Customer Engagement: The Next Frontierfor the Marketers

Customer engagement is emerging as next frontier for the marketers as there is imperative togo beyond communication and persuasion to customer experience and immersion. In fact,customer engagement is being touted as the prime functions of the Marketing. India witheclectic culture, having tech savvy, demanding urban customers on one extreme and customersdeprived of good products and services in media dark places, provides unique marketingcommunication challenges to the marketers. Digital medium is being increasingly used forcustomer engagement for sharing, co-creation, problem solving, and participation, etc. Thispaper examines customer engagement strategies by brands involving usage of traditionalmedia, 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 paperattempts to examine the customer perception and understand key dimensions using multiplecorrespondence analysis. The study found that brands are using excitement, educationexhorting, co –creating, problem solving, etc., as various modes of engagement.