Presence of Amul Butter on

Social Media

Presented by
Kunal Kumar
BBA VTH SEM
 AMUL
Amul is the most successful Indian brands in the FMCG industry. Amul
in the past years was known for creating white revolution in India and
now it has made India the largest producer of milk and milk products all
across the world.
Formed in 1946, the company is managed by the Gujarat Co-operative
Milk Marketing Federation Ltd., which today markets its business with
more than 750 employees with jointly 3.6 million milk producers in
Gujarat alone. The credit goes to Dr. Verghese Kurien, founder-
chairman of the GCMMF who brought White revolution to the country
and served the country for more than 30 years and made Amul a great
success.
 How Amul started

Inspired by India’s freedom struggle, it all began when farmers of the

Anand city in Gujarat started protesting the Britishers using milk as a
symbol. One of a local leader Tribhuvandas Patel got imprisoned many
a times during the freedom struggle. Later he along with his supporters
in 1946 started a dairy co-operative in Anand.
Soon after in independent India, Verghese Kurien, a 28 year old
Mechanical Engineer from Kerala, joined the dairy office in Anant in
1949. No one then knew that Dr. Kurien would never leave Anand and
make it the milk capital of India. Thus he started AMUL in 1955 as a
result of which white revolution was started in India.
 Marketing Strategy

Amul always tried to provide their products at the best

price. Its presence in every nook and corner has made it
approachable in each house. They have not invested too
much on Television advertisements. Rather they now
prefer to use social media for their promotion and increase
their presence. The brand actively uses two major social
media platforms Facebook and Twitter. Recently it has
used great graphics and videos for the Rio Olympics 2016.
 Amul on Facebook
Amul already had a winning content tool that its brand Amul Butter usage in
print and outdoors, and at times on web, so it was not very difficult for the brand
to take the content leap on Facebook. The brand has simply appropriated the
content it has been created for its butter.
Following in its butter’s footstep, the brand has become a canvas on which major
news items that affect people at large is talked about (see the first two images
below). This has led to a significant boost in the level of engagement for each
post 
In total, the brand has over 10-lakh fans, of which a little above 27,000 is
actively engaged with the page, a number which keep on going up and falling
down, and at times it has gone very low (see the image below). Even when the
brand has dropped in engagement, the overall picture is not bleak. If you compare
pages from India which had 10 lakhs or more fans, you will see that per fan
engagement of the brand is much higher than the rest 
 Amul on Twitter

On Twitter, the brand has almost replicated the content plan it had followed on
Facebook .There is very little on this platform which is different from the
things there on Facebook. Still it has 12,962 followers, which surpasses the
follower base of many Indian brands. There had been occasions where people
have engaged with the brand. It was especially in times of high-energy events
(like in the first image). And like on Facebook, here also you can hear the
voice of dissent from its followers, which had been duly taken care of by the
social media team of Amul, unlike some of the brands in India.
It reminds me of my experience with Amazon India, which deleted my
negative post which I made when I didn’t receive my book even after 22 days
of placing the order. It is good to see that Amul is not walking down that path.
 Results Achieved

Without stepping in the hardcore marketing, Amul has made its way of
success. It is now a household name in the Indian families with their
wide range of dairy products. With many big players in the dairy
industry, Amul is the only name which is on everyone’s lips for dairy
products. It has contributed the most in making India number 1 in milk
production. However with the change in time, Amul has not changed
their trademark “Amul Girl” that seems to be lucky for the brands
promotion and success. In their each and every promotional campaign,
this “Amul Girl” can be seen. Using the “Amul Girl” on its social media
platform, Amul has been able to attract more number of customers to
their social media pages resulting in increase in their business.
4 P’S
AMUL butter’s implementation of the 4P’s-

AMUL butter enjoys a market share of more than 80% which is a result of its constant
strategizing of the 4P’s- Product, Price, Place and Promotion. They’ve formulized a very
strong base in all these four parameters which has given it a Competitive Advantage over all
its competitors.
Product- AMUL butter’s core competency lies in the product that they offer- they follow
world standard methods like Total Quality Management in their operations. Right from the
supply side where they adopt practices like Kaizen to ensure the quality of the milk in terms
of acidity and its sourness. The processing meets the AGMARK standard and BIS
Specifications No. IS: 13690:1992 which gives a testimony to their quality measures. All
these proactive initiatives gives them a firm foundation to build over in order to pursue their
marketing policies.
AMUL Butter’s product advantage is not only restricted to the superior quality that it has, but
also the constant innovation that they undergo in their packaging. Right now under their
product basket, AMUL butter is available in the following sizes-
500 grams 100 grams 50 grams 20 grams 8 grams
 This diverse package basket clearly reflects how AMUL has been successful in segmentation
of its target group. Mr. Anil Mehta 1 , Amul Distributor of Andheri Region, says-“ Amul’s
target group ranges from 1 Mr Amit Mehta owns Amritlal & Bros. Consumer Division. They
are the distributors of AMUL products in the Andheri west region. They’ve been distributing
AMUL products in this region slums to Sun-N-Sand”( both order the 8 grams butter packs-
slum dwellers due to affordability and big hotels as a butter supplement to specific dishes).
AMUL has kept the provision of purchasing Institutional Packs for High Consumption
Groups like restaurants and caterers who usually place their order in cases(one case has 30
packs of 500 grams). This Institutional Packs are not meant for retail selling and are without
the outer packaging that one finds on the retail stores. This cuts down the cost for the High
Consumption group as they are priced much less than the retail packs.

Thus, AMUL has constantly taken the right steps to ensure a high quality product that gets
prodigious customer satisfaction.

Since health consciousness is gaining momentum in our country as well ,Amul reacted to it
with the introduction of new products in its line- Amul Lite which offers a low fat butter and
Delicious which is a no cholesterol table margarine( a substitute for butter). This gives them a
wider reach to the new found segment of health aware target group
 Price - The next important aspect that provides a Competitive Advantage
to AMUL butter over its competitors is its price. AMUL butter spends less
than 1% of its revenues into advertising which is much less than the
industry average of 8-9%. Add to this, they’ve a highly efficient
distribution channel which facilitates effective pricing. The Cooperative
network of the Milk Union eradicates the scope of the middle man on the
supply side ensuring fair pricing and the strong marketing channel of
GCMMF2 carries forth the trend, which gives them a strong pricing
advantage. So on one hand its closest competitor, Britannia charges Rs.27
for a 100 gram packet, Amul charges Rs.25. As discussed earlier, AMUL’s
Institutional Packs have an attractive pricing of Rs 110 compared to retail
packs priced at Rs.122 for a 500 gram pack. The range of product packages
Amul offers(8 grams being the minimum) makes it easier for lower income
groups to afford it. Thus, over a period of time they’ve expanded on their
target group with effective packaging and pricing
 Place- The biggest strength of Amul is its very strong marketing channel spread across the
length and breadth of the country. Under their umbrella, they’ve more than 2.8 million
farmers supplying them milk and the GCMMF has a network of more than 3500 distributors
and more than 5 lakh retail outlets. This makes availability a very strong factor contributing
to AMUL butter’s success for the past 45 years.
GCMMF is the Cooperative under whom more than 2.8 million farmers of 12 districts are
operational. They look after the marketing, distribution and the entire management of AMUL
brand name.
 From GCMMF to consumer, there are two ways in which the distribution channels function.
One is shown above where from Centralized GCMMF, they subsequently decentralize the
operations to 47 depots which then deal with more than 3500 distributors and eventually
AMUL butter is available in more than 5 lakh retail outlets.
The other way is the inception of AMUL Parlour, where they’ve been able to create a direct
B2C model. “Amul has a vision to have a parlour across the country at a distance range of
every 3-4 kilometers” informs Mr. Amit Mehta. This shows their intent to frame a parallel
strong distribution channel which would give their products unparalleled availability
compared to the competitors. Retail Visibility- This was a field research that our group
undertook the retail visibility of AMUL butter (Even though stacked behind due to
consumption of stock, customers searched for it and took AMUL butter even though other
alternatives were clearly available at convenience)
  Promotion- GCMMF spends less than 1% of its revenue on advertising. The major form of
advertising is the AMUL topical- the social observer created by Da Cunha Communications.
The cute AMUL moppet girl wearing a polka dress has gained high recognition ubiquitously and
is in the race for Guinness Book of World Records for the highest running campaign in the
world. This has given the brand a high recall value as well at a relatively smaller expenditure.
Apart from this, AMUL butter advertises sporadically on television but they are far and few
in between. Our research showed that AMUL doesn’t even indulge too much into sales
promotion activities like discounts to surge the sales. “There is only one time that I can recollect
AMUL butter giving a discount of Rs. 5, there isn’t much sales promotion activity on their side
as word of mouth and the already established brand works effectively for them” 
 The major promotional aspects of AMUL are for the umbrella brand and not butter. They try
different ways for that like sponsorships( Amul Star Voice of India, Amul Cricket Ratings,
Amul Chef of the Year, Amul Maharani Contest and so on).
They are trying to make headway into social media effectively as well through Facebook,
twitter, Orkut and their own blogs apart from the website. They are also present on the virtual
world- Second Life. But our research shows that not many consumers are aware of their
presence which is a matter of concern for them.