Utterly Butterly Marketing Strategy of Amul

Ever heard this tagline “ Utterly Butterly Delicious”, sure you have!

Over the past years, the taste of India, Anand Milk Union Limited (AMUL), became the most beloved brand of India. Every Indian has grown up hearing the jingles of its many dairy products, and the Amul girl, the cheerful blue-haired brand mascot in a red polka-dotted dress has wowed to give amusing one-liners on billboards and print ads. Amul has made a lot of progress since its founding in 1946.

BIRTH OF AMUL

In 1942, a union was formed in Kaira District, which started pasteurising milk produced by farmers and sold it to Bombay Milk Scheme. When this trade grew, they set up a plant and Dr Verghese Kurien, rightly called as the Milkman of India, helped spur the White Revolution, the largest dairy development strategy in the world. Dr Kurien wanted to provide small-scale farmers, quality-control factories and a marketing hub, which weren’t there in those days. Thus, in 1973, the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) was founded, which helped in the marketing of dairy products. Amul comes under GCMMF.

The DaChunha ad agency of Bombay was handed the contract of the brand’s ad campaign. Back then, TV advertising and print media were very expensive, so the agency marketed Amul on outdoor hoardings.

The Amul girl and the catchphrase “Utterly Butterly” which was then converted to “Utterly Butterly Delicious” were brought to life in the same year. At the start, the word “butterly” faced a lot of criticism, because it was ungrammatical, but it fits well for the rhyme and soon became the catchphrase in Indian advertising.

A lot of credits go to the right marketing mix of Amul that has helped the brand build its presence in over 60 countries.

Let us dive deep into the marketing mix of Amul and understand the important factors that contribute to planning a brand that stands out from its competition.

MARKETING STRATEGY

As of this year, there are many marketing strategies like product innovation, marketing investment, etc which has helped the brand flourish, but in this newsletter, we cover the marketing mix of Amul and will explain the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) of marketing.

PRODUCT STRATEGY

Amul is one of the leading dairy brands and has a diverse product portfolio.

Amul invests quite heavily in research and development and brings up new products to suit different customer segments. Mother Dairy, Chitale, Gowardhan, Kwality Wall, Hershey and Britannia are companies that have similar offerings like that of Amul but the vast variety of products that Amul offers gives it a sustainable competitive advantage over its peers.

PRICING STRATEGY

Amul envisions to provide the finest quality of dairy products at affordable prices. It uses an amalgamation of low cost and competitive pricing. To make this strategy a success, Amul divided all its products into two wide categories. One category consisted of products with daily consumption such as milk, cheese, ghee and butter, while the second category included products in the luxury segment, such as milk powder, amulspray, dark chocolate, Amul Tru and many others. The first category sold the items at a lower cost than its peers, and the second category’s prices were kept close to their competitors. Pricing in AMUL is decided by GCMMF keeping in mind the different factors like Land, Labour, farmer’s profit, logistics cost, etc.

PLACE STRATEGY

An important reason why Amul dominates is because of its massive distribution system that helps it to cater to the entire nation. Amul starts from collecting the raw material in mass and then after processing it, the products are broken up into small batches until a unit reaches the purchaser. Think about the process starting from milking a cow to a tetra pack of Amul Taaza reaching your home.

There are two well-defined arms through which they accomplish the trading strategy at Amul:

Acquisition Channel: Collection of milk through dairy operators.

Distribution Channel: Delivering the end products to the end clients.

This supply chain enables Amul to deliver its products at economical prices even after incurring massive shipment costs.

PROMOTION STRATEGY

Amul is one of the handfuls of companies that have been successfully making its mark in the promotional campaign segment with a promotional moppet- “Amul Girl”

Making good use of the latest happenings in the world – take for example “The Border Faceoff between India and China”, with an added mix of wit and sarcasm, Amul successfully connects to its audience – and all its advertisement/promotion is done by a mere spend of 1% of Amul’s revenue and most of its advertisements are of butter.

“Locate Amul” was the result of an in-house innovation. An app designed to aid sales executives in finding the distributor information of Amul Parlours, it helps them to find shops selling Amul products that are nearest to us.

A classic example of marketing brilliance is how Amul marketed its products during the nation-wide lockdown. Doordarshan announced that it would telecast reruns of old popular Indian shows. With the screen time at its peak, advertisers were looking for a perfect opportunity to market their products. GCMMF disclosed that it would sponsor the shows. It started airing the most recent Amul ads, but soon GCMMF realised that viewers were soaked in nostalgia. GCMMF jumped upon this chance and ran its old ads, keeping in mind the original broadcast of Ramayana and Mahabharata.

SWOT Analysis of Amul

Below Infographic explains the SWOT Analysis of Amul.

Do you know why Amul has not only survived, but thrived for more than half a century? Brand is the answer. It is widely believed that to completely destroy the brand of Amul, it could take competitors 40-50 years, assuming that Amul does nothing in the interim period and allows the stagnation unhindered – and such a giant brand wouldn’t have been created had it not been for their marketing/promotion/advertisement savviness.

Post the COVID-19 era, a lot of new businesses will spring up, and since the consumers would have become more conscious of their spending, it would become all the more important for such businesses to become more and more marketing savvy – maybe take a page from Amul’s book of “Brand building”?

This story of marketing brilliance is truly the icing on the cake…or the butter on the toast.

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