SUCCESS MANTRA BEHIND AMUL PRODUCTS IN INDIA

CASE STUDY BEHIND THE SUCCESS OF AMUL PRODUCTS IN INDIA

Amul is an Indian dairy cooperative, based at Anand that is situated in the state of Gujarat, India.[2]

Formed in 1950, it is a brand managed by a cooperative body, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF), which today is jointly owned by 3.6 million milk producers in Gujarat.[3]

The white revolution was spearheaded by Tribhuvandas Patel under the guidance of Sardar Patel and Verghese Kurien. As a result, Kaira District Milk Union Limited was born in 1946. Tribhuvan das became the founding chairman of the organization which he led till his last day of his life. He hired Dr. Kurien three years after the white revolution. He convinced Dr.Kurien to stay and help with the mission rest was history in the dairying industry.

Amul spurred India's White Revolution, which made the country the world's largest producer of milk and milk products.[4]In the process Amul became the largest food brand in India and has ventured into markets overseas.

Dr Verghese Kurien, founder-chairman of the GCMMF for more than 30 years (1973–2006), is credited with the success of Amul.[5] Amul products are now available in more than 60 countries in the world.

 HISTORY

Amul-cooperative registered on 14 December 1947 as a response to the exploitation of marginal milk producers by traders or agents of the only existing dairy, the Polson dairy, in the small city distances to deliver milk, which often went sour in summer, to Polson. The prices of milk were arbitrarily determined. Government had given monopoly rights to Polson to collect milk from Kaira and supply it to Bombay city.[6][7]

Angered by the unfair trade practices, the farmers of Kaira approached Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel under the leadership of local farmer leader Tribhuvandas K. Patel. He advised them to form a cooperative and supply milk directly to the Bombay Milk Scheme instead of Polson (who did the same but gave them low prices).[8] He sent Morarji Desai to organise the farmers. In 1946, the milk farmers of the area went on a strike which led to the setting up of the cooperative to collect and process milk.[7] Milk collection was decentralized, as most producers were marginal farmers who could deliver, at most, 1–2 litres of milk per day. Cooperatives were formed for each village, too.[9]

The cooperative was further developed and managed by Dr.Verghese Kurien with H.M. Dalaya. Dalaya's innovation of making skim milk powder from buffalo milk (for the first time in the world) and a little later, with Kurien's help, making it on a commercial scale,[10] led to the first modern dairy of the cooperative at Anand, which would compete against established players in the market. Kurien's brother-in-law K.M. Philip sensitized Kurien to the needs of attending to the finer points of marketing, including the creation and popularization of a brand. This led to the search for an attractive brand name. In a brainstorming session, a chemist who worked in the dairy laboratory suggested Amul, which came from the Sanskrit word "amulya", which means "priceless" and "denoted and symbolised the pride of swadeshi production."[11]

The trio's (T. K. Patel, Kurien and Dalaya's) success at the cooperative's dairy soon spread to Anand's neighbourhood in Gujarat. Within a short span, five unions in other districts – Mehsana, Banaskantha, Baroda, Sabarkantha and Surat – were set up.[7] To combine forces and expand the market while saving on advertising and avoid competing against each other, the GCMMF, an apex marketing body of these district cooperatives, was set up in 1973. The Kaira Union, which had the brand name Amul with it since 1955, transferred it to GCMMF.[12]

In 1999, it was awarded the "Best of all" Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award.[13]

Technological developments at Amul have subsequently spread to other parts of India.

The GCMMF is the largest food products marketing organisation of India. It is the apex organisation of the dairy cooperatives of Gujarat. It is the exclusive marketing organisation for products under the brand name of Amul and Sagar. Over the last five and a half decades, dairy cooperatives in Gujarat have created an economic network that links more than 3.1 million village milk products with millions of consumers in India. Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.

UHT PRODUCTS AND ITS IMPACT

Over the years Amul has been witnessing growth in this portfolio, with the segment growing at 53%,[14] Long life UHT products for urban populations, like Amul Taaza, which are packed in Tetra Pak cartons, which undergoes UHT treatment to remove all harmful micro-organisms while retaining the nutrition in the milk. Amul sells around 4-5,00,000 litres of UHT milk and other value added products per day and forecast this demand to continue growing at 25%. The UHT products have enabled Amul to position itself as the market leader in packaged milk segment without the need of maintaining cold supply chains.

ADVERTISING

In 1966, Amul hired Sylvester daCunha, then managing director of the advertising agency AS to design an ad campaign for Amul Butter. daCunha designed a campaign as series of hoardings with topical ads, relating to day-to-day issues.[16] It was popular and earned a Guinness world record for the longest running ad campaign in the world. In the 1980s, cartoon artist Kumar Morey and script writer Bharat Dabholkar had been involved with sketching the Amul ads; the latter rejected the trend of using celebrities in advertisement campaigns. Dabholkar credited chairman Verghese Kurien with creating a free atmosphere that fostered the development of the ads.[17]

Despite encountering political pressure on several occasions, daCunha's agency has made it a policy of not backing down. Some of the more controversial Amul ads include one commenting on the Naxalite uprising in West Bengal, on the Indian Airlines employees strike, and one depicting the Amul butter girl wearing a Gandhi cap.[16]

In 2013, Amul tweeted a picture featuring the Amul butter girl, implying that 'freedom of choice' died in '2013', in opposition to the Supreme Court of India overruling the judgment of Delhi High Court and criminalising homosexuality again.[18]

On 17 October 2016, Amul butter girl celebrated 50 years when she first appeared in the topical ad titled "Thoroughbread". The Ad showed a jockey holding a slice of bread during the horse race season in 1966.The impish Amul missy had appeared for the first time even before that, with Eustace Fernandez showed her offering bed-time prayers with a wink and a lick of lips, saying "Give us this day our daily bread: with Amul butter". But the topical hits started flowing in since 1966.

POPULAR CULTURE

The establishment of Amul is known as White Revolution.

The White Revolution inspired the notable Indian film-maker Shyam Benegal to base his film Manthan (1976) on it. The film was financed by over five lakh (half a million) rural farmers in Gujarat who contributed Rs 2 each to its budget. Upon its release, these farmers went in truckloads to watch 'their' film, making it a commercial success.[20][21] Manthan was chosen for the 1977 National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi.

KEY FACTS ABOUT ANAND MILK UNION LIMITED (AMUL)

• Amul was founded in 1946 in Anand, Gujarat with a mission to stop the exploitation of the farmers by middlemen.
• Amul is managed by the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF), which is jointly owned by more than 3.6 million milk producers of Gujarat.
• Amul spurred the White Revolution in India, which placed India at the top of milk producing nations.
• The Amul corporative was created by Dr Verghese Kurien, who is also known as the Father of the White Revolution in India.
• More than 15 million milk producers pour milk in 144500 dairy cooperative societies across the country.
• Amul is present in over 50 countries, and in India alone has more than 7200 exclusive parlours.
• In 1999, Amul was awarded the “Best of All” Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award“ for maintaining the utmost level of quality in its plants.
• Amul has been awarded the Guinness World Record for the longest running advertisement campaign.

VITAL REASONS BEHIND THE SUCCESS OF AMUL PRODUCTS

• The Amul Girl (The Amul Advertising Campaign)

The Amul girl is the advertising mascot used by the company to promote the brand. The brand has been cleverly using the cartoon figure in its longest running ad campaign, to instil an element of humour into its print ads. The content is liked by the people and results in better customer engagement. This increases the brand recall value for Amul. Hence, the Amul girl advertising campaign is often described as one of the best Indian advertising concepts.

• Innovation

Amul has constantly been innovating – be it launching new products, creative marketing campaigns or challenging traditional societal trends to come up with better ones.

In the 1960’s, Amul became the first brand in the world to make skimmed milk powder from buffalo milk. Also with its three-tiered cooperative structure, Amul changed from traditional operations to a more cost-efficient and effective structure.

For its continuous innovation, the brand won the “CNN-IBN Innovating for Better Tomorrow Award” and “World Dairy Innovation Award” in the year 2014.

• Strong Brand

Amul follows the Branded House Architecture way, wherein whatever they promote; they promote it under one common brand name – Amul. The prime focus is on promoting the parent brand rather than individual products which helps them gain more brand visibility and results in lesser marketing and advertising costs.

• Efficient Supply chain

Amul follows a three-tier cooperative structure which consists of a dairy cooperative society at the village level that is affiliated with milk unions at the district level which in turn is federated to a milk federation at the state level. Milk is collected at the village dairy society, procured and processed at the district milk union and marketed at the state milk federation.

The greatness of this model lies in the fact that Amul was the first company to follow this model, and it was replicated all over the country under Operation Flood in the 1970’s. The model ensures that there’s efficiency and swiftness in operations.

The Amul model has helped India become the largest milk producer in the world.

Diverse Portfolio of Products

With its diversified product portfolio, Amul has been able to cater to the needs of all the segments. From kids to teenagers, men to women, calorie conscious to health conscious, the company has ensured that it launches products for every segment. Providing value and benefits to its target segment, Amul has been able to build a strong brand association with its customers over the years.