predictor Of Customer And Competitor Orientation In Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises (Rutherford, 2021)

Looking at these titles, you can probably pick up that the research topics here are far more specific and narrowly-focused , compared to the generic ones presented earlier. This is an important thing to keep in mind as you develop your own research topic. That is to say, to create a top-notch research topic, you must be precise and target a specific context with specific variables of interest . In other words, you need to identify a clear, well-justified research gap.

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Marketing Dissertation Topics

Published by Jamie Walker at January 11th, 2023 , Revised On April 16, 2024

Marketing is a business-focused subject, so you’ll be exposed to much more than just creativity. You’ll learn how to set budgets, find new customers, enter international markets, and decide on prices or profits.

As a marketing student, you will be required to complete a marketing dissertation to complete your degree programme. Your dissertation topic can relate to branding, relationship marketing, online/digital marketing, marketing ethics, and any other field of marketing.

To help you get started with brainstorming for marketing topic ideas, we have developed a list of the latest topics that can be used for writing your marketing dissertation.

These topics have been developed by PhD-qualified writers of our team , so you can trust to use these topics for drafting your dissertation.

Review the step-by-step guide on how to write your dissertation here.

You may also want to start your dissertation by requesting  a brief research proposal  from our writers on any of these topics, which includes an  introduction  to the topic,  research question , aim and objectives,  literature review , and the proposed research methodology conducted.  Let us know  if you need any help in getting started.

Check our  dissertation example to get an idea of  how to structure your dissertation .

You can review step by step guide on how to write your dissertation here .

Review Our Best Dissertation Topics complete list.

2024 Marketing Dissertation Topics

Topic 1: assessing the role of communication strategies in fashion marketing- a case study of uk.

Research Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of communication strategies in the world of   UK fashion marketing. This will also give us an understanding of how new fashion remanufacturing should be communicated to the consumers. Focusing on how information and messages about the brands or products should be labelled to attract the audience.

Topic 2: How Influential are Retail Stores and Fast Fashion on each other? A case study of Zara

Research Aim: Fast fashion is an idea in which retailers target their business strategies, reducing the time it takes to get products into the store, using an in-season purchasing strategy to keep the products in the market updated during the season. This study aims to find the impact or influence of fast fashion and retail stores on each other, focusing on Zara as it is considered as the famous brand among consumers. It will look at what happens to fast fashion when it is delivered to retail outlets, as well as the adaption of fast fashion in the retail sector and how it is communicated to customers.

Topic 3: Assessing the Key Ethical Issues in the marketing of Pharmaceutical Products in the UK.

Research Aim: Pharmacists may occasionally be led to unethical behaviours during contact; that’s why it is important to understand these behaviours. Pharmaceutical products are sensitive to advertising, and minor misconduct can lead to loss of public trust in the industry. The current study will examine the challenges faced and the key ethical issues that occur during the marketing of pharmaceuticals products focusing on the UK pharmaceutical industry; through quantitative research analysis.

Topic 4: Brand Marketing to a Global World and its impact on local cultural beliefs and attitudes- A literature review.

Research Aim: Different cultures in different countries act as challenges to global marketing. The aim of this study is to develop an understanding of how brand marketing in a global world has a huge impact on the cultural beliefs and attitudes of people. It will provide an experience of international and local consumer cultures and their mutual influence on many consumer behaviours and their effect on their decision-making process.

Topic 5: E-sports marketing- Investigating purpose and scope in current times.

Research Aim: This study aims to find the emerging trend of esports marketing and its scope in current times. It will also explore the collaborative efforts of gaming companies, players and different online communities and how they play an important role in maintaining and enriching the value of Esports consumption.   of   It will provide a societal impact of esports and by applying different strategies

Marketing Dissertation Topics for 2023

Topic 1: impact of product packaging on organisational sales: a case study of the uk retail sector.

Research Aim: Due to intense competition in the UK retail sector, product packaging has gained significant importance concerning consumer purchase decisions. This research will focus on how product packaging (colour, shape, and other attributes) influences consumer purchase behaviour which in return increases or decreases the sales of the organisation.

Topic 2: Impact of E-marketing on consumer purchase decisions: Case of the UK luxury industry

Research Aim: The main purpose of the research is to analyze the impact of electronic marketing on consumer purchase decisions. Different modes of e-marketing will be assessed, and based on the results of each e-marketing channel, the dissertation will be concluded. The focus of this research will be the UK luxury industry.

Topic 3: Analysing the customer-centric marketing strategies in attaining competitive advantage for the firm and sustaining business success

Research Aim: In today’s competitive corporate world, organizations are formulating and implementing customer-centric marketing strategies. These strategies are devised, keeping in mind customer behaviour, customer pattern, customer preferences, customer trends, etc. Considering all these and many other customer-related aspects, companies assess what is successful for their business. This research will discuss the different characteristics of customers that should be studied and how formulating related strategies will help the company gain a competitive advantage and generate profits.

Topic 4: The role of information technology in revolutionizing marketers' approach towards manipulative advertisement

Research Aim: The digital media or the digital world has provided a very effective and large platform for marketers to market and advertise their products. However, this platform can also be used to manipulate customers through deceptive marketing techniques. The main purpose of the research is to analyse the role of information technology in revolutionizing marketers’ approach towards manipulative advertisements. In addition to this, the research will also talk about how marketers use digital media channels to deceive customers who also harm the company’s reputation.

Topic 5: Assessing the impact of integrated marketing communication on consumer impulsive buying behaviour

Research Aim: Consumer impulsive buying behaviour has become an important phenomenon in today’s global world. Companies have been able to acquire a high market share through the impulsive buying behaviour of the consumer. Therefore, this research focuses on analyzing the impact of integrated marketing communication on consumer impulsive buying behaviour.

Topic 6: The Impact of digital marketing on businesses throughout the world

Research Aim: Digital Marketing has changed the face of marketing in today’s world. More and more companies are now adopting this new technique to gain a competitive edge over traditional marketing methods. This research will address the impact of different digital marketing channels on businesses and how each channel can help companies earn more.

Topic 7: Traditional vs Digital Marketing: A comparative study of the last ten years

Research Aim: With the emergence of digital marketing in the global world today, more and more companies are abandoning traditional marketing techniques. This research will compare traditional and digital marketing methods and present data over the past ten years. Through this data, a conclusive analysis will be conducted to determine which marketing is more successful in today’s times.

Topic 8: Studying customers’ responses to automated interactions in the services industry: How does it impact the business?

Research Aim: Many companies have now completely automated their business operations. They have streamlined standard responses given to customers. This research will mainly assess the impact of automated responses on customers, whether or not they impact them in terms of generating and converting leads, and ultimately how it impacts the business overall.

Topic 9: Capturing and analyzing the Voice of Customer (VOC) through Artificial Intelligence: How effective is the technology?

Research Aim: Voice of Customer (VOC) is not a new concept. Companies have been working and collecting data on it for the past several years. It is a method to gather customers’ feedback about their expectations and experiences with respect to your product or service. This research will study how companies gather, assess, and analyse this data through artificial intelligence and how effective it is for businesses. The research will utilise quantitative analysis to conclude whether or not this new technology and strategy is successful.

Topic 10: Online search queries – Can businesses benefit from them and better market their products and services?

Research Aim: Keyword targeting, search engine optimization (SEO), click trend, search trend, etc., are all ways to find how consumers search for a particular product, brand or website online. With more business being done online and with companies focusing more on online marketing, understanding online search queries have become crucial for the business’s success. This research will focus on the different ways through which companies can assess online search queries and whether or not they can benefit from them. Data from past years will be fetched and included to conduct authentic research and conclude accurately.

Also read: Management Dissertation Topics

“Our expert dissertation writers can help you with all stages of the dissertation writing process including topic research and selection, dissertation plan, dissertation proposal, methodology, statistical analysis, primary and secondary research, findings and analysis and complete dissertation writing”. Learn more here .

Relationship Marketing Dissertation Topics

Relationship marketing is a form of marketing that focuses on long-term goals such as building customer loyalty and increasing customer retention. In relationship marketing, products are provided based on relationships and not traditional marketing. This type of marketing helps firms acquire more customers and build loyalty. The more loyal and satisfied a customer is, the more likely they are to make a purchase.

Under relationship marketing, the purchasing pattern, the contact details, and the entire profile of customers are maintained. Normally, firms assign executives to one or more major customers to maintain relationships and satisfy their needs. It is a very useful marketing tool and also an excellent topic to research on. You can choose a topic for your relationship marketing dissertation topic from any of the topics listed below:

Topic 11:Customer loyalty – Behaviour or an attitude? A mixed-method analysis

Research Aim: This research will analyse how customer loyalty is determined, whether it is an attitude or behaviour. A comparative analysis, comparing different elements of attitudes and behaviours, will be conducted.

Topic 12: The usefulness of relationship marketing in the UK fashion industry: To what extent have organisations incorporated club-style membership schemes for their customer and their impact on businesses?

Research Aim: This research will focus on one important aspect of relationship marketing – memberships. The research will revolve around the UK fashion industry, and the impact memberships have on customers and business organisations.

Topic 13: The impact of relationship marketing on customer loyalty: An analysis of Honda Motors

Research Aim: This dissertation will assess how customer loyalty is impacted by relationship marketing. The main focus of this study will be Honda Motors, how the company maintains customer relationships.

Topic 14: Loyalty schemes and customer satisfaction: Do they really have an impact?

Research Aim: This research will analyse whether or not loyalty schemes impact customer satisfaction. If yes, then the various means will be explored.

Topic 15: The interrelationship between switching costs and consumers' resistance to switching brands' loyalty

Research Aim: The relationship between costs and brand loyalty will be assessed in this research. This research will discuss circumstances under which customers decide to switch brand loyalty.

Topic 16:Loyalty schemes and their relationship with sales: An exploratory analysis of the UK retail industry.

Research Aim: This dissertation will conduct an exploratory analysis to conclude whether or not there is a relationship between loyalty schemes and sales of companies.

Topic 17:Maintaining customer relations through relationship marketing. A case of ASDA

Research Aim: The main focus of this research will be to study how ASDA maintains customer relations and whether they prove to be successful for the business or not.

Topic 18:Exploring the effectiveness of online marketing – Does digital marketing help companies build customer loyalty?

Research Aim: This dissertation will analyse how effective online marketing is for companies to help build and maintain customer loyalty. And whether online marketing can be used to build customer loyalty.

Topic 19: Assessing customer satisfaction in the UK tourism and hospitality industry

Research Aim: The UK tourism and hospitality industry will be assessed in this study for customer satisfaction. The dissertation will conclude to answer how the UK tourism and hospitality industry has maintained customer satisfaction.

Topic 20:Technology driven customer engagement – Does it lead to better customer satisfaction as compared to traditional engagement methods?

Research Aim: This dissertation will discuss how technology has impacted customer engagement. Furthermore, it will analyze how effective technology has been in driving customer engagement compared to traditional methods.

Branding Dissertation Topics

Branding involves creating a unique image and name for a product in the minds of the customers. This is done through creative advertising using a brand theme used consistently in all the advertisements. Branding also entails creating a unique logo and name for a distinguished product.

Some consumers compare prices before purchasing a product, but mostly a purchase is made by focusing on the quality of goods and brand loyalty. There is a misconception that branding is the same as marketing, but it can be distinguished based on the former being one of marketing strategy fundamentals.

For successful branding, there should be truthfulness and clarity in every phase through interaction with customers, which will help improve the value and brand perception of a company.

Branding provides companies with a competitive edge over other organizations and has become a very popular topic for research among undergraduate and postgraduate students. When looking to work on a branding related dissertation, you can choose from the dissertation topics below:

Topic 21:Maintaining brand equity through innovation: A case study of Apple Inc.

Research Aim: Innovation has a huge impact on brand equity. The same will be discussed in this research, with Apple Inc. as the main focus.

Topic 22:Building brand equity through celebrity endorsement: Analysis of the fashion industry

Research Aim: Celebrity endorsement is an excellent way to build brand equity. In this dissertation, the same will be discussed concerning the UK fashion industry or another country of your choice.

Topic 23:Brand attitudes and advertisements: Evidence from the past five years

Research Aim: This study will talk about how advertisements shape brand attitudes. Evidence from the past five years will be presented to conclude whether advertisements impact the brand attitude or not.

Topic 24: Packaging as a brand marketing strategy: Assessing its effectiveness in the retail sector

Research Aim: The success of a brand marketing strategy depends on several factors. This dissertation will assess how important packaging is in a brand marketing strategy.

Topic 25:Effect of branding on consumers of Coca Cola and Pepsi: A comparative analysis

Research Aim: Branding has a huge impact on consumers. Competitors utilise this strategy to build customer loyalty. This research will compare two big rivals – Coca-Cola and Pepsi concerning branding.

Topic 26:Branding strategies: Impact and application

Research Aim:  The different types of branding strategies and their implementation process will be discussed in this study.

Topic 27:Analysis of the consumer: Comparative analysis between good quality products and brand loyalty.

Research Aim: This study will discuss how good quality products impact consumers and how it helps companies build brand loyalty.

Topic 28:Building, retaining and maintaining the brand image in the market – Studying MNCs in the UK industry

Research Aim: Brand image and reputation are something that companies should pay close attention to. This research will talk about leading MNCs and how they should build and retain the brand image.

Topic 29:Importance of brand and reliability in the automotive industry – Case of Toyota Motors

Research Aim: Reliability is a huge factor in building a brand. With a specific focus on Toyota, this study will discuss how reliability impacts the brand.

Topic 30:Building brand awareness and equity through online marketing – Assessing its effectiveness

Research Aim: This research will assess the effectiveness of online marketing in building brand awareness and equity.

Topic 31:International brand building in the digital age: The role of digital marketing

Research Aim: Building a brand with the help of digital marketing will be discussed in this research.

Topic 32:Corporate social responsibility and brand management: A case of Nestle

Research Aim: Giving back to the community creates a positive image of the company. This research will discuss how fulfilling corporate social responsibility helps the company maintain its brand.

Also Read:   Chanel’s Brand Identity and Personality

Direct Marketing Dissertation Topics

Direct marketing is a marketing phenomenon that involves direct selling to customers. This includes telephone selling, email selling, direct mail selling, etc. No retailer is involved in the process. The product/service flow includes only two parties, the company and the consumer.

Direct marketing allows businesses and non-profit organizations to communicate with customers directly. It relies on advertisements on the internet, television, or radio.

There are different types and forms of direct marketing, with internet marketing being the most popular. Online marketing helps companies to interact directly with their customers without any middleman. In this manner, companies can gain insight into customers, expectations, and feedback on the product/service.

Below is a list of topics that you can base your dissertation on under the direct marketing theme.

Topic 33:Loyalty schemes and direct selling – Does it help businesses to market directly to customers?

Research Aim: Loyalty schemes are an old but extremely effective marketing tool. This research will discuss and analyze whether direct marketing can be done through these schemes or not.

Topic 34:How customers can protect themselves from deceitful direct marketing techniques?

Research Aim: This study will highlight the unlawful and unethical ways companies adapt through digital marketing and how customers can protect themselves.

Topic 35:Direct Marketing: Effects and implications

Research Aim: The main concept, theory, and framework of direct marketing will be discussed and analysed in this research. The effects and implications of direct marketing will be the main focus of this study.

Topic 36:Do customers respond differently to direct and digital marketing?

Research Aim: Direct and digital marketing will be compared and analysed in this research. Their responses will then be evaluated as to which one is the most effective.

Topic 37:The relationship between the duration of a voice message and the success of Tele-marketing? A case of mobile Industry.

Research Aim: Telemarketing is a successful marketing tool. This research will study the relationship between the duration of a voice message and its success for companies operating in the mobile industry.

Topic 38:Developing a marketing information system for direct marketing: Analysing its effectiveness

Research Aim: A marketing information system is extremely essential for companies today. This research will discuss how a marketing information system can be developed and how effective it is for direct marketing.

Topic 39:The role of business and artificial intelligence in direct marketing – How can companies gain advantage?

Research Aim: Artificial Intelligence is the big thing in the marketing industry these days. Incorporating it into your business for marketing will help you achieve a competitive advantage. The same will be studied and evaluated in this research.

Topic 40:Internet marketing as a direct marketing technique – Assessing its effectiveness and profitability

Research Aim: Internet marketing can be used a direct marketing technique. This research will assess how effective and profitable this technique can be for businesses.

Topic 41:Protecting consumer data and privacy in direct marketing techniques – Evaluating its importance.

Research Aim: Companies do not pay much attention to customer privacy. This research will discuss how direct marketing can help companies protect customer data and privacy.

Marketing Across Cultures Dissertation Topics

Every culture is different. Thus, what is acceptable in one, may not be acceptable in the other. This is why firms must adopt different techniques while operating in different cultures. Before introducing any product, companies need to analyse the cultural aspect of the market.

This has become a very important and deciding factor for the successful operation of a business. Cultures have a deep impact on consumer behaviour, and it plays a key role in shaping the buying behaviour and the attitude of the customer.

There is no doubt that this marketing aspect is worth some research. Some intriguing and current dissertation topics in the field of cultures and marketing are given below:

Topic 42:Impact of culture on the trading Market: A case of general motors through an analysis of the imports and exports.

Research Aim: Marketing is based on different cultures. This research will discuss the impact of culture on the trading market, focusing on general motors’ imports and exports.

Topic 43: Does language impact the identity of a brand? A case of Coca-Cola

Research Aim: Language is an important element of a culture. This study will research and analyze whether or not the language impacts a brand and will utilize Coca-Cola as its main focus.

Topic 44: Amalgamating and assessing the regional differences within the national culture of marketing

Research Aim: This research will study the various regional differences that exist in the marketing culture and how they impact businesses.

Topic 45: The impact of collectivism and individualism on purchasing smartphones

Research Aim: Different cultures have a different impact on society. This research will conduct a cross-cultural analysis to understand how culture impacts marketing strategies

Topic 46:Cross-cultural marketing and how it impacts a business – A specific focus on the FMCG sector

Research Aim: Cross-cultural marketing is utilised by companies operating in different cultures. This research will talk about how cross-cultural marketing is formulated, devised, and implemented in the FMCG Sector and whether it is successful for the company or not.

Topic 47:Belief, religion and values: Do they have an impact on businesses across the world

Research Aim: There can be many cultures in one market. Thus, it becomes challenging for companies to market their product according to cultures. This research will assess this issue by focusing on two different cultures.

Topic 48: Application of marketing mix in a culturally diverse society: Assessing two different cultures

Topic 49: same marketing tact in different markets: how it leads to business failures.

Research Aim: Companies cannot utilise similar marketing techniques for different cultures. This research will assess how this act can lead to the failure of businesses.

Topic 50:Cultural differences and the subsequent effect on supermarkets across the United Kingdom

Research Aim: This research will talk about how various cultural differences impact supermarkets operating in the United Kingdom.

Also Read :   Fashion and Culture Dissertation Topics

Online Marketing Dissertation Topics

When marketing evolved from traditional to online or digital marketing, it was observed that all the rules that traditional marketing followed were no longer useful. The needs and demands of the market had changed, thus online marketing emerged. Digital marketing has been a game-changer in the field of marketing.

New tools, new rules, and new methods have set the marketing game field. Every player entering the business world needs to be well versed with all these new aspects or else it can go out of business quickly.

Online marketing helps business organisations to understand and evaluate customers’ responses to a particular marketing strategy very efficiently. So businesses are now aware of their customer behaviour, trends, what they look for in a product, what are they interested in, etc.

However, while collecting and storing all this customer information, organisations need to ensure the privacy of their consumers to avoid losing their trust. Companies are now in an era where they can efficiently interact and engage their consumers.

Based on their responses, they can devise subsequent marketing strategies. Online marketing is now a powerful marketing tool as it allows organizations to develop specific strategies to suit the needs of their consumers.

The field of digital marketing is worth the research. You can spend hours learning about this facet of marketing, and still will be left with the urge to learn more. Some interesting topic suggestions are given below if you want to base your dissertation on online marketing.

Topic 51:How online marketing impacts the retail sector during the Covid-19 pandemic? - Entering the field of internet marketing

Research aim: This research will aim to discover the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the performance of the retail sector in any country of your choice. How did the retail stores move to online marketing to overcome the losses?

Topic 52: Organisations and their use of personalised products: How do companies decide who to market?

Research Aim: There are times when companies launch personalised services or products for a specific group of customers. To identify this need, traditional research is not useful. Customers do not want to give out this type of information. With online marketing and its various tools, companies can now gather this data. This research will delve deep into how that happens.

Visit our topics database to view 100s of dissertation topics in your research area.

Topic 53:The role of online marketing in driving sales: Studying the retail sector

Research Aim: The main focus of this research will be to understand how the retail sector is impacted through online marketing and its role.

Topic 54:Implications and application of online marketing

Research Aim: Online marketing tools are extremely powerful. Various tools will be discussed and analysed in this research to conclude how well they perform.

Topic 55:How can companies overcome the hate speech of unhappy customers?

Research Aim: With the ease of gathering data, online marketing and tools can also lead to hate speech from customers. This research will evaluate different ways through which companies can overcome this issue.

Topic 56:What attributes are preferred by customers for online search, purchasing and comparison?

Research Aim: The different types of research, search, purchasing, and comparing attributes undertaken by customers will be assessed in this study. Moreover, their impact on business will be studied.

Topic 57:The power of online marketing tools – Assessing their effectiveness with respect to sales

Research Aim: Different marketing tools will be analysed and studied in this research. They will be assessed based on their effectiveness concerning sales.

Topic 58:Analysis of change in behaviour of customers in offline and online marketing

Research Aim: Online and offline marketing are extremely different. This research will analyse how customers behave differently in an online marketing setting as compared to an offline marketing setting.

Topic 59:Impact of appearance and visual effects for the effectiveness of online marketing

Research Aim: Online marketing utilises different appearance and visual effects to attract customers. This research will analyze how effective these techniques are for the company.

Topic 60:Websites and E-commerce – Do they influence customer behaviour? A case study of the UK fashion industry

Research Aim: With online marketing, it is essential that you have a website and an online store if you’re selling products. The impact of both website and e-commerce on marketing in the UK fashion industry will be assessed.

The 4Ps (Price, Product, Promotion, Place) of Marketing Mix Dissertation Topics

Price, product, promotion, and place are also known as the four pillars of marketing. Referred to as the marketing mix, these four components help companies decide on a product and/or marketing strategy.

These four factors (4Ps) are the key ingredients of a successful marketing strategy since they allow for an in-depth analysis of the market and marketing strategies concerning any particular product. The companies analyse the culture, the product itself, and the pricing of other similar products to gain a competitive edge for their business and production processes.

To understand more about these components and how they impact businesses, you can research this area. Some relevant topics in this area of marketing are listed below for you to base your dissertation on:

Topic 61:Understanding the importance of location for customers Starbucks USA vs Starbucks UAE

Research Aim: Location has a great impact on the company’s sales and marketing efforts. This research will assess how impactful location is for customers by comparing Starbucks located in the US and the UAE.

Topic 62: Pricing war between competitors: Analysing the case of Coca-Cola and Pepsi

Research Aim: Companies usually price their product to competitors to stay relevant and to help their products succeed. This research will analyze how competitors price their products by assessing the pricing strategies of Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

Topic 63:Impact of point-of-purchase promotion on sales: A case study of ZARA

Research Aim: Promotions are an effective way of selling products. This research will study the point of purchase promotion and its impact by focusing on ZARA.

Topic 64: Product packaging and its impact on buying decision – An exploratory analysis

Research Aim: The packaging of a product has a huge impact on the buying and purchasing decisions of customers. This research will conduct an exploratory analysis to understand this impact.

Topic 65:International pricing strategies and their Impact on the brand image: A case study of iTunes

Research Aim: Pricing strategies may or may not differ in different locations. This research will analyze whether iTunes has gained or not by its pricing strategies in different locations.

Topic 66: Impact of price adjustment strategies in online and offline setting

Research Aim: Prices vary in different settings. This research will study the price strategy adjustment in online and offline marketing.

Topic 67:Should Online Reviews and Word of Mouth be a New Component in the Marketing Mix?

Research Aim: Word of mouth and online reviews have proved to be extremely effective marketing tools in recent times. These components concerning the marketing mix will be studied in this research.

Topic 68:Difference between Online and Offline Promotions – How do They Impact Brand Image

Research Aim: A variety of marketing promotion techniques exist. This research will talk about the different online and offline promotional tools and how they impact brand image.

Topic 69:Impact of Traditional Promotions vs Social Media Promotions – Analyzing Burberry’s Promotional Campaigns

Research Aim: Social media promotional campaigns gain a lot of traction. With a specific focus on Burberry’s promotional campaigns, this research will analyse traditional and social media campaigns.

Topic 70:Effect of Premium Pricing Strategies on Consumers. A case of Apple Products

Research Aim: Of different pricing strategies, premium pricing strategies are adopted for luxury products. The effect of this type of pricing strategy on luxury products (Apple products) will be analyzed in this study.

Topic 71:Impact of Cultural Values in Promotional Activities

Research Aim: Culture has a huge impact on the marketing efforts of a company. This research will talk about the various cultural values and how they impact the promotional activities of businesses.

Topic 72:Placing Products in a Central Location and Ease of Access: Assessing its Impact on Customers

Research Aim: Location affects the sales of products and services. This research will assess the impact of customers when products are placed in a central location and when they are offered ease of access.

Topic 73:Influence of celebrity endorsement on sale: A comparative analysis of Nike and Rebook

Research Aim: Celebrity endorsement is a highly effective way to increase sales. A comparative analysis between celebrity endorsement done by Nike and Reebok will be evaluated in this research.

Topic 74:Impact of promotions upon customer’s perception

Research Aim: Customers may or may not change their perception after marketing promotion efforts. This research will discuss whether promotions can change perceptions or not.

Topic 75: Analysing the impact of cartoon characters on children

Research Aim: Products marketed towards children are tricky to market. This research will study whether including a cartoon character to attract children helps businesses or not.

Marketing and Consumer Psychology Dissertation Topics

Marketing is fundamentally based on consumer behaviour. Studying consumer behaviour helps businesses understand the customer in a better manner. Not only this, but it also helps them improve their marketing strategies by understanding the problems of a consumer with a specific focus on their perception of products. It is very important to understand the psychology of consumers and the various influences that the environment may have on their psychology. Studying these behaviours and patterns helps companies know how they should target their customers and what aspects they should focus on.

Consumer psychology comes in very handy for online marketing. When marketing digitally, companies have little or no information regarding their consumers. Thus, understanding their way of thinking, behaviour, buying patterns, trends, etc., helps businesses understand what the customer expects.

The study of consumer behaviour is very interesting and therefore provides an ideal topic for dissertations.

Topic 76:An investigation of consumer psychology and perceptions and their impact on marketing fashion products

Research Aim: Consumer psychology and their perceptions will be evaluated in this research. These two factors concerning the marketing of fashion products will be assessed.

Topic 77:How does consumer knowledge affect the purchase of products and their buying decision

Research Aim: Consumer knowledge influences their buying or purchasing decision. This research will talk about how this knowledge and its impacts the marketing decisions of a company.

Topic 78:The impact of negative publicity on consumer behavior

Research Aim: Consumers cannot be tricked. They are aware of when companies utilize techniques or tools to create a negative image of other companies. This research will talk about such techniques and their impact on consumers.

Topic 79:Consumer attitude towards in-store shopping and online shopping in Wall-Mart

Research Aim: This research will investigate the attitude of customers shopping in-store (physical stores) versus customers shopping online (digital stores). Walmart’s customers will be the focus.

Topic 80:Understanding consumer psychology to devise effective marketing strategies

Research Aim: Customer psychology will first be discussed in this research. Then, the research will talk about how effective marketing strategies will be devised.

Topic 81:Assessing the consumer behaviour and perceptions in relation to luxury

Research Aim: This research will discuss consumer behaviour when customers opt for luxury products, i.e. what drives them to purchase high-priced products.

Topic 82:Measuring consumer response to new products launched by Nestle

Research Aim: Companies should always measure consumer response to assess their marketing activities. This research will discuss different ways through which customer response to new products launched by nestle is assessed.

Topic 83:Consumer perceptions related to discounts and promotions when purchasing products

Research Aim: Every customer likes to purchase products at discounted prices. This research will discuss consumer perceptions concerning discounts, sales, and promotions when purchasing products.

Topic 84:Creating profitable relationships with consumers

Research Aim: This research will analyse the various ways through which companies can create profitable relationships with customers.

Topic 85:Switching costs – Do consumers think about it when abandoning a brand?

Research Aim: There are different reasons for switching a brand or abandoning it completely. These reasons will be the main focus of this research, and customer perceptions will also be studied.

Marketing and Social Networks Dissertation Topics

Social networks (Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter) have played a decisive role in using the internet and purchasing online. Companies need to understand these social networks and tools from a marketing perspective in today’s business world. Businesses that do not make use of the different social media platforms are entirely out of the race.

This is the power of social networks in today’s corporate world. Not only is it competitive, but these networks also help companies interact with their customers and gain feedback in real-time.

This means that they can launch a product, post and market it on social networks, and assess customer reaction. Companies have done well by utilizing these platforms, and all businesses must have a social media presence and interact with customers.

However, it should be noted that organisations face various challenges using social media as a tool to market their products and services. Social media can make or break things for businesses.

If done right and if the accounts are handled appropriately, nothing can stop the business from achieving success. However, one small mistake can cause a lot of trouble for the company. The backlash on social media is extreme, and the company will have to spend months to bring back its reputation.

Thus, considering the challenging nature of these platforms, it is interesting to conduct researches and studies around various related topics. The following is a list of topics that can be undertaken as a part of social networks and marketing dissertation:

Topic 86:The role of Facebook as a marketing tool

Research Aim: The research will explore the various events in Indian film history that have allowed it to become a global sensation. The paper will analyse its market-driven triumph against Hollywood imports starting from the 1930s. The paper will also examine the nationalist social views of films produced in Bollywood during the 1950s.

Topic 87:Social media marketing vs. traditional marketing evaluating the success rate

Research Aim: Social media marketing is the new trend. But does it really reap results? This will be the main focus of this research, and the results of online marketing and traditional marketing methods will be compared.

Topic 88:Building relationships with customers through social media.

Research Aim: Social media not only helps in networking and connecting people but also enables companies to get in touch with their customers. This research will talk about companies use it as a medium to build relationships with their customers.

Topic 89:How social media influences consumers’ buying preferences

Research Aim: Social media trends are followed by everyone. This research will discuss how these trends are shaped and how it influences the buying and purchasing decision of customers.

Topic 90:How businesses gather Information from social media: A deep insight into customer privacy concerns

Research Aim: A lot is argued about the loss of privacy and data for online customers. This research will investigate the various ways data is collected online and whether or not there are data security breaches.

Topic 91:Consumer perception of social media marketing and its impact on brand image

Research Aim: Consumer perception regarding social media marketing will be assessed in this research. Moreover, the impact of this perception on the brand image will be evaluated.

Topic 92:Is Banner advertisement a good idea in social media marketing? A global comparative analysis

Research Aim: Online Banner advertisements are utilised by almost all companies in the market. This research will discuss various banner advertisement campaigns and their effectiveness.

Topic 93:The role of online stores in the traditional marketing mix

Research Aim: The traditional marketing mix does not take into consideration online marketing. This research will talk about the importance of online and social media marketing in the corporate world today and the role of online stores in the marketing mix.

Topic 94:Why is there more focus on the use of Facebook for marketing rather than other platforms for social media marketing?

Research Aim: Facebook advertising is considered the most powerful amongst all other social media marketing tools. There are various reasons due to which Facebook is considered a powerful tool. All these will be discussed, analyzed, and evaluated in this research.

Also Read:   How to Use Social Networks for your Dissertation

Marketing Ethics Dissertation Topics

Marketing Ethics Dissertation Topics Marketing ethics is a thought-provoking issue in the field of marketing. Where marketers are making efforts to run effective and profitable marketing campaigns for their companies, they should also consider marketing ethics.

The continuous evolution of customers’ attitudes customers over media has a significant impact on businesses worldwide. People nowadays are more concerned about the company’s ethical behaviour and the use of ethics employed by their marketing experts.

They are more concerned about their corporate social responsibility programs and the values of society. Companies must run various social corporate responsibility campaigns, through which they not only create a good reputation but also give back to the community.

These campaigns indeed help businesses to build a reputation and become a preferred brand for consumers. Acts such as animal cruelty and the use of prohibited products hit hard, and a company can lose its long-built strong reputation in a matter of minutes.

There are various ethical concerns that organisations must abide by to have a successful operating and marketing campaign. A dissertation on marketing ethics can be based on any of the following topics:

Topic 95:Ethics and consumer perception: What do consumers really expect from companies?

Research Aim: Corporate and marketing ethics are extremely important for companies. This research will talk about what customers expect from the company regarding ethics and how it shapes their perceptions.

Topic 96:Impact of unethical behaviour of an organisation on sales: Studying unsuccessful marketing campaigns

Research Aim: Unethical organizational behaviour leads to unsuccessful marketing campaigns. The main focus of this research will be the unethical behaviours undertaken by companies and how it adversely affects their sales.

Topic 97:How firms mislead people to enhance product sales and the effect this has on their business

Research Aim: A number of companies mislead their consumers only to enhance their sales. This research will discuss the different ways through which companies mislead people and the impact it has on their business.

Topic 98:How country laws shape business and marketing

Research Aim: When operating in a country, companies have to abide by the laws, rules, and regulations set out by the government. This research will talk about how these laws and regulations shape the business environment.

Topic 99:Ethical considerations and brand loyalty

Research Aim: This research will discuss whether or not ethical business operations have an impact on brand loyalty or do consumers continue to buy from companies who operate unethically.

Topic 100:Spam laws and online marketing – A critical analysis

Research Aim: Online marketing has its own rules. Companies have to abide by spam laws, or else they will be blacklisted. These rules and how companies should abide by them will be analyzed in this study.

Topic 101:Exploring the relationship between marketing ethics and corporate social responsibility

Research Aim: Companies have a responsibility to fulfill. They have to give back to the community, thus operate with corporate social responsibility. This research will discuss whether or not marketing ethics are directly related to corporate social responsibility.

Topic 102: Building company reputation and brand equity through various corporate social responsibility initiatives

Research Aim: The main focus of this research will be to explore whether or not corporate social responsibility initiatives build company reputation or brand equity.

Topic 103: Do cause-related marketing campaigns impact consumer purchase decisions?

Research Aim: This research will explore whether cause-related marketing has an impact on consumer purchase decisions or not.

Topic 104: Public relations and consumer boycotts: Learning lessons from Shell and Nestle

Research Aim: Consumers can boycott a company based on a variety of reasons. This research will discuss the different reasons why consumers boycott and how it impacts public relations, with a special focus on Shell and Nestle.

Important Notes:

As a student of marketing looking to get good grades, it is essential to develop new ideas and experiment on existing marketing theories – i.e., to add value and interest in the topic of your research.

The field of marketing is vast and interrelated to so many other academic disciplines like civil engineering ,  construction ,  law , engineering management , healthcare , mental health , artificial intelligence , tourism , physiotherapy , sociology , management , and nursing . That is why it is imperative to create a project management dissertation topic that is articular, sound, and actually solves a practical problem that may be rampant in the field.

We can’t stress how important it is to develop a logical research topic; it is the basis of your entire research. There are several significant downfalls to getting your topic wrong; your supervisor may not be interested in working on it, the topic has no academic creditability, the research may not make logical sense, there is a possibility that the study is not viable.

This impacts your time and efforts in  writing your dissertation  as you may end up in the cycle of rejection at the very initial stage of the dissertation. That is why we recommend reviewing existing research to develop a topic, taking advice from your supervisor, and even asking for help in this particular stage of your dissertation.

While developing a research topic, keeping our advice in mind will allow you to pick one of the best marketing dissertation topics that fulfill your requirement of writing a research paper and add to the body of knowledge.

Therefore, it is recommended that when finalizing your dissertation topic, you read recently published literature to identify gaps in the research that you may help fill.

Remember- dissertation topics need to be unique, solve an identified problem, be logical, and can also be practically implemented. Take a look at some of our sample marketing dissertation topics to get an idea for your own dissertation.

How to Structure your Marketing Dissertation

A well-structured   dissertation can help students   to achieve a high overall academic grade.

• A Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Declaration
• Abstract: A summary of the research completed
• Table of Contents
• Introduction : This chapter includes the project rationale, research background, key research aims and objectives, and the research problems to be addressed. An outline of the structure of a dissertation  can also be added to this chapter.
• Literature Review :  This chapter presents relevant theories and frameworks by analysing published and unpublished literature available on the chosen research topic, in light of  research questions  to be addressed. The purpose is to highlight and discuss the relative weaknesses and strengths of the selected research area whilst identifying any research gaps. Break down of the topic, and key terms can have a positive impact on your dissertation and your tutor.
• Methodology:  The  data collection  and  analysis  methods and techniques employed by the researcher are presented in the Methodology chapter which usually includes  research design, research philosophy, research limitations, code of conduct, ethical consideration, data collection methods, and  data analysis strategy .
• Findings and Analysis:  Findings of the research are analysed in detail under the Findings and Analysis chapter. All key findings/results are outlined in this chapter without interpreting the data or drawing any conclusions. It can be useful to include  graphs ,  charts, and  tables in this chapter to identify meaningful trends and relationships.
• Discussion  and  Conclusion: The researcher presents his interpretation of results in this chapter, and states whether the research hypothesis has been verified or not. An essential aspect of this section of the paper is to draw a linkage between the results and evidence from the literature. Recommendations with regards to implications of the findings and directions for the future may also be provided. Finally, a summary of the overall research, along with final judgments, opinions, and comments, must be included in the form of suggestions for improvement.
• References:  This should be completed in accordance with your University’s requirements
• Bibliography
• Appendices:  Any additional information, diagrams, graphs that were used to  complete the  dissertation  but not part of the dissertation should be included in the Appendices chapter. Essentially, the purpose is to expand the information/data.

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For further assistance with your dissertation, take a look at our full dissertation writing service .

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• Study recent industry trends.
• Explore consumer behavior shifts.
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• Analyze branding or market strategies.
• Consider social and ethical aspects.
• Select a topic resonating with your passion and research goals.

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Dissertation Topics in Marketing

• Updated on  
• May 8, 2023

As a Marketing graduate, you are expected to submit a Dissertation as a part of your degree or PhD programme. Your Marketing Dissertation topic can connect to various areas including, branding, link marketing, wire/automated marketing, retailing principles, or any alternative field of marketing. Often, students have difficulty finding the correct dissertation topic for their Marketing course. Hence, to encourage you to get established with topic suggestions, we have acquired a list of the recent arguments you can use to create your Marketing Dissertation. Keep reading this blog to know more!

Also Read: Dissertation vs Thesis

This Blog Includes:

Dissertation topics for marketing, topics for mba marketing, b2b marketing topics , topics on digital marketing, relationship marketing dissertation topics, branding dissertation topics, direct marketing dissertation topics, cultural and marketing dissertation topics, online marketing dissertation topics, mobile marketing dissertation topics, the 4ps of (price, product, promotion, place) of marketing mix, consumer psychology and marketing dissertation topics, social media marketing dissertation topics, ethics in marketing dissertation topics , explore the well-crafted marketing dissertation topics  , present the perfectly written dissertation on marketing.

• What are the incentives and intentions behind support programs for corporations to engage consumers in the long series?
• To what degree does Caffe Nero’s app foster consumer allegiance?
• How and why can communication marketing be employed to entice new clients through social elements?
• How does production variety influence policy patriotism among high and low-contact producers?
• Can leisure goods merchants avoid obstacles by replacing bolt-in clients with a different set of benefits and products?
• How do entrepreneurs grapple with polygamous behaviour among users?
• Computerised communication economics in the age of COVID-19: Analysing the magnitude of personalisation and customisation.
• Growing policy support through long-value distribution management–an event study of UK health brands.
• What are the challenges for Tesco’s support card system in now’s cutthroat factory environment?
• An investigation of the relationship between observed risk and brand investment: A correlation of department store retailers in the UK .
• How does modernisation impact customer brand resonance? A process study of reception brands who were forced to innovate due to COVID-19.
• Do purchasers really figure out a company’s brand benefits? The process of Starbucks vs McDonald’s.

Students of the MBA Marketing course can refer to the following list of marketing dissertation topics.

• Involving communal systems when seeking different markets and developing the market interest.
• Systems companies use acting on customer boycotts.
• The job of joint buy in a poor industry.
• Are modernisations useful in building up the number of clients?
• The relationship between the geographic position and the nature of a system.
• The benefits groups get from the customisation of their works.
• Mobile commerce: its powers and shortcomings.
• The change in prices on offline and wire markets of properties.
• How serious is the job of branding in the progress of a business?
• Are there proper limitations in brand selling plans?
• What are the key features of Internet commerce?

Also Read: Dissertation Topic in Finance

Here are some dissertation topics for B2B marketing.

• Altering the Marketing Management. What are the new models, functions, processes, and techniques?
• Making the Idea Organisation: How to use expected control to set up brand advantage, develop leads, and interest clients.
• Getting to Love the Data Burst. Carrying out the potential of analytics for increased planning, margin control, and outcome.
• Drawing up for the B2B Social Buyer. Establishing the appropriate commerce difference between conventional customs and the new civil user.
• Sales Channel Enablement. Increasing the impact from your portfolio of enablement movements across direct and ancillary demand channels.
• Next Generation Account-Paltry Commerce. Developing the model, mix, and workforce across the full businesses and distribution cycle.

Given below is a list of Digital Marketing dissertation topics.

• How does the value of things that affect wire trade differ corresponding to the amount type in the works trade in the UK?
• Do consumers react negatively to low and high-term actions in an aggressive networked status? The process of wire record deals.
• In what respects do available wire conversation areas affect users’ return to direct selling promotions in civil form sets?
• Evaluating the power of vision brands’ direct selling via YouTube.
• How does the telemarketers’ community (tone) affect consumer feedback in a more diversified global business situation?
• Do users learn how to care for themselves from dishonest direct selling ploys employed by civil forms advertising firms?

Also Read: How to Write Acknowledgement for Dissertation?

Relationship Marketing is a marketing tactic to build long-term relationships with customers. This strategy allows companies to acquire customers, while also maintaining customer loyalty that further results in repeated customs for the respective company. In the modern business world today, Relationship Marketing can be a great base for your marketing dissertation as it provides you with a diverse range of dissertation topics:

• Digital relationship marketing in the age of COVID-19: Analysing the importance of personalisation and customisation.
• Analyzing the customer-centric marketing strategies in attaining competitive advantage for the firm and sustaining business success.
• The role of information technology in revolutionizing marketers’ approach towards manipulative advertisement.
• Customer loyalty – Behaviour or attitude? A mixed-method analysis.
• The relationship marketing strategies of Nike: A critical analysis.

In simple terms, a Brand is who you are while marketing is how you choose to build awareness about the brand. Basically, promoting a brand’s products and the services provided as a whole. Branding refers to the analysis of how businesses can use their brands to achieve a competitive advantage, through building brand equity, launching brand extensions, managing global brands, and more. Listed below are some Branding Dissertation Topics to begin with:

• How does innovation impact consumer brand resonance? A case study of hospitality brands who were forced to innovate as a result of COVID-19.
• Do consumers really understand a company’s brand values: Starbucks vs McDonald’s.
• A case study: Using digital methods to increase brand salience.
• Using social media marketing to attract customers to brands of small companies.
• The consequences of Unethical behaviour on the brand image: The cases of Shell, Nike and Starbucks.

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As technology is evolving, the concept of Direct Marketing is a boon for companies as it allows companies to connect with customers directly through advertising services such as emails, online adverts, flyers, database marketing, promotional letters, newspapers, outdoor advertising, phone text messaging, magazine adverts, coupons, phone calls, postcards, and websites. Direct Marketing allows companies to understand a customer’s specific needs to provide them with the most relevant products and services. Listed below are some topics for Direct Marketing Dissertation:

• In what ways do free online chat rooms influence consumers’ responses to direct sales promotions in social media environments?
• The effectiveness of beauty brands’ direct marketing via YouTube: Analysis
• Using SMS and email to connect with customers: Advantages and limitations of direct marketing.
• Using social media to reduce the cost of direct marketing
• Brand Loyalty And Customer Satisfaction In Online Retailing Company: A Case Study On Amazon

As businesses are expanding throughout the globe, Culture plays an important role in the interaction of marketers with customers. Culture has a great impact on international marketing due to the increase of globalisation in the business world. Companies are required to gain in-depth knowledge of the local culture before offering a product to them as effective communication is a major factor that contributes to customers buying the products. Listed below are some topics for your reference in the Cultural and Marketing Dissertation:

• Native advertising: Exploring its effectiveness in the UK, China, and the US.
• The effect of culture on marketing communications: The case of Coca-Cola in India
• How do supermarket chains overcome language differences in Switzerland?
• Effects of social media on organisational culture in the UK’s fashion industry.
• How does language impact brand identity? The case of Coca-Cola in the People’s Republic of China.

Online Marketing is an essential part of Marketing as it allows companies to build relationships with customers and spread awareness about the brand through digital marketing such as Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-Click, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Marketing Analytics and Affiliate Marketing. Unlike the traditional way of marketing that included print, billboard, television and radio advertisements, Online Marketing is a lot more affordable and effective. A dissertation on Online Marketing can definitely provide you with a wide range of topics. Listed below are some of the topics for a dissertation on Online Marketing:

• The case of Apple: How can firms customise their products?
• The impact of digital marketing innovation on Apple’s performance
• Pop-up advertisements: Hit or a miss
• Celebrities and influencers: Have they changed the game of online marketing?
• Analyzing customers’ psychology and its role in digital marketing.

Due to the increase in Internet browsing on mobile phones nowadays, Mobile Marketing has become an essential part of marketing communication. It aims to reach out to mobile users through different methods such as mobile-optimized ads, push notifications and mobile applications. Listed below are some topics for a Mobile Marketing Dissertation:

• Can a strong brand image be built through mobile marketing techniques?
• What do customers want from mobile marketing messages?
• How does location influence mobile marketing communications?
• What role does timeliness play in mobile marketing communications?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of push-and-pull mobile marketing strategies?

The 4Ps of Marketing are widely used by marketers to influence consumer decision-making. Listed below are some topics you can use as a base for writing a Dissertation on Marketing Mix:

• The impact of product information availability and persuasive advertising on consumer behaviour.
• Advantages and disadvantages of online advertising in international marketing.
• The Importance of Marketing mix on non-profit organisations.
• Is word-of-mouth (i.e. online customer reviews) the new element of the Marketing mix?
• Case of iTunes: Can an overt international pricing strategy negatively affect the brand image? 

Marketing is ultimately underpinned by customer behaviour, which may be explained in large part by studying consumer psychology. This focuses on how consumers behave at each stage of the purchasing process and why they react the way they do. Marketers can use this information to create and implement communication strategies that target specific client groups based on their psychological characteristics. Here are some ideas for marketing dissertation topics based on marketing and consumer psychology:

• What drives customers to buy things from Amazon?
• What are the benefits and advantages of customer internet reviews?
• What impact do marketing intelligence and planning have on sports marketing?
• How can businesses use Big Data to obtain a better knowledge of their customers’ psychology?
• What do customers think about green marketing?
• What are customers’ feelings about Burberry’s digital marketing efforts?
• What were the forefathers of word-of-mouth communication? A case study in blockbuster marketing.
• How does gender influence information processing among luxury goods consumers?

Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter are widely used mediums for reaching out to customers online. Social media has become an essential part of both local and international companies. Some topics for Social Media Dissertation are:

• A content analysis of Food brands Instagram posts.
• The impact of social media marketing on brand loyalty.
• Instagram, influencer marking and trust – a critical analysis.
• Partnering with YouTube content creators and influences – An effective marketing strategy for brands.
• Implications for marketing managers: limitations of social media marketing.

Ethics in Marketing is the implication of standards of fairness, or moral rights and wrongs, to marketing decision-making, behaviour, and practice in the firm. Using unethical marketing practices may put a company’s viability at risk and cost its reputation which might have taken years to build. From ethical business practices to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), several research options are available for a marketing dissertation. Some topics to begin with a dissertation on Ethics in Marketing are as listed:

• How have spam laws improved marketing ethics online?
• What impact does published codes of conduct have on customer buying behaviour? The cases of The Body Shop, Levi Strauss, and Marks and Spencer
• The influence of local culture on business ethics of immigrants- A case study of the UK
• Vegan vs cruelty-free: the politics of labelling and why it matters
• What factors distinguish a consumer’s choice of most and least socially responsible firms?
• Exploring how organizations use corporate social responsibility (CSR) to reinforce brand equity

Marketing is a process through which companies be they Local or International use to create and build brand awareness, and customer relations, and for increasing business profits. Marketing is a great field for research as it provides you with a large number of research topics and sources. Listed below are some Marketing Dissertation Topics to start from niche:

• Analysis and determination of consumer buying behaviour for Coca-Cola
• Critical research on how AI will help make better marketing decisions
• Brand advertising and political campaigns: a possible interwoven impact?
• Analysis of how brands exploit impulsive buying
• Marketing budgets included by BREXIT
• The effect of COVID-19 on the global economy
• The decline in organic reach on social media platforms
• Do people appreciate being click baited into sponsored posts?
• How the extraordinary content offered by intelligent chatbots can help sports teams strengthen fan loyalty

A dissertation requires a lot of independent research so it may get a bit difficult to start with. Demonstrating your ability to think critically and analytically is what you’re supposed to bring in your Marketing Dissertation. A marketing dissertation requires you to conduct extensive research and present an argumentation in a particular claim of the topic you have chosen. The very first step to presenting a perfectly written marketing dissertation is to choose a topic you’re genuinely interested in, this allows you to understand and present the arguments well. However, you should make sure that the topic chosen is capable enough of contributing to your future in career aspects. You can look for marketing topic ideas from present scenarios, academic journals and scholarly books. In the aftermath of choosing the topic, you’re supposed to develop a research question. While creating a research question you must keep in mind your ability to answer it through primary and secondary sources. Gather the necessary material for your research and prepare an outline for your Marketing Dissertation. The last and final step of presenting a perfectly written marketing dissertation is to revise, edit and proofread your dissertation and make changes if required. Revise your marketing dissertation as many times as you can until you are fully satisfied with the paper. 

The best research topics in digital marketing include Artificial Intelligence, Conversational Marketing, Video Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Influencer marketing, Pay per Click Advertising, Visual Search, and Social Media Management and Marketing.

Some special dissertation topics in commerce are: 1) Write about the influence that advertising picks up on the performance of purchasers. 2) Address about the scholars can be trained among the mobile phone business. 3)Write about how foreign commerce can manage standardisation.

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