Amul has just been ranked as the No. 1 Indian brand by Campaign magazine in its list of Top 1000 Brands of Asia for the third consecutive year. And I’m really excited. Amul is one brand which truly deserves this accolade. Formed in 1946, Amul is not one of those flamboyant multinationals but a dairy cooperative, jointly owned by 2.8 million milk producers in Gujarat. Talk about unity!
Amul has been a stellar example of rural development and has been at the forefront of the White Revolution in India which has made the country a production powerhouse for milk and milk products. With an annual turnover in excess of US$1.7 billion, Amul is the largest food brand in India and has a presence in 40 countries globally. Here’s a mind boggling statistic. The daily milk collection from Amul’s producer members stands in excess of 9 million liters.
So what makes Amul such an amazing brand? While Amul is synonymous with milk and butter, it’s product range is quite formidable and inclues ghee, cheese, curd, yogurt, chocolate, ice cream, shrikhand and many other products. This strategy has allowed it to reign supreme in the dairy products segment in India. The other thing that works in Amul’s favour is its amazing network. It has about 50 sales offices pan-India with more than 3,000 wholesale dealers and more than 5,00,000 retailers. That is huge!
But they also have a secret weapon. The Amul mascot, a cute and chubby girl usually dressed in a polka dot dress, is universally recognisable in India. And the tagline, ‘Utterly Butterly Delicious Amul’ is just as catchy. Together, these two elements are a fantastic combination of brand elements for Amul. And get this, the Amul mascot has been the same since its inception in 1967. That’s almost 45 years ago. But the Amul girl is still as relevant as ever.
The Amul girl was the brainchild of Sylvester daCunha, the managing director of the advertising agency AS. The ads were designed as a series of hoardings with designs relating to day-to-day issues. The beauty of these ads is that instead of using a celebrity, a character was created from scratch and associations built around it. The brand recall for the Amul girl is phenomenal across India today. And the biggest reason for this is the topical nature of the ads.
The Amul ads have witty one-liners which capture relevant events that have caught the fancy of the nation. This instantly creates a connect with the populace and helps them to identify with the brand in a surrogate manner. Apart from this, the humour is incisive and funny. The style of drawing is also very distinctive, and there is instant recognition of the brand without even needing to take a close look. All in all, the Amul girl has become iconic in Indian advertising.
While today’s advertising revolves around creating stylistic ads and abounds in celebrity endorsements, Amul is like a breath of fresh air that has held onto its roots and yet managed to stay relevant over the years. Kudos to this very Indian brand!
Featured Image Source: http://www.amul.com/files/hits/amul-hits-88.jpg
Dear Prashant, You are right about Amul. The way their ad-company utilizes and creates ads around news is phenomenal. Thank you for the blog and news of ranking of Amul, honestly, I was not aware about the recent award. Great work by the brand…
Dear Prashant, very true about AMUL. True to its tagline, AMUL is really synonymous with the Taste of India. And the beauty with which they have maintained their brand ambassador – the chubby butter girl, is really applaudable. Kudos to the brand which has been a link between the rural India and its urban counterparts.