A project Report on sales And Distribution Strategy of Amul

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my gratitude and sincere thanks to my project guide Dr. Ranjan Upadhyay Faculty of WISDOM(FMS) for installing confidence in me to carry out this study and Extending valuable guidance and encouragement from Time to time, without which it would not have been possible to undertake and complete this project. And to give me a chance to work on this project and to enhance my knowledge.

Submitted to: DR. Ranjan Upadhyay

Submitted by: Akanksha Gadia ROLL NO: - 7924 M.B.A. 3 SEM. Batch- 2011-12

AMUL
Introduction
Amul, ("priceless" in Hindi. The brand name "Amul," from the Sanskrit "Amoolya," (meaning Precious) was suggested by a quality control expert in Anand.) Formed in 1946, is a dairy cooperative in India. It is a brand name managed by an apex cooperative organisation, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF), which today is jointly owned by some 2.8 million milk producers in Gujarat, India.

Entrance of Amul factory Amul is based in Anand, Gujarat and has been an example of a co-operative organization's success in the long term. "Anyone who has seen the dairy cooperatives in the state of Gujarat, especially the highly successful one known as AMUL, will naturally wonder what combination of influences and incentives is needed to multiply such a model a thousand times over in developing regions everywhere. The Amul Pattern has established itself as a uniquely appropriate model for rural development. Amul has spurred the White Revolution of India, which has made India the largest producer of milk and milk products in the world. It is also the world's biggest vegetarian cheese brand. Amul is the largest food brand in India and world's Largest Pouched Milk Brand with an annual turnover of US $1700 million (200910). Currently Unions making up GCMMF have

2.9 million producer members with milk collection average of 9.10 million liters per day. Besides India, Amul has entered overseas markets such as Mauritius, UAE, USA, Bangladesh, Australia, China,Singapore, Hong Kong and a few South African countries. Its bid to enter Japanese market in 1994 did not succeed, but now it has fresh plans entering the Japanese markets. Other potential markets being considered include Sri Lanka. Dr Verghese Kurien, former chairman of the GCMMF, is recognised as a key person behind the success of Amul. On 10 Aug 2006 Parthi Bhatol, chairman of the Banaskantha Union, was elected chairman of GCMMF.

Amul (ANAND MILK UNION LIMITED)

Type Industry Founded

Cooperative Dairy 1946

Headquarters Anand, India Key people Chairman, Kheda District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Limited. (KDCMPUL)

Revenue

$2.15 billion (2010-11)

Employees

735 employees of Marketing Am. However, real pool consist of 2.8 million milk producers www.amul.com

Website

History
The India District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union was registered on December 14, 1946 as a response to exploitation of marginal milk producers by traders or agents of existing dairies in the small town named Anand (in Kaira District of Gujarat). Milk Producers had to travel long distances to deliver milk to the only dairy, the Polson Dairy in Anand. Often milk went sour as producers had to physically carry the milk in individual containers, especially in the summer season. These agents arbitrarily decided the prices depending on the production and the season. Milk is a commodity that has to be collected twice a day. In winter, the producer was either left with surplus / unsold milk or had to sell it at very low prices. Moreover, the government at that time had given monopoly rights to Polson Dairy (around that time Polson was the most well known butter brand in the country) to collect milk from Anand and supply it to Bombay city in

turn. India ranked nowhere amongst milk producing countries in the world because of its limitations in 1946 British Raj. Angered by the unfair and manipulative trade practices, the farmers of Kaira District approached Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (who later became the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of free India) under the leadership of the local farmer leader Tribhuvandas Patel. Sardar Patel advised the farmers to form a Cooperative and supply milk directly to the Bombay Milk Scheme instead of selling it to Polson (who did the same but gave low prices to the producers). He sent Morarji Desai (who later became Prime Minister of India) to organize the farmers. In 1946, the farmers of the area went on a milk strike refusing to be further oppressed. Thus the Kaira District Cooperative was established to collect and process milk in the District of Kaira in 1946. Milk collection was also decentralized, as most producers were marginal farmers who were in a position to deliver 1-2 litres of milk per day. Village level cooperatives were established to organize the marginal milk producers in each of these villages. The Cooperative was further developed and managed by Dr. V Kurien along with Shri H. M. Dalaya. The first modern dairy of the Kaira Union was established at Anand. Indigenous research and development and technology development at the Cooperative had led to the successful production of skimmed milk powder from buffalo milk the first time on a commercial scale anywhere in the world. The success of the dairy co-operative movement spread rapidly in Gujarat. Within a short span five other district unions Mehsana, Banaskantha, Baroda, Sabarkantha and Surat were organized. In order to combine forces and expand the market while saving on advertising and avoid a situation where milk cooperatives would compete against each other it was decided to set up an apex marketing body of dairy cooperative unions in Gujarat. Thus, in 1973, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation was established. The Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers Union Ltd. which had established the brand name Amul in 1955 decided to hand over the brand name to GCMMF (AMUL).

Company information
The Gujarat Cooperative milk Marketing Federation Ltd, Anand (GCMMF) is the largest food products marketing organisation of India. It is the apex organization of the Dairy Cooperatives of Gujarat. This State has been a pioneer in organizing dairy cooperatives and our success has not only been emulated in India but serves as a model for rest of the World. Over the last five and a half decades, Dairy Cooperatives in Gujarat have created an economic network that links more than 2.8 million village milk producers with millions of consumers in India. These cooperatives collect on an average 7.5 million litres of milk per day from their producer members, more than 70% of whom are small, marginal farmers and landless labourers and include a sizeable population of tribal folk and people belonging to the scheduled castes. The turnover of GCMMF (AMUL) during 2008-09 was Rs. 67.11 billion. It markets the products, produced by the district milk unions in 30 dairy plants. The farmers of Gujarat own the largest state of the art dairy plant in Asia Mother Dairy, Gandhinagar, Gujarat which can handle 2.5 million litres of milk per day and process 100 LTs of milk powder daily. GCMMF (AMUL)s Total Quality Management ensures the quality of products right from the starting point (milk producer) through the value chain until it reaches the consumer.

The Three-tier "Amul Model"

The Amul Model is a three-tier cooperative structure. This structure consists of a Dairy Cooperative Society at the village level affiliated to a Milk Union at the District level which in turn is furthler federated into a Milk Federation at the State level. The above three-tier structure was set up in order to delegate the various functions, milk collection is done at the Village Dairy Society, Milk Procurement & Processing at the District Milk Union and Milk & Milk Products Marketing at the State Milk Federation. This helps in eliminating not only internal competition but also ensuring that economies of scale is achieved. As the above structure was first evolved at Amul in Gujarat and thereafter replicated all over the country under the Operation Flood Programme, it is known as the Amul Model or Anand Pattern of Dairy Cooperatives. Responsible for Marketing of Milk & Milk Products Responsible for Procurement & Processing of Milk Responsible for Collection of Milk Responsible for Milk Production.

3.1 Village Dairy Cooperative Society (VDCS)

The main functions of the VDCS are as follows: Collection of surplus milk from the milk producers of the village & payment based on quality & quantity. Providing support services to the members like Veterinary First Aid, Artificial Insemination services, cattle-feed sales, mineral mixture sales, fodder & fodder seed sales, conducting training on Animal Husbandry & Dairying, etc. Selling liquid milk for local consumers of the village. Supplying milk to the District Milk Union.

Thus, the VDCS in an independent entity managed locally by the milk producers and assisted by the District Milk Union.

3.2 District Cooperative Milk Producers Union (Milk Union)

The main functions of the Milk Union are as follows: Procurement of milk from the Village Dairy Societies of the District. Arranging transportation of raw milk from the VDCS to the Milk Union. Providing input services to the producers like Veterinary Care, Artificial Insemination services, cattle-feed sales, mineral mixture sales, fodder & fodder seed sales, etc. Conducting training on Cooperative Development, Animal Husbandry & Dairying for milk producers and conducting specialised skill development & Leadership Development training for VDCS staff & Management Committee members. Providing management support to the VDCS along with regular supervision of its activities. Establish Chilling Centres & Dairy Plants for processing the milk received from the villages. Selling liquid milk & milk products within the District.

Process milk into various milk & milk products as per the requirement of State Marketing Federation. Decide on the prices of milk to be paid to milk producers as well on the prices of support services provided to members.

3.3 State Cooperative Milk Federation (Federation)

The main functions of the Federation are as follows: Marketing of milk & milk products processed / manufactured by Milk Unions. Establish distribution network for marketing of milk & milk products. Arranging transportation of milk & milk products from the Milk Unions to the market. Creating & maintaining a brand for marketing of milk & milk products (brand building). Providing support services to the Milk Unions & members like Technical Inputs, management support & advisory services. Pooling surplus milk from the Milk Unions and supplying it to deficit Milk Unions. Establish feeder-balancing Dairy Plants for processing the surplus milk of the Milk Unions. Arranging for common purchase of raw materials used in manufacture / packaging of milk products. Decide on the prices of milk & milk products to be paid to Milk Unions. Decide on the products to be manufactured at various Milk Unions (product-mix) and capacity required for the same. Conduct long-term Milk Production, Procurement & Processing as well as Marketing Planning. Arranging Finance for the Milk Unions and providing them technical know-how. Designing & Providing training on Cooperative Development, Technical & Marketing functions. Conflict Resolution & keeping the entire structure intact.

Today, we have around 176 cooperative dairy Unions formed by 1,25,000 dairy cooperative societies having a total membership of around 13 million farmers on the same pattern, who are processing and marketing milk and milk products profitably, be it Amul in Gujarat or Verka in Punjab, Vijaya in Andhra Pradesh or a Nandini in Karnataka. This entire process has created

more than 190 dairy processing plants spread all over India with large investments by these farmers institutions. These cooperatives today collect approximately 23 million kgs. of milk per day and pay an aggregate amount of more than Rs.125 billion to the milk producers in a year.

Amul Brand Building

GCMMF (AMUL) has the largest distribution network for any FMCG company. It has nearly 50 sales offices spread all over the country, more than 3,000 wholesale dealers and more than 5,00,000 retailers. AMUL is also the largest exporter of dairy products in the country. AMUL is available today in over 40 countries of the world. AMUL is exporting a wide variety of products which include Whole and Skimmed Milk Powder, Cottage Cheese (Paneer), UHT Milk, Clarified Butter (Ghee) and Indigenous Sweets. The major markets are USA, West Indies, and countries in Africa, the Gulf Region, and [SAARC]SAARCneighbours, Singapore, The Philippines, Thailand, Japan and China. In September 2007, Amul emerged as the leading Indian brand according to a survey by Synovate to find out Asia's top 1000 Brands. In 2011, Amul was named the Most Trusted brand in the Food and Beverages sector in The Brand Trust Report, published by Trust Research Advisory.

Mascot
Since 1967 Amul products' mascot has been the very recognisable "Amul baby" (a chubby butter girl usually dressed in polka dotted dress) showing up on hoardings and product wrappers with the equally recognisable tagline Utterly Butterly Delicious Amul. The mascot was first used for Amul butter. But in recent years in a second wave of ad campaign for Amul products, she has also been used for other product like ghee and milk.

Amul Products
They are supplying a vast range of milk products manufactured by AMUL which are best for as health aspect are concerned. From our end, we assure that all the products undergo stringent tests in order to maintain their quality.

Bread Spreads
Amul Butter Utterly Butterly Delicious Amul Lite Low fat, low Cholesterol Bread Spread

Delicious Table Margarine The Delicious way to eat healthy

Milk Drinks
Amul Kool Millk Shaake Amul Kool

Amul Kool Cafe

Kool Koko A delight to Chocolate Lovers. Delicious Chocolate taste

Nutramul Energy Drink A drink for Kids - provides energy to suit the needs of growing Kids

Amul Kool Chocolate Milk

Amul Kool Flavoured Bottled Milk

Amul Kool Flavoured Tetra Pack

Amul Masti Spiced Buttermilk Amul introduces the Best Thirst Quenching Drink

Amul Lassee

Amul Kool Thandai

Powder Milk
Amul Spray Infant Milk Food Still, Mother's Milk is Best for your baby Amul Instant Full Cream Milk Powder A dairy in your home

Sagar Skimmed Milk Powder Which is especially useful for diet preparations or for use by people on low calorie and high protein diet.

Sagar Tea Coffee Whitener

Amulya Dairy Whitener The Richest, Purest Dairy Whitener

Fresh Milk
Amul Fresh Milk This is the most hygienic milk available in the market. Pasteurised in stateof-the-art processing plants and pouch-packed for convenience. Amul Gold Milk

Amul Taaza Double Toned Milk

Amul Lite Slim and Trim Milk

Amul Fresh Cream

Amul Shakti Toned Milk

Amul Calci+

Amul Buttermilk

Cheese
Amul Pasteurised Processed Cheese 100% Vegetarian Cheese made from microbial rennet Amul Cheese Spreads Tasty Cheese Spreads in 3 great flavours..

Amul Emmental Cheese The Great Swiss Cheese from Amul, has a sweet-dry flavour and hazelnut aroma

Amul Pizza Mozzarella Cheese Pizza cheese...makes great tasting pizzas!

Gouda Cheese

For Cooking
Amul / Sagar Pure Ghee Made from fresh cream. Has typical rich aroma and granular texture. An ethnic product made by dairies with decades of experience. Cooking Butter

Amul Malai Paneer Ready to cook paneer to make your favourite recipes!

Utterly Delicious Pizza

Mithai Mate Sweetened Condensed Milk Free flowing and smooth texture. White to creamy color with a pleasant taste.

Masti Dahi

Pro-biotic Dahi

Desserts
Amul Ice Creams Premium Ice Cream made in various varieties and flavours with dry fruits and nuts. Amul Shrikhand A delicious treat, anytime.

Amul Mithaee Gulab Jamuns Pure Khoya Gulab Jamums...best served piping hot.

Amul Chocolates The perfect gift for someone you love.

Amul Basundi

Amul Flaavyo Yoghurt

Health Drink
Nutramul Malted Milk Food made from malt extract has the highest protein content among all the brown beverage powders sold in India.

SWOT analysis of Amul (GCMMF)

Strengths
1. The company is having Indian origin thus creating feeling of oneness in the mind of the customers. 2. It manufactures only milk and milk products, which is purely vegetarian thus providing quality confidence in the minds of the customers. 3. It is aiming at rural segment, which covers a large area of loyal customers, which other companies had failed to do. 4. People are quite confident for the quality products provided by Amul.

5. Amul has its base in India with its butter and so can easily promote chocolates without fearing of loses. 6. Best Quality at Affordable price. 7. Strong distribution network.

8. Highly skilled manpower.

Weaknesses
1. Lack of capital invested as compared to other companies. 2. Improper distribution channel in India. 3. Most of the market is captured by SUDHA..

4. No government support.

Opportunities
1. There is a lot of potential for growth and development as huge population stay in rural market where other companies are not targeting. 2. Except Sudha, no branded player in the market with strong presence.

3. Short supply and irregular supply.

Threats
1. The major threat is from other companies who hold the majority share of consumers in Indian market i.e. Cadburys and Nestle. 2. New companies entering in Indian market like Fantasie fine poses lot problems for Amul. 3. Logistics from far flung areas to major places.

4. Emotional attachment with SUDHA. 5. Not able to cater demand.

Organization structure
It all started in December 1946 with a group of farmers keen to free themselves from intermediaries, gain access to markets and thereby ensure maximum returns for their efforts. Based in the village of Anand, the Kaira District Milk Cooperative Union (better known as Amul) expanded exponentially. It joined hands with other milk cooperatives, and the Gujarat network now covers 2.12 million farmers, 10,411 village level milk collection centers and fourteen district level plants (unions) under the overall supervision of GCMMF. There are similar federations in other states. Right from the beginning, there was recognition that this initiative would directly benefit and transform small farmers and contribute to the development of society. Markets, then and even today, are primitive and poor in infrastructure. Amul and GCMMF acknowledged that development and growth could not be left to market forces and that proactive intervention was required. Two key requirements were identified. The first, that sustained growth for the long term would depend on matching supply and demand. It would need heavy investment in the simultaneous development of suppliers and consumers. Second, that effective management of the network and commercial viability would require professional managers and technocrats. To implement their vision while retaining their focus on farmers, a hierarchical network of cooperatives was developed, which today forms the robust supply chain behind GCMMFs endeavors? The vast and complex supply chain stretches from small suppliers to large fragmented markets. Management of this network is made more complex by the fact that GCMMF is directly responsible only for a small part of the chain, with a number of third party players (distributors, retailers and logistics support providers) playing large roles. Managing this supply chain efficiently is critical as GCMMF's competitive position is driven by low consumer prices supported by a low cost system.

Advertising

An Amul butter ad on Pakistan's Kargil War fiasco. The image shows the "Amul baby" in between George Fernandes and Atal Behari Vajpayee. In 1966, Amul hired Sylvester daCunha, then managing director of the advertising agency ASto design a new ad campaign for Amul Butter. daCunha designed an add campaign as series of hoardings with topical ads, relating to day-to-day issues. The campaign was widely popular and earned a Guiness world record for the longest running ad campaign in the world. Since the 1980s, cartoon artist Bharat Dabholkar has been involved with sketching the Amul ads, who rejected the trend of using celebrities in advertisement campaigns. Dabholkar credited chairman Varghese Kurien with creating a free atmosphere that fostered the development of the ads. Despite encountering political pressure on several occasions, daCunha's agency has made it a policy of not backing down. Some of the more controversial Amul ads include one commenting on Naxalite uprising in West Bengal, on the Indian Airlines employees strike, and the one depicting the Amul butter girl wearing a Gandhi cap. Amul hired DraftFCB+Ulka for the brands of Amul milk, chocolates, paneer, ghee, ice-cream.

In popular culture
The establishment of Amul is also known as White Revolution. The White Revolution of India inspired the notable Indian film-maker Shyam Benegal to base his film Manthan (1976) on it. Smita PatilGirish KarnadNaseeruddin ShahAmrish Puri. The Amul success story is taken up as a case study in marketing in many premier management institutes across the world. The White Revolution ushered an era of plenty from a measly amount of milk production and distribution. Aside from the great measurable success that this project was, it also demonstrated

the power of "collective might". A small set of poor farmers of Kheda district in Gujarat had the vision and foresight to act in a way that was good for the society and not for the self alone.

Introducing higher value products

Beginning with liquid milk, GCMMF enhanced the product mix through the progressive addition of higher value products while maintaining the desired growth in existing products. Despite competition in the high value dairy product segments from firms such as Hindustan Lever, Nestle and Britannia, GCMMF ensures that the product mix and the sequence in which Amul introduces its products is consistent with the core philosophy of providing milk at a basic, affordable price.

The distribution network

Amul products are available in over 5,00,000 retail outlets across India through its network of over 3,500 distributors. There are 47 depots with dry and cold warehouses to buffer inventory of the entire range of products. GCMMF transacts on an advance demand draft basis from its wholesale dealers instead of the cheque system adopted by other major FMCG companies. This practice is consistent with GCMMF's philosophy of maintaining cash transactions throughout the supply chain and it also minimizes dumping. Wholesale dealers carry inventory that is just adequate to take care of the transit time from the branch warehouse to their premises. This just-in-time inventory strategy improves dealers' return

on investment (ROI). All GCMMF branches engage in route scheduling and have dedicated vehicle operations.

Umbrella brand
The network follows an umbrella branding strategy. Amul is the common brand for most product categories produced by various unions: liquid milk, milk powders, butter, ghee, cheese, cocoa products, sweets, ice-cream and condensed milk. Amul's sub-brands include variants such as Amulspray, Amulspree, Amulya and Nutramul. The edible oil products are grouped around Dhara and Lokdhara, mineral water is sold under the Jal Dhara brand while fruit drinks bear the Safal name. By insisting on an umbrella brand, GCMMF not only skillfully avoided inter-union conflicts but also created an opportunity for the union members to cooperate in developing products.

Managing the supply chain

Even though the cooperative was formed to bring together farmers, it was recognised that professional managers and technocrats would be required to manage the network effectively and make it commercially viable.

Coordination
Given the large number of organisations and entities in the supply chain and decentralised responsibility for various activities, effective coordination is critical for efficiency and cost control. GCMMF and the unions play a major role in this process and jointly achieve the desired degree of control. Buy-in from the unions is assured as the plans are approved by GCMMF's board. The board is drawn from the heads of all the unions, and the boards of the unions comprise of farmers elected through village societies, thereby creating a situation of interlocking control. The federation handles the distribution of end products and coordination with retailers and the dealers. The unions coordinate the supply side activities. These include monitoring milk collection contractors, the supply of animal feed and other supplies, provision of veterinary services, and educational activities.

Managing third party service providers

From the beginning, it was recognised that the unions core activity lay in milk processing and the production of dairy products. Accordingly, marketing efforts (including brand development) were assumed by GCMMF. All other activities were entrusted to third parties. These include

logistics of milk collection, distribution of dairy products, sale of products through dealers and retail stores, provision of animal feed, and veterinary services. It is worth noting that a number of these third parties are not in the organized sector, and many are not professionally managed with little regard for quality and service. This is a particularly critical issue in the logistics and transport of a perishable commodity where there are already weaknesses in the basic infrastructure.

Establishing best practices

A key source of competitive advantage has been the enterprise's ability to continuously implement best practices across all elements of the network: the federation, the unions, the village societies and the distribution channel. In developing these practices, the federation and the unions have adapted successful models from around the world. It could be the implementation of small group activities or quality circles at the federation. Or a TQM program at the unions. Or housekeeping and good accounting practices at the village society level. More important, the network has been able to regularly roll out improvement programs across to a large number of members and the implementation rate is consistently high. For example, every Friday, without fail, between 10.00 a.m. and 11.00 a.m., all employees of GCMMF meet at the closest office, be it a department or a branch or a depot to discuss their various quality concerns. Each meeting has its pre-set format in terms of Purpose, Agenda and Limit (PAL) with a process check at the end to record how the meeting was conducted. Similar processes are in place at the village societies, the unions and even at the wholesaler and C&F agent levels as well. Examples of benefits from recent initiatives include reduction in transportation time from the depots to the wholesale dealers, improvement in ROI of wholesale dealers, implementation of Zero Stock Out through improved availability of products at depots and also the implementation of Just-in-Time in finance to reduce the float. Kaizens at the unions have helped improve the quality of milk in terms of acidity and sour milk. (Undertaken by multi-disciplined teams, Kaizens are highly focussed projects, reliant on a structured approach based on data gathering and analysis.) For example, Sabar Union's records show a reduction from 2.0% to 0.5% in the amount of sour milk/curd received at the union. The most impressive aspect of this large-scale roll out is that improvement processes are turning the village societies into individual improvement centers.

 Technology and e-initiatives

GCMMF's technology strategy is characterized by four distinct components: new products, process technology, and complementary assets to enhance milk production and e-commerce. Few dairies of the world have the wide variety of products produced by the GCMMF network. Village societies are encouraged through subsidies to install chilling units. Automation in processing and packaging areas is common, as is HACCP certification. Amul actively pursues developments in embryo transfer and cattle breeding in order to improve cattle quality and increases in milk yields. GCMMF was one of the first FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) firms in India to employ Internet technologies to implement B2C commerce. Today customers can order a variety of products through the Internet and be assured of timely delivery with cash payment upon receipt. Another e-initiative underway is to provide farmers access to information relating to markets, technology and best practices in the dairy industry through net enabled kiosks in the villages. GCMMF has also implemented a Geographical Information System (GIS) at both ends of the supply chain, i.e. milk collection as well as the marketing process. Farmers now have better access to information on the output as well as support services while providing a better planning tool to marketing personnel.

Advertising practices

Brand : Amul Agency: DaCunha Associates Baseline : Taste of India

Amul has used the hoardings and advertising to perfection. Taking cues from new films, celebrities, the creative are fun to watch. More over Amul has stickled with the creative messages throughout. They like to call it as TOPICALS

Case Study - Brand Amul The Taste of India

AMUL- The Taste of India Born: 1946, christened in 1955n 1955 History: Originally marketed by the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers Union, Anand, it was taken over by the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) in 1973

Status: Has a 15% market share in the Rs15,000 crore milk category, and a 37% share in the Rs900 crore organized ice-cream segment. Starting with milk and milk powder, the Amul brand today covers a range of dairy products from chocolates to cheese and, of course, butter Brand story: If a brands value is to be judged by the ease with which it can be recalled, and then Amuls marketing campaign wins hands down. With its clever use of topical events, Amuls utterly butterly campaignit has the distinction of

entering the Guinness World Records as the longest running campaignhas won the brand several accolades. Playing the role of a social observer, its weekly comments have tickled Indias funny bone since 1967, when Sylvester Da Cunhas irrepressible Amul girl first had her say. But whats kept the brand going all these years? We have changed the packaging, our technology and our approach to marketing based on the changing taste buds of our consumers. However, the only thing that has helped us sail smoothly is that we have not changed our core valuesgive the best quality product to the consumer, and the best possible price. It holds true in any era, says B.M. Vyas, managing director, GCMMF. In fact, it is not just the core values at Amul that have remained the same; the core team associated with the brand is still the same. Even the advertising agency hasnt changed, and Da Cunha and FCB Ulka, have played a pivotal role in the growth of Amul. This has helped us maintain consistency in our communication. Our strategy of umbrella branding has also helped establish our brand firmly in peoples minds. This, despite the fact that we do not spend more than 1% of our turnover for marketing, compared with 7-8% (spent) by most of the food and consumer product companies, R.S. Sodhi, head of marketing, GCMMF, says. From Utterly butterly delicious Amul to The Taste of India, Amul continues to be the toast of the country.