National Cooperative PR

• Amul – History and Current Operations
• Amul – Brand Details
• Amul – Brand Management
• Amul.com – Extension in the Digital era
• Amul in Retailing
• Amul as Asia’s largest Milk Brand

The birth of Amul

• Linked to the freedom movement of India
• Founded in 1946 to stop the exploitation of milk producers at the hands of middlemen
• Inspiration of pre-eminent national leaders
• A cooperative movement – member control on milk production, processing & marketing
• A humble beginning with 2 village societies and 246 litres of milk…

Amul – today

• 2.5 million milk producers families – part of a fraternity of 13 million coop producers nationwide
• 13,000 village societies – there are over 113,000 coop milk societies pan India
• 8.1 million litres of milk procured in peak season on a single day – India is the largest producer of milk in the world !
• Rs 100 million handled in cash daily – Milk is the biggest agricultural crop in India !
• 13 district Unions – there are 180 cooperative dairy unions across the country

GCMMF – Operations

• India’s largest food products marketing organisation
• 4 Distribution Highways
• 20 Product Groups
• 400+ SKUs
• 34 Supply Centres
• 50 Sales Offices
• 300 member sales team
• 5000 Stockists
• 700,000 Retail outlets
• Rs 4,500 crore (US$ 1 billion) annual Sales Turnover

Amul

• It means “priceless” in Sanskrit and many Indian languages

Amul

• Commitment to Quality
• Value for money
• The generation of awareness
• The fostering of loyalty
• Development of strong brand identity

Amul : Brand Management

• Appointment of Professional Advertising Agencies since 1956 (ASP, dCA, Radeus, Ulka)
• Appointment of Professional Distribution Agency (Voltas, Spencers) till 1983
• Creation of GCMMF in 1973
• A marketing Team “Product Management Group” for brand care..

Amul : Brand Repositioning

• Scenario post liberalisation in 1992:
• Likely threat of competition in various categories
• Increasing media costs and fragmentation
• Decision to consolidate brand position as “The Taste of India ” in 1995
  Brand Equity : Indicators
• Perceived Quality
• Perceived Value
• Loyalty
• Brand Awareness
• Market Share
• Leadership
• Brand Personality
• Distribution Coverage
• Price Premium
• Organisational Association

Brand : Core Identity Augmented by :

•  Brand as Product
•  Product Scope
•  Product Attributes
•  Quality/Value
•  Uses & Users
•  Brand as Organisation
•  Organisation attributes
•  Local v/s Global
•  Brand as Person
•  Brand Personality
•  Brand – Customer relationship
•  Brand as Symbol
•  Visual imagery and metaphors
•  Brand Heritage

Why is it hard to build brands ?

•  Pressure to compete on price
•  Proliferation of competitors
• Fragmenting markets and media
• Complex Brand Strategies and Relationship
• Bias towards changing strategies
• Bias against innovation
• Pressure to invest elsewhere
• Short Term pressures

Amul
The Challenges in 90’s

• Consumer Demand to widen the product range.
• Franchising the brand pan India to increase availability of fresh products.
• Globalisation : Dedicated brand building campaign in international markets.

http://www.amul.com

•  Among first Indian corporates on the net (since March 1996)
• Launch of Amul Cricket Rankings (Sep 1998)
• Launch of Amul Cyberstore in US (March 1999)
• Launch of Amul Cyberstore – India (June 1999)
• Launch of Amulmail.com – (Sep 1999)
• Launch of Member Dairies Websites – (Sep 2000)
• Launch of Amulgreetings.com (Dec 2000)
• Launch of Amul Icecream Cyberstore (Jan 2001)
• Launch of Amul.tv (Jan 06)
• Launch of Amulwd.com (March 06)

Digital Marketing : Key Benefits Experienced

• Accessibility of brand & organization becomes global. Dramatic increase in export enquiries since 1996 – both from trade as well as consumers
• High customer involvement due to ‘ emotional attachment’ with the brand
• The topical advertising campaign (updated weekly) and Cricket Rankings (updated daily) helps in generating continuous interest
• Regional Hubs ( USA , Dubai , India , Singapore ) to facilitate ebusiness transactions in a highly restricted dairy product export market.

Next Steps

• Build Product specific sites
• Build WAP site
• Build each Member dairy web site
• Enable e-transactions in village coops