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The journey of Chumbak: from mail to mall – leveraging social media networks for on-going dialogue
with customers
Chetna Kudeshia, Arun Mittal,
Article information:
To cite this document:
Chetna Kudeshia, Arun Mittal, (2015) "The journey of Chumbak: from mail to mall – leveraging social media networks for on-
going dialogue with customers", Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, Vol. 5 Issue: 4, pp.1-20, https://doi.org/10.1108/
EEMCS-09-2014-0209
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https://doi.org/10.1108/EEMCS-09-2014-0209
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Chetna Kudeshia is “Hi Vivek, Your company ‘Chumbak’ has been selected, and you’d be one amongst the three
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Research Scholar and firms worldwide that will be a part of the Google case study!” This was the email that
Arun Mittal is Assistant husband and wife team Vivek and Shubhra Chadda got from the California-based company
Professor, both at Birla
known as Enso, who was working with Google to make a case study video on how firms
Institute of Technology,
Extension Centre, Noida,
worldwide are using Google services. They were looking for businesses that had a
India. “compelling business, web and a human story” and Chumbak fulfilled all the requirements.
However, this wasn’t the case just a few of years previously when Shubhra and Vivek had
to sell their house for Rs 40 lakhs to raise seed capital for the venture. Chumbak “which
started as an absolutely self-funded company without any financial liabilities” was now
being banked by the big financial companies of India. But how did it become possible for
a self-financed company with a meager investment to incur a place on a Google case study
that was being conducted jointly with Facebook’s study about advertisement success
stories? The company had broken even after three years of trading and was presently
pumping all of its profits into the business and the success of Chumbak can be attributed
to social media. Social media was responsible for all aspects of Chumbak and its success,
from brand identity to brand awareness, from campaigns to recruitments. What started as
a store for magnet souvenirs now offers a line of products including apparel, accessories,
stationary, home and style products.
Introduction
The definition of business in India has changed from having a shop or manufacturing unit
to discovering and creating a strong online identity for brands. One necessary
phenomenon is maintaining personal and steady relationships with customers. Even if a
business is being set up or expanded through modern technologies, such as the Internet,
the basis will always be the same – better engagement with your customers. The only
difference will be the medium of establishing that engagement and it is not surprising that
this philosophy is widely being accepted by many small and medium-sized businesses as
a function as their business strategy.
One drawback that small business face is-competition from medium-sized and large
Disclaimer. This case is written businesses. Additionally, there is very little funding at the disposal of these businesses for
solely for educational promoting functions, which may greatly hinder a small businesses ability to reach an
purposes and is not intended
to represent successful or oversized audience. Unlike established businesses units that may already have a good
unsuccessful managerial reputation, a large customer base and high brand recognition, small and medium-sized
decision-making. The author/s
may have disguised names, businesses need newer, innovative avenues for building their brand, to reach out to every
financial and other prospective customer and creating better and strong relationships with the customers once
recognizable information to
protect confidentiality. the relationship has been established. Online promoting now plays a vital role in
DOI 10.1108/EEMCS-09-2014-0209 VOL. 5 NO. 4 2015, pp. 1-24, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2045-0621 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 1
establishing small-scale businesses, and gives them the advantage of being able to run
favorably alongside their larger counterparts.
As per the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED), 2006 Act of India,
a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) is an one where the investment in plant and
machinery is more than Rs 25 lakh but does not exceed Rs 5 crore [22]. A significant
17 per cent of India’s GDP come from its 40 million SMEs. A recent report by McKinsey says
that the SMEs who are highly active on various social media avenues report double the
revenue growth of those who are not using it. Out of the 40 million small entrepreneurs,
around 500,000 SMEs, have a strong presence on social media (McKinsey Global Institute,
2012). A report by Assocham and Comscore (2012) says that Internet users in India are
expected to reach between 350 to 450 million by 2015-2016, and this will act as a catalyst
in the growth of SMEs (Batra et al., 2012).
Social media statistics in India:
India has 243 million Internet users.
Facebook is the most browsed social network on social media with a large base of 100
million users.
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The idea
The Chadda’s loved to travel and each time they travelled, they would shop for souvenirs,
especially fridge magnets. As they were usually on a small budget, they found that fridge
magnets made appealing and affordable gifts to friends and family back home. While
varieties of such products were available abroad, in India, buying mementos was restricted
to options such as pashmina shawls, marble miniatures of the Taj Mahal or brass elephants.
“Why don’t we get these fridge magnets in India?” Shubhra asked Vivek, and the duo
started searching for India-made fridge magnets but they could not find fun fridge magnets
in India and Vivek and Shubhra soon realized that affordable, well-designed and crafted
products that could be used as accessories and gift items were in demand. Why don’t we
start making our own fridge magnets and add a bit of color and modernity to the market of
Indian trinkets? And thus came the idea of Chumbak! In 2004, the couple started doing
some initial research and, finally, in 2009, spent a good six months researching various
apparel and footwear, bags and wallets, souvenirs, key chains and jewelry. Its range also
includes phone covers, unique whistle charms and bracelets. It has a total of 38 categories,
with between 400 to 500 products, which makes Chumbak impressive. Inspired by the
various colors embedded in Indian culture and day-to-day events of an Indian’s life,
Chumbak tries to put all this together in its products.
Vivek says:
We believe that our products should be recognizable nine out of 10 times without the logo and
to achieve this we follow a very strict filtering process before any product hits the racks. That is
the design test all our products have to go through.
Chumbak is a leading design company and they take great care about how they look, from
their office to kiosks and to products. The originators, who conceived the workplace
themselves, settled on an open-plan arrangement office with only two encased rooms that
are implied for imaginative conceptualizing and gatherings.
Chumbak required the work environment to be open. “We didn’t require anyone to need to
thump on ways to meet “the boss”, “said Vivek. In spite of the fact that their organization’s
items have a tendency to be jumbled with pictures that summon India, such as the auto
rickshaw and dairy animals, the originators chose to be moderate in the workplace. The
creativity of the founders is reflected in the Technicolor item tones emerging in the pink and
blue seats and the blue-green pin sheets. However, style wasn’t the sole concept on their
mind. Shubhra and Vivek additionally ensured that the workplace is energy efficient. The
organization utilizes window air-conditioning systems that cool the area of workplace being
utilized at a given point of time. To scale back temperatures within the warehouse they have
spinners on the roof and upside-down clear PVC panels let in light throughout the day.” We
don’t have to switch on the lights until around 6:30 at night. Our power bills are low”, said
Vivek.
Funding
The unique designs of Chumbak have attracted favors from private equity investors and
funds from venture capitalists. As the brand was being established and there was
acknowledgment from various areas, Chumbak got funding by Seedfund in 2012 and from
Matrix Partners. Rishi Navani, co-founder and managing director, Matrix India, says, “The
entrepreneurs, Vivek and Shubhra, have a unique mix of design sensibilities and strong
business acumen (Rebecca, 2011).” Revenues for Chumbak in 2010-2011 stood at Rs 1.25
crore, however, online sales account for 15 per cent of revenues.
channels, through both online and multi-branded outlets. It achieved this in the first two
years and grew the business.
One of the fun, creative things Chumbak did was to encourage participation from its fans.
Chumbak always believed that its communication would never be one way. They are very
conversational on this platform and the communication topics range from movies to rain in
Bengaluru to spontaneous quizzes to talking about social issues and many more subjects.
Chumbak held a Weekend Contest every week to encourage fans to participate. Chumbak
founders have been using Facebook as an interactive forum to engage with the customer
base, treating them like a community of friends. Vivek says “Interaction with customers is
Community pages
Visuals (photo’s)
Blogs
Social media
Chumbak marketing Polls & games
Campaigns
Table IV Which is the most preferred social media platform to interact with Chumbak?
Source of information Frequency (%)
Approach
Chumbak uses Facebook as its sole marketing channel for building community of
Chumbak-passionate users who love the brand. Chumbak created a Facebook page that
is very colorful, very suitable for its brand personality.
Content marketing
Don’t use social media always to push your product as your customers want to listen to
something closer to them, is what Chumbak believes:
Don’t push your product/service.
Talk about what drives you.
responses on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This makes social media unique as
sometimes it needs no planning and is spontaneous. By implementing small, real-time
marketing initiatives on an everyday basis Chumbak tries to connect with all its customers
in all the situations, whether its festivals time or voting time in the country. Different festivals
and occasions in India give Chumbak plenty of lead way to craft “real-time” responses on
Facebook. Through its creative post, Chumbak tries to connect with the life of its customer
with a personal touch which is many times very effective and conversational.
Social care
“Social care” is defined as how much the company is embracing the opportunity to provide
customer support using dedicated social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and blogs.
The more your company can solve queries through these tools, the more you will be
engaged with your customers in a better way. Facebook is the most used social media
platform for interaction by Chumbak to solve its customer’s queries.
Keep on asking
Chumbak tries to involve with its customers in the most possible ways as per them
crowdsourcing is the best way to know your fans. They conduct polls, use apps such as
Survey Monkey to know what their fans like about Chumbak and what they want from the
business to do for them next.
Recruitment
Social recruiting is the latest and most discussed recruitment method. Recruitment through
social media is not only cost-effective but it gives a company a wider choice and this is
Chumbak motivation for placing ads on Facebook.
Results
30 per cent of online revenue of Chumbak comes from Facebook, with a very high
degree of 25 per cent repeat purchases among page fans.
5X ROI on total advertising spend with Facebook.
30-40 per centof website traffic of Chumbak comes from Facebook (YouTube video of
Chumbak).
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Twitter
With around 2,776 followers and 5,306 tweets on Twitter, Chumbak does an excellent job
by maintaining replies, retweets and hashtagging. Vivek says that Twitter is a platform a lot
of recommendations are made and Chumbak’s customers can subscribe to its
e-newsletters. Chumbak shares a range of quotes, articles and media that its followers love
to watch and share. With the magic of 140 characters Twitter connects Chumbak to its
customers in real time, and it uses Twitter to quickly share information with the people that
have an interest in their product. Through Twitter it tries to assemble real-time market
intelligence and feedback and build relationships with its customers, partners and
influencers. Chumbak contains an effective method of including links in nearly each single
tweet, sharing its achievements. By including links of the varied interviews and videos of
YouTube featuring the company, Chumbak continually offers its followers something to
engage in. Chumbak talk, share and post photos and this ultimately provides positive word
of mouth to the brand at nearly zero cost. Keeping your followers interested is essential for
maintaining a strong social network, and this is why Chumbak uses their Twitter feed to
keep their followers up-to-date concerning new product arrivals and present offers. Twitter
offers Chumbak an easy way to reach an engaged audience in an effective manner and the
company remains consistent with its tweets, using a variety of videos, links and images.
Pinterest
Pinterest has become a strong tool for Chumbak to garner time period insights, share
knowledge and influence content creation and amplification. With 10 boards being serious
on visual content, Chumbak tries to own a group of pleasantly colored pictures and
merchandise to feature on Pinterest. Through Pinterest, Chumbak tries to keep it simple for
individuals to find and share its products. Pinterest reworked the way Chumbak is
concerned with its content selling. By generating content on Pinterest on an everyday
basis, Chumbak can connect with a new audience by showing off their latest collections
and a few digital art galleries through varied and simple visible classes. Chumbak
undoubtedly has become a good place for shoppers to search out completely different
merchandise for all of their desires and their Pinterest account lays out the products in a
visually friendly style.
YouTube
YouTube, the first major video hosting and sharing site, helps Chumbak in engaging with
its customers by uploading its attractive videos. These 10-minute videos uploaded can also
Instagram
Chumbak uses Instagram to reach its customers in a fun way by taking pictures of its
products, daily activities and offers. By sharing their activities and products on various
social media sites it gets engaged with its customers in a better way.
Google⫹
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Chumbak uses their Google⫹ presence to post images that show the value of their
products rather than just tell it. It consistently uses Google⫹ for promoting their latest
products as well for interactions with their potential, as well as existing, customers. The
regular posts on this social media tool help Chumbak get engaged with its fanbase.
Challenges
Keeping up with the changing tastes of its young clientele is a real test for Chumbak. The
hybrid model – its online, as well as offline presence – has helped the company in keeping
itself abreast with the fluctuations of the demand. The company wants to increase the
contribution of its online sales to its overall earnings to at least 30 per cent currently, online
sales account for about 15 per cent of total sales and is, therefore, focusing on various
technological platforms. Furthermore the organization feels that, it’s essential for them to
understand the type of dissemination to be the future standards – offline or more of online.
The third challenge for the organization is costly land; Chumbak is attempting to handle this
by opening more modest stores – 150-200-square feet, rather than standard business
spaces of 1,000-square feet. The company currently has 20 stores and kiosks across five
cities, along with the presence in about 60 multi-brand outlets.
Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore contribute 60 per cent to Chumbak’s total sales. The
other challenge for the company is to gain acceptability in emerging metros and smaller
towns as it expands. It also needs to be aware of the competition. Companies such as India
Circus and Happily Unmarried which have a heavy fan following on social media platforms
such as Facebook are already making inroads and have similar design aesthetics.
Facebook 7.9 3
YouTube 8.4 4
Twitter 6.1 12
Pinterest 8.9 17
Source: Compiled by authors from www.alexa.com/topsites (accessed 9 May 2014)
Conclusion
According to PWC (2014), 60 per cent of consumers use social media to follow, discover
and give feedback on brands and retailers. A recent survey by a USA-based consumer
data collection company Datalogix showed that 70 per cent of Facebook campaigns drove
at least three times the return on investment while almost 50 per cent received a five-time
return (The Economic Times, 2014b). A recent report from LinkedIn discovered that 80 per
cent of small-scale entrepreneurs are turning to online networking stages to produce
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income and discover new customers. According to the report 73 per cent of
high-performing small organizations say they expanded using on online networking and
social advertisements. Upon further examination, it can be seen that just 42 per cent of
small organizations encountering no development did likewise (LinkedIn, 2014). The
fast-growing small businesses report social media to be an effective marketing tool. Nine
out of 10 says their social media efforts help maintain a company presence and identity,
while 82 per cent says the platforms help generate new leads (LinkedIn, 2014).
The tremendous range offered by online networking has surprised small-scale businesses
and made them more aspiring (Table VI). Companies have understood they require the
stage of social networking to get by as well as to win. Chumbak is the dream of
Keywords: husband-wife duo Vivek and Shubhra Chadda and is currently a fruitful brand that would
Facebook, not have been conceivable without online networking. Engagement through social
Small business, networking is basic for any business that wishes to be seen as modern and part of the new
Social media, digital age. Chumbak is wonderfully achieving this and has accepted the fact that, although
Customer engagement, the spot and strategy for working changes with mechanical headways, eras and changing
Chumbak, decisions, one thing that never shows signs of change is the acknowledgment that the
Social media marketing customer is always the king.
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PhD dissertation, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO.
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Further reading
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cms (accessed 23 March 2014).
Cool Age (2013), “Chumbak: from fridge magnets to business magnates”, available at: www.coolage.
in/2013/10/16/chumbak-story-of-the-kissing-stones/ (accessed 1 February 2014).
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helloenso.com/post/52915582314/the-web-is-working-for-global-small-business (accessed 2 March
2014).
Entrepreneur India (2013), “Seed fund invests over $2 million in Chumbak”, available at: http://
entrepreneurindia.in/thebuzz/specialreport/seedfund-invests-over-2-million-in-chumbak/18421/ (accessed
4 May 2014).
Huang, E. (2013), “Chumbak saw a diamond in mere rocks, now in India and Japan”, available at:
http://e27.co/chumbak-saw-a-diamond-in-mere-rocks-now-in-india-and-japan/ (accessed 24 April
2014).
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20 February 2014).
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(accessed 3 February 2014).
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at: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/slideshows/biz-entrepreneurship/5-women-entrepreneurs-
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1EhsNFOA9ew (accessed 19 February 2014).
Figure E1
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Plate E1
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Figure E2
Figure E3
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Figure E4
Figure E5
Quick note on ecommerce deliveries: Hello just wanted to personally update you on some of the
delivery issues we’ve been having for the past couple of days at Chumbak. Some of your orders
have been delayed. So I thought I’d write a quick note to tell you why in the past couple of months
we’ve been seeing much larger traffic and increased orders on Chumbak.com. And for that, on
behalf of all of us at Team Chumbak, I’m sorry. I truly am. We have ramped up stuff and you won’t
have any more cause to get stressed. Here’s looking forward to crazy loads of smiles and love
from you guys. Vivek (the guy who makes the whoosh sound, Team Chumbak).
Source: Screenshot (Chumbak Facebook fan page)
Figure E6
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Exhibit 9. Chumbak does the subsequent to win back its customers through
Pinteres
Figure E7
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Corresponding author
Chetna Kudeshia can be contacted at: ckudeshia@yahoo.com
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