Effective usage of E-CRM and social media tools by Akshay Kumar: most prolific Bollywood actor of last decade

International Journal of Management (IJM)
Volume 11, Issue 2, February 2020, pp. 141–146, Article ID: IJM_11_02_015
Available online at />Journal Impact Factor (2020): 10.1471 (Calculated by GISI) www.jifactor.com
ISSN Print: 0976-6502 and ISSN Online: 0976-6510
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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:
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.
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1. 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 Mass marketing has been
replaced by relationship marketing.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

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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.

2. 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
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







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 7 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.

3. 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
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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.

4. 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 4. 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

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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.

5. 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.

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