Marketing Strategies of Amul

Quality

A brand cannot survive in a highly competitive market if its quality does not equal or exceed the

expectations of purchasing consumers. In the food industry, the brand must represent highest

hygienic, bacteriological and organoleptic standards. Ideally, it should be healthy and taste good to

win the hearts of consumer. The products of Amul are of highest qualities that are monitored at

various levels of production from procurement, production to distribution to ensure more value for

customers.

Value for Money

Although Amul ensures good income for its main stakeholders – the dairy farmers of Gujarat, they

refrain from achieving this objective at the cost of exploiting the consumer. Even during adverse

conditions when supplies of products like butter reduced in market, they refrained from the

common practice of raising fares. Fair pricing policy is employed to ensure that retailers do not gain

at consumer’s expense.

Availability

A brand should be easily available when and where a consumer wants the same. Over the last sixty

years, Amul has built one of the finest distribution networks. They reach hundreds of cities and

towns through a cold chain that not only ensures that the products are available, but they reach

customers at farthest ends of the country with same quality. They are the only FMCG company in

India to have four distribution channels. They identified 200 districts and added a super distributor

to each of the districts. This super distributor would then cover 15-20 small towns. Last year, they

added 3,000 more towns and cities to their distribution network. They have also have started

buying milk from the co-ops in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and UP to cater to the

increasing demand for their products.

Service

Amul lays a lot of emphasis on service provided to consumers in order to maintain high levels of

satisfaction. Feedbacks and suggestions are invited from consumers to improve their functioning. In

the rare case of consumers not being satisfied with Amul product, the complaints are noted and

investigated thoroughly to identify the cause of the problem, if any.

Brand Amul

American Marketing Association defined branding as a “name, term, sign, symbol, design, slogan or

combination of them intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and

to differentiate them from competitors.

The Name - Amul

Amul means “priceless” in Sanskrit. The brand name Amul coined from Sanskrit word “Amoolya” was

suggested by a quality control expert in Anand. Today Amul is a symbol of many things :

Of high quality products sold at reasonable prices

Of the genesis of a vast cooperative network

Of the triumph of indigenous technology

A proven model for dairy development

The Slogan – Taste of India

The Taste of India – these four words are more than what the common man may think of these – a

mere slogan. These four words lend meaning to Amul’s never ending crusade. They reinforce Amul’s

commitment of taking quality food products to the common man who could not have afforded

these. It was Amul that first made Chocolate affordable to common man and then followed the

same with ice cream, pizza and a gamut of value added products.

Figure : Amul Logo and Slogan

(Ref:http://www.amuldairy.com/index.php?

option=com_content&view=article&id=53&Itemid=64#,01.12.2012 )

The Slogan – For Someone you love

This tagline of Amul chocolates was coined in 2004 as an repositioning exercise of the firm and made

an emotional pitch to its consumers with emphasis on Amul chocolates for love on all occasions. The

slogan helped Amul to connect with its consumers and boost sales in market. Festivals and occasions

were highlighted in campaigns to portray Amul chocolates as the perfect gift for loved ones.

The Logo

In 1994 Shri Kanon Krishna of Advertising and Sales Promotion (ASP) Advertising Agency, Mumbai

once was asked to design a corporate slogan and logo for Amul that had to bring in “taste” and the

“diverse” nature of our country. To catch a glimpse of this or a slice of India as it were, he used to go

to Matunga in Mumbai, which had denizens from many states, on Sundays. It took many sittings of

ASP Advertising with Dr Kurien and other Federation Officers to finally approve the Taste of India

logo with its red and green background.

The Mascot and The Slogan – Utterly Butterly Delicious

The Amul girl is a hand-drawn cartoon of a young, chubby Indian girl dressed in a polka

dotted frock with blue hair and a half pony tied up. The Amul girl was created as a response to

Amul's rival brand Polson's butter-girl. The idea was conceived in 1967 once ASP (Advertising, Sales

and Promotion) clinched the brand portfolio from the previous agency FCB Ulka. It was executed by

Sylvester Da Cunha, the owner of the agency and his art director Eustace Fernandez on hoardings,

painted bus panels and posters in Mumbai. The mascot, since then, has been mobilized to comment

on many events of national and political importance. The requirements of the mascot were that it

had to be easy to draw and memorable as most of the advertising would be outdoor media which

required hand painting in those days and the hoardings had to be changed frequently.

The strength of the campaign is its tagline - "Utterly, Butterly, Delicious" that has penetrated almost

every Indian urban household across economic and social divides over half a century. The mascot

and the slogan have become famous for their subtle humour famous for poking fun at national

events and personalities. at national events and personalities,

Figure : Amul Butter – Utterly Butterly Delicious !!!

Since the inception, the Brand Image of the mascot is that of Cheerful, Fun Loving, Naughty, Healthy,

Youthful and Family Oriented at the same time.

Social Observer - Campaigning with strong messages, there by reaching the common man became a

brand style. You talk of anything which is on air, breaking news, controversy, talking change or even

a talked about movie – Amul girl will share her review – largely a common man’s take on the issue.

She is a remarkable social observer with a great 'sense of humor' which is hardly seen backing down.

Leader -It always remains a mass marketer and lead through cost and quality both.

Emotional Connect – The taste of India and the very campaigns with almost all alarming national

issues, kept the emotional connect intact and the brand a success. The brand is still leading with

right spirits and living upto its very basics – value orientation, sociable and Indian.

Market Adaptations – Like the campaigns even the product and competition was not backed out.

Amul Butter launched Amul Lite, to adapt to the market players.

Public Relations

GCMMF uses multiple platforms to influence public opinion. With the urban Indian consumer

becoming more Internet savvy and Amul wanting to become more youth-friendly, the digital domain

has become the primary platform for the brand to carry out its Public Relations activities. The

following are the most prominent among them

Amul TV Portal

Amul Hits Portal

Amul Facebook page

Amul TV: The portal gives consumers access to movies, television shows, advertisements,

documentaries and other videos related to the brand.

Figure : Amul TV

(Ref: http://www.amul.tv/amultv/aboutus.htm, 01.12.2012l)

Amul Hits: The portal is a collection of all the advertisements that were part of the ‘Utterly Butterly

Delicious’ campaign.

Amul Facebook Page: GCMMF uses the Facebook page of the brand to increase the reach of its

marketing campaigns. With increase in the restriction of hoardings across the country especially in

the metropolitan cities of Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai, Amul has had to compromise with

visibility and thus going digital is the best alternative.

Mera gaam katha parey: GCMMF recreated the magic of ‘Manthan’ for a new TVC and also created

an extended version of it which was released on Youtube. The video has received over 80000 views

in a matter of 7 months and over 98% of the reactions are positive.

A major PR initiative by GCMMF has been the launch of book ‘Amul’s India’, in association with DY

Works and Da Cunha Associates. The book was launched to commemorate the completion of 50

years of the ‘Utterly Butterly Delicious Campaign’.

Events and Experiences

Events and Experiences reach out to the customer and is used for brand-building as well for selling

products. The advantages of events and experiences include:

Relevance: A well-chosen event or experience can be seen as highly relevant because the

customer gets personally involved.

Involving: Given their live, real-time quality, events and experiences are more actively

engaging for consumers

Implict: Events are an indirect “soft sell”

(Ref: Kotler, Keller, Koshy & Jha (2011). Marketing Management. (13th ed.). India: Pearson)

Amul sponsored Star Voice of India, an Indian Television singing competition, in 2007.

Amul organized Amul Chef of the Year, a national competition that asked users to create a recipe

using Amul's products, from 2006-2009.

Amul also conducted Amul Maharani Contest from 2004 to 2009 for Indian women that allowed the

participants to win gold worth Rupees one lakh.

Amul has been recently seen to come up with an association with Cricket World Cup and Formula 1.

Amul signed up as the sponsors for the Netherlands Cricket team for the ICC Cricket World Cup

2011. This deal got Amul on the World Cup platform, without mega spends. The brand derived good

mileage and visibility. The PR mileage with every pictorial presence of the player across various

mediums was immeasurable.

Figure : Amul Butter in orange packaging to portray association with Holland

(Ref: http://www.campaignindia.in/Article/248334,amul-ties-up-with-netherlands-cricket-team-for-cricket-world-cup-2011.aspx, 02.12.2012)

In 2011, the Sauber Formula 1 team declared Amul as an Official partner for the Indian Grand Prix.

The logo of the brand was seen on the front face of the rear wing and also on the drivers’ helmets

and gear. The association with the Sauber F1 Team in the Indian Grand Prix was an attempt to

enhance Amul’s global brand presence, improved brand visibility and establish itself firmly on the

highly competitive global map.

Figure : Amul Sauber F1 Car

(Ref: http://www.zigwheels.com/news-features/news/amul-sponsors-sauber-formula-1-team-for-indian-gp/9804/1, 02.12.2012)

With a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by Raja Randhir Singh, Secretary General, IOA

and Member, International Olympic Committee and Mr. R S Sodhi, Managing Director, Gujarat

Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (Amul), Amul was the Official Sponsor of the Indian team in

the category of Dairy products in London 2012 Olympic Games. To promote this, Amul launched a

series of advertising campaigns for its dairy products.

Figure : Amul – Sponsor of 2012 Indian Olympic Team

(Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amul_girl#Olympics, 02.12.2012)