NATIONAL

INSTITUTE OF
FASHION
TECHNOLOGY

MARKETING
OF FASHION
CASE STUDY ON A
REPUTED BRAND

PREPARED BY GROUP-A

ABHISHEK PATIL
APRAJITA KUMARI
GITIKA TAYAL
KHUSHI GOEL
PRERIT PATIDAR
VAIDEHI MISHRA
INDEX
SR. TOPICS PAGE NO.
1. OBJECTIVE 01
2. METHODOLOGY 01
3. INTRODUCTION 02
4. HISTORY AND EVOLUTION 03-05
5. SUPPLY CHAIN 06
6. STRATEGY 07
7. SWOT ANALYSIS 08-10
8. STP 11-18
9. MARKET REACH 19-25
10. CURRENT SITUATON (COVID-19) 26-27

11. QUESTIONS ON PURITY OF AMUL 28-29

12. SUGGESTIONS 30

13. MIND-MAP 31

14. CONCLUSION 32

15. REFERENCES 33
OBJECTIVE
To understand the
evolution, market reach
and strategies, brand
positioning of the dairy
brand Amul
METHODOLOG
Y
This document is mainly based on secondary
data. The articles which were published in the
area of dairy industry have been collected for
this study and from website of Amul dairy.
INTRODUCTIO
N
AMUL STANDS FOR-

A – ANAND
M – MILK
U – UNION
L – LIMITED
ANAND MILK UNION LIMITED
It is the brand name of Kaira District Co-operative milk producer’s union
ltd. since 1955. AMUL is Asia’s no. 1 and world’s second largest co-
operative dairy. It has large market and dairy network in every state of
India and across India, like central Asian countries, Bangladesh, Thailand,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, etc.
Dr. Verghese Kurien was the architect of India’s white revolution which
helped India emerged as the largest milk producer in the world. He helped
to lay the foundation of democratic enterprises at the grass roots.

VISION

Amul’s vision is to provide more and more satisfaction to the farmers,

employees and distributers.

MISSION

GCMMF (Gujarat Co-operative milk Marketing Federation) endeavor to

satisfy the taste and nutritional requirements of the customers of the world,
through excellence in marketing by their committed team. Through co-
operative networking, they are committed to offer quality products that
provide best value for money.
HISTORY
AND
EVOLUTIO
N
In the year 1946 the first milk union was established. This union started
with 250 liters of milk per day. The union was known as KAIRA
DISTRICT CO-OPERATIVE MILK PRODUCERS’UNION. This union
selected the brand name AMUL in 1955. The brand name Amul means
“AMULYA”. This word derived from the Sanskrit word “AMULYA”
which means “PRICELESS”. A quality control expert in Anand had
suggested the brand name ―AMUL. Amul products have been in use in
millions of homes since 1946. Amul Butter, Amul Milk Powder, Amul
Ghee, Amul Cheese, Amul Chocolates, Amul Shrikhand, Amul Ice cream,
Nutramul, Amul Milk and Amulya have made Amul a leading food brand
in India. (The total sale was approximately Rs. 6 billion in 2005). Today
Amul is a symbol of many things like of the high-quality products sold at
reasonable prices, of the genesis of a vast co-operative network, of the
triumph of indigenous technology, of the marketing savvy of a farmers'
organization and have a proven model for dairy development (Generally
known as “ANAND PATTERN”). In the early 40‘s, the main sources of
earning for the farmers of Kaira district were farming and selling of milk.
That time there was high demand for milk in Bombay. The main supplier
of the milk was Polson dairy limited, which was a privately owned
company and held monopoly over the supply of milk at Bombay from the
Kaira district. This system leads to exploitation of poor and illiterate
farmers by the private traders. The traders used to decide the prices of milk
and the farmers were forced to accept it without uttering a single word.
However, when the exploitation became intolerable, the farmers were
frustrated. They collectively appealed to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who
was a leading activist in the freedom movement.
Sardar Patel advised the farmers to sell the milk on their own by
establishing a co-operative union, instead of supplying milk to private
traders. Sardar Patel sent the farmers to
Shri Morarji Desai in order to gain his
co-operation and help. Shri Desai held a
meeting at Samarkha village near
Anand, on 4th January 1946. He
advised the farmers to form a society for
collection of the milk.
These village societies would collect the
milk selves and would decide the prices
at which they can sell the milk. The district union was also form to collect
the milk from such village co-operative societies and to sell them.
Mr. Verghese Kurien showed main interest in establishing union who
was supported by Shri Tribhuvandas Patel who lead the farmers in
forming the Co-operative unions at the village level. The Kaira district
milk producers union was thus established in ANAND and was registered
formally on 14th December 1946.
At the initial stage only 250 liters of milk was collected every day. But
with the growing awareness of the benefits of the cooperativeness, the
collection of milk increased.
Amul collects approx.11 lakhs liters of milk every day. Since milk was a
perishable commodity it becomes difficult to preserve milk for a longer
period. Besides when the milk was to be collected from the far places,
there was a fear of spoiling of milk. To overcome this problem the union
thought out to develop the chilling unit at various junctions, which would
collect the milk and could chill it, so
as to preserve it for a longer period.
Thus, today Amul has more than 150
chilling centers in various villages.
Milk is collected from almost 1163
societies.
With the financial help from UNICEF and assistance from the govt. of

04
New Zealand under the Colombo plan of Rs. 50 million for factory to
manufacture milk powder and butter was planned. Dr.Rajendra Prasad,
the president of India laid the foundation on November 15, 1954. Shri
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister of India, inaugurated it as
Amul dairy on November 20, 1955.
It may be recalled that Amul had a humble beginning of two village dairy
co-operative societies collecting 247 liters of milk in 1946 which has now
grown to over 14000 village dairy co-operative societies collecting more
than 1 crore liters of milk per day.

05
SUPPLY
CHAIN

To implement their vision while retaining their focus on farmers, a hierarchical

network of cooperatives was developed, this today forms the robust supply chain
behind GCMMF’s endeavors. The vast and complex supply chain stretches from
small suppliers to large fragmented markets.
Management of this network is made more complex by the fact that GCMMF is
directly responsible only for a small part of the chain, with a number of third-
party players (distributors, retailers and logistics support providers) playing large
roles. Managing this supply chain efficiently is critical as GCMMF's competitive
position is driven by low consumer prices supported by a low-cost system of
providing milk at a basic, affordable price.

06
STRATEGY

Amul’s strategy is broadly divided into two components:

The first one is the collection chain and the second one is the Supply chain. The
collection chain starts from weighing the milk to determination of the fat content in
the milk to finally calculation of the purchase price. While the supply chain starts
from storing the milk to processing the milk to finally distributing the milk.
.

07
SWOT
ANALYSIS
SWOT Analysis of Amul

Amul’s Strengths – Internal Strategic Factors

1. Exceptional Growth – Amul has seen exceptional growth in the past

seven years. The company continues its adaptive and evolutionary
mechanism as it has done for decades. India has placed many
investments in its dairy industry, and the company has justified its
position. Currently, the company is setting its sight to achieve record
growth with its INR 50,000 crores target in 2020.
2. Large Production Capacity – Amul is a brand managed by the
GCMMF (Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation
Ltd), a cooperative body that provides about 17.7 million liters of
milk per day. Its production capacity led the GCMMF to join the
ranks of the top dairy organizations in the world. In Sept of 2018,
Amul was ranked at the 9th position according to the survey of the
IFCN (International Farm Comparison Network).
3. Market Leader – Amul has positioned itself as the market leader in
India because of the organized ice cream sector which has a
1/3rd market share in the country. The ice cream sector is expected
to grow by 30% in the coming years, whereas its flavored milk and
cheese products have been forecasted to grow above 20%.
4. Brand Recall and Equity – Amul has become the favorite for many
Indians because of its genius Amul baby campaign that evokes
beauty and emotion on every occasion. It has cemented Amul’s
brand recognition especially when it comes to brand recall and
equity. There are only a handful of milk-based brands available that
have the same public image like Amul in India.

08
 5. Best Quality – Amul has been entrusted with a strong and loyal
customer base owing to its standard persistent quality production.
Amul has maintained its operation with adequate transparency for
decades forming a good relationship with the government and the
health department. The appraisal from such entities over its products
has only added to its credibility and customer retention.
6. Huge Customer Base – Amul has the amazing quality of
transcending the urban demographic and reaching the rural areas.
This allows it to have distinctive leverage over its competition as it
expands its consumer base and maintains a presence in every corner
of the country.
Amul’s Weaknesses – Internal Strategic Factors

1. Lawsuits – The brand faced an internal crisis after it chose to

advertise its products by disparaging its rival competitors. This
promotion did not go unnoticed by one of its competitors HUL
(Hindustan Unilever Limited) which filed a lawsuit against the dairy
company and took it to court. HUL won its lawsuit at the Bombay
High Court in 2017 and demanded that Amul should stop its
condescending advertising immediately. It has tarnished Amul’s
image as an elitist, utilizing arrogant and unfair methods to beat its
competition.
2. Operational Cost – The operational cost for Amul is enormous
thanks to its massive structure. This becomes a liability for the
company as Amul experiences multiple pricing changes and is
dependent on its farming unions and community whose needs are
growing every day. Amul does not have an effective mechanism in
place to face these challenges which is risky given the
unpredictability of supply.
7. Portfolio Expansion – Amul has diversified its dairy products
variety, but it has not experienced similar success in its other
productions. The best example is its chocolate products that have not
reached the same level of success as its ice creams. Amul’s portfolio
expansion is crucial for its brand image.

09
Amul’s Opportunities – External Strategic Factors

1. Per Capital Milk Consumption – Amul can increase its per capita
milk consumption which is generally 97 liters per year, much lower
than that of countries like the USA or the EU. The demand for milk
products continues to grow, and Amul has enough resources to
capitalize on this demand.
2. International Markets – Amul has the capacity to explore its reach
in the international markets. It can access more Asian markets from
neighboring countries to other regions and operate accordingly. Its
international exports will increase their margins and turnovers
rapidly.
3. Chocolate Production – Amul can invest generously in its chocolate
production and thrive in the chocolate selling business. With
adequate advertising, it can become its greatest
Amul’s Threats– External Strategic Factors

1. Increasing Competition – Amul increasingly faces fierce

competition in the Ice Cream sector. More and more companies and
brands both local and foreign are invading its markets and overtaking
its sales. Competitors like Kwality Walls, Mother Dairy, Baskin
Robbins, London dairy, and Havmor are a few names that directly
threaten its business.
2. Negative Media Coverage – Negative media coverage has not been
beneficial for Amul’s operations. It has affected its sales and forced
them to issue statements garnering unwanted media attention.

10
SEGMENTATION
, TARGETING
AND
POSITIONING
Segmentation of Amul:

As we know that segmentation is a process in marketing in which grouping

of a market is done into smaller subgroups on the basis of various
characteristics of customers like age, behavior, taste, etc.
As all the other brands Amul also follows the same tactics to make a high
growth in the business as a brand. The segmentation of Amul is the mass
population and in general, you will find people of all different age groups
and demography enjoying Amul products. This is because Amul is not
only present in Ice cream, but also in Milk, Butter, Cheese and other such
products. As it has a very deep product portfolio, it does not differentiate
in its customers but uses a mass marketing principle. And till date, this
principle has worked very well for the marketing strategy of Amul.
The following are the segmentations done by AMUL:

Customer Based Segmentation:

 Kids
 Women
 Youth
 Calorie conscious
 Health conscious
 Diabetic people

1. Kids – Amul Kool, Amul chocolate milk, Nutramul, energy drink,

Amul Kool Milk, Milk Shake, Amul chocolates.
11
2. Youth- Amul Kool Café, Amul Kool KoKo, Utterly delicious pizza,
lassi, thandai, Amul spicy butter milk, Amul emmental cheese, Cheese
spreads, desserts.
3. Women - Calci+
4. Health conscious- Nutramul, Amul Shakti health food drink, low fat
and low cholesterol bread spreads.
5. Calorie conscious- Amul lite, Sagar skimmed milk powder, Amul lite
slim and trim milk.
6. Diabetic consumers- Pro- biotic ice creams and sugar free delights for
diabetics
Industry Based Segmentation:

MILK
 Ice-cream Manufacturers
 Restaurant/ food chains
 Coffee shop Chains
 Temples
BUTTER/GHEE/CHEESE
 Bakery
 Snacks Retailers
 Pizza Joints
Target Markets of Amul:

After the most attractive segments are selected, a company should not
directly start targeting all these segments. The attractiveness of the
segments is also depending on other important factors. In the main activity
of defining a target market, four sub activities are given which are the
bases for deciding on which segments will actually be targeted.
The four sub activities performed by Amul while targeting are: -
 Defining the abilities of the product and resources needed to enter a
market
 Analyzing competitors on their resources and skills.

12
  Considering the company’s abilities compared to the competitors’
 Deciding on the actual target markets.
The first three sub activities are described at the topic competitor analysis.
The last sub activity of deciding on the actual target market is an analysis
of the information made available when comparing the company’s abilities
to the competitors. This analysis leads to a list of segments which are most
attractive to target and have a good chance of leading to a profitable
market share. When the process of targeting is ended, the markets to target
are selected. Concentrating equally on end users as well as the third parties
involved in supply chains. Amul has particularly identified “youth” as one
of its potential segments. Working on this aspect, it has come up with
Amul parlors in cities. Launched in 2002, there are now 400 Amul parlors
across the country, which contributed 3% to the brand’s total turnover last
year. High profile locations: Amul parlors are today present on campuses
of Infosys, Wipro, IIM-A, IIT-B, Temples, Metro rail and railway stations
in Gujarat.

Positioning of Amul:

Amul has already positioned itself as a butter to be used in one’s daily

meal.
 Category point of parity is that it serves the purpose of breeds
spreads like all other butters.
 Competitive point of parity is that it has a little more salt in it which
gives it that delicious flavor and the point of difference is the brand.
 Cater to the needs of middle and the upper middle-class customers.
POSITIONING COMPONENTS:

 AMUL has carefully cultivated its family-based image.

 Emotional Components: through the campaigns like and "Taste of
India"
 Descriptive Factor: The butter is now a family product and has a
homely image.
 Functional Attributes: Unique functional attributes of Amul are:

13
 1. Value for money: The best Quality Butter (dairy product) at the
reasonable price
2. Product Availability: It has huge supply chain and distribution
networks across India and has strong link back to the sourcing farmers.

Amul essentially uses indirect action advertising to create a long-term relationship

with the consumer and never resorted to aggressive telling tactics. The basic
communication strategies used to promote the Amul butter brand are:
1. Consumer advertising
2. Institutional advertising
3. Intelligent Marketing
The basic Amul credo is: Huge ad campaigns are not always necessary, what you
need is really interesting way to interact with your customers.
Various media platforms are used by Amul to increase awareness in the market:

 Broadcast Media: Sponsoring Television shows

  Non- Broadcast Media: Cinemas

 Print Media: newspapers, Magazines

The advertisements were made on different category as well:

15
 Politics related Advertisement:

o This Advertise relates to Anna Hazare’s Hunger strike of 5 April 2011 to

exert pressure on the Indian government to enact a stringent anti-corruption
law, Jan Lokpal Bill.
o This advertisement indicates the political situation of that time.

 Advertisement related with Technology:

o This advertisement is related with I-phone a product from apple which is a

market breaking product in mobile market. So, they initiated their ad with
this brand with a line “Lots on the Menu” which suggests that there are many
products of Amul in the market.

16
  Advertisement linking with Movies:

This type of advertise leaves behind

a great effect in minds of people. The
movie Rowdy Rathore in which the
dialogue was ‘Don’t angry me’ is kept
here as ‘Don’t Hungry me’ such sort
of dialogues affects a lot to the
viewers

 Advertisement related to
Education System:

This one-liner states the situation of the educational institutes that they reserve the
seats to take donations and are not allotted to the qualified students.

17
  Advertise related with Sportsman and IPL:

This advertise clearly specify the cricketer Gautam Gambhir the captain of Kolkata
Knight Riders of IPL and the line below the Amul is the song title of KKR but it is
transformed into “KORBO LORBO EATBO” which again advertises the brand
AMUL.

Message source Amul Butter Girl – The Amul Topical billboards are among the
longest running ad campaigns ever.
Sales promotion schemes are used to attract new customers and brand switchers
E.g. Seasonal offers, Annual Amul food festival.
Trade promotions for retailers are done on occasion to motivate retailers to
recommend the product.
All in all, the position of Amul is excellent in the market, it has become
synonymous when it comes to dairy products and that too on reasonable price
which is available for everyone be it lower middle class or upper class. Despite of
being strongly competed by other dairy brands like London dairy, Mother Dairy or
be it ice cream brands like kwality walls, Vadilal, Baskin Robbins and the
chocolate brands like Nestle, Cadbury etc. Amul still stands at the top in the list
when it comes to Dairy products.

18
MARKET
REACH
The Marketing strategy of Amul covers various aspects of the business right from
segmentation and targeting to the overall mission and vision of the company and
the various parameters which the company executes to become the top brand that it
has in the market.
The segmentation of Amul is the mass population and in general, you will find
people of all different age groups and demography enjoying Amul products. This
is because Amul is not only present in Ice cream, but also in Milk, Butter, Cheese
and other such products. As it has a very deep product portfolio, it does not
differentiate in its customers but uses a mass marketing principle. And till date,
this principle has worked very well for the marketing strategy of Amul. Similarly,
the target audience is the regular middleclass people. It is because higher end
customers do have a lot of high-end products as an alternative in ice cream.
However, for other products like Butter and cheese, both high end and low-end
customers are the target. In terms of positioning, Amul has top of the mind
positioning because it is the first brand which comes in mind when talking of Ice
cream, milk, cheese, butter or any other milk-based products.

Competitive advantage in the Marketing strategy of Amul – There are

two major competitive advantages of Amul over other brands. First and foremost
is the supply chain. Because of the large numbers of dairy suppliers, Amul has a
tremendous strength and reliability in its supply chain. Hence it is able to produce
such high volumes. The second competitive advantage is the wide product
portfolios due to which it can run Amul Shoppe’s and also have its products
present in retail. The product portfolio is such that products like Butter and Ice
cream are cash cows for the company.

Distribution strategy in the Marketing strategy of Amul – Like any

FMCG company, Amul concentrates on breaking the bulk. It supplies in huge
amounts to its C&F, who is required to have the right arrangements to store Amul
products in bulk. This C&F then transfers the products to distributors who in turn
give it to retailers. Furthermore, Amul has a direct sale team too which sells to
modern retail. Besides this, the company has exclusive Amul stores which sell all
products of Amul brand.

19
Thus, in the marketing strategy of Amul, distribution is strength of the brand.

Brand equity in the Marketing strategy of Amul – Because of the

excellent products, the top of the mind positioning, the fantastic distribution and
supply chain channels and finally the point of purchase branding and advertising of
the Amul girl, Amul finds itself in a very strong position where its brand equity is
concerned. Amul brand is worth $3.2 billion as per the 2013 brand equity report.
Furthermore, most analysts say that Amul would have touched the $4 billion mark,
but the dropping value of the rupee is what caused the difference.

Competitive analysis in the Marketing strategy of Amul – Amul has

some good competitors who have entered the market in the last decade and
growing strong steadily. Most of these ice creams entered regionally but then held
on to the regional market share. Thus, even though individually these brands might
not be a worthy adversary, combined and with their total net aggregate, all of them
together are giving a very tough competition to Amul. Some of these competitors
are Kwality walls, Vadilal, Havmore, Dinshaws, Arun Ice cream, Baskin Robbins,
London dairy and others. Many of these ice cream products have their own niche
or geographic targets. Arun ice cream is strong in the south whereas Havmor and
Vadilal are strong in the west. Besides these organized players, there are many un-
organized local players who also give competition to Amul by having their own
outlets and their own variants of ice cream. However, the competition in Butter
and Cheese and other dairy products is far lesser.

Market analysis in the Marketing strategy of Amul – The FMCG market

is highly competitive in nature and is known to have a combination of organized
players as well as unorganized players. Similarly, in FMCG, direct competition is
equally important as indirect competition. For example – During winters, ice
cream and cold milk products will not sell, whereas butter and cheese will sell
equally well. But on the other hand, during summers the demand of ice cream
shoots up so much so that companies are not able to meet demands. Thus, when
we analyze the market of Amul, in some cases Amul is the clear market leader,
whereas in other products it is a competitor in the market.

Customer analysis in the Marketing strategy of Amul  – The typical

customers of Amul belong to the Sec B and Sec C segment wherein they are either
middle class or lower class. Amul in general uses mass marketing and therefore it
targets these 2 classes majorly. The high-end customers are more likely to prefer
Naturals, a Baskin Robbins, or any other such brand which meets their taste and
status.

20
Amul Marketing Report

Amul is an Indian dairy cooperative, located at Anand in the state of Gujarat,

India. Founded in 1946, the brand is managed by a cooperative body, the Gujarat
Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF). Dr. Verghese Kurien,
founder-chairman of the GCMMF for more than 30 years (1973–2006), is credited
with the success of Amul which is jointly owned by 3.6 million milk producers in
Gujarat. Amul became the largest food brand in India and has ventured into
markets overseas.

GCMMF REVIEW

GCMMF is the India’s largest food products marketing organization. It is a state

level apex body of milk-cooperatives in Gujarat, which aims to provide
remunerative returns to the farmers and also serve the interest of the consumers by
providing quality products which are good value for money.

21
AREAS OF OPERATION:

Besides India, Amul has entered overseas markets such as Mauritius, UAE, USA,
Bangladesh, Australia, China, Singapore, Hong Kong and a few South African
nations. Other potential markets being considered include Sri Lanka.

Some facts:
Annual revenues: $1.33 billion USD
Total milk handling capacity per day: 10.21 million liters
No. of employees: 2.7 million
Annual milk collection: 2.69 billion liters

Market share

Three Tier System

 This structure consists of a dairy cooperative society at the village level

affiliated to a milk union at the district level which in turn is federated into a
milk federation at the state level.
  Milk collection is done at the village dairy society, milk procurement and
processing at the District Milk Union and milk products marketing at the
state milk federation. 

22
 This pattern of Amul is known as 'Amul Model' or 'Anand Pattern ‘.
 This model has helped India to emerge as the largest milk producer in the
world.

MEDIUMS OF MARKETING

Sticking to the campaigns

Amul’s marketing strategy is not just limited to less spending. When it comes
to creating brand campaigns, cooperation sticks to its tried and tested catch
phrases. They turn to brand strategy agencies and tell them to think lifelong
while creating an advertisement.

PROMOTIONAL CHANNELS:
AMUL CREDO IS – Huge ad campaigns are not required to create a mark
in the customers’ mind, what is required is an interesting way to interact
with your customers.

23
Offline channels (ATL, BTL): The main aim of the offline channels is to
increase brand recall and brand awareness. The offline channels of promotion
included sponsoring television shows, Newspaper and magazine ads,
Billboards etc.

Digital channels: Changing times needed a change in the advertising

strategy. In order to target millennial, Amul started using digital channels
like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for promoting their products. Digital
channels not only helped the company get first-hand reactions of the
customers for their products but also gave them the opportunity to interact
with them on a one-to-one basis.

Aspects of Amul Marketing Strategies

Branding

The first aspect is the branding. We are all aware of Amul’s tagline- ‘The
taste of India’. The tagline banished the notion that bread and butter are a
staple of only the British breakfast and pulled nationalism in. The never-
aging girl who wore a polka-dotted dress, with blue hair and an orange face
was the company’s icon. Amul marketed all of its products under a single
name, which led to advertising merely costing one percent of its revenue.

Product Portfolio

The second aspect was Amul’s product portfolio. Amul’s variety of products
catered to a large audience. While certain brands such as London diary,
Baskin Robbins, etc., managed to capture few regional (ice cream) markets
where they cater to high-end customers, Amul secured their standing in the
overall dairy market. Their main target audience was however the middle and
economic classes. The simple reason behind their retention of customers is
because of the product pricing, which is discussed next.
24
 Product Pricing

The third aspect is product pricing. Amul opted for a low-cost pricing
strategy for products that are consumed regularly. This pricing strategy of
Amul made it affordable for its target audience. Increasing the price of goods
proportional to their audience’s increase in income helped them retain their
customer base. A competitive pricing strategy, such as a one-on-one offer,
was adopted for products facing heavy competition.
One such product line is ice cream. As Amul is a co-operative, it aimed to get
the best price for the producer as well as the consumer, unlike certain
companies that focused only on profit. But being an FMCG company surely
involved a well-planned production, storage, and distribution network which
is expensive.

This transparent model led to maximum returns for the suppliers- the farmers. As
the prices increased, their income accordingly increased as well. Also, co-
operatives are one big family. Surplus products were sent to areas with high
demand and vice versa. So, that was distribution strategy of Amul. All the
above-mentioned factors were 75 percent.

25-Percent Advertising

We reached the final aspect of Amul’s marketing strategy, the 25 percent Amul's

advertising strategy. Without advertising, the target audience wouldn’t be aware
of the existence of the product. Amul was (and still is) in the Guinness record for
running the longest-ever advertising campaign. The butterly girl appeared in
hilarious topical representations involving butter and current affairs! Amul also
came up with several taglines such as- ‘Amul Doodh Peetha Hai India’,’ Har
Ghar Amul Ghar’,’Pehla Pyaar Amul Pyaar’ and so on in its short
advertisement videos. Every advertisement was guaranteed to make you chuckle
appreciatively at its wit, warm your heart, or tickle your funny bone.

CURRENT SITUATION
(COVID-19)
25
 COVID SCENARIO
Amul doubles marketing spends during lockdown

In a contrarian call, the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, popularly

known as Amul, doubled its marketing spends across media during the lockdown
which helped the brand gain advantage over rivals in terms of sales, brand building
and gaining top of the mind recall.

Unlike other consumer brands, which curtailed or stopped all advertising during
April and May, Amul upped the ante.

“We never saw logic in stopping advertising,” said RS Sodhi, managing director,
Amul, “For us, brand building is like long-term asset building and not just a sales
pitch. More importantly, advertising is another form of communication with the
consumer, and for us, they are family. So, if a family member is distressed, we
should communicate more, rather than less.” And that’s exactly what Amul did.

Once lockdown was imposed, Amul was practically the only brand which was
advertising.
And numbers back the claim: As per TAM Adex data from Tam Media Research,
during the months of April and May 2020, Amul’s ad volumes witnessed a
threefold (316%) increase over the corresponding period last year.

Between April and May, Amul’s ad volumes Amul went up by almost 21%.

Doubling of advertising budgets for Amul was a calculated risk which paid off
very handsomely for the brand.

Amul dominated the ad volumes by over 87% of share of voice in six out of 12
categories it operates in— ‘Sweets/Other Milk Products', 'Milk', 'Milk
Powder/Condensed Milk', 'Ready To Eat Food', 'Butter/Margarine' and
'Cheese/Cheese Spreads’
Even in the non-aerated soft drinks category, Amul’s share was 51%
compared to other summer advertisers including packaged juice brands.

“After we upped the spending, it was clear that families were watching TV
together. And just a week after, we hit a jackpot when ‘Ramayan’ and
‘Mahabharat’ came back on Doordarshan. We immediately grabbed the
sponsorship deal,” Sodhi said. “We knew it would get good viewership, but
we never anticipated such response. We got 10 times more viewership than
the Indian Premiere league (IPL), at one tenth of the cost.”

Some smart and innovative moves, including bringing old advertisements

back during reruns of ‘Ramayan’ and ‘Mahabharat’ also got Amul a
“disproportionately heightened” share of voice, which was way beyond their
investment.

Most importantly, it was the uninterrupted distribution supply chain of Amul,

which ensured that the products were available even during the lockdown
and the ad blitz translated into more sales.

Sodhi said Amul incentivized all supply chain partners to maintain a smooth
running supply chain through-out the disruption.

“During the 80 days of lockdown, we have given Rs 11,000 crore cash to our
farmers. Our milk procurement was also up by 17%, and there was a 30-40%
increase in sale of milk, butter, paneer and cheese,” Sodhi said.

Source:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/food/amul-
doubles-marketing-spends-during-lockdown/articleshow/76512902.cms

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QUESTIONS ON
PURITY
In 2014 - A Gurgaon resident, while trying to make cheese out of 'expired' milk,
found the milk turning rubber-like upon heating. "... Thought of making cheese out
of the milk and when we started boiling the milk, within 2 min what came out is
shown in these pictures. It is some dangerous substance that came out. I thank to
god that my family did not consumed this milk. I wonder what would have
happened if we would have consumed this," said the consumer on Facebook.

Amul clarified that the consumer called customer care on 10th morning and shared
her experience of using Amul Gold Milk on the very same day. The "use by" date
of the Amul Milk was 9th of October. The milk got expired in her fridge which
was later used by the consumer. The Amul customer care also questioned the
consumer about 'change in date' of complaint post. After Amul addressed the
complaint, the consumer responded, "I happy to inform you all that Amul
executives met me on Saturday regarding the issue and promised that they will
going to take cognizance of the matter.

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In 2018 - Amul has been getting bashed up in social media because there
have been rumors that Amul’s Pista Malai Koolfi has been using an
emulsifier derived from the intestine of a pig. The controversy revolves
around the E471 which globally comes from animal sources, but which Amul
claims is in their case pure vegetarian.
For the record, the Amul Pista Malai Koolfi has an inner ice-cream layer (68
per cent by mass) which is made up of milk solids, permitted emulsifiers
(E435 & E471) and stabilizers (E407 & E412) and an outer coating layer (32
per cent by mass) made up of milk solids, pistachio pieces and permitted
emulsifier (E322). It is emulsifier E471 that is causing Amul all the angst,
prompting managing director RS Sodhi to actually cut a 2-minute video
disclaimer, and for Amul to run ads in The Times of India, and put up a very
bland, ‘Main 100 per cent vegetarian hoon’ hoarding. The 3.6 million
farmers who own Amul would never cheat consumers. “Amul's money does
not go out of the country, it goes to poor farmers, and poor farmers don't lie,"
Sodhi says, perhaps hoping to turn the crisis into an opportunity to reiterate
the brand's nationalist colours.

On September 5, Amul released a detailed note on its website that certified

its use of vegetarian ingredients and added certificates from the supplier of
the E-471 emulsifier that the video mentioned. Through search engine
optimization and marketing, they ensured customers were able to read our
rejoinder on our website when they searched for Amul Ice Cream.

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POSSIBLE
SUGGESTIONS TO
INCREASE SALES AND
GROWTH

 Advertise Individual Products.

 Maintaining the same high quality in the era of Cut- Throat
Competition.
 Use Celebrity Brand Ambassador
 Continue Sponsoring high Television Rating Point (TRP) shows.
 Try to avoid any reason or because that could lead to severe allegations.

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MIND-MAP
Rough sketch was made to come up with all the
research work so as to not miss out any point.

FARMERS

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CONCLUSION

 Looking back at the path traversed by AMUL, the

following features make it a pattern and model for
emulation elsewhere. Producing an appropriate blend of
the policy makers, farmer’s board of management and the
professionals, bringing the best of the technology to rural
producers, providing a support system to the milk
producers without their agro-economic system and
plugging back the profits, by prudent use of men, material
and machines. Even though growing with time and on
scale, it has remained with the smallest producer
members. The consumer should be provided with a wide
range of products so that they have the variety to choose
from. The marketing and innovative hoarding plays a
vital role in sales. AMUL is an example par excellence, of
an intervention for rural change.

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REFERENCES

 www.blogspot.com
 www.amul.com
 www.wikipedia.in
 www.scribd.com
 www.nextbrand.in
 www.eracademy.in
 Google Images

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