Abstract

The case discusses in detail, ‘Camp Baby,’ an event organized by Johnson & Johnson (J&J), one of the largest healthcare companies in the world that has over the years built up a reputation as a marketing-savvy company. The company organized the event in order to build relationships with mommy bloggers by interacting with them on a common platform. The three day event, held at J&J’s headquarters in News Brunswick, New Jersey was not used as a platform to hard sell any of the J&J products but to connect to a core group of customers, i.e. mothers. The case details the organization of the camp, the events held during the camp and the benefits the participants and the company derived from it. It also discusses the criticism the company received for organizing the event. While some analysts appreciated J&J’s initiative to build better relationships with its target segment by harnessing new media channels, others felt that it was nothing short of a public relations fiasco for the company and that the case highlighted the challenge in building relationships with customers in the digital age.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Study the promotional strategies of Johnson & Johnson and the reasons for organizing the ‘Camp Baby’event
• Analyze whether Camp Baby was able to achieve its objectives
• Understand the issues and challenges in trying to build relationships with customers in the digital age
• and Understand the changing media preferences in the digital age.

Keywords

Customer Relationship Management, Promotion, Advertising, Media channel, Marketing strategy, Marketing communications, Online communities, Publicity, Public relations, Social Media, WOM marketing, Baby care, Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson, Camp Baby