2. Background
The oil reserves of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are around 16% of the world’s reserves, making it one of the largest oil producers and exporters globally (Ahmad, 2012, p. 219). The country’s oil revenues represent more than 90% of government income and half of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (The World Bank, 2016, p. 1). At the same time, the excessive reliance on oil has made Saudi Arabia’s economy vulnerable to external factors such as oil price fluctuations and changes in oil consumption (Saudi Vision 2030, 2016b, p. 6). The most recent oil price crisis is a good example of Saudi Arabia’s vulnerability. In 2015, the country’s GDP increased only by 3.4% against almost 10% in 2010 (Trading Economics, 2016, p. 1; The World Bank, 2016, p. 1).
Even though oil revenues remain the most essential pillar of Saudi Arabia’s economy, the government has attempted to diversify the economy by investing in other industries such as power generation and telecommunications (Ahmad, 2012, p. 217). Diversifying its economy is one of the main themes of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, a long-term strategy to reduce the country’s dependence on oil (Saudi Vision 2030, 2016a, p. 1). The role of SMEs in this strategy is significant. According to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, it is planned to increase the contribution of SMEs to the country’s GDP from 20% to 35% by 2030 (Saudi Vision 2030, 2016b, p. 1). However, SMEs should use advanced marketing communication tools and technologies in order to succeed and be capable of helping Saudi Arabia establish a more solid economy (McCann and Barlow, 2015, p. 273).
Social media have long been recognised as an effective communication tool for advertising and selling goods and services across industries (Gabrielli and Balboni, 2010, p. 275; Hutchinson et al., 2015, p. 467). The integration between social networking services (SNSs) and SMEs’ websites is commonly employed to contribute to the effectiveness of their marketing efforts and achieve better financial results (Askool, 2013, p. 1
Problem Statement and Research Gap
Saudi Arabia has recently attempted to diversify its economy and reduce its dependence on oil exports (Saudi Vision 2030, 2016a, p. 1). In accordance with Saudi Arabia’s long-term development strategy, a special role in this reform is given to SMEs (Saudi Vision 2030, 2016b, p. 1). However, this role cannot be properly performed without using advanced marketingcommunication tools and techniques. Social media have been widely recognised as an important marketing communications channel that allows for establishing effective two-way communication between the seller and the customer (Dahnil et al., 2014, p. 119). Organisations that put an emphasis on social media advertising tend to demonstrate a higher level of performance and productivity in comparison with those firms that use more traditional communications channels (Oztamur and Karakadilar, 2014, p. 511).
The role of marketingcommunication in a firm’s competitiveness and financial sustainability has been examined by many researchers (Ainin et al., 2015, p. 570; Rabova, 2015, p. 48). For instance, Alghamdi and Reilly (2013, p. 1) found that the content of social media advertisements had a strong impact on customer behavioural responses. Dahnil et al. (2014, p. 119) reported that companies presented on social media had established more effective communication with consumers comparing to ‘offline’ firms. Finally, Vasquez and Escamilla (2014, p. 533) acknowledged that ad clicks were an effective measure of social media advertising effectiveness. According to the researchers, there was a direct relationship between ad clicks and consumers’ purchase intentions and willingness to share information about the promoted product with their peers (Vasquez and Escamilla, 2014, p. 533).
Although the role of social media in SMEs’ competitiveness has been extensively examined by previous researchers, too little emphasis has been given to this link in the context of Saudi Arabia (Dutot and Bergeron, 2016, p. 1165). The proposed dissertation will attempt to bridge this knowledge gap by examining the effectiveness of social media marketing communication in Saudi SMEs’ ability to promote their goods and services and remain financially sustainable. The popularity of social media in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has grown significantly. Today, around 60% of the country’s population are active social media users (The Economist, 2015, p. 1). Saudi Arabia has witnessed a 300% growth rate of Twitter users, making it the fastest growing country all around the globe (Statista, 2016, p. 1). These trends provide small and medium Saudi companies with ample growth opportunities. That is why it is important to examine the extent to which social media marketing contributes to the performance of Saudi SMEs.
Using the case of cosmetic clinics as an example of SMEs, the following questions will be addressed:
Question 1:What is the current situation with regard to social media marketing among cosmetic clinics and Saudi Arabian SMES in general?
Question 2: What are the perceived benefits and disadvantages of using social media marketing for SMES in Saudi Arabia?
Question 3:Are there any issues specific to the Saudi Arabian situation that make social media marketing more or less useful for the cosmetic industry and for SMEs in general?
Question 4:Do different stakeholders (companies, employees, customers) have differing views on the usefulness of social media marketing?
Question 5: How advanced is the social media marketing? Is it co-constructed between consumers and the companies or is it one-way only? Do the clients/customers and the clinic constitute a virtual marketing community?
Research Design and Methodology
The study will adopt a case study research approach. The study will conduct an investigation of three beauticians in Saudi Arabia from three different locations and target markets. The study will utilize both primary and secondary sources of data. The primary data collection procedures will involve recording interviews with the beauty center owners, managers, workers, and customers, visiting and observing the businesses. Interviews will be carried out on an individual basis and they will be audio recorded. They will take place in the beauty centers. An ethnographic approach will be employed. Ethnography is a qualitative research design that facilitates the studying of a group of people that share a language, culture, behaviours, and beliefs. Ethnographic research is based on the tenets of sociology and anthropology. Notably, this is a realist ethnographic research that will be executed using a descriptive research design. It is because the primary intent of the researcher is to explore the effectiveness of using social media as a tool for marketing communication in beauty businesses in Riyadh and the data collected will be interpreted on the basis of the views expressed by the participants
