Customer Engagement: The Next Frontier for the Marketers

Customer engagement is emerging as next frontier for the marketers as there is imperative to go beyond communication and persuasion to customer experience and immersion. In fact, customer engagement is being touted as the prime functions of the Marketing. India with eclectic culture, having tech savvy, demanding urban customers on one extreme and customers deprived of good products and services in media dark places, provides unique marketing communication challenges to the marketers. Digital medium is being increasingly used for customer engagement for sharing, co-creation, problem solving, and participation, etc. This paper examines customer engagement strategies by brands involving usage of traditional media, digital media and sales promotion and events. Some of the campaigns include (Lifebuoy se haath dhoye kya?†, The Tata Mumbai Marathon, Surf Excel ‘Haar ko harao’, Kurkure Family express, Pepsi emoji campaign, etc. to name a few. Also, the present paper attempts to examine the customer perception and understand key dimensions using multiplecorrespondence analysis. The study found that brands are using excitement, education exhorting, co –creating, problem solving, etc., as various modes of engagement.