Cadbury India’s Customer Engagement

Campaign in Kolkata: A Field Study

Kisholoy Roy * Sprihi Kanodia**, Arpita Sanyal*** and Dipraj Bhattacharjee****

In the contemporary era, brands are nothing but customer perceptions and the amount of relevancy they enjoy
in the lives of their target audiences. Add to this, there is severe competition in almost all product categories. In
such a scenario, marketers need to develop initiatives that could engage and the customers with each other and
with their brands because it is communities formed around brands both offline and online and the emotional
attachment developed between customers and brands that enhance the durability of brands. In the context of
online customer engagement, social media have been found to play a key role. The present study deals with
Cadbury India’s customer engagement campaign in the Kolkata market whereby it was observed that Cadbury
India appealed to the mishit (sweet) eating habits of the Bengali population over there in an innovative manner.
They weaved the concept of marriage (Mishti Weds Cadbury) around the campaign, were found to involve
celebrities from the Bengali film industry and optimally leveraged the strengths of social media to propagate the
campaign and thus generate significant awareness, affinity and involvement among the target audiences of the
engagement program.

Introduction was introduced in Kolkata in 2012. It involved to further instill engagement between the
celebrities from the Bengali film industry who people and brand Cadbury. The present

O
ver the years, it has been observed
that customer engagement
campaigns strategized and executed
by marketers have served the purpose of
either engaging customers with each other
or engaging customers with a company or a
brand. Customer engagement programs can
be both online as well as offline. They create
an interactive, customized and coordinated
experience across the channels which help
in strengthening customer loyalty and
emotionally tie them to the company or the
brand. In the contemporary era, a majority
of customers are online at all times and hence
there are certain words that are often used
to describe them like mobile, social,
connected, informed and influential and in
order to gain the loyalty of such customers,
companies are adopting innovative ways to
engage them with their brand(s) and also
with each other to form communities around
the brands.
Cadbury Mishti. Shera Shristi is a customer
engagement initiative of Cadbury India that
were found to endorse and in the process
garner votes for the various participating
sweet shops. In the year 2013, the campaign
was reintroduced in a different avatar-
‘Mishti Weds Cadbury’. To execute the
campaign, Cadbury India tied up with chains
of twenty sweet shops in Kolkata which
prepared more than 100 varieties of Cadbury
Mishti during the course of the campaign. It
used local media and invited people to bless
the newlywed couple (Mishti and Cadbury)
by giving missed calls to a unique toll free
number. Cadbury also stationed volunteers
who would click pictures of the “guests”
visiting the contesting sweet shops which
would be uploaded on their Facebook.
Cadbury India was further found to promote
the campaign by creating a buzz around it
through a video upload that showcased a
range of stars from the Bengali film industry
participating and enjoying the joyous
occasion of ‘local girl’ Mishti marrying
Cadbury, the ‘groom’. After a passage of
time, people were asked to share their own
recipes of Cadbury Mishtis which was found
study is aimed at understanding and
assessing people’s attitude towards the
‘Mishti Weds Cadbury’ campaign (the
second edition of Cadbury Mishti. Shera
Shrishti) and the extent of their interest and
involvement with the brand’s customer
engagement initiative.
Literature Survey
Customer engagement is a concept that
captures the total set of behavioral activities
of customer towards a firm (Gummerus et al,
2012). There are certain tangible effects of
customer engagement behaviors on
perceived relationship benefits and
relationship outcomes. Customer
engagement behaviors have been found to
be classified into two viz. Community
engagement behaviors and Transactional
engagement behaviors. The engagement
behaviors have been found to have
influenced the benefits received like social
benefits, entertainment benefits and
economic benefits. It has been observed that

*Assistant Professor, Globsyn Business School, Salt Lake Electronics Complex, Kolkata
**Student, (PGPM-10, 4th Sem) Globsyn Business School, Salt Lake Electronics Complex, Kolkata
***Student, (PGPM-10, 4th Sem) Globsyn Business School, Salt Lake Electronics Complex, Kolkata
****Student, (PGPM-10, 4th Sem) Globsyn Business School, Salt Lake Electronics Complex, Kolkata

38 Journal of Marketing & Communication

while the influence of Community
engagement behavior on customer
satisfaction is partially mediated by social
and entertainment benefits, the effect of
Transactional engagement behavior on
satisfaction is fully mediated through the
same benefits.
The proliferation of the social media has led
to an increased interest in the phenomenon
of customer engagement (Sashi, 2012). Social
media has been found to offer opportunities
to marketers to build close relationships with
customers. The process of customer
engagement can be well understood with the
help of tools like customer engagement cycle
and customer engagement matrix. There are
various stages within the customer
engagement cycle viz. connection,
interaction, satisfaction, retention, loyalty,
advocacy and engagement. The customer
engagement matrix identifies four types of
customer relationships based on the degree
of relational exchange and emotional bonds.
The identified customer relationships are
transactional customers, delighted
customers, loyal customers and fans.
Customers are evolving in a big way in terms
of their awareness and knowledge of issues
around them and hence it is important for
marketers to be able to influence all the touch
points between a brand and its customers
(French et al, 2012). The marketers need to
graduate from having a function-by-function
view of customer engagement to improving
the coordination of activities across the
broad range of touch points they must care
about and pay attention to. They need to
identify customer engagement needs, enable
more rapid responses and build internal lines
of communication. Five ‘no regrets’ moves
have been suggested to companies
worldwide for superior customer
engagement. They include holding customer
engagement summits, creating customer
engagement council, appointing a chief
content officer, creating a ‘listening center’
and challenging total customer engagement
budget.
The customer engagement phenomenon has
its conceptual roots in the fields of
psychology and organizational behavior
(Hollebeek, 2011). It has been observed often
that engaged consumers exhibit greater
September - December 2013 Vol. 9 Issue 2
loyalty to focal brands. However the
engagement concept has been more or less
unexplored by many marketers. Any
consumer engagement process has been
found to possess three dimensions viz.
activation, identification and absorption.
It has been found that customers by
interacting amongst themselves have often
created value for firms in a variety of ways
(Kumar, 2010). Marketers thus should not
be assessing value of customers based solely
on their transactions. Rather they should be
valuing their engagement behavior correctly
to avoid undervaluation and overvaluation
of customers. Four components of
customer’s engagement value (CEV) with a
firm have been proposed. They are customer
lifetime value, customer referral value,
customer influencer value and customer
knowledge value.
Any brand building effort can actually yield
positive results for the marketer when the
brand in question is truly engaged with its
customers (Tripathi, 2009). Marketers have
often been found to opine that the success
of a brand is due to their efforts but then the
fact is it’s a myth. Until and unless a brand is
well received by customers and the brand is
well engaged with its customer base, it can
never prosper. It would be incorrect to
dismiss the customer engagement
phenomenon as a fad; rather it should be
looked at in a holistic manner. There are
certain tangible benefits for companies if
they have greater number of engaged
customers for a brand. The benefits include
increased frequency of purchase, sales,
profits, customer retention, positive word-
of-mouth and increased market share.
A field study has been conducted in the
Kolkata market to analyze the level of
respondents’ awareness, their extent of
involvement, overall perception and various
other aspects involved with the ‘Mishti
Weds Cadbury’ campaign.
Research Objectives
• To analyze the level of awareness of the
target market regarding Cadbury
Mishtis and the ‘Mishti Weds Cadbury’
campaign
• To study the overall perception of the
target audience regarding the ‘Mishti
Weds Cadbury’ campaign
• To analyze the extent of involvement of
the target audience with the ‘Mishti
Weds Cadbury’ campaign
• To study the buying behavior of the
target market at participating sweet
shops during the course of the ‘Mishti
Weds Cadbury’ campaign
• To analyze the target market’s perception
of the marketing adopted for the
Cadbury Mishtis
• To study the perception of target
audience regarding the involvement of
social media for promoting the ‘Mishti
Weds Cadbury’ campaign
Research Hypotheses
H1: There is no significant difference
between the genders of informants and their
overall perception regarding the ‘Mishti
Weds Cadbury’ campaign
H2: There is no significant difference
between the genders of respondents and
their extent of involvement with the ‘Mishti
Weds Cadbury’ campaign
H3: There is no significant difference
between the genders of informants and their
buying behavior at sweet shops during the
course of the ‘Mishti Weds Cadbury’
campaign
H4: There is no significant difference
between the genders of informants and their
overall perception of the marketing mix
adopted for Cadbury Mishtis
H5: There is no significant difference
between the genders of informants and their
perception regarding the involvement of
social media for promoting the ‘Mishti Weds
Cadbury’ campaign
Research Methodology
60 individuals in the age bracket of 21-40
years were surveyed. Majority of the
respondents were students of various Post
Graduate courses while the rest were service
holders. Out of 60 individuals surveyed, 32
were male and 28 were female. A combination
of judgmental and convenience sampling
was used to select the informants for the
study. A structured questionnaire was used
39
to collect responses. Responses were
sourced from the Kolkata market through
personal interview method.
Research Findings
Respondents for the survey were asked
about their level of awareness regarding the
Cadbury Mishtis. It was observed that
majority of them (56%) were moderately
aware of the product – Cadbury Mishti while
26% had high awareness and 18% had low
awareness about the same. Majority of the
respondents (32%) cited the Internet as the
primary source of awareness for Cadbury
Mishtis. Out of the rest, there were
informants who mentioned either the
television, local dailies, sweet shops or word-
of-mouth as their primary source of
awareness for Cadbury Mishtis.
Informants of the survey were also asked to
mention their level of awareness regarding
the ‘Mishti Weds Cadbury’ campaign. 56%
was found out to be moderately aware, 29%
highly aware, 11% with low awareness and
4% with no awareness. When asked about
the primary source of awareness of the
“Mishti Weds Cadbury” campaign, 37% was
found to mention the Internet as the primary
source followed by local dailies, television,
sweet shops and word of mouth.
6.1 Overall Perception Regarding ‘Mishti
Weds Cadbury’ Campaign
When asked to mention about their overall
perception regarding the ‘Mishti Weds
Cadbury campaign’, 30% opined that it as a
“win-win” scenario for Cadbury, the
participating sweet shops as well as the
customers; 27% of the informants termed it
as an innovative approach; 20% loved the
campaign for the way it involved mass
audience while 23% of the respondents felt
that it was just a marketing gimmick. [Table-
I] highlights the overall perception of
informants regarding the ‘Mishti Weds
Cadbury’ campaign.

Table I
Overall Perception of Informants Regarding ‘Mishti Weds Cadbury’ Campaign

Overallperception
Marketing Mass audience Win-Win Total
Innovative gimmick involvement
Gender Female 6 7 9 6 28
Male 9 9 3 11 32
Total 15 16 12 17 60

A chi square test was undertaken to overall perception regarding the ‘Mishti which was found to be 0.166 [Table II (a) and
understand if significant differences existed Weds Cadbury’ campaign. The p-value of (b)].
between the genders of informants and their
Table II (a)

Value df Asymp. Sig. (2- sided)

Pearson Chi-Square 5.076a 3 .166

Likelihood Ratio 5.220 3 .156

N of Valid Cases 60

Table II (b)

Value Approx. Sig.

Nominal by Nominal Phi .291 .166

Cramer’s V .291 .166

Contingency Coefficient .279 .166

N of Valid Cases 60

40 Journal of Marketing & Communication

Since the p-value is greater than 0.05(p>0.05),
H1, which states that there is no significant
difference between the genders of
informants and their overall perception
regarding the ‘Mishti Weds Cadbury’
campaign stands accepted.
Extent of Involvement with the ‘Mishti Weds
Cadbury’ Campaign
Respondents for the survey were asked to
Respondents’ Extent of Involvement with the Campaign
Aware only
Gender Female 12
Male 17
Total 29
A chi square test was conducted to confirm
if significant differences existed between the
genders of informants and their extent of in-
Pearson Chi-Square
Likelihood Ratio
N of Valid Cases
Nominal by Nominal
N of Valid Cases
Since the p-value is greater than 0.05
(p>0.05), H2, which states that there is no
significant difference between the genders
of respondents and their extent of
involvement with the ‘Mishti Weds Cadbury’
campaign stands accepted.
September - December 2013 Vol. 9 Issue 2
comment on the extent of their involvement for their favorite shop. The rest did not try
with the ‘Mishti weds Cadbury’ campaign, it Cadbury Mishti but were inclined to know
was observed that 42% of them were limited more about the campaign updates. [Table-
to being aware about the campaign only while III] highlights the above mentioned details.
there were 33% of the respondents who
visited the participating sweet shops and
tried out Cadbury Mishti. There were some
who tried Cadbury Mishtis and also voted
Table III
Extent of involvement
Incline to know Visited and tried Visited and vote Total
6 3 7 28
2 4 9 32
8 7 16 60
volvement with the ‘Mishti Weds Cadbury’ to be 0.391 [Table-IV (a) and (b).
campaign; the p-value of which was found
Table IV (a)
Value df Asymp. Sig. (2- sided)
3.002a 3 .391
3.087 3 .378
60
Table 4 (b)
Value Approx. Sig.
Phi .224 .391
Cramer’s V .224 .391
Contingency Coefficient .218 .319
60
Buying Behavior at Sweet Shops to Cadbury as a brand or the their loyalty
towards a particular shop. Majority of the
Respondents for the survey were asked to respondents (36%) mentioned that it was just
mention whether they visited the out of curiosity/impulse that made them visit
participating sweet shops out of curiosity/ the shops during the course of the customer
impulse or did they visit due to their loyalty engagement initiative by Cadbury while there
41
were some who voiced they loyalty towards
a shop. They were further asked if they would
be visiting the shop after the ‘Mishti Weds
Cadbury’ campaign was over to which 60%
of the respondents answered as ‘Yes’. A
Mann-Whitney U-test was undertaken to
understand and analyze if significant
differences existed between the genders of
informants and their buying behavior at
sweet shops during the course of the ‘Misti
Weds Cadbury’ campaign; the p-value of
which was found to be 0.188 [Table-V (a)
and (b)].

Table V (a)

Gender N Mean Rank Sum of Ranks

av1 Male 32 29.61 947.50

Female 28 31.52 882.50

Total 60

Table V (b)

av

Mann-Whitney U 360.000

Wilcox W 888.000

Z -1.315

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .188

Since the p-value is greater than 0.05 Table VI (a)

(p>0.05), H3, which states that there is no
significant difference between the genders Gender N Mean Rank Sum of Ranks
of informants and their buying behavior at av1 Male 32 29.61 947.50
sweet shops during the course of the ‘Mishti
Weds Cadbury’ campaign stands accepted. Female 28 31.52 882.50
6.4 Perception regarding marketing mix Total 60
adopted for Cadbury Mishtis
Table VI (b)
Informants of the survey were asked to com-
ment on various elements of marketing mix av1
adopted for the Cadbury Mishtis. They were
Mann-Whitney U 419.500
asked to opine on the quality and presenta-
tion of Cadbury Mishtis at the sweet shops Wilcox W 947.500
to which majority of respondents opined as
Z -.424
‘Good’ but then they felt that the Cadbury
Mishtis were ‘somewhat high priced’. 45% Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .672
of the respondents felt that the media mix
adopted for the campaign was ‘Effective’ and
they opined that the involvement of celebri- Since the p-value is greater than 0.05 way for the campaign and hence respondents
ties was necessary for attracting eyeballs to (p>0.05), H4, which states that there is no for the survey were asked to comment on
the campaign and enhance footfalls at the significant difference between the genders the YouTube video of the ‘Mishti Weds
participating shops. A Mann-Whitney U- of informants and their overall perception Cadbury’ campaign and also on the
test was conducted to analyze if significant of the marketing mix adopted for Cadbury involvement of Facebook with the campaign.
Mishtis stands accepted. 45% of the respondents felt that the
differences existed between the genders of
YouTube video ‘was a great concept and it
informants and their overall perception of
Perception Regarding Involvement of Social provided an initial fillip to the campaign’. 45%
the marketing mix adopted for Cadbury
Media of the respondents believed that the
Mistis, the p-value of which was found to
involvement of Facebook was ‘effective from
be 0.672 [Table-VI (a) and (b)]. Social media was found to be used in a big the perspective of wooing the youth only’.

42 Journal of Marketing & Communication

A Mann-Whitney U-test was conducted to overall perception regarding the involvement Weds Mishti’ campaign; the p-value of which
analyze if significant differences existed of social media for promoting the ‘Cadbury was found to be 0.151 [Table-VII (a) and (b)].
between the genders of informants and their
Table VII (a)

Gender N Mean Rank Sum of Ranks

av2 Male 32 27.56 882.00

Female 28 33.86 948.00

Total 60

Table VII (b)

av2

Mann-Whitney U 354.000

Wilcox W 882.000

Z -1.435

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .151

Since the p-value is greater than 0.05 even after the customer engagement • Certain more factors could have been
(p>0.05), H5, which states that there is no campaign is over. The campaign as such was considered for the survey to get a more
significant difference between the genders not responsible for forging/enhancing any holistic understanding of the customer
of informants and their perception relationship between the buyers and the engagement phenomenon
regarding the involvement of social media participating sweet shops. Most of the
for promoting the ‘Mishti Weds Cadbury’ informants of the survey liked the quality Conclusion
campaign, stands accepted. and presentation of Cadbury Mishtis and
the way they were promoted on various In the contemporary era, consumers are
Implications of the Study media vehicles but they felt that the prices speaking for brands more than the marketers.
of Cadbury Mishtis were somewhat on the It is the consumers who are endorsing and
The survey revealed certain interesting
higher side. Majority of the respondents felt owning brands and are forming communities
insights regarding the ‘Mishti Weds
that the YouTube video along with the around them. Under such circumstances,
Cadbury’ campaign. The campaign along
involvement of Facebook actually garnered marketers have been found to engage their
with Cadbury Mishtis was found to generate
the eyeballs and enhanced footfalls at the customers with each other and with their
significant awareness among the
sweet shops but then they wooed the youth brands through various customer
respondents through the Internet as well
only. engagement initiatives. These programs are
through the local dailies and sweet shops.
aimed at enhancing the stickiness of the
Majority of the respondents perceived the Limitations of the Study target audience with a brand. The ‘Mishti
campaign to be offering benefits to Cadbury,
Weds Cadbury’ campaign was found to woo
the sweet shops as well as the customers • Majority of the respondents were within
the Bengali community’s Mishti (sweet)
who got to savor certain innovative sweets the 25 years age bracket. A more diverse
eating habits and has been labeled as a ‘win-
made of Cadbury chocolate. There were of sample in terms of age profile could have
win’ proposition for Cadbury, the
course few respondents who dismissed the offered more interesting insights
participating sweet shops and customers by
customer engagement initiative of Cadbury • Respondents for the survey visited few many. The involvement of celebrities with
as a marketing gimmick. Majority of the of the sweet shops that participated in the campaign along with the involvement of
informants were found to visit sweet shops the engagement program. Perceptions social media was found to trigger significant
and try out the Cadbury Mishtis. In most of informants might have been differed interest among the Bengalis in Kolkata
cases, they visited the participating sweet had they visited some more of the especially among the youth.
shops out of curiosity and mentioned that participating sweet shops
they would keep visiting a particular shop
References
Gummerus Johanna, Liljander Veronica, Weman Emil and Pihlstrom Minna (2012), “Customer engagement in a Facebook brand community”, Management Research Review, 35(9), pp 857-877
Sashi C.M. (2012), “Customer engagement, buyer-seller relationships, and social media”, Management Decision, 50(2), pp 253-272
French Tom, LaBerge Laura and Magill Paul (2012), “Five ‘no regrets’ moves for superior customer engagement”, McKinsey Quarterly, Issue 3, pp 119-125
Hollebeek Linda D., (2011), “Demystifying customer brand engagement: Exploring the loyalty nexus”, Journal of Marketing Management, 27(7-8), pp 785-807
Kumar V., Aksoy Lerzan, Donkers Bas, Venkatesan Rajkumar, Wiesel Thorsten and Tillmans Sebastian (2010), “Undervalued or Overvalued Customers: Capturing Total Customer Engagement
Value”, Journal of Service Research, 13(3), pp 297-310
Tripathi M.N. (2009), “Customer Engagement – Key to Successful Brand Building”, Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management, March 2009, pp 131-140

September - December 2013 Vol. 9 Issue 2 43

Copyright of Journal of Marketing & Communication is the property of Journal of Marketing
& Communication and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to
a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may
print, download, or email articles for individual use.