ANALYSING ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN CONSUMER DECISION MAKING FOR PURCHASE OF AUTOBRANDS IN INDIA

Changing market dynamics has led to Consumerization of Indian Automobile Industry posing innumerable challenges for the car manufacturers. The demand in the industry today is not just for a car as a product but a bundled “experience package.” Companies can respond to these challenges and create competitive differentiators by leveraging digital technology. In today's world of digitization, social media provides a wide platform not only to companies for their marketing and promotional activities but also to customers to conduct information search and make purchase decisions. Over the years, the internet has become a major source of consumer sponsored communication floating information, feedback, ideas and sentiments faster than the corporate communication department. It influences different aspects of consumer behavior including awareness, information, acquisition, opinions, attitudes, purchase behavior and post-purchase communication and evaluation. Looking into the strategic role of social media in promotion of passenger cars in India, the paper tries to understand the changing consumer perception towards social media and its role in consumer decision making. At the same time it also empirically derives a consumer?centric methodology for social media marketing by car manufacturers in India.