Abstract
This dissertation illustrates why some footwear sales companies in Ireland are resistant to using social networking advertising while some companies in the same industry are using this medium extensively to advertise their products. Explanatory study was conducted for this research to explain the factors and reasons of using or not using social networking sites as an online advertising medium by companies. Quantitative data was collected through the survey method. The data was collected through two types of questionnaires. The first type of questionnaire was distributed personally to footwear sales companies. The second type of questionnaire was prepared to discover the attitudes of people about online advertising and distributed online. The data was analyzed with a view of the literature to identify the factors which are responsible for using social networking advertising by some footwear sales companies. The research found that different advertising mediums are used by footwear sales companies. However, the Internet is the most used medium to advertise and Billboards are the least used medium in this industry. The reasons for using these mediums to advertise are: people spend most of their time on these mediums and also they are cost effective. The companies which are selling branded and fashionable footwear are using social networking sites to increase their brand awareness among people. The business objective of these companies is to increase the number of customers and their market share. In general, however, footwear sales companies are not spending much on advertising, as a percentage of their overall turnover. This research also found that today most of the people believe in the Internet. They are of the view that online advertising is better than traditional advertising. People are using online social networking sites extensively and also extensively like the advertisements delivered on their social networking web sites.
