Amul BRANFING
Amul BRANFING
Amul BRANFING
The brand management is an important activity for any organization, because it is brand which
makes an organization unique when compared with other organizations. For example, Nike sells
the different types of shoe for Men and Women, and there are other companies which sell the
same type of shoes, but what makes the Nike shoe different is its brand, which it have achieved
since long time by providing good quality products to customers. Other operations of an
organization like marketing, advertising, human resource management etc. can be impacted by
the brand value. This report analyzes the brand management process and brand value
assessment of Amul, a leading company in India which produces milk- related products.
The literature review of the research explains different concepts of brand management process
and also explains the research methodologies which can be used in the brand value evaluation.
The research approach and the methods adopted in the research are explained. A case study of
Amul explains the different views of the researchers regarding the brand management process
of Amul. It explains the advertising strategy and marketing strategy deployed by Amul in
relation to brand management. A survey based on an online questionnaire is conducted which
identifies the consumers perception of the brand value of Amul, its advertising process, quality
of products etc. The survey responses can be compared with the case study analysis where an
analysis is made on the data collected. Based on the analysis, recommendations are presented
to Amul and a conclusion is made.
Research Introduction:
For an already existing organization, managing their brand is also a major operation like other
business processes. Poor brand management can result in losing existing customers which has
more impact on the business than losing new customers. For example, if you regularly find poor
customer service, lack of goods in a very big retail shop known for its best quality products and
services, it affects its brand and slowly the customers would prefer other good retail stores for
buying their goods. Therefore for all the organization, whether it is newly formed or existing
one, brand management is a very important process as it is a factor which is perceived by their
customers, and customers are the main asset to any organization. Almost all the business
Organizations may launch new products or services regularly, but the success of in the success
of a product or service launched, brand management plays an important role. A satisfied
customer can refer other customers about a product or service received from an organization,
which helps in getting new customers and creates free publicity for the organization. In
launching a new product or service, brand management play a very important role. This can be
explained by considering two examples. The first that if a newly launched cheese product by a
newly formed company is available in Sainsbury’s stores, which are known for providing good
quality products, people may buy it trusting the Sainsbury’s brand, and if they are satisfied with
the product they would buy again, or else they may buy their regular brand which they have
used before. Here the brand value for an organization is achieved with the use of other
organizations brand. In another example, consider the recently launched luxury car “Phaeton”
by Volkswagen. Volkswagen has an excellent brand value among the low and medium priced
car buyers, but it has launched Phaeton in competition to the other luxury brands like
Mercedes and BMW. As the company has no brand equity among luxury car buyers, and its cost
is too high for medium priced car buyers, the company has to suffer poor sales. In Europe, 2003
Volkswagen predicted that nearly 15000 cars would be sold, but in contrast to its prediction
only 2500 cars were sold (Roland et al., 2004, p.02). In this case, the company has gone against
it brand’s perception by the customers in launching new product, and has experienced the poor
sales, though the product was marvelous in terms of design and functionality.
Therefore in building and managing a brand, customer perception of the brand has to be
considered. Brand can also have an impact on HR processes, for example, an employee would
always prefer to work with a company having excellent brand value than working in a newly
formed company with no brand value. All the internal and external operations ranging from the
In extending this concept, this research is aimed at investigating the impact of organizational
processes on the brand management process of an organization, using the customer perception
of the brand. A case study of Amul, one of the leading manufacturers of dairy products in India
is used in the research, explaining its brand management process linking with other processes
of the company. A survey is conducted to assess the customer perception of their brand and
from the research conducted and survey results recommendations are outlined for Amul’s
management in managing their brand value.
The purpose of this chapter is to explain the aim of the research with a brief overview of what
the research is all about and its significance.
The purpose of this chapter is to study and explain the concepts related to brand management,
which include the brand management process, techniques like advertising, marketing etc.
These concepts are studied and analyzed to better understand the research areas, so that
better analysis can be done.
Chapter 3: Methodology:
The purpose of this chapter is to explain the research methods and approaches used in
collecting the data and analyzing it. It explains how the research is guided by using specified
models which could help the researcher in focusing on the scope of research and achieving the
right results.
The Amul’s marketing strategy in increasing its brand value through the effective means of
communication techniques, which are unique compared to the other organizations are
discussed in this chapter.
The purpose of this chapter is to present the survey results which are used to assess the
customers’ perception of Amul’s brand value. The results to the each question are displayed
using charts and explained.
The purpose of this chapter is to give a brief outline by concluding the research work and
findings. Then based on the data collected and analyzed, recommendations are suggested to
the Amul’s management in managing their brand more efficiently.
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Chapter 2
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Literature review:
Sometimes organizations can implement unique brand positioning in the market, but this
uniqueness or distinctiveness may be lost or affected as other organizations launch similar
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products or services in the market. For example, the touch screen mobiles first launched by a
company might have positioned its brand distinctively unique in the market place, but when
the same touch screen products are launched by other companies in the market, the unique
brand positioning of the company, which initially launches the touch screen products may be
affected. Therefore continuous innovation in developing the products or services in both
functional and symbolic attributes is essential in brand management. For example, Vaio laptops
mostly differentiate its brand on functional attributes and continuously upgrading these
attributes in the new models; while Wrangler Jeans focuses on symbolic attributes like style,
fashion, comfort etc., and continuously innovating and implementing new ideas in their
products to position its brand as distinctive in the market. Therefore, both the personality of a
brand and its positioning can be a part of brand positioning (Hakinson & Cowking, 1996).
Brand proposition:
As discussed, both brand personality and positioning are termed as brand proposition, which
directly influences the process of brand management. These two propositions can be
considered as the starting points in developing and implementing the process of brand
positioning in the market. Davidson (1987) stated that for the organizations to make its brand
as distinctive in the market place, the propositions should be simple and easy to understand,
and the propositions which are complex and inconsistent may not be useful in making an
effective distinctiveness of brand.
A proposition can sometimes include a set of statements describing the uniqueness of the
brand. For example, recently launched speakers and headphones branded with the name
‘beats’ by Beats Electronics LLC., can have the following statements as a part of their brand
proposition:
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Brand in medium priced sector
Brand which makes the people to hear the music in a way an artist hears (Beats
Electronics LLC., 2012)
All the aspects involved in developing and managing a brand must be in consistent with these
statements, and other operations like advertising, marketing, distributing etc., of a brand must
embed these statements in their operations. Hakinson and Cowking (1997) stated that
sometimes these statements could be used as the tag lines or slogans in advertising a brand
which express its uniqueness and distinctiveness from other brands. In contradict to the
statement of considering brand personality and positioning as the propositions, Ries and Trout
(1986) have not distinguished the personality and positioning as different factors. They stated
that sometimes organizations might change their brand positioning (example: competition)
while remaining in the same personality and in some other cases organizations can change their
personality (example: launch of new unique models) at the same time not altering the brand
positioning (Aaker and Shansby, 1982).
The consumer brand relationship is very important for the success of a brand started by the
organization in the market place, because it is the consumers’ perception of the brand and its
propositions, which form a major part in sales and distribution of the products or services
related to a brand. In fact, the brand should attract the customers to buy it; whether it is a
highly branded product like Rolls Royce cars, or medium branded product like Volkswagen cars,
or quality branded products like Lurpak butter, or symbolic branded product like Levis comfort
jeans. The strong consumer and brand relationship reflects the balance and alignment of the
customers’ expectations, needs and brand symbolic and functional attributes.
Adding to the symbolic and functional attributes in relating to the customer needs, Part et al.
(1986) has identified an additional attribute called experimental needs. These needs are
categorized as those which are experimental in nature, providing a smooth comfort experience
for customers in using the brand products. Brands which deploy these attributes are known for
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their innovation and unique approach in developing the products and services which could be
used by the customers, in more of an experimental fashion. In reality, the success achieved in
deploying this type of process can be influenced by various factors like whether or not the
product are actually meeting the needs of the consumers, consumers buying power, consumers
interest in experimenting the new innovative products or services etc. In this process, the brand
may be more innovative unique in terms of its propositions, but the success in implementing
this process would be mostly depend on the buying power of customers, though they meet
physical and psychological needs of the consumers (Part et al., 1986).
The process of building a brand and achieving market share using the branding of the
organizations products or services is a long term process as it requires effective communication
to reach in to the consumers’ minds and the market. As stated by Calderon et al. (1997), this
can be void in certain situations, where the propositions of a brand including symbolic,
functional, and experimental needs are far more unique in nature and are effectively
influencing the consumer buying behaviors. For example, Apple i-phones have achieved success
in short term, due to their unique and innovative propositions of branded product; whereas
service sector organizations like banks might need to follow a long term process as the
consumers already have large number of alternatives and the influence it has on the consumers
behavior is low compared to the industrial organizations for their products, where the
consumers can actually feel the propositions instantly.
Using the effective means of communications like advertising through electronic media, and
online media, and good propositions, the companies can efficiently achieve high brand value,
which would increase its market share and competitive advantage. It could be a tough task or
relatively hard for the companies to achieve competitive advantage by relying only on the
functional attributes, therefore the role of marketing, and advertising and using advanced
technologies in this process are more necessary to be a successful competitor in the present
uncertain economic environments in the market. Therefore companies are implementing
intangible symbolic attributes anfd strong brand propositions to lay a strong foundation for
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sustainable business as a part of long term growth strategy, while deploying the effective
technical and strategic decisions in the areas of marketing to increase their market share and
competitive advantage (Calderon et al., 1997).
As the success is achieved in increasing the strategic value of brands, the role of advertising and
marketing has been growing in the process of managing the brand and increasing the brand
communication with the consumers. Through the means of communication technologies, the
invisible benefactors of an organization with excellent brand value are now being known to
consumers through different means like advertising, press releases, annual reports etc. For
example, corporate brand like BMW, though it includes different internal suppliers with their
own brand value, often follow monolithic approach in managing and advertising their brands,
and often small brands which are the part of corporate brands may not come in to lime light. In
other cases few corporate organizations endorse their brand to other organizations to sell their
products under the corporate brand. This reflects the importance of brand value, which is very
hard process for the organizations to achieve, as sometimes the organizations existence or
growth and success are completely relied on its brand image and value. Considering these
cases, often corporate branding becomes more complex task as they need to include highly
effective communication modes to maintain their brand position and value in the market (Read,
2006).
Brands as assets:
Brands are the major assets for any organization, because a brand can be realized and
identified by the customers even when the organization ceases to exist. It is the brand, which
consumers’ perceive when thinking about an organization, more than its operational areas of
growth or strategies. Therefore the brands are often considered as the most reliable and
intangible asset for a company. In some cases, it can be seen that the organizations includes the
brand value as an asset in their balance sheets. For example, in the recent study made by Savov
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(2011), Apple corporation brand value is estimated to be $ 153 billion, which stands first in the
world beating the Google in the year 2011. As it involves long term to achieve a brand value, an
alternative method of acquiring an existing brand is considered as the best process by many
organizations. For example, Tata Motors, an Indian automobile manufacturers known for its
medium priced cars, has acquired two British luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover as the
process of moving from medium priced car brand to luxury car makers brand. Therefore, a
brand is a major asset, which can make the organizations more stable in terms of growth, sales,
profits and sometimes even existence (Tollington, 1998).
Brand Stretching:
Acquisitions may not be possible in all the cases to increase the brand value as they involves
huge investments in acquiring a good brand, and even there is a risk in franchising the brand
name to the other companies as it might affect the parent brand. Therefore brand stretching is
an alternative approach, where an organization uses its brand for the other products too. The
new product involved in this process is called spin off product. The extent of brand expansion is
mainly depends on the value and credibility of the parent brand, and also on the consumers’
attachment to the core brand values. But care and necessary measures has to be taken in this
process so that the parent brand value is not diluted due to increased brand expansion. The
more increase in the gap between the original product brand and the new product group, can
increase the risk of failure and dilute the value of the parent bran (Han, 1998).
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be simplified and succeeded. It is the brand position and value in the domestic market, which is
mainly concerned during the internationalization of a brand. For example, Tesco’s strong
performance with increasing growth across its sales, revenues, profits has made its
internationalization process much easier due to its strong brand value in the local market. The
foreign market environment is also another primary concern in the process of internationalizing
a brand. For example, entering a foreign market would be much easy in a place where there are
no major competitors when compared to the place where there are strong dominant
competitors. Using this concept, Tesco has been increasingly internationalizing its bran in the
Asian regions, where the competition is less and the market entry rules are easy. The type of
foreign market entry process can also have an impact on the brand value. For example, multi-
national corporate brand Heinz have not achieved strong global brand because most of its
foreign market entry process are through acquisitions of local companies in the foreign market
(Hakinson & Cowking, 1996).
Standalone: In this type of strategy, the companies use a single brand for their products
and operates with single brand name (Example: Reliance Industries, India’s biggest
business chain uses the name ‘Reliance Group’ for all its business chains like Reliance
Retail, Reliance Power, Reliance Steel, Reliance Technologies, Reliance Media works
etc.)
Endorsed: In this type of strategy, the companies endorse its parents name for all its
products (Example: Nestle KitKat, Sony Vaio etc.)
Family Name: In this type of strategy, the family name is used as the brand name for all
the product names (Example: Weight and Watchers from Heinz).
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Companies have to register their brand name under the Trade Marks Act to protect their
brands from any misuse by other organizations, and brand names also can serve the legal
obligations of the companies, which could help in its commercial success (Sarah et al., 2004).
VanAuken (2011) suggested some tips in naming the brands which are explained below:
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2.5. Competitive advantage with Branding Strategies:
To increase the competitive advantage, to increase the sales and growth, to expand the
business areas of operations, many companies are considering the branding as the major
weapon in achieving these goals. Achieving competitive advantage through branding is more
crucial in complex markets, where there are organizations using strong innovative approaches
and providing high quality products and services. In fast changing market behaviors, and
stagnant areas of production and services, it is the branding which plays a major role in
achieving competitive advantage, rather than deploying symbolic attributes. For example in the
cool drinks market, not many companies achieve competitive advantage by launching new
products with unique symbolic attributes. In the markets, where the competitors and other
organizations, imitate the market leader in production, distribution, marketing, labeling and
other business operations, branding is the only way to be able to distinctive and unique in the
process and to maintain competitive advantage (Kotler, 1991).
Michael Porter (1980) stated that the purpose of using competitive strategies by the
organizations is to position themselves, in the best place in market so that they can compete
with other organizations or influence the other organizations in their favor.
Porter (1980) considers that the competitive state of, and hence profitability of, an industry
depends up on the following forces:
Graham (2012) suggested the following categories in developing strategies to maintain the
competitive structure of the organizations.
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Cost – leadership strategy:
In this type of strategy, organizations usually try to increase the market share by
reducing the prices of their products and services, to compete with other leading
organizations. For example, Vodafone has low priced contracts and gives more benefits
in the phone contracts though it has poor service in order to sustain the competition
from market leaders who are good at providing the best services like O2 and Orange.
However, this strategy is not beneficial in all the cases, as it might lead to more
complexities in uncertain economic situations. In times of economic recession, the
companies opting this strategy are the first to be affected as the slight decrease in the
sales can affect more adversely on their operations. To sustain different risks and
challenges, this strategy has to be deployed along with other strategies explained
below:
Differentiation strategy:
In this strategy, the organization adopt different elements and attributes which makes
their product and services more appealing to the consumers and far more different
from the products and services offered by the other organizations. In deploying this
strategy organizations usually try to position themselves as the monopoly supplier of
the unique products or services, and increasing the product pricing as the products are
more appealing to the consumers. For example, Apple i-phones have positioned
themselves as the best touchscreen mobile services, and their products are more
appealing to the customers, as a result, it has high priced products when compared with
other mobile phone providers.
Ries and Trout (1986) stated that the companies have to be the first in launching the
different products in to the markets to be successful. The companies which adopt this
strategy have no competitors if they are the first to launch different and unique
products and thus can earn huge profits (Clifford and Cavanagh, 1985).
Focus strategy:
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This particular strategy is called as focus strategy because, organizations before
launching the brand study the market and then choses either product differentiation
strategy or cost- leadership strategy to become competitive. This type of strategy is
mostly used by the small and medium sized companies, who do not have enough
resources and do not want to take any chances in suffering losses (Clifford and
Cavanagh, 1985).
In long term run, companies usually forget the original brand propositions which are planned,
and concentrate on other business functions. Therefore organizations usually maintain a
separate team for brand management, which develops the brand strategy and manages the
company’s brand (Park et al., 1986). In long term run, the companies need to deploy effective
brand strategies relating it to the other business functions like production, marketing etc., to
maintain its competitive position. The following figure shows the brand strategy development
process, designed by Park et al. (1986).
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Establishing the brand proposition:
The first step in the strategy development is to outline the statements concerning the
brand proposition, which explains more about the core business values and product or
attributes. All the elements including symbolic attributes, psychological needs, and
functional attributes must be considered in outlining the brand proposition (Kottler,
1991).
Selecting the appropriate mix:
Kottler (1991) analyzed different factors in the marketing mix, which are Price,
Promotion, Place and Product. These four elements are very important which must be
considered in developing the brand strategy, so that the communication process about
brand with the consumers would be more effective, which not only increases the
competitive advantage, but also enables the company to achieve a sustainable business.
Advertising and promotional activities would lead the brand success, but the amount
actually necessary for advertising and promotions must be carefully analyzed, if not it
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would result in waste of money, time and sometimes it even affects the brand value.
Therefore right amount of mix, in the areas of promotions, advertising with right
amount of information about the product explaining the functional and symbolic
attributes in a more effective way is very much essential in developing a successful
brand strategy.
Rolling out the strategy:
The roll-out of a strategy over the life of a brand has been broken down by Park et al.
(1986) in to three stages, which are explained below:
1. Introductory stage:
At this stage, the appropriate of brand propositions have to be assessed and
outlined, which is the basis for developing the strategy. In this process no
competitive nature or factors are concerned while more concentration is laid on the
brand propositions (Kottler, 1991).
2. Elaboration stage:
From the basis outlined, the brand propositions have to be compared with the
competitors, to make it more effective and superior than the competitor’s to make
the process more effective. In cases, when launching a product brand, whose similar
products already exist in the market, this stage has to be revised more effectively to
differentiate the brand propositions from other organizations brand propositions in
the market (Kottler, 1991).
3. Fortification stage:
This stage allows the possibilities of deploying the brand expansion or stretching
process making the brand strategy more tangible in complex situations (Kottler,
1991).
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grows with a brand and continues to be using it till long time, in such cases, that specific
brand can be observed by the other young people as for adults or aged people, and as
such the brand may lose its customer base among the younger generation and
eventually it may have to die. But there is a possibility that the brand has been
revitalizing its strategy and taking the communication of brand propositions more
effectively in to all the sectors can help in the long run of a brand with increasing
competitive advantage (Kottler, 1991).
Revenue:
Revenue is one of the major factors on which the organization’s financial health
depends. The companies earn revenue from the sale of their products and services. To
increase the revenue the companies has to consider different factors right from the
production, quality of the products to the marketing of these products. Though the
products are good and effective, sometimes without effective marketing, they can still
suffer loss in sales and decreasing revenues. Therefore marketing is the mode of
communicating with the consumers about the products and influencing them in making
the purchases, which plays a major role in increasing the revenues (Bureau, 1981).
‘One or a limited number of brands’:
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The organizations may have a single product or wide range of products and services,
because there are no limitations in increasing the areas of business, if the organization
has efficient strategies to grow in other sectors. Organizations usually have different
processes for marketing a product like design, development, quality control, packaging,
pricing, distributing, advertising etc., but no two different products can be deployed in
to similar attributes and processes. As the products are different, all these processes
have to be newly developed for each and every individual product even in terms of
branding. A marketing manager have to carefully assess the branding process, when the
company have more number of different products and services in terms of developing
marketing and brand strategy and also in managing the brands (Bureau, 1981).
As each product or service has its own brand propositions, there should be individual
brand managers for different products depending on the need and use.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
A brand manager is not solely responsible in developing the strategy for achieving the planned
revenue for each product, which represents more financial in nature, but the position is also
responsible for other areas of operations. The scope of responsibilities of a brand manager is
much more larger than just achieving the specified revenues, as lot of other factors involved
like brand strategy development, developing brand propositions, revenue generation, brand
management etc. Semlow (1979) has categorized the responsibilities of a brand manager under
different roles explained below:
As a Market analyst:
The brand manager can also be undertaking the role of a market analyst, where the
responsibilities like market data analysis, environment study and assessment,
competitive nature etc. have to be undertaken. Techniques like SWOT and PESTEL
analysis should be used in studying the market data and analyzing the suitability of
launching a brand (Semlow, 1979).
As a Planner:
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Planning is one of the major task in any kind of operation because the success in
achieving any task is mostly dependent on the effective planning made. Considering the
brand management, the responsibilities of the brand manager include the planning of
different branding related tasks like proposition planning, strategy planning, market
entry type planning, schedule of tasks planning etc. (Semlow, 1979).
As a Coordinator:
After agreeing to a marketing plan, the brand manager needs to coordinate different
teams and processes to see that the planned goals are met on time. Though the brand
manager has no authority on the implementation teams, he should coordinate the
different teams in completing the tasks on time, as per the scheduled plan. Putting his
intellectual abilities and creative skills in to place as the marketing planner, the brand
manager also acts as a coordinator, reflecting the responsibility and intensity of the
manager to achieve the marketing goals (Semlow, 1979).
As a Controller:
The plans made, the strategies developed are the process of identifying the buyer
behavior, but what is more important is that controlling the brands in different cases
ranging from poor sales to high sales. Planning different attributes like product pricing,
packing, quality control, labeling, advertising, distributing are the part of planning
process, which are backed by the communicating process with the consumers. Looking
at these plans, brand manager, as a controller need to forecast different results based
on different metrics to take right decisions in right time (Semlow, 1979).
As the responsibilities of the brand manager are varying depending the scope of operations, the
areas in which the brand managers operate will also be changing. For example, when working
as the marketing director, receives reports and information from all the subordinate managers
like sales manager, distribution manager, logistics manager, research manager etc. (Bennet,
1993). As all these operations are mainly related to the field of marketing, brand managers can
most of the times take roles as marketing managers as they control different areas of
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operations, but not influences or has authority over the implementation teams (Kapferer,
2008).
As the area of brand management involves different functions, a brand manager solely cannot
manage the operations in all the areas. Therefore they can work in a specific area or have
subordinates working in different areas with different roles and responsibilities. Some of the
major areas as stated by Kapferer (2008) include:
Advertising Services:
Companies which have wide range of products or services or with a strong brand
identity make huge investments in the areas of advertising. Organizations usually wok
with different advertising companies in effectively marketing their products, with good
communication techniques and unique ideas to reach more deeply in to the consumers.
Therefore a separate team of employees with a manager can be employed to
continuously revise advertising strategies of the company and to monitor and develop
new unique ideas in the field of advertising the company’s brand (Kapferer, 2008).
Marketing Research:
Research includes different tasks like collecting the data, analyzing the data to get good
quality information, which can be used in gaining the knowledge to make the right
decisions at right times. In the process of doing a market research, different factors like
social, political, economic and technological factors have to be considered (Kapferer,
2008).
Trade Promotions:
A There should be a close relation between the processes of planning and promoting, as
the promoting techniques have to be developed and implemented according to the
planning made. Promotional schemes mostly influence in getting the company and the
consumers closer to each other. In promoting a brand manager plays an important role
and in selling the branded products, sales manager plays an important role. And in trade
promotions, the responsibility would be shared between the brand manager and sales
manager in the organizations (Kapferer, 2008).
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Production Planning:
Usually the brand management process is impacted by every major business operation
like production, promoting, pricing, packing, distributing etc. The production planning
has to be according to the brand propositions, which reflect the symbolic and functional
attributes of the products. Therefore often brand managers can work in the areas if
production planning (Kapferer, 2008).
Financial Control:
As the brand manager is more involved in managing the revenues, he has to be in
proper alignment with the financial team to monitor the sales growth, and other metrics
which reflect the brand positioning in the market. Therefore taking the information
from the finance teams, brand managers may sometimes need to plan the finance
based on the data shared by finance team in terms of sales, revenue, growth etc.
Product level: Considering the brand management at product level, the process must be
efficient enough in meeting the customer demand, market needs and also the
completion. The brand management is not just the process of advertising and
marketing, but involves lot more operations. It is clearly known that a brand which does
not meet the customer demand would not be able to sustain in long term process, it is
obvious that the functional and symbolic attributes which are more influential in
achieving long term success for a brand. Therefore building a brand has to balance the
brand propositions with the communication strategies like marketing, advertising and
promotions (David, 1992).
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Branding is more powerful than the product management: Branding is the major factor
which connects the consumers with the company than with the company’s product and
consumer. Though product management has an impact on the branding process, it is
the brand which makes the difference. For example, though there is no stock availability
of Apple’s i-phones in the stores, it is the company’s strong brand value which connects
more with the products and customers. The product personality can be changed over
time, but it is not an easy task to change the brand positioning and the brand image of
the company (David, 1992).
Consistency between brand value and brand benefits: There should be a consistency
between brand personality and brand value. The change in brand personality may not
be achieved in short term because a brand lays a strong impression in the minds of
customers’ minds, which would take long time to change. The customers should be
offered with what they want, and change in the brand propositions can have an impact
on the customer buying behavior. Kapferer (2008) contrasted the idea that people
usually take quick decisions, and in such cases if there is an inconsistency between the
brand value and benefits, the companies might lose their loyal customers. Therefore
tangible process which could be changed according to the situations must be deployed
in managing the brands (David, 1992).
The values offered must be wanted by the consumer. No matter, whatever the
measures an organization takes, if a brand does not meet the needs of the consumers’
then it is very hard for the brand to survive for long term. All the sales are being judged
on the value of a brand, as the personality may not be consistent at all the times. The
value is not something that can be achieved by the company on its own, but it is the
perception of consumers’ about the brand. If a brand is offering something which is
desperately needed by the customers, while no other brand is offering the same, then
the value of that brand can be increasing and can achieve long term run in the market.
But the change has to be deployed in the brand management from time to time; for
example zero carbon emission stores or ozone friendly products may not be adding
value to the brand if they are launched before 20 to 30 years (David, 1992).
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Balancing tangible and intangible elements of a brand:
In specific markets like drinks or cigarette products, the advertising process could have more
impact on the branding than the functional and symbolic attributes, because the likelihood of
similarity in the brands is too high, so that the differentiation may not be achieved so easily.
However in other specific market areas like electronics, functional and symbolic attributes have
more impact on the branding rather than advertisements and promotions (Example: Apple i-
phone). Therefore, a balance has to be achieved in all the specific areas of branding to achieve
long term goals (Chernatony and Riley, 1997).
This has to be the core concern in developing and managing the brand. A brand manager needs
to analyze more deeply in to the situations, so that the more clarity can be achieved in
understanding the consumer perception of a brand. Therefore the best brands are those which
are more appealing to the consumers, with good brand propositions of functional and symbolic
attributes. In supporting the idea, David (1992) has stated that:
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Chapter 3
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Research Methodology:
3.1. Introduction:
A research process has a sequence of tasks which are performed in an order to find the answers
to the research questions and to achieve the goals, aims and objectives of the research. As the
research involves tasks like data collection process, data analysis process, they have to follow
specific guidelines, methods and approaches which are already tested and justified to give
more reliability for the data gathered and analyzed. In the process of finding answers to the
research questions, different sources of information is studied, gathered and analyzed to better
understand the research problem, so that more effective outcomes can be achieved. In this
process of collecting the literature, different sources of information including journals, previous
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research papers, online articles, news articles, books are used. Rajashekar (2006) stated that a
research should include study, experiment, observation, comparison and reasoning.
The brand value is something that is perceived by the consumers about a product or a company
in the market place. It is more like an asset to the company which may not be measured using
metrics. Therefore to assess, such factors, the best way is to collect the responses from the
consumers of the brand, as they are the main people who add value to the brand. In assessing
and evaluating the brand strategy adopted by Amul, the primary data is collected in the form of
surveys using an online based survey questionnaire, which are developed in relative to the
research area and the objectives. A case study of Amul is considered to assess the brand
management process of Amul. The Amul’s marketing strategy, advertisement strategy and
unique communication methods to better connect with the consumers is done as the part of
research work. The secondary data in this case is collected from the books, magazine articles,
previous research papers, journals and other white papers. Based on these findings,
recommendations are presented to Amul management to improve their marketing strategy and
advertisement strategy as the process of developing a strong brand.
The aim of this research is to investigate the brand management process of Amul, one of the
India’s leading companies operating in the dairy related products sector, by assessing the
consumer perception of the company’s brand. In the process of achieving this aim, the
following objectives are set for the research:
Analyze and investigate how the brand value can be impacted by the both internal and
external operations of an organization.
Investigate the brand value and equity of Amul in Indian market.
Investigate the approaches followed in managing their brand by Amul.
Analyze and evaluate how Amul has managing its brand by linking to other
organizational processes.
Conduct a survey to assess the consumers’ perception of Amul’s brand and its value.
From the data collected and analyzed, suggest recommendations to the Amul’s
management in managing their brand more efficiently.
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3.2. Process of objective evaluation:
1. To investigate the brand management process of Amul, and its marketing strategy.
2. Literature review is about the discussion of brand, brand management, the role of brand
manager, brand and its influence in maintaining the competitive advantage and how a brand
can affect the company’s sales, growth, and revenues and other concepts.
3. Using an internet based online survey questionnaire, a survey is conducted to assess the
consumers’ perception of Amul’s brand.
4. Effectively presenting the survey results by using both graphical and statistical tools.
5. As the outcome of research problems are finalized, based on the problems identified
recommendations are presented to the Amul’s management in effectively managing its brand.
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Research Philosophy:
Levin (1988) defined research philosophy as the belief with which a researcher works in
achieving the goals and objectives of the research. In the social world, an event can be analyzed
with the philosophical perspective to achieve an outcome of it. The way the events are seen,
and the way they are being interpreted impacts more on the research process which is all about
viewing and interpreting. Therefore philosophical perspective guides the researcher in this
process to better collect and analyze the information related to the events or actions. There are
different philosophical perspectives which can be followed in the research like positivism,
interpretivism, subjectivism etc.
As defined by May (1997), a positivist approach considers the collection of dare from large
section of social environment in the process of explaining the cause and effect relationship. In
this process researcher’s beliefs have no importance as the conclusions are drawn from the
data collected and analyzed. Smith (1998) defined this approach as:
“Positivist approaches to the social sciences . . . assume things can be studied as hard facts and
the relationship between these facts can be established as scientific laws.
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The positivists think that the social factors can be used as objects in studying and doing
research work.
In interpretivism approach, the researchers believe that the research objectives can be
achieved by using the small section of sample population with deep analysis. The researcher’s
beliefs have more impotence in this process, and the researcher tries to show the results
according to his beliefs.
Considering the two major philosophies, this research adopts positivistic approach in the
process of collecting and analyzing the data.
Research Approach:
A research which has begun properly is almost half done. The research approach guides the
researcher from the point of starting it till concluding the research. Inductive and deductive are
the two major research approaches usually used in the research process.
When the broader theories are achieved using specific observations following the tentative
hypothesis, then the approach can be termed as inductive approach. A degree of uncertainty
resides in this process (Burney, 2008). This approach is also called as bottom up approach as
shown in the figure below:
Unlike inductive approach, deductive approach uses the broader theories to arrive at more
specific confirmations. Logical conclusions in this process are drawn from observations (Burney,
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2008). The deductive approach is also known as top down process as shown in the following
figure:
As the positivistic research philosophy is selected in the research, deductive approach will best
suit the research process.
Research methods:
Qualitative methodology:
This method deploys the process of collecting the high quality data from a small sample
population. Usually detailed interviews, more detailed surveys are used as the part of data
collection. The process is mostly influenced by the interviewer in hid broad thinking and efforts
to collect the information, and the interviewee, based on his expressing the level of degree of
reality Andrew, 2005).
Quantitative Methodology:
Unlike qualitative methodology, this method uses large rate of sample population in collecting
the data. The quality of the data collected in this process could be low because of big sample
rate. Usually surveys and observations are used as the part of this method to collect the data.
Time horizon:
In order to attain the effective results in the survey, Saunders et al. (2008) suggested that the
survey would at least last for three months, but as the time is less, the survey was conducted
for three weeks, and the results are outlined. Considering the time horizon in the research
there are usually two types; cross-sectional, where the research is conducted at a particular
point of time with a time limit; and longitudinal, where the research is conducted over a period
of time. This research uses cross sectional time horizon.
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3.4. Data Collection Process:
The research process:
Primary data in this research is collected from the surveys, and the survey process is explained
below:
Questionnaire design:
Churchill and Iacobucci (2002) specified that in building a survey questionnaire, the ability of
the participants in understanding the questions have to be considered. Therefore this
questionnaire already has a multiple choice answers which the participants need to select the
right option rather than writing the answer. The following diagram shows the step by step
process followed in designing a questionnaire.
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Research sampling:
Parasuraman et al. (2004) defines the sampling as the process where the selection of number of
units or population, that should be undertaking the survey is determined. The research
objectives can be used in the process of determining the sample rate, which is sufficient enough
for achieving the research goals (Saunders et al. 2007). The sampling process in this research is
designed and implemented according to the Churchill and Iacobucci (2002) method, which is
shown in the following figure:
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The questionnaire is then designed at www.surveymonkey.com, where a link to the survey is
generated. The survey link, with the survey purpose is written in emails and forwarded to
different consumers in India. In the beginning the main was forwarded to 48 people, but due to
leas time, snow ball sampling technique is used to gather better response rate. A note is
presented in the email requesting the email recipient to forward the email to his/her friends
and other people. Thus a sample rate of 128 has been achieved at the end of the survey
process.
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Chapter 4
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Amul Case study:
4.1. Company Overview:
Amul is one of the India’s largest dairy product manufacturing organizations, which has spread
its operations across different parts of the country and recently started internationalizing its
products in foreign countries. It is the cooperative organization, which includes different village
societies, in the state of Gujrat state, which is the ranks number one in terms of growth and
econmy in India, and the organization is called as Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing
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Federation (GCMMF). The organization serves the needs of the consumers by providing high
quality products and also the suppliers and members which include farmers, small societies and
companies in the state. The cooperative structure of the organization includes, 13 district
cooperative dairy farmers societies, 2.9 million dairy and other product suppliers, and 15,322
rural societies, with a production capacity of 13.07 million liters every day, and the daily
average milk collection of 9.1 million liters per day. The company also has 647 meters milk
drying capacity and 3740 meters of cattle feed manufacturing capacity per day. The brand
name “Amul” for the company is derived from the Sanskrit word, “Amoolya” which means
precious (Amul, 2010).
Company’s History:
On 14 December, 1946, the company was registered as District Co-operative Milk Producers
Union (DCMPU) in India in a town called Anand, and the name was then changed to Amul.
(Ramchandran, 2010). From the time of its formation, the company has been expanding its
product base and customers base in India, which resulted in enormous growth and production
capabilities. The company has increased its production from 10,000 tonnes in the year 1996 to
25,000 tonnes in the year 1997 (Suhrud, 2006). Concentrating on the local market as the core
business function, the company at the same time expanding its business operations in the
foreign markets, which include China, Bangladesh, USA, Singapore, Malaysia, and UAE (Pankaj,
2005).
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Low price of butter in the market when compared with the similar products of other
organizations.
Strong brand value for the Amul’s products due to its efficient symbolic and functional
attributes like excellent quality and good packing, and due to effective and innovative
advertising strategies of the company.
The unique ad campaign by the company using billboards and hoardings across
different public areas, like countering the recent incidents in the country in a funny and
matured way has given it more unique differentiation in advertising when compared
with its competitors.
Wide presence of the company across the different parts of the country is also a big
asset in marketing the products.
Its products are used on daily basis, and continuous revitalization of brand is
implemented to achieve long term survival.
Aimed to increase the share of different products in the market.
Aimed to provide high quality products with best customer service and larger
reachability for the consumers.
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Large number of distributors, Wholesalers and retailers, in the big and diverse country
like India. It has been steadily increasing their distributors and retailers to meet the
growing demand of the customers.
Increasing the number of company’s own branded stores through direct opening and
through franchising. Amul’s product stores, where only Amul products are available
have been opening across many places in the country, so that company can increase the
reachability of its products to the customers.
Amul has been increasing it online sales by specially branding its internet marketing
naming it as Amul Cyber stores, where the customers can directly place an order online,
and the products are delivered to their doors.
Other alternative strategies like push strategies are in fact not necessary for the company
because the demand for their products is too high in the country. This huge customer demand
is evident from the company’s operations like not setting any targets for the retailers in selling
the product, and retailers too not taking any special care in selling the Amul’s products. The
next growth option for the company is to enter new markets as the demand for the products is
high in the domestic market and also because the company has spread its operations across the
major parts of the country. The distribution channels intimate the company well in advance,
when the demand for the products would suddenly increase more than expected, especially in
the times of festivals. In addition to these factors the unique advertising strategy of Amul,
which differentiates itself from other organizations has been a major asset in increasing the
customer loyalty and the brand value (Partani, 2008).
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The Brand Name: As explained earlier, the brand name of Amul is derived from a
Sanskrit word called “Amoolya” meaning precious, which has gone more effectively in to
the public. As the name is short, easy to remember and recollect, and represents the
local cultures and heritage, the brand name ‘Amul’ has effectively proved its presence in
the market (Amul, 2010).
The Logo: The following figure is the logo of Amul, which is recognized by many people
in the country.
The tagline or slogan: The slogan designed by the company is more effective and
reflecting the nation, has been a major advantage in communicating the company’s
brand propositions with the consumers. The slogan or tagline of the company reads
“The Taste of India”.
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The Jingle: Jingle is something with catchy and tinkling sound which could easily attract
the customers. The jingle used by the company “Utterly, butterly, delicious………Amul”
has very well penetrated in to the society and customers’ minds.
The Character/ Mascot: Amul has been using the mascot since 1967, which shows a girl
in red dotted frock, and the “utterly butterly delicious” jingle. The Amul’s character is
shown in the figure below:
The URL: The Amul’s URL is also simple and easy to remember, which is www.amul.com
Before Amul entry in to the advertising, many companies were concentrating on advertising
their products rather than their brand in the country, and the advertisement were in serious
tone representing the products, their functionalities and features. Unlike the other companies,
Amul has been following a unique approach, where it mostly advertises its brand rather than its
products. The brand strategy and communication strategy of the company are effectively
aligned, where the company uses different means of communication depending on the local
customer behavior in positioning its brand. The Umbrella branding strategy has helped the
company in facing many risks like conflicts among union members, poor cooperation among
the members in developing the brand; as no specific areas were highlighted in the
advertisements without affecting any community and any union (Ankita et al., 2008).
Consumer Advertising:
This type of advertising is primarily aimed at potential and loyal customers. Major portion of
the advertising budget is assigned for this type of advertising in the company. Amul, usually
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have a very large customer base by region and also by financial status. Amul products are used
by all the age groups, all level people (high class, medium class, and low class), as such there is
more complexity in selecting the potential customers. Therefore, the company has been using
the middle class society as the potential consumers which form the major part of the Indian
population in this type of advertising. Though the company has been using this element, the
point here to be noted is that it is not advertising its products, but it is advertising its brand
(Ankita et al., 2008).
Institutional Advertising:
Large scale advertising to reach wide range of audiences uses this type of advertising technique,
which is also called as corporate advertising. Billboard and hoardings advertising of Amul
focusing on any recent controversial issue and making funny comments on the issues has been
liked by many audiences which are designed with a sense of humor. Few examples of such
hoardings are shown in the figure below:
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This type of advertsing may not be effective in achieving the immediate behavioral change in
the buying behavior of consumers related to a product. The main aim of the Amul organization
is to create an everlasting image in the minds of consumers about its brand, as the part of long
term strategy, and it is for this reason, the company has not opted the aggressive selling
strategy.
Pricing Strategy:
The company’s major aim is to sell their high quality at low prices in the market. As the majority
of the Indian population includes middle class families, the low price strategy adopted by the
Amul, has been working very well. The Amul product pricing is too low because the suppliers of
raw materials are the owners of the company and they do not have any initial buing costs. And
due to this low priced strategy, its competitors are not able to take market share, because they
are not able to sell their products at such low prices being offered by Amul. Though they slightly
charge more than Amul by boasting about their excellent quality, Amul’s strong brand
attachment with the middle class population has been overtaking them. The company still uses
the same strategy as a part of its growth plans and brand extension.
Usually huge investments in the process of advertising are not really essential, if the company
has the ability to communicate about the core values of the business through its products as
the medium with the customers, which Amul is implementing successfully.
After creating the effective advertising strategy, it is very important to take the right message
effectively to the right targeted audiences at right time through right medium. When this
process cannot be fulfilled, then there is no use of creating the advertisements. Amul is using
the following platforms in this process:
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Advertising in newspapers, magazines and also over the internet.
Independent websites and portals on the internet.
Hoardings are the preferred platforms of advertising by the company, since its formation. It
might soon enter in to the Guinness Book of World Records for using a single successful
promotional platform for long time. Hoardings are used as an effective mode of communicating
with wide range of audiences as they are filled with humor about controversial news at that
point of times. The hoardings are placed in busy junctions, public areas, in all the major cities
and the two-tiered cities of the country. Sometimes these type of hoardings could be
controversial, however with good values and correct amount of humor, this campaign is still
continuing without any problems, and the following figure shows the few examples of
hoardings:
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Internet Marketing:
E-business has been increasingly adopted by many companies to increase their sales and to
maintain their competitive advantage. Amul, has also being using the benefits of internet
marketing and has developed a website, where the users can get the information about
different products, and can buy in the quantity preferred by them. Suhrud (2006) analyzed the
major benefits of Amul online shopping, which includes:
“Reusable Styrofoam ice is used in shipping the products to maintain the same quality
(for extra US$ 10.00)
Free icepack which can be reused for storing different food products.
Home delivery process saves time, so that customers can find it easy.
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Free promotional offers are given to customers every order they place over the internet.
A family pass is given for free, using which the family can visit Amul production plants,
when orders are placed online.
There is no sales tax added for the products when bought online.”
Virtual parlors are now being planned as the process of deploying new technologies in the
marketing systems.
The major vales and terns are same for the company since its formation, but the other
functions like advertising modes and types, strategies are frequently revised according to the
changes in the market place. Da Cunha and FCB Ulka are the two main advertising agencies of
Amul, which have not changed for long time. This gives more flexibility in the process of
advertising as the relations between the company and advertising agencies are growing
stronger day by day (Amul, 2010).
Effective brand name which can easily penetrate in to the consumers, offering high quality
products at low prices, ensuring the products availability are the major factors which led to the
company in earning strong brand equity among the other competitors in the market. When a
brand has to be judged by the easiness to recall and easiness in understanding the company’s
business values, then Amul can be said to have a strong and effective brand. Its unique
advertising of making funny comments weekly on the controversial news, Amul has restated
the advertising process in India.
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Umbrella branding strategy has helped the company in better positioning its brand in the
market, though there is wide range of products being marketed, which has not created any
confusion among the people regarding the brand. Companies usually spend about 7 to 8 per
cent of their revenues on the advertisements, but contradiction to this process Amul has never
spent more than 1 per cent of its revenues on the advertising. This reflects the company’s
ability in improving brand through cost-leadership strategy combined with unique
advertisement strategy. Ankita et al. (2008) analyzed few success factors of Amul, which are:
Mental Map:
The core business values and brand propositions of an organization can be shown graphically
using the mental maps. This could be specifically designed for a product or for a range of
products. Amul’s butter product mental map is shown as an example in the following figure:
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Brand Mantra:
The effective business values, brand propositions and influential features, when added to the
process of branding can achieve the brand mantra for an organization. Ankita et al. (2008)
explained the brand mantra of Amul, as the five points, shown below:
Ankita et al. (2008), defined the customer based brand equity as the effect which can be
differentiated, based on the customer response and perception during the marketing of a
brand. Amul’s customer brand equity is analyzed under the following factors.
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Differential Effect: Amul has placed its brand distinctive to the other brands, in terms of
advertising, product mix, product quality and also marketing process.
Brand knowledge: The brand knowledge is about how effective the consumers know
about a brand. The way the consumers perceive a brand plays a major role, and for the
consumers to perceive it in the right way, the companies have to effectively
communicate about its core business values to the customers. Amul has placed strong
brand knowledge among its consumers.
Consumer response to marketing: Amul’s products are always the first choice of the
wide range of consumers. It is the quality that makes it more effective in better
preferred by the consumers than other brands.
Amul has achieved strong customer based brand equity in all the elements of customer brand
equity pyramid shown in the following figure:
4.8. Competitors:
As analyzed by Ankita et al. (2008), the major competitors of Amul are shown in the figure
below:
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Though different multi-national companies have their operations in India, Amul has placed itself
as the market leader for more than 40 years because of its unique and distinctive approaches
explained in the above sections (Partani, 2008). Partani (2008) analyzed some few effective tag
lines used by different companies and compared with Amul, as shown in the following figure:
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Through its low pricing strategy, effective communication techniques, Amul has remained as
the market leader for long time, sustaining the competition from many big brands like Nestle,
Cadbury’s, Nutralite etc.
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Chapter 5
In the beginning the survey link through emails was forwarded to 48 people, but due to leas
time, snow ball sampling technique is used to gather better response rate. A note is presented
in the email requesting the email recipient to forward the email to his/her friends and other
people. Thus a sample rate of 128 has been achieved at the end of the survey process.
Questionnaire Design:
The survey link is initially forwarded to 48 people, and because of using snowball sampling
technique, the response rate of 128 has been achieved.
The following figure shows the respondents who fall in to different age categories. 67
participants are in the age group of 18 to 35 years, followed by 38 participants under age group
of 35 to 50 years, 23 participants under age group of 50 to 75 years, and zero participants aged
above 75 years.
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AGE
80 67
60
38
40
23
20
0 0
Gender:
There are 96 male participants and 32 female participants in this survey as shown in the figure
below:
Gender
32
Male
Female
96
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5.3. Survey Results Analysis:
The survey responses for each question is shown and discussed below:
1. Rate Amul’s approach in gathering the customer feedback through different communication
channels, about its products and services?
Understanding the customer needs and expectations is very important process in any
organization, which would help the organization in providing the products and services that
meet the customer needs and expectations, so that the customer loyalty for the brand will be
increasing. As per the responses collected, Amul’s approach in collecting the feedback is not
that effective as majority of the customers rated it under good and poor. Though the quality of
the products it sells is good, the company has to regularly be in touch with customers in
collecting their feedback to improve their services and products.
60 51
50
40 32 33
30
20 12
10 0
0
Excellent very good good poor very poor
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2. Amul understands their consumer needs and changing consumer behaviors. What do you
think about the statement?
Sometimes organizations studies the changing consumer behavior and needs by outsourcing
the analyzing and survey responsibilities to other organizations rather than directly interacting
with their customers. Based on the survey results they change their products and services
according to the changing needs and expectations of the consumers. Therefore, this question
analyzes whether or not the Amul, is really focused on serving the customer needs or not.
Majority of the participants think that Amul understands the changing consumer needs, but at
the same time there are considerable number of participants nearly 32 per cent of the
participants thinks that it does not. This is somewhere the organization has to be more focused
rather than just providing high quality products.
87
100
80
41
60
40
20
0
1 0
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3. Is there a need for Amul to offer discounted prices to get more new customers and also to
retain the existing customers?
When the companies usually losing customers or facing high competition, they reduce their
product prices and offers discounts to attract more number of customers and to retain existing
customers. Amul is already having a strong customer base, therefore it may not need to reduce
their product prices; but considering the competition from multi-national organizations, there
could be a very less probability for doing this to sustain the competitive advantage. As per the
researcher’s thoughts, majority of the participants stated that it is not necessary to reduce the
price, which reflects the best pricing strategy of Amul, which is satisfying many customers.
116
120
100
80
60
40 12
20
0
yes no
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4. Rate the Amul’s brand value under the following options?
Majority of the participants think that Amul has an excellent brand value. About 76.5 per cent
of the participants contributed excellent and very high options. But still there are few
participants who think that the Amul’s brand value is either average or poor. Amul should
target those small sections in effectively communicating its brand propositions to those section
people, who think that it is of poor value.
66
70
60
50
40 32
30 23
20
7
10 0
Series 1
0
Excellent very high Average poor don’t know
Most of the participants rated that the brand value of the Amul is very high which reflects the
effective branding process adopted by Amul.
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5. Rate the product’s quality manufactured by Amul under the following options?
More than 90 per cent of the participants stated that the quality of the products manufactured
by Amul are excellent and very good, and the responses to this question reflects the strong
brand value of Amul in terms of its product quality among the consumers, as there is no
participant who stated the quality as poor or very poor.
97
100
80
60
40
21
20 10
0 0
0
Excellent very good good poor very poor
6. Rate the Amul’s Pricing Strategy in marketing all its products under the following options?
Amul has always adopted low pricing strategy to target the middle class families, which for the
major part of Indian population. As the supplies costs are less, due to most of the cooperative
members are the suppliers, the company can offer its products at a very low costs. And the
pricing strategy is comparatively good because knowing that they offer high quality products,
unlike other organizations which would increase the prices to achieve greater profit margin,
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Amul has continuously maintaining low prices for its products. This is evident from the results
shown in the following figure, as majority of the participants think that it is excellent and very
good strategy.
100 84
80
60
32
40
11
20
1 0
0
Excellent very good good poor very poor
Majority of the participants stated that they like Amul’s advertisements. As discussed in the
case study Amul follow a unique and distinctive approach in advertising its brand rather than its
products. It uses Umbrella strategy in the process of advertising its brand, which is more
effective in reality, as it is evident from the steady increase in the Amul brand value.
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103
120
100
80
60 25
40
20
0
yes no
Amul mainly concentrates on advertisements through hoardings and bill boards. It uses other
media to a low extent. Majority of the customers feel that the Amul’s advertisements on
electronic media are average, poor and very poor. This reflects the customers’ perception of
Amul’s advertising on electronic media. Therefore similar to the unique approach deployed in
hoardings and billboards, something distinctive in nature should be advertised on electronic
media, which can grab the attention of viewers.
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80 71
60
40
23
16
20 9 8
1
0
Excellent very good good average poor very poor
As seen in the examples presented in the case study, Amul uses funny comments on the
controversial news, which gains the attention of many people due to its humorous nature.
Amul is using this advertising base since its formation, and it is strongly a major asset in
advertising which makes the brand distinctive from others. As expected, majority of the
customers rated it as excellent and very good, with very few participants rating as poor.
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73
80
60
40 31
14
20 8
2 0
0
Excellent very good good average poor very poor
10. Rate the advertisements of Amul in cinemas and other community centers?
Short video ads played in the cinemas, can be a process of targeting the focused customers.
This could be a part of focused advertising strategy. Amul’s targeted customers are middle class
families who might not frequently go for cinemas. However, the advertising in any medium
should be effective, if not it might affect the brand. Majority of the participants rated the
cinema advertising as average and poor. Therefore Amul has to balance its advertising quality
across all the mediums.
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100 86
80
60
40 21
11 9
20 0 1
0
Excellent very good good average poor very poor
11. What flashes in your mind when you think about Amul?
This question can analyze how good the Amul has taken its business values and brand
propositions in to the people’s minds. Because this reflects the way a consumer perceives the
brand Amul. Majority of the participants stated good quality, which is a good response for the
company. There are good number of responses received for brand name and advertisements
which is also good.
100 81
80
60
40 21
13 13
20
0
0
a particular brand name good quality Amul other
73 | product of advertisements
© E n l i g h t (commented
Research
A c a d e m yAmul nothing)
12. Do you think Amul plays an effective role in being socially responsible?
Organization using other means like donating to charity, zero carbon stores etc., to increase
their brand image in the society. As far as Amul is concerned there are not much social
programs being undertake. As expected majority of the participants think that Amul is not
being socially responsible, though it has been achieving good profits but not investing in
community development programs.
111
120
100
80
60
17
40
20
0
yes no
13. Are Amul products are unique in nature and different from other products in the market?
Amul products are known for their high quality, which is distinctive in nature when compared
with other products. But as far as the uniqueness is concerned there are different similar
products available in the market. But it always depends on how consumers perceive the
branded product. The results are too complex to analyze as considerable number of
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participants stated both yes and no. Therefore the products distinctiveness can be
misunderstood as uniqueness by many consumers in the market.
67
68
66
64 61
62
60
58
yes no
14. How do you rate the brand value of the Amul when compared with the other competitors
(e.g. Britannia, Mother Diary) offering the similar products?
As explained in the case studies, Amul due to its low pricing strategy, and maintaining high
quality in their products, the company is still the market leader and owns more than 86 per
cent of the market share. In supporting the discussion made many customers feel that the
Amul’s brand is far better and excellent when compared with its competitors which even
include multi-national companies.
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100 85
80
60
40 23
12 8
20
0
0
Excellent very high average low very low
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Chapter 6
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6.1. Analysis:
The major outcomes of the research study are explained as follows:
Amul’s low price branding strategy is effective among certain group of customers, but
from the survey results there are still some considerable group of consumers who are
not really happy with the prices offered by the Amul. These groups might usually involve
lower middle class families who may not be able to buy the products with minimum
costs.
The company’s approach in analyzing the customer needs is not effective as most of the
survey participants stated that there is no direct interaction from the company in
analyzing their needs.
Though Amul spend less than 1 per cent of its revenue on advertising which is more
effective in interacting with customers, there should be a balance in advertising through
different channels. Only the hoardings and billboard advertisements are mainly liked by
the survey participants.
Though the company has been experiencing the increasing sales and profits, it has not
been actively taking part in social development programs like charities, community
development programs etc.
To better reach the consumers, Amul has been opening the Amul parlors, where the
customers can exclusively find Amul products.
6.2. Recommendations:
Based on the information gathered and analyzed, following recommendations are presented to
Amul’s management in improving its operations across different areas of brand management.
Low pricing strategy may not be always successful. There are considerable numbers of
consumers who are not happy with the pricing strategy of Amul, when compared with
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its competitors. Therefore to sustain the competitive advantage and to maintain strong
customer loyalty, the company must regularly review its pricing strategy.
The competitors of Amul are changing their symbolic and functional attributes of their
brand to achieve more customer loyalty. They are focusing on developing unique and
distinctive products, like different types of ice creams, soft drinks etc., but Amul has
been maintaining the same product mix for long time, which has to be reviewed and
possible changes have to be deployed to sustain the competition.
Discount pricing has never been the part of Amul’s marketing strategy, as it mainly
depends on its cost-leadership strategy and offering high quality products. But in order
to gather the attention of new customers, and to retain the existing customers, discount
pricing is essential.
Unique advertising on a single communication mode is not always beneficial. There
should be a balanced proportion of advertisements through different communication
channels. Therefore, the company has to work effectively in deploying the elements of
uniqueness and distinctiveness among all its advertisements through different
communication channels.
As far as the social responsibilities are concerned, Amul has a still long way to go. As per
the changing views of consumers, taking part in social activities like charity donations,
and social development programs can improve the brand image in the society.
The company in its domestic market uses the word Amul as the brand name, which
could be more effective in domestic market as it is retrieved from Sanskrit language,
which is known to be the oldest, and god’s own language. But in the process of
internationalizing its operations, it has to choose different brand name which has more
impact on the cultural and social factors in that foreign market.
The quality of its products must continue to be the same, and if possible should be
increased, so that the customers would continue to like the brand as it is of very good
quality and available at low prices.
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6.3. Conclusion:
The main aim of this research is to assess the Amul’s brand strategy and the analysis of
consumers’ perception of Amul brand. In this process, different literature related to the brand
management techniques and operations is discussed, so that the researcher would have more
idea about the research topic, which would help the researcher in collecting the primary data.
The primary data in this research is collected through an online based survey, and the outcome
of the survey is explained, which has some strong and weak points. The secondary data is
collected from different sources like books, journals, previous research papers, online articles,
magazine articles etc. This information was useful in better evaluating the Amul brand and its
core values. As per te information reviewed, Amul has been ensuring high quality and low
prices in its products, with unique advertising through hoardings and billboards, but in other
marketing areas like analyzing customer needs, increasing the direct communication links
between the company and the customers, poor advertising in e-media, are few other major
issues, which need to be revised and improved. From the information reviewed and collected,
some recommendations are then suggested to Amul’s management in improving their
processes in brand management.
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