In this paper, the researcher is trying to understand the customer relationship management of Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar with the usage of latest social media tools.
International Journal of Management (IJM) Volume 11, Issue 2, February 2020, pp 141–146, Article ID: IJM_11_02_015 Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/ijm/issues.asp?JType=IJM&VType=11&IType=2 Journal Impact Factor (2020): 10.1471 (Calculated by GISI) www.jifactor.com ISSN Print: 0976-6502 and ISSN Online: 0976-6510 © IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed EFFECTIVE USAGE OF E-CRM AND SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS BY AKSHAY KUMAR: MOST PROLIFIC BOLLYWOOD ACTOR OF LAST DECADE Anuj Kumar Assistant Professor, Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Management and Research, New Delhi, PhD Research Scholar, Aligarh Muslim University, India M.Sc., International Business, University College Dublin, Ireland, M.B.A, Advance Diploma in Management (AIMA), B Tech (G.G.S.I.P.U), India Corresponding Author Email: anujsmooth@gmail.com ABSTRACT Customer relationship management has been evolved over a period of time and it is necessary for marketers to update themselves on usage of technology while maintaining relationship with the customers We have studied about customer relationship management of companies with customers for selling their products and services In this paper, the researcher is trying to understand the customer relationship management of Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar with the usage of latest social media tools Akshay is most prolific and leading celebrity of India He has excellent brand value In researcher opinion, he is excellent marketer as well who knows how to sell himself with effective usage of technology and other social media tools In this paper the researcher will also discuss various aspects of marketing strategy adopted by actor Akshay Kumar to connect with his viewers Keywords: Customer Relationship Management, Social CRM, Akshay Kumar, Bollywood, Social Media Cite this Article: Anuj Kumar, Effective usage of e-CRM and Social Media Tools by Akshay Kumar: Most Prolific Bollywood Actor of Last Decade, International Journal of Management (IJM), 11 (2), 2020, pp 141–146 http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/issues.asp?JType=IJM&VType=11&IType=2 INTRODUCTION Customer relationship management is not new; it has been evolved with different era Initially when there was no technology, marketers used to adopt door-to-door sales approach Later on mass marketing has transformed the door-to-door sales approach Mass marketing has been replaced by relationship marketing Relationship marketing focused on developing longer term relationship with the customers rather than short term The emphasis of relationship http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/index.asp 141 editor@iaeme.com Effective usage of e-CRM and Social Media Tools by Akshay Kumar: Most Prolific Bollywood Actor of Last Decade managers was on retaining customers over a longer period of time Relationship management has focused on developing cooperation and trust between customers and organization Over a period of time relationship marketing has been evolved into customer relationship management The market across the world in changing and in this dynamic market, survival is tough The companies need to maintain long term relationship with the customers in dynamic and ever changing market Customer relationship management can help the companies in forming enhancing relationship with the customers (Chen & Popovich, 2003) CRM ensure longer term relationship with the customers by aligning them with company’s goals and missions In this decade the researchers and managers are also trying to find the answer of question- “How to grow sustainably in limited finance?” Social media tools which can be part of e-CRM strategy or different types of online resources can provide sustainable growth to the companies as well as big service sector industries (Syed, Pandey, & Kumar, 2019) Previously four Ps of marketing – product, price, place and promotion was in much demand The concept of customer relationship management has replaced those four Ps of marketing and ensures the usage of technology and internet in maintaining relationships Now-a-days CRM becomes the part of main strategy of the companies In traditional CRM, the marketers were managing the customers with the help of data warehouse Those marketers were collecting all the information of customers’ past behaviour in data warehouses and accordingly they were predicting the future behaviour of customers The companies were getting all the information from the customers and integrating that information to deliver final product In this era, when customer is the main focus of companies, the organizations are switching from traditional CRM towards social CRM Social CRM allows the customers to use social media platforms to analyze the customers’ needs and demand Social media tools provide a platform where organizations and customers were able to formulate a two-way communication between them (Kumar & Pandey, 2018) The main tools of traditional CRM were emails, television commercials and other print media but as per information shared by content marketing institute, 86% of people often don’t see television commercials and approximately 44% of people never open direct email too (Elena, 2016) The new generation is much more inclined towards Facebook and other social media platforms A big number of multinationals have adopted social media tools as primary part of their marketing strategy Social media tools are also helping medium and small scale industries in flourishing their business (Kumar & Ayedee, Social Media tools for business growth of SMEs, 2018) Indian film industry named “Bollywood” is the most versatile film industry of the world Many actors are providing great business to the industry with their films and fan following In last 5-6 years, there is a buzz of 100-crore club movies in Bollywood Akshay Kumar, one of the most versatile actors of Bollywood whose 14 movies are in 100-crore club WHY THE RESEARCHER HAS PICKED AKSHAY KUMAR FOR HIS STUDY? Though there are other actors too i.e Salman Khan, Aamir Khan and Shahrukh Khan but the researcher has choose to study Akshay Kumar for his customer relationship management because of following reasons According to Duff and Phelps rating agency Akshay Kumar is second most valuable celebrity of India Only Virat Kohli, cricketer by profession is ahead of Akshay Kumar as most valuable celebrity In Bollywood, Akshay is the top rated celebrity of India He has a brand value of $ 104.5 million (Ambwani, 2020) The brand value has been increased 55.3% in last year Akshay Kumar is the only Indian actor in Forbes highest paid actors list of 2019 Dwayne Johnson is leading the list with $ 89.4 million (ETOnline, 2019) Dwayne is http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/index.asp 142 editor@iaeme.com Anuj Kumar being followed by Chris Hemsworth ($ 76.4 million), Robert Downey Jr ($66 million) Akshay Kumar with $ 65 million ranked at fourth spot Akshay Kumar is followed by Jackie Chan No other Indian actor has able to make it to the top ten positions of Forbes list (ETOnline, 2019) Akshay Kumar is earning approximately 444 crore in a year Akshay Kumar is also one of highest tax-payer Bollywood actor too He is the highest grossing actor of Bollywood in 2019 On the basis of last decade performance of all the Bollywood actors, it can be said that Akshay Kumar is leading that race among all three Khans and several other actors On an average Akshay is doing 3-4 films every year and many of those films have entered into 100-crore club Total business provided by Akshay Kumar to Bollywood is ranging between 3118 39 crore to 3123 39 crore, with an average business of 97.45 crore (Batra, 2020) Akshay Kumar is also the first Bollywood actor to enter in Rs 3000 crore club in 2016 by completing approximately 108 movies He has completed 108 movies in a journey of 25 years in Bollywood His success rate is going higher and higher (Vats, 2017) It is hard for any Bollywood actor to follow discipline lifestyle but instead being a celebrity, Akshay followed a disciplined lifestyle He refrain himself from smoking and drinking He has crossed 50 years of his age still extremely fit because he prefers natural exercise and martial arts instead of weight lifting Eating habits is also play big role in maintaining his fitness He strongly believe that body stops burning calories in evening so he avoids after pm He still believes the theory of early to sleep and early to rise At the age of 52 years, he is reaching at the peak of his career so he has proved that age is just a number You can gain good fitness level by following the rules of nature and that fitness will help in getting ahead in your career Akshay Kumar is also a face of globalization in Bollywood His movie “Mission Mangal” has been realized in Hong Kong in the regional language of that country (ANI, 2020) It can be seen as an example a cultural adaption because culture often impacts the pace of globalization When any company promotes its product or service in foreign country, that company needs to customize its products and service as per local needs of people USAGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS, INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY Kumar & Ayedee (2019) (Kumar & Ayedee, Sustainable Development in SMEs through social media channels, 2019) have argued about sustainable development in big multinationals like Coca-Cola and small SMEs The usage of technology was prominent in those developments Akshay starrer Kesari movie used funny digital memes for its promotion (Mahayan, 2019) The viewers and audience on Twitter and Facebook were watching those memes and getting an internal connect with that movie It was the usage of technology which promoted innovation at the end of Bollywood actor Similarly Akshay promoted another movie Padman by taking a leaf from ALS ice bucket challenge format He nominated different celebrities of Bollywood to have posed with sanitary napkins (Subramanian, 2018) He named it #Padman Challenge Akshay and fellow film makers applied business acumen while promoting movie “Mission Mangal” They have shown several brands in movie like Peter England, Paytm, Kajaria Ceramics and Fox Star The film makers have tied up with all the brands to promote the movie through Twitter, Facebook and other platforms (Wilson, 2019) It has been stated in Media research firm TAM’s report that Akshay Kumar is most visited celebrity of 2019 (ETBrandEquity, 2020) The marketers believe that Akshay provide http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/index.asp 143 editor@iaeme.com Effective usage of e-CRM and Social Media Tools by Akshay Kumar: Most Prolific Bollywood Actor of Last Decade a higher degree of consumer recall, help in building better brand image, emotional connect with the customers and created his unique identity as well e-CRM is the modern and technically enabled form of customer relationship management The primary objective of CRM is build long term relationship with the customers and retains those customers for long time The online touch points of e-CRM are emails, online chats and websites The offline touch points are smart phone, face to face interactions The objectives of e-CRM is to provide better services to the customers, retain than for long duration, increase loyalty, increase profitability etc The movie makers and stars like Akshay Kumar are not selling any product to the customers They are only selling movies The actors have to retain their customers and increase profitability from the same set of customers AKSHAY KUMAR EFFECTIVELY USING E-CRM TECHNIQUES Usage of Electronic Channels- The first feature of e-CRM is usage of various types of electronic channels Actor Akshay Kumar is also using different types of electronic channels to connect with his audience and viewers He is using Facebook fan page, Twitter, Instagram and other websites to share his daily life and updates with audiences On those electronic channels he also shares his fitness schedules, diet plans, festival greetings etc So he is making better connect with his audiences Media research firm’s report also stated that Akshay is providing a higher degree of customer recall Now-a-days sustainability is also in demand (Kumar & Aggarwal, 2018) Using social media platforms are also adding to the sustainable efforts of the celebrity towards to environment 360 Degree Customer Focussed- Another feature of e-CRM is that it is 360 degree customer focussed It means the company is tracking the customers from different ends and getting the inputs Akshay is also connected with his viewers and fans in 360 degree manner He is making en emotional connect with his viewers through festival greetings and other social greetings, he often share his stories and get live on Facebook through different channels Viewers are able to post on his social media pages so the actor is establishing a two-way communication with his viewers Long Term Relationships with Customers- The companies often establish long term relationships with their customers through e-CRM What is the perspective behind establishing long term relationship with the customers? The answer is that the companies want to sell their products for longer term In this case, actor has movies to sell to his viewers He is maintaining a longer term relation with his viewers through social media by actively updating all the stages of movie with them For example- Timeline of movie Houseful The promotion of the movie started well in advance through social media platforms Firstly the film makers have shared teaser in very unique manner over Twitter and Facebook Afterwards they shared official trailer after a gap of few days Soon after they shared star cast, songs etc How the actor Akshay Kumar is playing his role in maintaining long term relationships with viewers? At individual level, he keeps updating the viewers about the progress of his movies to customers so that the link with the customers should be maintained It has been seen that most of the actors are very prone to connect with their fans at the time of movie release but Akshay Kumar is constantly connected with viewers throughout the year He also tries to make maximum number of movies Even on holidays he is connected with viewers through social media channels Emotional Intelligence for Retention of Customers- Daniel Goleman stated about emotional intelligence is that aspect of human ability which helps an individual to understand the emotional state and feelings of other fellow colleagues or juniors While promoting his movies, Akshay always prefer to go between the people either in metro train or college campus It showed his emotional intelligence, he wants to connect himself with the middle http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/index.asp 144 editor@iaeme.com Anuj Kumar class viewers so that they can be retained for longer duration Another example of emotional intelligence is that actor Akshay Kumar knows that Indians are very patriotic people In the last few years he has chosen the scripts which were based on country problems or some historical incidents His movies Rustom, Airlift, Kesari, and Mission Mangal were related to the past incidents of India and released those movies on the occasion of 15th August or 26th January A proper planning is done to emotional connect and retain the viewers FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION What companies are doing through social CRM? The companies are trying to understand the needs and wants of their customers and updating it in their data base Here the actor Akshay Kumar is connecting himself with youth through latest social media platforms and trying to understand their expectations from movies According to demand, he is acting in movies for all categories of viewers He is acting in movies showing family drama, fun comedy, patriotism and social issues It can be said that social CRM has matured him as an actor Another usage of social CRM is to engage the audience The multinational companies are using social CRM to engage audience In fact social media tools are also providing oxygen to the marketing strategy of small and medium size organizations Akshay is effectively using his social media channels for engaging the audience In the past, viewers only have the news about latest release of various actors but Akshay is effectively using social media platform to announce the arrival of his upcoming movies The viewers have calendar and images of his all the movies which will be released in coming 20 months So he is engaging the audience in perfect manner Other actors and film makers can also effectively use this integration of social media for better customer engagement in future On the basis of overall discussion it can be concluded that social media tools if integrated properly in the e-CRM strategy of the companies can provide excellent results in maintaining long term relationships with customers and retaining them Indirectly features of e-CRM can be linked with the marketing and branding of Akshay Kumar and those techniques have helped to become most profitable star of the Bollywood industry The usage of e-CRM tools for better customer connects will also support sustainable growth of industry as well REFERENCES [1] Ambwani, M V (2020, February 5) Virat Kohli retains top spot as the most valuable celebrity in 2019: Duff & Phelps Retrieved from Hindu Business Line: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/sports/virat-kohli-retains-top-spot-as-themost-valuable-celebrity-in-2019-duff-phelps/article30741190.ece# [2] ANI (2020, January 3) Mission Mangal releases in Hong Kong: Feeling proud, says Akshay Kumar Retrieved from https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/bollywood/story/mission-mangal-releases-in-hongkong-feeling-proud-says-akshay-kumar-1633587-2020-01-03 [3] Batra, G (2020, January 1) Box Office Battle Between Khans & Akshay Kumar: Khiladi Is The Only 3000-Crore Member From The Last Decade, But Who Leads Average Per Film? 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Economics and Finance, 785-790 http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/index.asp 145 editor@iaeme.com Effective usage of e-CRM and Social Media Tools by Akshay Kumar: Most Prolific Bollywood Actor of Last Decade. .. features of e-CRM can be linked with the marketing and branding of Akshay Kumar and those techniques have helped to become most profitable star of the Bollywood industry The usage of e-CRM tools