AMUL COMFY

Building a rural brand!

Shweta was on her way back to the Lucknow airport from Unnao. For the last 3 days
she was in Kanpur covering various rural markets around that area as part of her work towards
formulating the ‘rural marketing strategy’ for the brand.

Unlike urban India where a range of brands co-existed, Shweta realized that for most
categories in rural India, there happened to be one dominant brand that enjoyed a market share
of upwards of 70%. Be it Coke in colas or Colgate in toothpaste, she saw that for each category
there was one brand which went on to become the generic for the category.

On checking for male innerwear, the category she represented, she realized there was
no brand that was recalled by consumers spontaneously. Most of them were not even able to
mention the brand they were currently wearing! It was a category where the store presence and
retailer recommendation were driving their choice of brand without any active associations /
personality for any of the available brands.

While on one hand Shweta saw this as an opportunity to become that generic brand for
innerwear, on the other she also saw the risk involved in one of their worthy competitors (Lux,
VIP & Rupa) occupying that slot making Amul Comfy a distant follower!

She boarded the flight and immediately switched on her laptop to start putting her
thoughts down before the turbulence started!

BACKGROUND

Incorporated in 2001, JG Hosiery Private Limited was an innerwear manufacturer based

out of Tirupur, the mecca of clothing in India.

Started as a single brand player for vests & briefs through Amul, the company today had
a portfolio or products ranging from innerwear to sportswear covering different user profiles and
income segments through different brands – Amul Comfy, Macho, Sporto & Zoiro.

Given that more than 90% of the turnover for the company came from innerwear, they
had a 3-tier strategy based on pricing –
Tier 1 Mass: Amul Comfy led this tier with products at the low end of pricing for the masses
Tier 2 Mass Premium: Macho led this tier with relatively better products at a premium of 20-
30%
Tier 3 Premium: Zoiro led this tier with high quality products at a 400% premium to mass

While the premium segment was more of a driver of image, the business was primarily
sourced from the mass and mass premium segments of the market. Within the mass segment,
Amul Comfy was a strong market leader in the urban markets with a share of more than 30% at
a national level. In these markets the brand continued to grow at a healthy rate of 15% YoY.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Copyright 2018 Lowe Lintas. This case is only written for class discussion for the students of NMIMS. It is not intended to serve as
an endorsement, source of primary data or illustration of effective or ineffective management. No part of this case may be
reproduced, referred or published in any form without the permission of Lowe Lintas.
AMUL COMFY – 2016 RELAUNCH

To further accelerate the rate of growth of Amul Comfy, Lowe Lintas was engaged on a
project in 2016. The agency conducted extensive research with the target audience and
conceptualized a new positioning for the brand based on the extremely relevant attribute of
‘durability’ for the value-conscious mass consumer. With Ajay Devgan as the brand ambassador,
the agency conceptualized a light-hearted campaign based on the idea – Phat ti nahin, lamba
tikti hai with a pun intended on ‘phat ti’!

The campaign was an instant success in the urban markets. With a proposition that was
relevant, an ambassador that was relatable yet aspirational and an entertaining piece of
communication, the brand became top-of-mind for both consumers and retailers. The sales for
the brand in urban markets saw an uplift that was not even expected by the company creating a
situation of stock-out in the first two months of the campaign!

RURAL MARKETS – AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT STORY!

While the brand was achieving new feats in the urban market, it continued to be on a
slow burn as far as the rural markets was concerned. The company had taken a decision 4
years ago to extend only Amul Comfy into the rural markets given its pricing and offering was a
perfect match.

Budgets were earmarked for the rural initiative and efforts were undertaken to build
distribution as well as visibility in the rural markets. While the expansion into the markets was
staggered starting with north, west, south and east, the brand had today reached a stage where
it was available in all R1 & R2 markets. The distribution in most cases was indirect through a
wholesaler in a nearby city.

Even the launch of the Ajay Devgan campaign was leveraged to drive consideration in
the rural markets. Keeping the same in mind, a lot of the media was put behind Doordarshan, a
preferred reach vehicle in those markets.

Despite all the efforts, the brand remained a fringe player (5% market share) in the rural
markets which were currently dominated by regional players who were pushing sub-standard
products on the back of very high retail margins.

HORSES FOR COURSES!

The management had eventually reached a conclusion that what made the brand
successful in the urban markets was not likely to deliver success for the rural markets. Given
the nature of these markets and consumers, the brand probably needed to conceptualise and
create an entirely different communication strategy and mix.

Shweta, the brand manager of Amul Comfy, was entrusted this task. The management
gave her a month to visit rural markets, study the consumers and work of other successful
brands and propose a marketing communication strategy to make the brand the first and
obvious choice of the rural consumers. The flight had landed in Coimbatore and with it also
landed the fact that the task was easier said than done!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Copyright 2018 Lowe Lintas. This case is only written for class discussion for the students of NMIMS. It is not intended to serve as
an endorsement, source of primary data or illustration of effective or ineffective management. No part of this case may be
reproduced, referred or published in any form without the permission of Lowe Lintas.