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India's Amul: Keeping Up with the Times

By: Rohit Deshpande, Tarun Khanna, Namrata Arora, Tanya Bijlani

Amul is an Indian dairy cooperative founded in 1947, eight months before India's independence from British rule, and owned by over three million farmers in the state of Gujarat. It is India's largest…

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• Publication Date: May 4, 2016
• Discipline: Marketing
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Amul is an Indian dairy cooperative founded in 1947, eight months before India's independence from British rule, and owned by over three million farmers in the state of Gujarat. It is India's largest food product marketing organization, selling 46 products, including pouched milk, cheese, butter, ice cream and infant food through a million retailers across the country, and is the market leader in almost all the categories that it operates in. Amul is well known among Indian consumers for offering high-quality products at reasonable prices, and runs a highly popular advertising campaign that spoofs current events. It offers its farmers 80% of the consumer's dollar for milk, compared with 35%-40% typical in some Western markets. Amul's cooperative dairy model has been replicated across several Indian states, thereby helping increase the incomes of 80-100 million farmer families across the country. However, despite its success, Amul is beginning to come under increasing pressure. Multinationals like Nestlé and Unilever are increasing their presence in India, and competing fiercely with Amul in value-added products like yogurt. The entry of large multi-brand retailers like Walmart and Carrefour in the Indian market threatens to squeeze Amul's margins and undermine its low-cost distribution network. India's large young rural population is shying away from dairy farming in favor of urban jobs, leaving questions about future procurement. Finally, Amul's farmers form a large vote bank in the state of Gujarat, and its cooperative structure risks being compromised by vested political interests. Should Amul continue with the business model that has served it so well for decades, or should it change its strategy in order to keep up with India's changing social, political and economic landscape?

May 4, 2016 (Revised: Jun 16, 2017)

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Technology and Operations Management

Mba student perspectives.

• Assignments
• Assignment: The TOM Challenge: TOM…

“Amul – The Taste of India”

How an uprising against corrupt middlemen launched one of India’s longest standing and arguably most successful cooperative movements

Background and Business Model

Small producers of milk in the state of Gujarat established Amul Diary in 1946. This was a reaction to the inefficient, corrupt monopoly (Polson) in place at that point of time. The objective was the ensure that the small fragmented milk producers received the maximum possible remuneration while creating low cost high quality products for consumers, while eliminating the middlemen. Ensuring availability and providing great service to both the suppliers and consumers was of great importance as well.

The main challenges to effectively achieving Amul’s vision are

• Highly fragmented, small scale supplier base
• Low income consumers
• Lack of infrastructure
• Milk is a highly perishable good
• Lack of capital

Operating Model

Amul has very effectively aligned its business and operational models to achieve its vision since its launch.

Pathways to Just Digital Future

Supply Chain

Amul has effectively managed both upstream and downstream partners in establishing one of the most complex supply chains across the globe. The producers bring milk to the village cooperatives (foot/bicycle), which is then transported to the unions by specialised trucks. From the union’s production facility, milk is transported to wholesale distributors who then transport the milk to retailers in specialised trucks.

All of these processes are outsourced to third party logistics and retail partners to ensure efficient execution. A stringent verification process and guarantees for the safety of the milk products are required from channel members before they are on-boarded to the network.

To the wholesalers and retailers, Amul offers reasonable margins on a high volume good. It offers support in demand prediction, reducing the potential bullwhip effects that might arise from inexperienced sales partners. It also offers easy repayment programs for capital investments in infrastructure (freezers etc) by the retailers.  

Organisational Alignment

The heads of the village cooperatives sit on the management of the union at the district level. The heads of the unions at the district level comprise the governing board for the federation. This board appoints the chairman of Amul diary. This strategy has effectively ensured that the management has “skin in the game”.

The incentive structure is also aligned in that it reward suppliers who generate the most amount of business, which is judged based on a mix of the quality and quantity of milk supplied.

Increasing the Supply of Milk

As we saw in the e-choupal case, increasing the supply of product leads to better economies of scale (optimizing sunk costs). To this end, the unions provide various aids to the milk producers (like cattle-feed, veterinary aid, technical training) obtained at a low cost due to large scale sourcing, to increase supply. Aids are also aimed at overall community development.

Bridging Gaps in a Fragmented/Unstable Supply Side Market

Given the fragmented nature of the producers, supply tends to vary based on various factors, but demand remains fairly constant. The unions have invested in cold storage facilities to ensure that surpluses can be stored and redistributed to village level centers that are facing a shortage of supply, efficiently reducing supply instabilities.

Technology Initiatives

An automatic Milk Collection System was established that could identify and test the quality/quantity of milk. This leads to time saving since over 1000 producers enter a village cooperative each day and increased transparency.

Enterprise-wide Integrated Application Systems were used to align various sub software systems in place. A Geographic Information System was also established to view supply disparities in real time. Cyber stores have been recently launched as well.

Marketing/Advertising Campaign

One of the most interesting things about Amul is how a dairy cooperative evolved into a social commentator through their advertisements. The cartoon is usually has the Amul mascot (Amul Girl) in a current context with a catchy tagline. These ads have now become an establishment of their own right, elevating Amul’s brand image from just a diary cooperative to a household name outside the diary products context.

Product Diversification

Amul diversified into various diary products such as milk powders, butter, cheese, yogurt, ice creams and a number of other variations specific to the Indian market. It has managed to capture significant market share in others. This move was highly strategic once the brand image (quality at affordable prices) and distribution chains were established – a clear indication of successful horizontal integration.

Business Strategies for Managing Complex Supply Chains in Large Emerging Economies: The Story of AMUL; Chandra, Pankaj; Tirupati, Devanath; IIM A – April 2003

A case study of AMUL cooperative in India In relation to organizational design and operational efficiency; Prasad, Ruchira; International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 4, Issue 1, January-2013 1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amul#The_three-tier_.22Amul_Model.22

http://www.ndtv.com/photos/news/amuls-take-on-barack-obamas-four-more-years-10709#photo-183793

http://www.amul.com

http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/amul-turnover-grows-14-to-cross-rs-20k-cr-in-fy15-115051400858_1.html

“Role of Cooperatives in Inclusive Growth – Comparative study of success of AMUL & Lijjat Papad in India.” Victoria, Queen and Ingale, M.K.

Student comments on “Amul – The Taste of India”

Tami, this is such an interesting company! I love the way they leverage their scale to support each member of their value chain, by providing fair margins to purchasers, assisting with demand prediction and capital expenditure payments, providing less costly cattle-feed, etc. It sounds like they also have good systems in place for quality control, which is something I would be worried about given the fragmentation of the supplier base and the perishability of the product.

Amul’s advertising campaign is very interesting to me, and I’m curious to know if you think it is well aligned with its mission. Is the fact that it was a reaction to a corrupt milk monopoly well known? If that is an important part of the brand, I wonder if that changes the way it should think about its more risqué cartoons that make political statements. I can see both sides. I could imagine that if its brand is associated with fairness and justice, political statements may be well received and consistent with its brand. On the other hand, I could also imagine that consumers may not respond well to feeling like they are making a political statement when they buy their dairy products. Would love to hear your thoughts!

Nicole – thanks for your comment. I like that you picked up on the advertising because at the outset it seemed out of alignment with their business model to me as well.

But thinking through, I think the political commentary actually helped them build a much stronger brand identity (while the initial establishment was against a corrupt monopoly, that image is now buried in its history) which is much more relevant to the current day and age. And I see your point about how it could be perceived negatively, but it has played out in the positive angle in India and is now integral to their brand – allowing them to leverage it and diversify horizontally.

Also, for the majority of the Indian population (middle aged, low-mid income with no real avenues to express their political opinions), Amul’s advertisements are an easy way to stay connected and included into India’s “pop culture”.

Tami, having grown up in India, Amul really was an integral part of our daily diet. And the legend of Verghese Kurien is well known. I think this write up provides some really good insight into operations of Amul. And I really like that you mentioned the Social advertising, since that was something we all used to really enjoy. Only suggestion I had in here was that it missed a mention of ‘The White Revolution’, which is so critical when you speak about Amul. That was the phase that converted India from a milk deficient nation to a milk surplus nation, eventually going on to become the largest producer of milk in the world. For a country of a billion plus people, for one organization to turn things around that way is no mean feat.

Sagar – thanks so much for your post. It is interesting that you mention the White Revolution because I put it in the post and then removed it when editing for length! While Amul played an integral role in the White Revolution, I wasn’t sure if the White Revolution fundamentally changed Amul’s operational model (it was more a replication of Amul’s models on large scale to me) and hence I left it out. Glad you pointed it out though – the story/brand identity is incomplete without that.

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Management for Sustainable and Inclusive Development in a Transforming Asia pp 59–71 Cite as

Inclusive Business and Sustainable Rural Development in India: A Case Study of the AMUL Community-Based Food Chain

• Naoto Shimokado 5  
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The urban–rural gap in economic development in India makes rural poverty reduction an urgent task, and the aim of this study is to ascertain the mechanism of a community-based inclusive business in poverty reduction and sustainable rural development. This study focuses specifically on AMUL, the community-based dairy cooperative society contributing to small-scale producers’ organizations and rural development. As a paradigm of India’s dairy cooperative movement, AMUL has become the largest player in the Indian dairy market. Using AMUL as a case study, we derived the following conclusions. The basic units of AMUL are rural communities, which form a joint association to promote mass production and marketing and increase competitiveness. By building nationwide marketing channels, AMUL has established a system that returns most of the profit to the small-scale producers. Because AMUL is a cooperative society rather than a multinational or commercial corporation, producers rather than shareholders benefit most.

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Several studies refer to the importance of AMUL’s system that connects small-scale producers and the market, e.g., Prahalad ( 2009 ).

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Prahalad, C. K. (2009). The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid, revised and updated 5th anniversary edition: Eradicating poverty through profits . FT Press.

Rajendran, K., & Mohanty, S. (2004). Dairy co-operatives and milk marketing in India: Constraints and opportunities. Journal of Food Distribution Research, 35, 34–41.

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Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation website. (n.d.). Retrieved May 31, 2020, from https://www.amul.com/m/organisation .

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the personnel of Kaira, Surat, and Gandhinagar district unions and GCMMF for cooperation on interviews. I would like to thank Enago (www.enago.jp) for the English language review. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 20K13573.

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Shimokado, N. (2021). Inclusive Business and Sustainable Rural Development in India: A Case Study of the AMUL Community-Based Food Chain. In: Shioji, H., Adhikari, D.R., Yoshino, F., Hayashi, T. (eds) Management for Sustainable and Inclusive Development in a Transforming Asia. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8195-3_3

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Amul Case Study - History & Present of The Taste of India

Varad Kitey

Amul is an Indian dairy cooperative society based out of Anand that lies in Gujarat. The word 'Amul' is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Amulya’ which means priceless or precious. This case study on Amul discusses the history of Amul, its business model, revenue, and the key factors behind Amul's success.

Founded in 1946, Amul is managed by the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF ), a cooperative body that comprises 3.6 million milk producers of Gujarat today.

Amul started India's White Revolution that made India the world's biggest maker of milk and milk products . Amul was founded by Tribhuvandas Patel under the direction of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel , the first deputy prime minister of India .

The Kaira District Milk Union Limited was then conceived in 1946. Tribhuvandas headed the organization until his death in the 70s. He spoke to Dr. Verghese Kurien in 1949 and persuaded Dr. Kurien to assist in the mission of the White Revolution. Dr. Verghese Kurien is widely considered the founder of Amul.

Amul - Latest News Amul - About and Company Highlights Amul - History and The White Revolution Amul - Founders and Owner Amul - Business Model and Organization Structure Factors that led to Amul's Success Amul - Marketing Strategies Amul - Revenue and Growth

Amul - Latest News

May 9, 2021 - On the occasion of Mother's Day, Amul dedicated a new doodle to all the mothers . It features Amul's mascot feeding milk to a child in a bottle.

#Amul Topical: On the occasion of Mother’s Day... pic.twitter.com/oxizhJN8CF — Amul.coop (@Amul_Coop) May 9, 2021

May 7, 2021 - The suspension of  IPL 2021 attracted a series of memes across various platforms. Amul hopped on this trend and shared a topical on this regard that has gone viral all over the internet. The creative topical of Amul reads - I ndia P ostpones L eague!

#Amul Topical: IPL 2021 suspended due to CoVid -19! pic.twitter.com/QgzrDHkRJH — Amul.coop (@Amul_Coop) May 5, 2021

April 18, 2021 - Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (that markets Amul brand) reached out to AAR on the flavored milk taxable under GST. The brand deals with flavored milk products Amul Kool/Amul Kool Café. Thereby, the Gujarat Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR) said - "Flavored milk is basically 'beverage containing milk' and will attract 12% GST"

March 11, 2021 - Amul submitted a plan to The Government of India with an aim to make India a global hub for mozzarella cheese exports that are made from buffalo milk. It is planning to invest around INR 200 crore.

Amul - About and Company Highlights

Amul - Founders and Owner

Verghese Kurien and Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel founded Amul. R S Sodhi is the CEO of Amul since June 30, 2010.

Amul is a cooperative brand managed by a cooperative body, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF). Today, it is jointly owned by 36 lakh milk producers in Gujarat, and the apex body of 13 District Milk Unions spread across 13,000 villages of Gujarat.

Verghese Kurien - Biography

Tribhuvandas kishibhai patel - biography.

Amul - History and The White Revolution

Here's a brief analysis of Amul's history and how Amul contributed to the White Revolution. Amul cooperative was registered on 19 December 1946 as a reaction to the exploitation of local milk producers by the dealers and the agents of the main dairy of that time, the Polson dairy. The price of milk was randomly determined. The government had given monopolistic rights to Polson to collect milk from Kaira dairy farmers and supply it to the city of Mumbai.

Agitated by this treatment, the farmers of Kaira approached Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel under the administration of their leader Tribhuvandas K. Patel. Sardar Patel advised them to frame an organization, i.e., Kaira District Co-usable Milk Producers' Union (KDCMPUL) , and supply milk directly to the Bombay Milk Scheme rather than relying on Polson. He sent Morarji Desai to sort out the issues faced by the farmers.

Milk collection was decentralized as most of the makers were minor farmers who could provide 1–2 liters of milk each day. Cooperatives were framed for every town.

By June 1948, KDCMPUL had begun pasteurizing milk for the ' Bombay Milk Scheme' . Under the leadership of Tribhuvandas Patel, Amul celebrated its 25th Anniversary in 1973 with Morarji Desai, Maniben Patel, and Verghese Kurien.

The cooperative was additionally created and headed by Dr. Verghese Kurien with H.M. Dalaya. Dalaya's innovation of making skimmed milk powder from buffalo milk for the first time in the world and then making it on a commercial scale with Kurien's help led to the first modern dairy of the cooperative at Anand (Gujarat). It competed against many established market players.

Within a short period, the success at the cooperative's dairy spread to Anand's neighborhood in Gujarat. Thus, five unions in other districts like Mehsana, Banaskantha, Baroda, Sabarkantha, and Surat were set up by following the approach sometimes referred to as the 'Anand pattern'.

In 1970, the White Revolution of India began. In 1973, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF) , an apex marketing body of these district cooperatives, was set up to combine forces and expand the market while saving on advertising and avoiding internal competition. The Kaira Union, which had the brand name Amul with it since 1955, transferred the name to GCMMF.

Since then, GCMMF has become the largest food products marketing organization in India. It is the leading organization of dairy cooperatives in Gujarat. GCMMF is responsible for the exclusive marketing of products falling under 'Amul' and 'Sagar' brands.

Over the last five and a half decades, dairy cooperatives in Gujarat have created an economic network that links more than 3.1 million village-manufactured milk products with millions of consumers in India.

On September 30, 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Amul's chocolate plant in Mogar, Anand near its headquarters.

Amul - Business Model and Organization Structure

Amul pursues a unique plan of action in which 'esteem for cash' items are given to its purchasers while securing the premiums (as a proprietor) of the milk-producing farmers who are its providers. As milk is a transient item, the rancher could endure a misfortune on the off-chance that it isn't sold before the part of the bargain.

Amul's business model is described below:

Structure of the Organization

The cooperative model used by Amul came to be known as the "Anand design" cooperative framework. It is a three-level structure that involves town social orders, region-level dairy associations, and a state-level organization. Every level is financially free of the others and involves agents selected from the level below it.

It is fairly simple to understand. When one person does not have enough funds to generate the required capital for the company, other members with the same intention pool their resources together to make a whole organization that has substantial capital. The cooperative model is highly advantageous as it ensures faith in the brand. Even banks prefer to loan money to cooperative businesses over individual ownership. Today, Amul constitutes 30 Lakh farmers from all over India .

Situated in the town of Anand, the Kaira District Milk Cooperative Union (Amul) has grown exponentially. It held hands with other milk cooperatives in Gujarat and now covers 2.12 million farmers, supporting 10,411 towns' milk. It focuses on fourteen area-level plants (associations) under the general supervision of GCMMF.

Since the beginning, there was an assumption that this activity would directly profit and change poor farmers and add to the improvement of society. Markets, at that point and even today, are crude and poor in the foundation. Amul and GCMMF recognized that improvement and development couldn't be left to market powers and that proactive intercession was required.

Two key necessities were distinguished. -

• First, that continued development for the long haul would rely upon coordinating free market activity. It would require an overwhelming interest in the synchronous advancement of providers and customers.
• Second, the powerful administration of the system and business feasibility would require proficient administrators and technocrats.

The Three-tier Model of Amul

Amul is a brilliant organization that works with simplicity yet perfection. It follows a three-step process where each body functions effectively. The three tiers include:

• Village Dairy Cooperative Society - Each manufacturer is a part of the village dairy cooperative society that is a community for manufactures.
• District Milk Unions - Village Dairy Cooperative Society members elect their representatives who together form District Milk Union.
• State Milk Federation - This federation is responsible for the distribution and selling of products in the market.

Amul as the Umbrella Brand

The system pursues an umbrella marking technique. Amul is the basic brand for most item classifications created by different associations: fluid milk, milk powders, margarine, ghee, cheddar, cocoa items, desserts, frozen yogurt, and consolidated milk. Amul's sub-brands incorporate variations, for example, Amulspray, Amulspree, Amulya, and Nutramul.

The palatable oil items are assembled around Dhara and Lokdhara, mineral water is sold under the Jal Dhara brand while natural product beverages bear the Safal name. By demanding an umbrella brand, GCMMF skillfully maintained a strategic distance from association clashes and created an open door for the patrons to coordinate in creating items.

Amul's Development of Products

Amul's item improvement was driven both by the soul of the cooperative framework and productivity. Being a farmers' cooperative, Amul was focused on purchasing all the milk offered by the former. The transitory idea of milk made it important for Amul to process the surplus milk and enter new item classifications as the generation expanded.

Margarine and Butter

Propelled in 1955, margarine was one of the main milk items offered by Amul. It was additionally the first run-through Amul effectively tested on the authority of a built-up brand. Amul uprooted Polson to rise as the undisputed pioneer in margarine advertisement.

Cheese and Cheddar

GCMMF propelled cheddar in 1959 followed by cheddar powder in the mid-1970s. The notoriety of cheddar expanded during the 1980s.

Milk and UHT Milk

Amul was the market chief in the Gujarat entire milk showcase with a 90% piece of the pie in 2002; aside from providing milk to parts of Maharashtra and Rajasthan .

Factors that led to Amul's Success

The amul girl (the amul advertising campaign).

In 1966, Amul hired Sylvester da Cunha, the managing director of an advertising agency, to design an ad campaign for Amul Butter. DaCunha designed the campaign as a series of hoardings with topical ads that related to day-to-day issues. It was popular and earned a Guinness World Record for the longest-running ad campaign in the world.

In the 1980s, cartoon artist Kumar Morey and scriptwriter Bharat Dabholkar were roped in for sketching Amul's ads. But Dabholka rejected the trend of using celebrities in advertisement campaigns. Dabholkar credited chairman Verghese Kurien for creating a free atmosphere that encouraged the development of the ads.

The Amul girl is the advertising mascot used by the company to promote the brand. The brand has been cleverly using the cartoon figure in its longest-running ad campaign. The Amul girl is used to insert an element of humor into its print ads.

Indians have liked Amul's advertisements and the brand has seen higher customer engagement. The brand recall value for Amul increased. The Amul girl advertising campaign is often described as one of the best Indian advertising concepts.

Amul's Innovation

Amul has constantly been innovating, be it launching new products, creative marketing campaigns, or challenging traditional societal trends to come up with better ones. As mentioned, Amul in the 1960s became the first brand in the world to make skimmed milk powder from buffalo milk.

Also with its three-tiered cooperative structure, Amul transitioned from traditional operations to a more cost-efficient and effective structure. For its continuous innovation, Amul won the “CNN-IBN Innovating for Better Tomorrow Award” and “World Dairy Innovation Award” in the year 2014.

Efficient Supply Chain of Amul

Amul follows a three-tier cooperative structure. It consists of a dairy cooperative society at the village level that is affiliated with milk unions at the district level which in turn get federated to a milk federation at the state level. Milk is collected at the village dairy society, obtained and processed at the district milk union, and marketed at the state milk federation.

The greatness of this model lies in the fact that Amul was the first company to follow this model. It was reciprocated all over the country under 'Operation Flood' in the 1970s. The model ensures that there is efficiency and swiftness in operations. With this, the Amul model has helped India become the largest milk producer in the world.

Coordinating Nature of Amul

Amul follows the 'branded house architecture' way wherein whatever it promotes is done under a common brand name – Amul. The prime focus is on promoting the parent brand rather than individual products; this helps Amul gain more brand visibility and spend lesser on marketing and advertising costs.

Given the enormous number of associations and substances in the inventory network and decentralized duty regarding different exercises, successful coordination is basic for effectiveness and cost control. GCMMF has understood this procedure well and accomplishes the level of control.

Amul - Marketing Strategies

The first time I came across Amul was when the catchy tune of ‘Amul Doodh Peetha Hai India’ rang from the television. I was, maybe 6 years old. Thirteen years later, I still encounter some variation or the other and it evoked memories as always. Some brands are, for a long time successful, but few managed to touch our hearts. Let's take a look at the various Marketing Strategies of Amul -

Amul - Revenue and Growth

Amul's revenue stood at INR 38,550 crores (US$5.4 billion) in 2020. The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd., responsible for marketing Amul milk and dairy items, revealed a 13% expansion in its turnover to Rs 33,150 crores in the year finished March 31, 2020. The Amul gathering's turnover surpassed Rs 45,000 crores which are 13% higher than a year ago, i.e., in 2019.

The Amul Federation has accomplished a compound yearly development pace of over 17.5% for as long as nine years because of higher milk obtainment, extension in business sectors, and the dispatch of new items.

What is Amul's Full form?

It stands for Anand Milk Union Limited . Amul is an Indian dairy cooperative society based in Anand (Gujarat). The word 'Amul' is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Amulya’ which means priceless or precious.

What is White Revolution and who started it?

The white revolution was the initiative responsible for the growth of milk production in India and encouraged the production and use of Indian dairy products. Amul started India's White Revolution, which made India the world's biggest maker of milk and milk products. Dr. Verghese Kurien is known as the 'Father of the White Revolution' in India.

What was the effect of the White Revolution?

White Revolution made India the biggest manufacturer of milk and milk items. It additionally diminished the acts of fraud and malpractices by milk dealers and traders.

How was Amul founded or when did Amul start?

Amul cooperative was registered on 19 December 1946 as a reaction to the exploitation of local milk producers by the dealers and the agents of Polson dairy.

Who is Amul's Owner?

Amul is owned by Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, Ministry of Cooperation, Government of Gujarat

Who is the founder of the Amul brand?

Dr. Verghese Kurien and Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel are considered as the Founders of Amul. Tribhuvandas headed the organization until his death in the 1970s. He got in touch with Dr. Verghese Kurien in 1949 and persuaded Dr. Kurien to help with the mission.

What does Amul mean?

It stands for Anand Milk Union Limited. The word 'Amul' is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Amulya’ which means priceless or precious.

What is the mission statement of Amul?

The mission statement of Amul revolves around the company's aim of providing remunerative returns to the farmers. It also serves the interest of the consumers by providing quality products, which offer good value for money .

Where is the headquarters of Amul?

The headquarters of Amul is in the Anand district of Gujarat.

What is the Amul product life cycle?

The Amul product life cycle consists of 4 stages, which are Introduction, Maturity, Growth and Decline.

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Amul is an Indian milk cooperative society based out of Gujarat. t is under the ownership of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Limited, Department of Cooperation, Government of Gujarat. Today, it is controlled by 3.6 million milk producers. Mr. Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel laid the foundation of Amul in 1946. Later, Verghese Kurien joined Mr. Patel as the general manager. To manage and assist the marketing and technical department of the cooperative. After Mr Patel died in 1990, Kurien became the chairman of Amul and the face of its success. 

History of Amul

The main motive behind the commencement of Amul was not profit-making but a fight against the exploitation of Polson towards the Dairy farmers. Polson is the name of a dairy products brand that was started in India by Pestonjee Eduljee in 1915 in Mumbai. Dairy farmers of Kaira, along with Mr Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel, went up to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. To get a solution for the exploitation they were facing by Polson because the prices of the milk were fixed arbitrarily by the Giant,  making it very hard for the Dairy farmers to make ends meet. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel advised the farmers to form a cooperative and sent Morarji Desai to organise the farmers.

After a meeting in Chaklasi, the farmers formed the cooperative and decentralised the whole milk pooling system. Most of the farmers were only able to provide 1-2 litres of milk daily. They were the ones who most benefited from the formation of the cooperative. Later, this cooperative was named AMUL under the leadership of Mr.Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel.

Seeing the success of Amul in the Annand district, neighbouring districts of  Mehsana, Banaskantha, Baroda, Sabarkantha, and Surat were set up with similar cooperatives, and this was sometimes described as the Anand Pattern. 

White revolution & AMUL

White Revolution popularly, known as Operation Flood, was a government-led initiative with the Spearhead cooperative Amul. The main aim of the revolution was to increase the milk production in the country. Indeed, it was a significant success for India, since India ended up being the top producer of milk and milk products in India. In 1973, an apex body called the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd was set up to facilitate the marketing of these district cooperatives. The world’s biggest dairy development program, led by Dr. Verghese Kurien. ‘Operation Flood’, as it is otherwise known, transformed the dairy-deficient nation into the global leader in milk production. For the millions living in rural India, milk farming became the largest source of employment and income.

During the 1960’s India had the highest cattle population, & yet India stands among the lowest milk producers in the world. Between 1961 and 1970, the nation had to be dependent on imports to fulfil their dairy needs. The idea behind the white revolution was simple, eliminate the middle man, directly connecting the consumers with the dairy farmers. When farmers were getting a better price for their product they felt incentivized. Hence, they were willing to increase the production of milk, and other milk products. With the combined success of Amul and the white revolution, Mr.  Verghese Kurien went on to be called as the milkman of India. The dairy engineering graduate transformed a dusty little town in Gujarat into the milk capital of India. 

5 Key factors that led to the success of Amul

Utterly, buttery, delicious! I bet almost all of us have heard this jiggle at least once in our lives. Or have noticed that vivacious little girl on the packs of Amul butter? She became the ultimate advertising mascot for Amul to date. Amul has smartly used the girl mascot to advertise their brand associating it with humour and and how children like everything with butter. Hands down, even today, it is still remembered as one of the best marketing campaigns.

Decoding the whole Supply chain 

One of the main and biggest reasons for Amul’s success was that they managed the whole supply chain of milk production so efficiently. Starting from the pooling of milk from various small dairy farmers to supplying it to the end consumer. Amul follows a three-tier cooperative structure which consists of a dairy cooperative society at the village level that is affiliated with milk unions at the district level, which in turn is federated to a milk federation at the state level. Milk is collected at the village dairy society, procured and processed at the district milk union and marketed at the state milk federation.

Constant innovation

Today Amul has over 2000+ products under its brand name. Started just as a milk cooperative is today the biggest gaint in the milk and dairy product segment. And it’s not just about its product line but also its marketing campaigns and strategies. Their most recent social media campaign #BEMOREMILK is gaining popularity immensely. 

Diversification

With daily constant efforts, Amul managed to carter every dairy-related segment. Making products for the needs of the kids, men, women, health conscious & taste conscious. You name it & they have it.  Through consistent efforts, Amul has managed to have a diversified portfolio in terms of products & it is very hard for any new player to enter the market.

Trust building

By delivering the best quality products at low rates, Amul has built trust and brand loyalty among its target market. Also, a fact to notice is that Amul was the first company to offer condensed milk at affordable prices and made a significant mark among the lower-income group. 

Business model of Amul

So Amul follows a three-tier business model to provide milk to us. The first tier is the village dairy cooperative society, next is the district milk unions & then there is the state milk federation. 

Village Dairy Cooperative Society

This is the lower and the first tier of the business model of Amul. Here, local daily farmers come and pool their milk. Depending upon the quality of milk, it is segregated and accordingly is supplied ahead to the next tier i.e. district Milk unions.

District milk unions

The milk is then brought to the district milk union centres for processing and packaging. Here the quality of the milk is checked and tested, whether it is fit to be delivered to the market or not. Then the milk is graded depending on its properties like fat concentration, water concentration, nutritional value etc. 

State milk federation 

This is the last and the final stage of milk production. Here, the packaged milk arrives, which is distributed to the suppliers for supplying it to the retailers. Here the manufacturing of the other dairy products takes place. And the final product is delivered to the market.

4P’s of Amul Marketing Strategy

Product Mix 

Amul offers a wide range of products to its customers making it a trustworthy brand among consumers. The cheese and the ice cream segment of the amul are their cash cows. Contributing a significant share in the revenue of the business. Also Amul Ice Cream is among the top 10 ice cream brands in India. Recently amul has also entered the chocolates and lactose-free dairy product segment to cater for the needs of the changing India. 

The pricing strategies of Amul include a combination of competitive and low-cost pricing. Amul began with the vision to provide the best quality dairy products at affordable prices. The pricing of different products is taken into account by different factors such as the price of raw materials, labour cost, farmer’s profit, transportation cost and storage costs. Amul is pursuing a low-cost strategy for products commonly used like milk, ghee, butter and so on, where they offer these products at a lower price than their competitors. For products like Amulspray, Prolite, condensed milk and more the company adheres to a competitive pricing strategy, where the price of these products is similar to their competitors.

Promotion Mix

Amul is one of the few cooperatives that consistently deliver memorable brand promotions to the audience leaving a long-lasting impact. Like the world-famous Amul girl designed by Mr. Eustace Fernandes or the jingles like utterly buttery delicious Amul! And their iconic tagline the taste of India. The way Amul incorporates the humour of the cartoons in delivering heartfelt messages is commendable. 

Their recent cartoon tweet to celebrate the success of Pathan a Shah Rukh film was also catchy.

Amul distribution channel takes place through 2 mediums. First is the procurement of the milk. Farmers provide milk to cooperatives, and milk is gathered in bulk and transported to the processing plant. That milk is used to produce the final goods at the production plant. The second channel is In charge of getting the finished product to the end-users. ​​Carrying and forwarding agencies, distributors, dealers, and retailers are all part of the distribution chain.

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FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

• What is the full form of AMUL?

AMUL stands for Anand Milk Union Limited.

• Who is the owner of Amul?

Amul is cooperative and is not owned by any single person.

• Which state is associated with Amul?

Amul is a cooperative in association with the Gujarat Government.

• Is Amul an Indian Brand?

Yes, Amul is an Indian brand.

• How many products does Amul have?

Amul has roughly 2,000 products under its brand name.

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Marketing Strategy of Amul – A Complete Case Study with Examples (PDF Included)

Home > Blog > Marketing Strategy of Amul – A Complete Case Study with Examples (PDF Included)

• Last updated on November 17, 2023

Amul needs no introduction. It is an Indian and very successful dairy products brand. I am sure, if you check now, you will definitely find an Amul product in your home. All love Amul, trust Amul, and use Amul but how did this happen? How Amul became what it’s today? it’s because of the marketing strategy of Amul .

Amul was started decades ago but then also it successfully maintained its brand image just like before. There is a genius marketing strategy followed by Amul . You will learn about this strategy in this article. Before moving towards the marketing strategies, let’s know about the company .

Bonus Read: Jio Marketing Strategy

Amul is derived from Anand Milk Union Limited . It was started by Dr. Verghese Kurein in 1946. Dr. Verghese is popularly known as the Milkman of India. The special thing about Amul is, it is not a private or public company. It is a cooperative society that started to provide justice to farmers in 1946.

At that time, there was a middleman in cities who offers a very less amount of money in exchange for milk. To solve this problem , Dr. Verghese started Amul with the cooperation of other farmers. Now there are no middlemen in Amul. Milk producers (farmers) sell products that offer them a good amount of money.

Amul Business Model

Amul has 5 pillars in its business model . It is a “for the people” company. There is no single owner of Amul, all villagers manage Amul Cooperative society. Here are the 5 pillars of the business model.

• Milk Producers
• Village dairy cooperation
• District Milk cooperation union
• State cooperative milk marketing federation
• The Consumer

The profit share of the products is distributed as shown in the above chart .

Must Read: Zomato Marketing Strategy

Amul Target Customer (Two Segments)

Amul targets those  customers  who need a good  quality product  at an  affordable  cost. The brand creates products for everybody that’s why we have  divided  its target audience into  two segments . Amul smartly plans marketing strategies for both of these audiences.

Business to Consumers (B2C)

Amul created products for  every age group  based on their interests and choices. Here are the names of a few products. They hold the Guinness record for the longest-running advertising campaign.

Business to Business (B2B)

In  T.V. advertisements , we generally see Amul focusing on the B2C market. But in reality, the brand has a  special interest  in the B2B category. B2B category people buy products in bulk and are regular customers that’s why they are very important for the company.

Amul’s Marketing Strategy

Amul’s unique and innovative marketing strategies differentiate it from other dairy brands. There is no single dairy products company in India, we have many. Amul dominated this competitive market with its smart marketing campaigns. Let’s know about each campaign in detail.

1) Amul’s Ad Girl Marketing Strategy

This is a  handmade drawing of a girl  which Amul created in 1967 in response to its rival brand. It is the most  loved ad  icon in India. Amul uses this girl in every ad. The activities of this girl change according to the ads.

You can see her   doing Yoga in some ads, whereas   playing cricket in others. Using this girl as an ad icon is  Amul’s best marketing strategy  so far.

2) Moment Marketing Strategy of Amul

Amul is using this  moment marketing strategy  for decades now. Previously, it was in newspapers and now it is on popular social media platforms like Twitter. As you can see in the above image, Amul used this  latest news of equal pay  for both  men & women cricketers . See how smartly, the brand used this news for its marketing purpose. This is the innovative  marketing strategy of Amul .

3) Low-Cost, High-Value Marketing Strategy

Amul targets the  mass market . It sells quality products at a  reasonable price  that everybody can afford. This increase the repeat customers of Amul. It is a  simple  but effective  marketing strategy of Amul . Delivering high-quality products at low cost is also a great competitive advantage of Amul.

4) Smart Tagline Marketing Strategy

Amul’s popular taglines, are “ Amul Doodh pita hai India ” and  “The Taste of India “ . These taglines subconsciously attract the audience and capture the mind space of consumers.  Creating jingles  and  taglines  costs  no money  but some creativity and psychological understanding of your consumers.

5) Sell all Products Under one Brand

Generally,  FMCG companies  sell products under  different brand names . Amul did this differently. They created one flagship brand ( Amul)  and started selling various products under that brand. Whenever Amul launches a new product, it sold out effortlessly because of its brand value. This is another great  marketing strategy of Amul  where it thought and acted out of the box.

6) Digital Marketing Strategy of Amul

Digital marketing is much  cheaper than traditional marketing . Amul sees this opportunity and after going digital, their  profit margins have increased  tremendously. Let’s understand the digital marketing strategy of Amul in detail. Amul uses social media, email marketing, and influencer marketing to promote its products.

SEO Strategy of Amul

Amul follows a smart SEO strategy. According to SEMrush, their website gets more than  960,000 visitors  per month. Most of its traffic comes from  branded queries .

As you can see in the above image, the  domain authority  of the Amul website is  59 . Whenever Amul publishes a new page, it easily gets ranked on Google due to its high authority. This is a good  marketing strategy of Amul  which helps in getting the right audience from Google.

Social Media Marketing Strategy of Amul

Followers on these social media platforms show Amul follows  innovative and highly engaging marketing strategies  to attract the audience. Otherwise, it is very difficult to attract someone in this  noisy world  where we have more content than needed.

FACEBOOK ADS MARKETING STRATEGY

As you can see in the above image, Amul creates a  brand awareness  of its new products through  social media paid ads . After a few days, there is a festival in India called  Chhath Puja . Amul linked that festival with their new product. This is an awesome  marketing strategy of Amul . Every social media marketer must learn from it.

To check the latest Facebook ads of Amul, you can visit the  Facebook ad library .

TWITTER MARKETING STRATEGY OF AMUL

Amul generally uses  moment marketing  to capture the  audience’s attention . You can see, the above post got more than 1000 likes in just 1 day. In India, people are in love with Amul’s cartoon marketing. After Amul, new tech brands like Zomato also started using the strategy to gain attention. Many times Amul’s tweets go viral so this is a free  marketing strategy of Amul  to reach a larger audience.

YOUTUBE MARKETING STRATEGY OF AMUL

Amul has more than  4 lac subscribers  on YouTube . Amul follows a good  content marketing strategy  on YouTube. They started a trend during  Covid-19  #SimpleHomemadeRecipes which is still running. More than  3000 videos  are uploaded on YouTube of these series.

Professional  chefs shoot these videos  and  Amul uploads  them on  YouTube . Amul saves all its content creation money. They just edit & upload the video. Chefs also get the opportunity to be featured on a 4 lac subscribers channel so it’s a win-win game.

In my opinion, this is the best marketing strategy of Amul which everyone should learn from. Amul got millions of eyeballs by just uploading these other’s created videos.

Popular Marketing Campaigns of Amul Dairy Products

1) #celebratingdrkurien.

The campaign was started in 2018 as a tribute to Dr. Kurien. It was a bike rally from Jammu to Gujrat. During the campaign, bikers met those farmers whose life has been impacted by Dr. Kurien. It was a very big campaign.

This was a very successful campaign. Thousands of people from different villages met these bikers. All national news channels covered this news and Amul got free marketing without paying a single penny. This was a good marketing strategy of Amul in rural areas.

2) #amulrecipes

Amul started this #Amulrecipes campaign on YouTube. They created more than 300 videos during the campaign. Today Amul has more than 4 lac subscribers on its YouTube channel. Amul got a huge subscriber gain after this campaign. Many of its videos have lakhs of views. During the video, Amul is using their own products. Every recipe needs a dairy product so Amul started creating these recipe videos to showcase their products.

3) Amul Classics

This campaign was started during Covid-19. After a long period of time, Doordarshan started showing Ramayana and Mahabharat on Television. At that time, people demanded Amul to telecast those 90s ads again. These ads were shown on Television as well as social media platforms.

On YouTube, Amul created a playlist of 88 classic ad videos. These videos got thousands of views. Amul follows genius marketing strategies,  their  marketing doesn’t feel like marketing” because people love their ads and creativity.

Here we end our case study on Amul’s marketing strategy. Amul is one of the most loved brands in India. Their ads are so attractive that nobody can ignore them. In this case study, we have covered almost all marketing strategies of Amul. At the end of the article, we have also mentioned the names of Amul’s popular marketing campaigns.

During our 4 month digital marketing course in Jaipur , we teach hundreds of case studies to our students. You can also join our course to learn more marketing strategies of Amul. Thanks for reading. Do share this Amul case study with your friends & family.

Which marketing strategy of Amul, you loved the most? Tell us in the comment box.

FAQs Related to Amul Marketing Strategy

Amul sells all its product under one name i.e Amul. We can get Amul Ghee, Amul Dahi, and Amul cheese. Everything is available under one brand name. Whenever Amul launches a new product in the market, it starts selling with no advertising because people trust Amul. This is a wonderful marketing strategy of Amul which I loved the most.

Amul’s business model stands on the 5 pillars explained above in this article. Amul is not a company, it’s a cooperative society so the milk producers also get a good income by selling milk.

Amul has an internal marketing team. They plan and execute marketing strategies regularly to test the new products.

The two most famous marketing taglines of Amul are Amul Doodh pita hai India ” and  “The Taste of India “ .

Parmveer Singh Sandhu

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Amul Case Study: The Taste of India

Rp editorial.

Published: December 27, 2021

Amul was formed in 1946 as a Dairy Cooperative based in Anand, Gujarat. Amul spurred India’s White Revolution, making the country the world’s largest producer of milk and milk products. In the process, Amul became the most significant food brand in India and has ventured into markets overseas. Amul product portfolios are based on bread spreads, milk drinks, fresh milk, powder milk, cheese, and desserts.

Let us dive into how technology, systems ,  and marketing has made Amul the milk giant of India.

The Beginning

Amul was formed as a part of a cooperative movement against Polson Dairy in Anand, Gujarat. Everyone except the farmers benefited from the setup. Soon the matters went into the hands of late Sardar Patel which led to the formation of the Kaira District Co-operative Products’ Union in Anand.

The union started pasteurizing milk produced by a handful of farmers for the Bombay Milk Scheme and grew to 432 farmers by the end of 1948. The rapid growth led to problems including excess production that the Bombay Milk Scheme couldn’t accommodate. To solve this issue, a plant was set up to process all that extra milk into milk powder and butter products.

Efficient Operations

Amul has constantly been innovating; launching new products, creating marketing campaigns, or challenging traditional societal trends to come up with better ones. With its three-tier cooperative structure, they have transitioned from traditional operations to a more cost-efficient and effective system.

Milk is collected at the village dairy society, obtained and processed at the district milk union, and marketed at the state milk federation. The model ensures that there is efficiency and swiftness in operations. With this, the Amul model has helped India become the largest milk producer in the world.

For its continuous innovation, Amul won the “CNN-IBN Innovating for Better Tomorrow Award” and “World Dairy Innovation Award” in the year 2014.

Embracing Technology

For Amul, technology has been critical for its survival as one of India’s biggest CPG companies. Every single aspect of their complex supply chain has been integrated through technology, enabling them to have visibility at each step. These insights are crucially allowing the dairy company to know, for instance, which village was not contributing to the supply of milk, which tanker wasn’t operational or which of the 200 chilling stations were working at optimal capacity, etc.

In the past decade,  Amul’s digital transformation  has helped it gain a 10x growth in business. By improving data accuracy and integration with the distributor management system, processes are seamless now. Coupled with mobile applications and automation that efficiently manage applications, Amul has better operations and gained much-needed insight into the logistics side of things.

The next wave is tied to the  rise of technologies in AI and ML , the future is in tech-enabled agile CPG operations. Visibility of operations and performance can now be data-driven like never before.

In a country like India, more than 90% of CPG purchases and revenue generation occurs at small mom & pop shops. It is clear by Amul’s focus areas that only those CPG companies will survive, which invest in tech-based solutions. But how and whom to partner up with?

We are here for you. Retail Pulse is built for CPG companies and retailers in developing markets; Retail Pulse offers an AI-based solution to tap into the immense data in every mom & pop shop and give deep store analytics and insights based on the data generated via photos taken by the smartphones of CPG company’s sales reps.

Amul, most trusted and long-standing brand

In 1966, Amul hired Sylvester da Cunha, the managing director of an advertising agency, to design an Amul Butter ad campaign. DaCunha created the campaign as a series of hoardings with topical ads that related to day-to-day issues. It got very popular and earned a Guinness World Record for the longest-running ad campaign in the world.

The Amul girl is the advertising mascot used by the company to promote the brand. The Amul girl is used to insert an element of humor into its print ads easily making a connection with the mass population.

In a recent interview Mr. R S Sodhi, MD GCMMF (Amul), at the Kyoorius event, explains how Amul has become a highly trusted brand in India. “Companies tend to exploit loopholes in the Indian food laws and reduce the cost of production by replacing expensive ingredients with cheaper alternatives,” he noted. “Amul does not do that, it does not short-change consumers and that is how it has won their trust.”

He further talks about how market segmentation and product positioning does not matter to Amul.“For example, Amul butter is consumed by millionaires living in big cities as well as by autorickshaw drivers living in small towns, the perception of the brand is like that.”

We at Retail Pulse are in the business to derive the data from such markets and help CPG brands like Amul accelerate their sales via smart tech.

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