MARKETING MANAGEMENT

ANALYSING AMUL’S MARKETING STRATEGY FOR

FUTURE GROWTH AROUND THE GLOBE
a project report submitted to
Dr. Priya Narayanan

SUBMITTED BY:
GROUP NO. 1
ANUSHREE 378

KESHAV SUREKA 394

MADHAV MAHAJAN 399

MANAS VASHISTHA 400

SIMRAN NANGIA 420

SWATI 423
 The World of Amul
Amul is an Indian dairy cooperative headquartered in Anand, Gujarat. The Gujarat Co-operative Milk
Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF), which is jointly owned by around 3,000,000 milk farmers in the
state, manages the brand today.

The co-operative Amul was founded in reaction to the state's existing dairy's agents and dealers
exploiting marginal milk farmers. The co-operative has grown from strength to strength because to
the visionary leadership of Mr Tribhuvandas Patel, the founding chairman, and Dr Verghese Kurien,
who was in charge of the dairy since 1950 and is popularly known as “Milkman of India”.

India has become the world's largest producer of milk thanks to the Amul model. 144,500 dairy
cooperative groups around the country collect milk from more than 15,000,000 milk farmers. Milk is
processed by 184 district cooperative unions and marketed by 22 state marketing federations,
allowing millions of people to live better lives.

Amul’s Advertising Strategy in India

 Nationalistic Branding
Branding is the first component of Amul's marketing strategy. The success of Amul may be
attributed in large part to its branding tactics. Amul's jingle, "The Taste of India," is widely
recognised. The slogan dispelled the assumption that bread and butter are a British
morning staple and drew in nationalism. Amul advertisements were also ingeniously
intended to inject a sense of nationalism into what was really a rural movement.

 Amul Girl Mascot- The Biggest Moment Marketing Campaign

Amul Girl is the brand's official mascot. She is a never-aging girl in a polka-dotted frock with
blue hair and an orange face. The mascot features in various ads and has remained topical
for five decades by using clever humour and timely punchlines to remark on the most
current topics and major occurrences. It wouldn't be a stretch to claim that the Amul girl can
keep you up to date on current events, whether it's Bollywood, the Olympics, politics, or
cricket.
 The Amul Girl Campaign has further created a nationalistic and woke brand that is fearless in
it’s advertising about the most happening topic’s around the country.

 Amul’s Digital Marketing Strategy

Every company needs to update its marketing approach in this more digital environment.
Amul, like its competitors, has reduced its investment on television advertisements and
begun to place a greater emphasis on internet advertising.

Amul on Twitter
Twitter is a totally different medium than other social media platform and Amul has a large fan
following of over 335K followers on Twitter.

Amul releases amusing images depicting the Amul Butter Girl on a regular basis. Many individuals
identify with those visuals and retweet them to express their feelings about current events.

Twitter is a fantastic way for a company to interact with its consumers. Amul takes advantage of this
by holding engaging events such as competitions and prizes. Unlike many businesses that ignore or
erase unfavourable customer feedback, Amul values its customers' opinions and goes out of its way
to fix consumer issues on Twitter, even in the sight of thousands of people.
Galwan Valley Tweet- The Question that made Amul ponder about it’s future

Many celebrities came forth

to urge Indians to boycott
Chinese goods in response for
growing border tensions
between India and China in
2020, and dairy giant Amul
was no exception. Amul India
published a creative with their
heroine girl with blue hair on
June 3 in the company's
distinctive style. The Amul maiden was pitted against a crimson dragon in this scene. The
advertisement included logos from Indian companies as well as TikTok, a Chinese video-sharing app.
“#Amul Topical: About the Boycott of Chinese Products..." Amul captioned the image.

The commercial went viral on social media sites, and Twitter temporarily banned it before restoring
it the next day. Expressing surprise after Twitter ‘blocked’ Amul’s handle for a short while, RS Sodhi,
Managing Director of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, said that the Amul Butter
girl could not be censored. “The Amul Butter Girl has and will comment on the mood of the nation.
She doesn’t fear or favour anyone. If the nation feels about something, she will speak about it,
whether it is political, national or global,” Sodhi told BusinessLine.

Amul ran an advertisement with a clearly enraged Amul girl dressed in army fatigues standing at the
border with the words "Cheeni kum karo" (loosely translated as reduce the Chinese invasion). The
anti-China advertisements have received a lot of attention on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, with
a lot of likes, comments, and shares. Through hoardings in numerous cities, they made a sensation in
print and outdoor media.

Implication

Globally, this incident garnered a lot of attention as conversations around the brand’s nationalistic
identity took center stage. However, as the brand looks to expand it’s global footprint, this
marketing tactic might backfire as it might lead to isolation and lack of relatability in foreign markets.
Amul needs to evaluate it’s branding identity in this backdrop and come up with a plan to either
rebrand itself completely which is a dangerous proposition, given that the identity is one of the
primary resonant of the brand in India or look at some other way such as localised marketing in
other countries to tackle this image issue.

STP ANALYSIS

Segmentation

Amul has been quite successful as a brand. Part of the reason of their effective marketing strategy is
how they have been able to leverage an enormous cooperative network to sell quality products at
affordable prices. In fact, one can say, Amul is the gold standard in cooperative dairy farming and
development.

Amul caters to various customer segments based on various customer needs. For example, there is a
market for milk of different fat content catering to a health and calorie conscious market segment.
Generally speaking, Amul provides the mass population with a wide variety of products within key
customer segments.

Consumer-based Segmentation
1. Children

Children require healthy milk-based products for a holistic development. Additionally,

children enjoy variations of milk-based products including variations in their flavours and
other milk-based delicacies, such as chocolates.

Products Offered: Amul Kool Kafe, chocolates, flavoured milk shakes, ice cream, pizza

2. Women

Women and especially, homemakers form a key customer segment as their needs and
buying habits are tied to the dietary needs and consumption habits of their families. This is
assuming that women do the bulk of shopping for regular home products such as milk,
paneer, ghee, fresh cream, butter, etc. Amul also provides specific product targeted at
women health and physical well-being.

Product offered targeting women’s personal health needs: Amul Calci+

Product offered targeting their role as their purchaser of the household grocery items: Milk,
butter, spreads, curd, etc.

3. Health-oriented

In this category, we can have two types of people: people who are actively trying to cut back
on fat content, and thus, lose weight, and individuals whose lifestyle involves making healthy
life choices with respect to food items.

Product offerings: Amul Slim Trim (Fat – 1.5%), Amul Camel Milk (Fat – 2%)

4. General Population

Generally speaking, majority of Amul products cater to the entire population.

Targeting

Amul’s business model follows an “affordable pricing” approach. Because of the mass appeal of its
regular household food items, it is, for the most part, able to target almost all segments of society
following a unified approach. This undifferentiated strategy has been very effective in customer
retention over the years, and established the brand as an integral part of the Indian household.
Varying degrees of differentiation exists for other products, such as Amul ice cream, Amul
chocolates, etc.
Its important stakeholders include the farmers, who are its suppliers and partners. The brand
provides livelihood to scores of dairy farmers and is jointly owned by over 3.6 million milk producers.
These have been crucial in helping build the brand strategy of “value for many”.

Positioning

Amul has strategically positioned itself as an essential household brand.

As a brand with multiple stakeholders, it has been able to create a significant impact across the
entire value chain, from producers (dairy farmers) to end consumers.

Components:

 Emotional: The tagline “Taste of India” evokes a feeling of being connected to the
motherland for a majority of the Indian population.
 Unique selling points
- Value for money: The focus is on high quality affordable products.
- Wide variety of products: The brand hosts an impressive range of products.

Overall Brand Image

With a unified marketing strategy and with the help of successful campaigns like “Amul dhoodh
peeta hai India” along with the simplicity of its delivery strategy through the “Amul Butter Girl”, the
brand has been able to consistently cultivate a homely and reliable image. It is now very much a part
of the Indian identity and an indispensable household brand.

AMUL’S INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE AND GLOBAL

STANDING

“India is the largest milk producer in the world and GMCCF is the largest food products marketing
organization in India. We are confident that Amul would emerge as the world's largest food products
organization in the not-too-distant future”

- R S Sodhi, Managing Director GCMMF (Amul)

Amul, Asia's largest milk brand, is the country's top exporter of dairy goods. Amul is now sold in
more than 40 countries. It exports a diverse range of items. According to R S Sodhi, managing
director of GCMMF, the key international markets include the United States, the West Indies, African
nations, the Gulf area, SAARC neighbors, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Japan, and China.
From traditional milk products like paneer and cheese, the company has developed through time
and now offers sugar-free and probiotic milk products to the health market. According to Mr. R S
Sodhi, the firm is always developing new goods that fulfil consumers' aspirational requirements.
Amul has launched a line of milk-based goods, including flavored milk, buttermilk, yoghurt,
probiotics, and energy drinks.

GCMMF's sales are boosted by Amul liquid milk to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore. A further Rs 1,500
crore comes from direct sales by District Cooperative Milk Producers Unions. Amul liquid milk has
beyond Gujarat's borders with the launch of pouch milk in cities like Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow,
Bhopal, and Pune, as well as the metros of Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai. In 2007, the GCMMF's 13
member unions made a significant stride forward by combining liquid milk marketing activities in all
Gujarat districts under the Amul brand. As a result, Amul has become Asia's most popular milk
brand. Amul is a non-profit organization that serves 13,000 communities in India. India is a
developing country. As a result, India is the focal point. If there was a demand of exporting in order
to achieve domestic market equilibrium, it would be under the Amul brand in consumer packets
alone, and exclusively to satisfy the Taste of India.

AMUL’S GLOBAL RECOGNITION

• According to the worldwide dairy research organization IFCN Dairy Research Network, Amul is
placed 8th among the top 20 global dairy processors. The International Farm Comparison Network
has issued a list of the top 20 worldwide dairy processors, and Amul, a brand of Gujarat Cooperative
Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF), is rated eighth (IFCN). Since last year's rating, the
homegrown dairy behemoth has risen one spot. The IFCN, a global dairy research network, ranked it
as the 9th biggest milk processor in 2018. Amul was ranked 18th in 2012 but has risen 10 notches to
the present 8th place in little over eight years.

• Amul, subsidiary of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), has become the
first Indian dairy business to be named to Rabobank's worldwide top 20 list. Rabobank is a Dutch
multinational banking and financial services organization. According to the report, Nestle of
Switzerland led the list with a turnover of $22.1 billion dollars, followed by Lactalis of France with a
turnover of $ 21 billion dollars. Amul has a 5.5-billion-dollar annual turnover and is ranked 16 th in the
report, a moment of pride for all the 36 Lakh Milk Producers.

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS AND SWOT ANALYSIS OF AMUL

COMPANY PROFILE: AMUL (ANAND MILK UNION LIMITED) INDIA

TYPE INDUSTR ESTABLISHMENT HEADQUARTERS KEY PEOPLE REVENUE

Y
Cooperative FMCG 1946 Gujarat, India Tribhuvandas USD 5.4 Bn
Society Patel, Founder

Dr. RS Sodhi,
MD

SWOT ANALYSIS: AMUL (ANAND MILK UNION LIMITED) INDIA

 High Market Share and Positive Growth Rate in India:
As of April 2021, Amul has shown a growth of 22% and is
expecting a growth of 24% as of January 2022. The growth in
the brand equity as well as the valuation of the company is
purely based on its volume which signifies that the company is
on the path of incremental sales.

Excellent Brand Equity:

Amul has avoided the urge to launch a number of different
brands. This has resulted in greater brand equity leveraging and
a multiplier effect at reduced ad costs. Its branding as the
"Taste of India" encapsulates all that is synonymous with
creamy deliciousness created in India.

STRENGTHS Strong Distribution Network:

Amul has an excellent penetration into the urban as well as the
rural market. The product positioning and targeting is aimed at
making the brand identifiable to both the rural as well as the
urban consumer and hence, the brand ensures that any delay in
supply chain is rectified as soon as possible.

Diversified Product Portfolio:

When compared to other FMCG companies, Amul had a diverse
product line. It offers a wide range of milk-based foods,
including cheese, butter, milk, buttermilk, lassi, and many more.
Amul also offers a wide range of ice cream flavors.

Cost Of Operations:
Amul is a large company with a massive business. Similarly,
the price is reasonable. Furthermore, the industry is such that
margins are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain on a
daily basis. That a result, Amul must continue to operate in the
same manner as it does now in order to compete with foreign
players. It is a continual challenge for Amul, rather than a
weakness. In fact, the brand has significant supply shortages
throughout the summer months.
 Chocolates and Confectionaries:
WEAKNESSES Amul's growth into chocolate has failed, and there are few
Amul chocolate products on the market. Amul requires more
items to extend its product portfolio and boost its profits.

Export Capacity:
GCMMF, the country's largest dairy federation, is the first
dairy major from India to export to Russia, after the
formalities between the Export Inspection Council of India and
its Russian counterparts were completed before it can begin
exporting to the country.
Therefore, Amul has a very enticing opportunity to expand its
export of products with the presence of the brand in the
international market becoming more visible.
OPPORTUNITIES Concentration on Chocolates and Confectionaries:
Amul has a no-advertising policy, which makes expanding into
other goods difficult. Amul should create distinct SBUs and
focus on expanding its product line through chocolates and
other such items.

Increasing Competition in Specific Product Portfolio

Segments:
In the ice cream market, Amul is increasingly up against stiff
competition. More and more local and international firms and
brands are entering its marketplaces and eclipsing its
THREATS revenues. Kwality Walls, Mother Dairy, Baskin Robbins,
London Dairy, and Havmor are just a handful of the companies
that directly compete with it.
Negative Media Coverage:
Amul's operations have suffered as a result of negative media
attention. It has harmed sales and compelled them to make
public remarks that have attracted negative media attention.

Amul's SWOT analysis clearly shows that it is successful and emerges as a winner on all fronts. Amul,
which is a source of national pride for its inhabitants, must take the risk of growing into new markets
throughout the world. Amul can reach global success with enough advertisement and marketing.

Amul’s Global Expansion Plans

Financial Express’s headline reads, ‘Amul is present in 40+ countries now’. The Gujrati dairy
company had many onuses from the time it got established to the moment it bloomed,
becoming the largest exporter of dairy products in the world. Amul made the most recent
announcement in Sept 2020 was to spend Rs.1000 Cr to amp up the capacity of its milk
processing plants across two years. Also, Amul is said to plan 40-60 new products in the
dairy segmentation in the global market. The segment it will be targeting should ideally be
the urban one size fits all audience, similar to how it has been catering to the dairy needs in
India. This segment would add a turnover of Rs. 50,000 Cr by the end of 2 years
optimistically. 

Similar FMCG expansions

How did they fair out?

Nestle is a story we should have a sure-shot mention about. The significant expansion of a
well-thought plan brought it the title of the most multinational brand there can be. They went
ahead with the strategy, which worked as a pilot to anticipate the responses in the global
market. This strategy reduced their costs and reshaped the brand perception in a corrective
and well-rounded way. But not all the savory is sweet. We should also discuss the brands that
failed at their attempt to expand on a global level as well. Walmart in Japan faced a problem
in putting points of parity on the table. Starbucks’ expansion in Australia was also met by
fierce audience resistance. Hence, history doesn’t always have it.

PESTLE Analysis of Go-to-market Strategy

Political
Govt. Policy: The western countries have a vibrant civil society community, and Amul should try to
build bridges with them and also seek out areas of co-operations. The civil society groups are
influential not only in policymaking but also in building a society-wide narrative.
Political Stability: We don't think that Amul's business operations will be facing any dangers from
any civil unrest or any internal militant operations in the western countries.
Local Government Laws: Local governments are highly influential in the policymaking process and
implementation. The provincial government implements most of the policies and regulations as
enforcement agencies mainly report to local governments in their states regarding various laws.
Economic
Price Fluctuations in both International and Local Markets: Compared to the level of quantitative
easing in the last decade, Amul Dairy products and prices of overall products have remained sticky in
the Indian market. Amul should consider that at deficit levels of Western Countries in an emerging
economy can lead to rampant inflation and severe risks of currency depreciation.
Exchange Rates: The quantitative easing policy of the Federal Reserve has led to liquidity flooding
all across the global financial markets. Amul can borrow cheaply under such circumstances. But this
strategy entails risks when the interest rate will go up.
Fiscal, Monetary Policies: In the USA, the Republican government tax break culture has increased
the deficit, leading to financial trouble for the economy in the coming years.
Disposable incomes: The household income of the western country has increased constantly in the
last decade and a half. Amul Dairy can leverage this trend to expand the market beyond its traditional
customers by employing a differentiated marketing campaign.
Social
Population Growth Rate: Western countries' population is expected to stay stagnant at the current
stage and is not likely to grow shortly, creating a similar customer base for Amul in the coming years.
Age Distribution: The power structure in the US economy is slowly moving towards the older
generation as that generation has higher disposable income than the younger generation.
Health and Safety consciousness: We can see the reflection of attitude towards health and safety in
the quality of products and cost structures of manufacturing processes. Amul has stringent norms for
health and safety norms, so in emerging economies, it may have to compete with players that do not
have high-cost structures that of Amul.
Lifestyle Attitudes: The number of vegans in Western Countries has doubled in the last four years.
They have formed Veganism as a Lifestyle choice; Amul will have to provide relevant products to
cater to their vegan diets.
Technology
Mobile Phone & Internet Penetration: Amul should assess the level of internet and mobile phone
penetration in the country to build a requisite business model based on local needs and realities. For
instance, Amul can develop applications providing platforms for purchasing products and suggesting
effective and alternate ways of consumption.
Acceptance of Mobile Payments and Fintech Services: One of the areas where Amul can focus is
Mobile Payments. Amul should assess the preferred choice of mobile payments in the local economy
and choose the business model based on it.
Transparency & Digital Drive: Amul can use various processes to overcome corruption in the local
economy.
R&D Activities: If there is a high level of investment in the technology development sector, there are
high chances of building a self-sustaining ecosystem that drives innovation. Amul can leverage such a
situation to hire the best people in business.
Environmental
Environmental Standards and Regulations both at Local and National Levels: The national and
local policy can often be different. It can help Amul in numerous decisions such as plant location,
product development, and pricing strategy.
Per Capita and National Carbon Emission: The country's per capita carbon emission and the
overall level of carbon emissions of the country. It will help in better predicting the environmental
policy of the government. Western countries are focused on zero carbon emission, and the consumers
have also become more active while choosing the products and even willing to pay premium prices.
Climate Change: Amul needs to assess how climate change will impact Amul's business model and
supply chain. For instance, if the supply chain is not flexible, it can lead to bottlenecks when
shipments get delayed from one part of the world because of a sudden climate shift.
Legal
Employment Laws: Amul has to create a business model that stays consistent with Western
countries' employment and labor laws.
Health & Safety Laws: The country-specific laws and what Amul needs to do to comply with them.
Different countries have different attitudes towards health and safety, so Amul should conduct
thorough research before entering the market.
Data Protection Laws: Amul Dairy needs to assess the data laws in the country and what actions it
needs to undertake to comply with them.
Recommendation /strategy
Amul has seen the brunt of social media players and people outside India when they launched the
nationalistic campaign ‘Exit the dragon’ against China. Whether to take such strategies or some other,
when they are expanding internationally will depend on a lot on things. The geography and the
product will play the most important role in deciding which marketing plan and go to market strategy
they should take.
R S Sodhi, MD, Amul said “This year we will be investing Rs 1,000 core and we will be investing
around Rs 5,000 crore in the next five years in expanding milk processing infrastructure”. One of the
areas where Amul is investing heavily on mozzarella cheese and are ramping their production for the
same. There is a large potential global demand for mozzarella cheese but there are only limited
players in Italy which are making them and are fetching a premium. India is still at a nascent stage
when we talk about consumption of cheese as consumers don’t see see cheese as a standalone product
to consume.
Amul has always spent very less on marketing costs and passed down the reduction in cost to the
consumers. Their annual spend have been around 1% of the turnover, where as other food businesses
spend 8-10%. Keeping these things in mind let’s get straight into how Amul should enter into the
international market.

Product As discussed, currently with their expansion plans in mind in and outside India,
mozzarella cheese sounds the best product to bet at.
India’s richness in spices can come in handy while entering into international
market. Flavoured cheese products like pepper, garlic, red chili flakes etc. can be
introduced in the international market
Place Currently UD is the largest cheese consuming country in terms of volume (24%).
Germany is 2nd with 12% and France with 6.5%. But in terms of per capita
consumption of cheese, EU is the highest followed by US.
Given that supply chain plays a major role in dairy industry and EU being a hub
for cheese enthusiast all around the world, the best strategy for Amul would be
to enter EU. It will help them garner interest from people all across the world.
Given that in those developed nations presence of modern retail stores is
immense, they should plan and partner with them first.
Price In comparison to the developed countries like the US and European markets
Indian consumers pay 15= to 20 per cent lower prices in dairy products. Amul
similarly has the option to flood the market with lower priced mozzarella cheese.
But given that players in Italy are charging a hefty premium for their products,
Amul also has the option to do so. And since Amul anyway can introduce
multiple flavoured cheese products, pricing at a premium sounds a better option.
Promot Amul’s has always spent a very limited amount on marketing an yet Amul’s
ion butter girl has a significant brand recall and brand loyalty for Indians.
International markets will pose a tough competition to Amul and Amul will not
be playing on their home-grown advantages.
The best policies to take would be to use the utterly butterly girl to lure the Indian
audience staying abroad to increase initial consumption. Along with that, a good
strategy would be to use this mascot and give a twist in look and feel to fit it into
a modern and new generational avatar, replicating people who stay in EU.

Amul is ranked 8th in the list of global dairy producers. Yet Amul’s presence in international market
is limited, because of the huge market potential in India and supply chain issues. Now that Indian
market is saturating a bit and with the advent of new technologies supply chain constraints are also
being taken care of, Amul is planning to expand big in the international market.