Croma's 'Moments of Joy Van' is back to delight people

Croma, the chain of multi branded electronics retail stores of India has once again prepared to groove itself into the prevailing festive mood. Electronics touch our lives in so many ways! Be it enjoying a sitcom with the family on the latest LED or helping your wife cook the festive meal on her new microwave, electronics has made life easier and brought people closer to one another. This New Year 2014, Croma helps bring people closer even in public places. Their initiative -The Croma ‘Moments of Joy Van’ which was launched in year 2012 is back once again.

Croma, which won the "Most admired Retailer of the Year" award five times in a row in the consumer electronics category at the Images Retail Awards, decided to share the joy with consumers on November 9, 2012 through an initiative in Mumbai called ‘Moments of Joy Van'. The activity involved a modified Tata 407 van which travelled from Bandra to Oshiwara distributing gifts to people it met on its way.

Ajit Joshi, MD & CEO, Infiniti Retail Limited, in an exclusive interaction with Adgully shed light on this initiative still going strong and how Croma as a brand engages with their customers in unique ways.

The idea is simple: The Croma ‘Moments of Joy Van’ will run around the major crowded areas of the city. The vehicle branded from the sides, top and front is fitted with a ‘Push for Joy’ button on the backdoor of the van. When a person pushes the button, a dispenser on the side throws out a little packet of joy – A Gift!   The back of the vehicle has a camera fitted to be able to dispense gifts depending on the person pressing the button, and also to capture the emotions of the consumers who got the gifts. The event was promoted through social media platforms with Twitter being the main one.

"This is the third year that we are doing this initiative, The Croma ‘Moments of Joy Van’ and till date we have received some brilliant feedback and responses for it. Wherever the van went people started tweeting about it.  People were thanking and talking about the gifts they received. All sort of gifts were given away to customers from gadgets to kitchen products and chocolates etc" said Joshi.

With the increasing popularity of this initiative that has been taking place in Mumbai and Delhi since the last two years it will now travel to Bangalore too with a view to spread joy and cheer.

"In coming years we are planning to take this to at least five cities. In every city the van will drive for a day making it a spectacular day in everyone's life. The gifts will depend on the person pressing the button. For e.g. a child may get a pencil holder or chocolates, a lady may get a packet of diyas for her Diwali decorations. Up for grabs would also be – headphones, pen drives and other electronics. And if you are lucky, you may just get a bumper prize! With gifts raining for all, you are bound to feel the close connect with everyone around and what’s more is that there are no strings attached to it", added Joshi.

Joshi also spoke about another unique initiative from Croma in a bid to engage with customers. He said, "This year we also did a wish tree where our customers were asked to submit their wishes post which we will have a draw in fixed stores across the country and winners will be announced. We are going to have the lucky draw in presence of the jury members and auditors, and results would be announced by the end of this week."

Every festive season Croma tries to build better connect with their customers. Last year during the Ganesha festival, customers were asked to share their photographs of Ganesha with the brand through their page and later Croma printed a calendar with the 12 Ganesha photos shared by the customers.

As a brand Croma has come up with various initiatives to build engagement with customers. The brand has recently instituted Croma Gadget Awards - called Croma Consumer Choice Awards which was partnered and supported by customers. It was first of its kind award function happened where consumers voted for the brand and product which they liked under a fixed category.

"We want customer involvement. Today they are probably equal stakeholders in the rise of Croma, and we all as a team want to remain humble in terms of serving them what they want, instead of pushing the products towards them. These kind of initiatives have been appreciated by the society at large and we don't go by gender or status it is for everyone. We have just started Croma bloggers Club now, where people can visit Croma stores in their vicinity, check the product and can blog about it, so this is how customers are getting involved with us and social media is the best medium for that," shared Joshi.

The van will be spotted in some of the western suburbs of Mumbai including Bandra, Juhu, Oshiwara, Malad, Kandivali, Chembur and IIT Powai between 4.00 pm and 9.00 pm on  Saturday, 4th and Sunday, 5th January, 2014.
So, are you ready to experience the ‘Moments of Joy Van’ coming soon to your city?