Plum BodyLovin’ and Indu Ice Cream: A CX-Driven Delight in India’s Market
Customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) have become paramount in the competitive landscape of consumer brands. Today’s customers demand more than products—they seek emotional connections and memorable experiences. Yet, many brands still face challenges aligning innovation, customer engagement, and marketing creativity with their CX goals. In this context, Plum BodyLovin’s recent collaboration with Indu Ice Cream stands out as a bold, creative marketing move that exemplifies the power of experience-centric branding.
Real-World CX Challenge: Standing Out in a Crowded Market
In personal care and beauty, products often compete on similar features—formulations, price, and packaging. Capturing attention and gaining loyalty require brands to transcend product benefits and create emotional experiences. Plum BodyLovin, a bold bath and body brand launched in 2020, found their Vanilla Caramello Body Lotion repeatedly described by customers as “good enough to eat.” This insight revealed a real CX opportunity: turning an adored scent experience into a novel touchpoint.
Many brands struggle to identify such unique customer cues, missing chances to deepen engagement. Moreover, connecting across product categories to craft multisensory experiences is rare. Plum’s decision to partner with Indu Ice Cream, a local artisanal dessert maker, to create India’s first edible body lotion–inspired ice cream was a masterstroke addressing these challenges.
In-Depth Analysis: Crafting Emotional CX through Product Experience
This collaboration taps into several advanced CX principles. First, it leverages sensory branding by transforming the olfactory pleasure of the body lotion scent into a taste experience. The ice cream captures vanilla, salted caramel, and pistachio notes—mirroring the lotion’s cozy, indulgent aroma. This multi-sensory integration drives deeper emotional resonance by crossing from skincare into a beloved food experience.
Second, it drives exclusivity and excitement with a limited-edition launch, available only in select Mumbai neighborhoods via Zomato and Swiggy. This creates urgency and social buzz—the kind of experience that customers love to share, amplifying brand reach organically.
Third, it showcases employee experience benefits. The teams at Plum and Indu Ice Cream worked dynamically to translate a concept into a reality, combining creativity and operational expertise. Such collaboration fosters a sense of pride and innovation internally—critical for sustaining a customer-centric culture.
Expert Commentary: Innovation as a CX Strategy
Stuti Sethi, Brand Lead at Plum BodyLovin’, emphasizes the creative risk involved: “What if one of India’s bestselling body lotions was actually made edible? This collaboration is exactly the kind of deliciously unexpected marketing twist we live for.” This statement highlights how CX innovation can be a strategic differentiator.
Saloni Kukreja, founder of Indu Ice Cream, adds, “Capturing the cozy, indulgent feeling of the lotion in ice cream was a fun challenge. We created a nostalgic, comforting flavor that everyone would love.” This underscores how understanding the emotional drivers behind customer preferences fuels product innovation.
CX thought leaders often stress that surprise and delight moments are essential to elevating customer relationships. Plum and Indu’s ice cream exemplifies this by transforming a familiar product attribute into an unexpected delight.
Actionable Insights for CX/EX Professionals
- Listen to Customer Language: Pay attention to how customers describe your products emotionally. These clues provide gold for experiential innovation.
- Explore Cross-Category Partnerships: Collaborations outside your core category can generate buzz and fresh experiences while expanding your audience.
- Leverage Multi-Sensory Branding: Engage multiple senses to deepen emotional connections. Translating scent to taste, sound to touch, or visuals to scent can create memorable CX moments.
- Create Exclusivity and Urgency: Limited editions and exclusive availability fuel social sharing and build excitement, enhancing customer loyalty.
- Engage Employees in Innovation: Foster a culture where teams feel empowered to experiment and bring unexpected ideas to life. Strong EX supports ongoing CX excellence.
- Support Multichannel Access: Use digital platforms to reach target customers easily. Here, Zomato and Swiggy delivery made the exclusive product widely accessible.
Practical Takeaways
For CX and EX professionals aiming to elevate their brand’s experience, Plum BodyLovin’ and Indu Ice Cream’s collaboration offers a blueprint for innovation through deep customer insight. Embrace creative risk, connect sensory experiences, and build authentic emotional moments that extend beyond traditional product boundaries.
By recognizing and amplifying the unique ways customers connect with your brand, you can design experiences that captivate, engage, and inspire loyalty.
