ADVERTISING AND BRAND MANAGEMENT

Project on Brand Audit

of

AMUL

Submitted To: Submitted By:

Prof. Jayshree Sundar Group 5

Prof. Freda Swaminathan Kirat Pal Singh (93023)

Sunny Marvania (93028)

Namrata Gera (93033)

Rohan Singh (93040)

Swati Jain (93056)

Introduction

Amul brand is owned by GCMMF (Gujarat co-operative Milk Marketing Federation).

GCMMF is the largest food products marketing organisation of India. It has a network that
links more than 2.8 million village milk producers with millions of consumers in India and
abroad through a cooperative system that includes 13,141 Village Dairy Cooperative
Societies (VDCS) at the village level, affiliated to 13 District Cooperative Milk Producers’
Unions at the District level and GCMMF at the State level. They collect 7.5 million litres of
milk per day from their producer members. The combined processing capacity of these plants
is 11.6 million litres per day. They also own largest state of the art dairy plant in Asia which
can handle 2.5 million litres of milk per day and process 100 MTs of milk powder daily.
Their turnover is over Rs. 6700 crore.
Currently AMUL is market leader in Milk, Milk Powder, Dairy Whitener, Butter, Cheese,
Breadspread, Cheese spread, Mozzarella, condensed milk, ethnic sweet etc.

History of AMUL

History of AMUL highlights several factors – Trust, Belongingness, Struggle against

exploitation etc.

What began way back in 1946 was really an effort to carve out a truly Indian company that
would have the involvement of millions of Indians and place direct control in the hands of the
farmers. It was a mandate for producing, owning and marketing and above all, building your
own truly Indian Brand.

In 1946s the income from milk buffaloes was undependable. Milk producers had to travel
long distances to deliver milk to the only dairy, the Polson Dairy in Anand – often milk went
sour, especially in the summer season, as producers had to physically carry milk in individual
containers. Private traders and middlemen controlled the marketing and distribution system
for the milk. These middlemen decided the prices and the off-take from the farmers by the
season. As milk is perishable, farmers were compelled to sell it for whatever they were
offered. Often, they had to sell cream and ghee at throw-away prices. In 1946, farmers went
on milk strike refusing to be further oppressed. Thus, Kaira District Cooprative was
established to collect and process milk. This was action was passed on further to different
district forming small cooperatives. In 1955, Kaira District Cooperative established brand
name AMUL (from Sanskrit word “Amulya”). In 1973, Gujarat Co-Operative Milk
Marketing Federation was formed so that different co-operatives don’t compete with
themselves and Kaira District Co-operative gave away this brand name to GCMMF.

Thus, Amul is a brand with a difference. That difference manifests itself in a larger than life
purpose. The purpose of the movement was freedom to farmers by giving total control over
procurement, production and marketing. Amul and all other milk products produced by
cooperatives were born in struggle. It was the producers’ struggle for command over the
resources that they create, a struggle to obtain equitable returns and a struggle for liberation
from dependence on middlemen. It was a struggle against exploitation. A refusal to be cowed
down in the face of what others believed to be the impossible.

Amul’s birth was thus a harbinger of the economic independence of our farmer brethren.
Amul’s mission was the development of farmers, nutrition to the nation, and heart in heart,
the real development of India.

Given India’s vast geographical spread, the country had very few dairy plants at the time of
independence. As the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri had said, ‘One Amul is not
sufficient. Many Amuls are the need of the hour.’ This led to replication of the Anand pattern
through the Operation Flood programme which has, amongst others, three major
achievements to its credit, namely:

 Making dairy India’s largest self-sustainable rural employment programme

 Bringing India close to self-sufficiency in milk production

 Trebling the nation’s milk production within a span of two and a half decades to make
India, the world’s largest milk producer

Branding of Amul began in 1966 when Sylvester daCunha, then the managing director of the
advertising agency, ASP, clinched the account for Amul butter. The butter, which had been
launched in 1945, had a staid, boring image, primarily because the earlier advertising agency
which was in charge of the account preferred to stick to routine, corporate ads.
In 1967, Amul products' got its famous mascot "Amul baby" (a chubby butter girl usually
dressed in polka dotted dress) showing up on hoardings and product wrappers with the
equally recognizable logo “Amul – The taste of India”. Its advertising uses tongue-in-cheek
sketches starring the Amul baby commenting jovially on the latest news or current events.
The pun in her words is popular. Amul outdoor advertising uses billboards, with a humorous
take on current events and is updated frequently. The Amul ads are one of the longest running
ads based on a theme, now vying for the Guinness records for being the longest running ad
campaign ever with ‘Smokey Bear’.

Some of the examples of advertisments of Amul are:

 If the Naxalite movement was the happening thing in Calcutta, Amul would be up
there on the hoardings saying, "Bread without Amul Butter, cholbe na cholbe na
(won't do, won't do).

 If there was an Indian Airlines strike Amul would be there again saying, Indian
Airlines Won't Fly Without Amul.

Brand Elements:

Brand Name: The brand name "Amul," from the Sanskrit "Amoolya" (meaning Precious)

Brand Logo: Logo is very simple with two rectangle crossing each
other and name of the brand i.e. Amul and slogan is mentioned.

Mascot: “Amul Baby” which is a chubby butter girl usually dressed

in polka dotted dress is the Mascot of the brand. This mascot is very
famous in India and Amul has not changed it since its introduction
in1966. Amul doesn’t use any celebrity to endorse its brand but instead it
used this mascot.
Slogan: Slogan is “The Taste of India”. By this company wants to say that the brand is so
widely used in India that it has become a unique ingredient in all dishes of India and thus the
taste of India.

Packaging: Amul focuses a lot on packaging. It gives a quality packaging such that products
packed inside are intact and doesn’t get destroyed in handling. The color of the packages is
also eye smoothing and images on the packaging gives tempting look.

Point of Parity Vs Point of Differences

Point of Parity (POP)

The Points of Parity for Amul includes:

 Freshness

 Ready to use Point of Differences (PODs)

 Hygiene The points of Differences which can be

associated with Amul are:
 Good Packaging
 Availability at large number of
 Good Taste stores

 Value for money  The pioneer brand - First to enter

into dairy products
 Emphasis on quality control
 Advertisements with comments on
current news

 Mascot - “Amul baby”

 Presence internationally

 Premium brand

 Innovative and Attractive Products

 E-initiatives i.e. online selling

 Largest brand in India and Largest

Pouched Milk Producer in the
world
Product Related Attributes of Amul are:

Throughout the years, Amul has been the brand of quality and availability. Amul has tried to
achieve this through following:

 Nutrient Rich Products

 Freshness of the Product

 Availability of products

 Quality Packaging

 Taste of products

 Robust Distribution Network

 ISO 9002 certification at village cooperatives

 TQM approach for consistent Quality

Brand Portfolio of Amul

Amul has been present in a number of variants. It is a genesis of a vast co-operative network.
The network follows an umbrella branding strategy. Amul is the common brand for most
product categories produced by various unions. The range of products includes liquid milk,
milk powders, butter, ghee, cheese, cocoa products, sweets, ice-cream and condensed milk.

By insisting on an umbrella brand, GCMMF not only skilfully avoided inter-union conflicts
but also created an opportunity for the members to cooperate in developing products.

Amul includes 8 different brands each of them as different brands each having subset of
brands depending on the different flavours that adds to the already existing spice for Amul
products :-
 1. Bread Spreads: It includes three sub-brands each of them meeting AGMARK
standard and BIS specifications. Some of the varieties are available in different
weight packs.

2. Milk Drinks: It is the largest and most selling product for Amul. It includes 11
different sub-brands. The company has further added variety to these brands by
providing them in various flavours and various forms like pouch packs, bottles etc.

3. Powder Milk: It includes varieties like milk for Infants, Tea coffee whitener and has
a total of 5 sub-brands.

4. Amul Fresh Milk: It is the basic product started by Amul. It has 8 different sub-
products further available in various flavours. It launched a ‘Sports Drink’ called
Stamina this year aimed at capitalising on the interest generated in the health and
wellness market and the run-up to the Commonwealth Games held in India.

5. Cheese: It includes various sub-products. This product variety is really successful in

Tier-1 cities like New Delhi and is really gaining much share in the recent past.

6. Brand specified as “For cooking “includes varieties like Ghee and Curd. This includes
7 different sub-brands.

7. Deserts: It includes 6 different sub-brands. It has further strengthened its presence by

introducing a range of sugar free, low fat probiotic desserts created for the health
conscious people.

8. Health Drinks: It includes 2 sub-brands.

The family Tree of the various brands for Amul has been shown below along with their
respective year of launch
Competition to Amul

The Competition that Amul is facing with entry of number of domestic and foreign players is
immense but it still holds edge with its “Cow to Customer” Model.

Amul has been following various strategies to keep in pace with the competitors. The
strategies in recent followed by different players in some of the prominent categories are:-

1. Ice-Cream
 AMUL Expanding the reach through its distribution channels
Expanding market with Snowcap

Launched Fundoo ice-cream bars to combat HUL's Max

 HUL Focusing on lower price points by offering ice-creams in different

Varieties and prices

Building a national chain of ice cream parlours

 NIRULA Fortifying Delhi-centric presence with ice cream-only retail chain

2. Chocolate
 AMUL Launching a puffed-rice centered bar

Launched milk/chocolate confectionery

 Planning to enter value-added segments like other brands like
Cadbury

 CADBURY Re-launched 5 Star and Gems.

Launched Temptations

 HUL Extended Max brand to sugar confectionery

3. Curd
 AMUL Expanding reach by aligning with other milk co-operatives
 NESTLE Means to complete its dairy range
 MOTHER DAIRY Leveraging its liquid milk distribution network in Delhi and
especially to places outside NCR

Milk Additives

 AMUL Not a core competency but part of the range and no new
product coming up
 CADBURY Re-launched Bournvita recently in new flavours
 SMITHKLINE BEECHAM Acquired Maltova & Viva to fortify its stable
brands like Boost and Horlicks

Today, the dairy sector is no longer protected. Now not only domestic companies and MNCs
are allowed to enter the sector but from April this year, imports of dairy products have also
been freed from licensing. Although this has multiplied the choice for consumers yet it has
intensified competition for Amul. Brands like Laughing Cow and Kraft have hit the shelves
in metros.

It makes sense for Amul to utilise its strong retailing and marketing infrastructure to get into
new areas. The cooperative has 3,600 wholesale dealers and four lakh retailers for its
products. But with a slew of frozen products on the launch pad, it is setting up a parallel
network of franchisees across the country with cold-storage facilities as setting up of own
cold-storage chains has been challenging for even MNCs like Hindustan Lever.

Though Amul has ventured into non-dairy business for the first time, it has been adding new
products to its dairy business since 1995. While introducing new products, Amul should
always think about its customers as customers are the end users for their products. So far
Amul's cooperative structure and commercial interests have worked harmoniously. It has also
been quick to adopt new business practices. In 1996, when very few people were aware of
Internet in India, Amul set up a website. Today, people can buy Amul products on the
Internet in over 100 cities. All its dairies are ISO 9002 certified. To strengthen its supply
chain, all villages supplying milk to Amul will be connected with the Internet in the next
three years.

Managing this supply chain efficiently is critical as GCMMF's competitive position is driven
by low consumer prices supported by a low cost system. A key source of competitive
advantage has been the enterprise's ability to continuously implement best practices across all
elements of the network: the federation, the unions, the village societies and the distribution
channel.

The most impressive aspect of this large-scale roll out is that improvement processes are
turning the village societies into individual improvement centre.

Customer Knowledge

A survey was conducted with a sample size of 68 and the following results were obtained-

1) When the respondents were asked that which brand is associated with the tag “Taste of
India”, 100% were able to recall the name Amul. This signifies that AMUL has high level
of awareness among the customers.

2) When the respondents were enquired about different products being offered by Amul
based on top 3 recalls, the following results were obtained-
1. Milk
2. Butter
3. Ice-cream

Milk was the first product that the customers were able to recall from the product portfolio
followed by butter and finally ice-cream.

3) When the respondents were asked about their purchased brand of milk among various
milk brands, following results were found-
 Milk
9%
6% Amul
27% Mother Dairy
Unorganised Sector
Others

58%

4) For butter, majority of the people said AMUL as their first preference.

Butter
6%

Amul
23% Britannia
Others

71%

5) In the category of cheese, again Amul is found to be the leader.

Cheese

15%

Amul
Britannia
Others
25%
60%
6) When the respondents were asked that if their most preferred brand is Amul and it is not
available at a store, they will buy products of competitor’s brand or not? Following
results were obtained-

Loyalty

26%
Yes
41% No
Maybe

33%

This indicates that people are confused regarding their opinion for AMUL. This may be
because Amul products are available everywhere and people does not get the chance of
switching Amul products over other products.

7) When the respondents were asked whether they feel Indian touch in the brand when they
see any of the print ad or advertisement of AMUL, majority of the people said Yes which
means they get the feeling of being Indian in all their advertisements.

7%

Yes
No

93%

8) When asked whether they can associate mascot Baby girl with amul, majority of the
people said Yes.
 7%

Yes
No

93%

9) When the respondents were asked whether Amul products has value for money or not,
94% of the people said Yes which indicates that Amul products are reasonably priced in
the market.

Value for money

6%

Yes
No

94%

AMUL has been consistent in innovation and are always in the lead when it comes to their
print ads based on current affairs. Based on the questionnaire conducted and information
collected, we have identified different ways by which Indians recognize and associate AMUL
brand.
So, we can say that people have knowledge about AMUL brand as a whole and can associate
it in a number of ways.

Brand Equity

Any company can have high or low brand equity. In simple words, a company has high brand
equity if it has multi dimensions. AMUL has high brand equity as it is known to customers in
a number of ways.

First, AMUL has not changed their mascot since their re-branding in 1960’s. “Amul Baby”
- A chubby butter girl usually dressed in polka dotted dress is there as their mascot since 40
years. The girl is popular so much among the masses that AMUL uses this mascot for
advertisement of their products.

Second, Amul is available in different product categories such that it can fulfill all dairy
related needs of the people. In all categories, they further have many variants. Major product
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categories are: Bread spreads, Milk drinks, Powder milk, Fresh Milk, Cheese, Cooking
products, Desserts and Health drinks. In all these categories, they have many varieties
available.

Third, Amul has opened a community on public forums like orkut, facebook etc. where
public can share Amul ads and videos and share their thoughts about their advertisements.

Fourth, most of Amul’s communication is based on latest happenings in the country. This
way of advertisement is unique as compare to all other competitors. The advertisements are
focused not only on children but are meant for all generation which has made Amul products
popular among all age groups.

Fifth, it is actively involved in sponsoring events like Amul Star Voice of India, Amul Chef
of the year, Amul Maharani Contest, Amul Master Chef etc. They give awards and prizes in
these events.

All the above factors have helped the brand to establish their position where they stand today.

Role of Mascot

Majority of AMUL advertisements are through billboards, print ads and hoarding and very
less are done through video advertisements. The print advertisements are focused on their
mascot Amul Baby and video advertisements are done by targeted audience. For instance,
when they wanted to target the villagers, they hired villagers for the video. So, one can say
that they don’t involve celebrities for their advertisements.

Philanthropic activities by AMUL

Some of the philanthropic activities in which AMUL is involved over the years are:

1. In the year 2001, a devastating earthquake (Richter scale – 7.9) hit Gujarat. The
epicenter of the quake was located in Kutch district. It caused death of thousands of
people, tens of thousands were injured, hundreds of thousands were rendered
homeless and damage of billions of Rupees was done.
 GCMMF formed a specific organization named “Amul Relief Trust” (ART) under
the Chairmanship of Dr. V. Kurien in 2001 with a donation of Rs. 50 Millions for
reconstruction of the school buildings damaged in the 2001 earthquake in the Kutch
area. The Trust reconstructed 6 schools damaged by the above earthquake at a cost of
Rs. 41.1 millions in Kutch area.

2. Amul takes immense pleasure in presenting ‘The Amul Vidya Shree Award’. It is

India’s first of its kind award that recognizes and rewards Standard X toppers across
India.

The awards are:

 Memento
 Citation
 A Gift hamper of books
 The winner will be featured in one of India’s leading newspaper and will get
national recognition.
3. Bridging the Digital Divide - Innovation at the Grass Roots

One of the members of GCMMF, the Banas dairy, has started a unique initiative
called the Internet Sewa Project in their district called Banaskantha. This is a village-
level effort at bridging the Digital Divide by providing information kiosks at the
Village Cooperative level. Each village has one information kiosk, which is the single
point of contact for Internet and other e-governance activities for the co-op. Official
forms, educational applications and local market prices are provided at the
information kiosk so that people do not have to travel all the way to the district
headquarters for this information. To improve the farmer members' living standards
and to facilitate affordable Internet access services, the district union has also become
a local Internet Service Provider (ISP) using these Village Information Kiosks. Today
the services are subsidized but the goal is for the kiosks to become self- supporting.
Recommendation for the brand:

1. TV Advertisement needs to be changed as they are focusing only on AMUL as a

brand and not focusing on individual products in advertisement.
2. They need to promote many of their products like shrikhand, ghee, pizza etc which
many people even don’t know about.
3. They are focusing a lot on print media only, they need to focus on TV advertisements
as in today’s world people watch TV a lot.
4. Opening AMUL retailer outlets for dairy products like Mother Dairy having all its
products. This will help people to get connected with the brand also, it will help
increase in loyalty. Also, many products which people are not aware of will come to
know about it.
5. AMUL should target parties and marriage occasion for selling its dairy products and
ice-cream. Currently only unorganized market is ruling this section.
6. Emphasis more on brand AMUL in advertisement as the products has low POD.
7. Diversify company into new segments like food processing unit or fruit juice business
which are similar to existing business. Fruit juice brands are already targeting milk
products so Amul should also target fruit juice business.
8. Brand must be energized for youth as it will be helpful in long term approach
 Questionnaire

Personal Information

Name: …………………………….. Age: ……………

Occupation: ………………………………… Gender:…………..

 “Taste of India” is associated with which of the following brands-

Britannia Nestle

Amul Other …………………………..

 Write first three product recalls when you think of Amul?

1. _____________________

2. _____________________

3. _____________________

 Which of the following brand’s milk do you buy frequently?

Mother Dairy Amul

Un-organised sector ( Dhoodhwala ) Other……………………………..

 Which of the following brand’s butter do you buy frequently?

Amul Britannia

Other…………………….

 Which of the following brand’s cheese do you buy frequently?

Amul Britannia

Other…………………….
 If your most preferred brand is Amul & it is not available at a store, do you buy
products from competitors’ brand?

Yes No

Maybe

 Do you feel Indian touch in the brand when you see any of the print ad or advertisement
of AMUL?

Yes No

 Can you associate the mascot of Amul – Cheesy Baby Girl with the brand AMUL?

Yes No

 Do you think Amul products have ‘value for money’?

Yes No