Branding and Packaging in the Dairy Category: India vis-à-vis International markets

The role of advertising for fast moving consumer categories ends after creating awareness for a product. In today’s cluttered media space where advertisers are constantly fighting for recall and top of mind awareness for their brands, whether the customer decides to buy a product of a certain brand or not, is more often than not decided on the aisles of the modern retail store or the local kirana store where she actually gets to see, touch and feel the product (packaging). And not at the time that she is exposed to the TV commercial or the press ad. Yet, packaging is still to get its due in the Indian scenario.The dairy category in India however has seen some interesting developments in recent times that are indicative of a new trend.

Branding in the dairy category in India

Over the years with the advent of modern retail, Indian brands have been focusing more than before on the packaging of their products so as to lure the fickle consumer.Dairy is one such category that has been seeing innovations in packaging. Amul and Nestle ruled the roost for a good many years. But with the arrival of other local, national, and international brands like Britannia, Mother Dairy, Go, Danone, Kraft, etc. the competition has stiffened. All brands are fighting for shelf and mind space. Blue and Yellow colours seem to be predominant in the category with most brands belonging to one or the other colour palette.  Internationally, the entire colour palette has been used for the dairy category. Primarily since dairy products there are available in a lot more formats, flavours and varieties than they are in India, the ingredient story is built on the pack very prominently. With the arrival of these newer formats in India, the pack graphic design scene will surely see changes here as well.

‘Go’ as a branding case study is interesting. When it came in with its new packaging, it immediately cut the clutter with its bold logotype and imagery in an otherwise sedate looking category. Interestingly, for its non-traditional dairy products like flavored yogurts and various cheese spreads among others, it went with the name ‘Go’ which is nothing but an extension of the mother brand ‘Gowardhan’. The brand architecture was designed smartly so that the new child brand gained from the equity of the mother brand but at the same time had a distinct identity of its own since it very clearly targeted a different consumer set than brand Gowardhan did.

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Amul moppet captures India over the years

By Disha Thakker, Exchange4Media, Thursday, May 31, 2012

You must have laughed at Amul moppet’s wisecrack ‘Korbo lorbo Eatbo’ on KKR’s IPL victory. This one may not have made it to ‘Amul’s India’, a book brought out by Amul along with its ad agency DaCunha Communications, but a lot of others chronicling important events in India over a span of 50 years form a part of the forthcoming volume.

DaCunha Communications has been handling the Amul account for five decades. It has brought out iconic wisecracks on billboards and print that have been the hallmark of brand Amul. The book is published by Collins Business, part of HarperCollins publishers, in a joint venture with the India Today Group. The book’s cover says ‘Based on 50 years of Amul Advertising by DaCunha Communications’.

The volume which is to be officially launched on June 11 in Mumbai and June 13 in Delhi is a compilation of write-ups and interviews of various personalities on their perceptions of the brand. It has been brought together by Rahul DaCunha, who now manages DaCunha Communications. He has managed to get on board celebrities such as Amitabh Bachchan, Harsha Bhogale, Sania Mirza, Rahul Dravid, Shobhaa De, Rajdeep Sardesai, Milind Deora, Sunil Gavaskar, Shyam Benegal and Santosh Desai.

Other people who have contributed to the book include industry experts and veterans such as Dr V Kurien, Manish Jhaveri, Alpana Parida, Anil Kapoor, Alyque Padamsee and of course Rahul and Sylvester DaCunha.

“The Amul brand has become iconic due to its advertising campaigns, primarily on hoardings, in the last five decades. Hence, we thought of bringing out this book which not only has compilation of 200+ evergreen topical ads but also commentary on the same from leading celebrities, authors, ad men and like to give the readers a unique perspective – both as a medium and the message,” said RS Sodhi, Chief General Manager, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (Amul).

Brand design company DY Works has designed ‘Amul’s India’ that traces the journey of the dairy product brand from 1967 when the first hoardings of the brand’s mascot, the chubby moppet, appeared on a few lamp-posts in Mumbai.

“The Amul ads have been ‘live’ and still bring smiles to people’s faces. We wanted to create a ‘living’ collection – which pushed the reader to engage and analyse rather than ‘collect’. The idea was to invite writers, social commentators, ad men and of course, the ‘victims’ of the hoardings themselves – to bring forth their unique viewpoint. Harsha Bhogale has written about cricket and the Amul hoardings, Santosh Desai on a changing India and Amitabh Bacchan on his personal recollection of being an Amul subject,” said Alpana Parida, President, DY Works.

A quote from the book sums it all up: “This book portrays how the endearing moppet and her tongue-in-cheek humour helped a milk producers’ co-operative create a ‘White Revolution’… it is a chronicle of India through the eyes of the Amul Girl.”

Amul Book - Covered in Mid Day

On the heels of the Amul's India Book Promo comes a feature done by Mid Day.

View the Amul's India promo on Youtube.

DY Works - Amul's India - Book Promo

The Amul ads have been 'live' and still bring smiles to people's faces. DY Works presents and anthology of these icon ads created by Da'Cunha Associates - a 'living' collection -- which pushed the reader to engage and analyse rather than 'collect'.

The Amul hoardings are markers of Indian contemporary and popular history and have touched many lives. Read views of various eminent personalities like Amitabh Bacchan, Harsha Bhogale, Santosh Desai, Cyrus Broacha, Milind Deora, Rahul Dravid, Rajdeep Sardesai, Sania Mirza, Shobha De, Shyam Benegal, Sunil Gavaskar, Sylvester daCunha and of course Dr. Kurien -- who gave us a few words. The people behind the brand were roped in as well including Rahul daCunha, Manish Jhaveri, Anil Kapoor and Alpana Parida.

For more information on Corporate Branding, feel free to contact us at DY Works -
Mumbai: +91 022 40406767, Delhi:-+91 011 26548089,
Website: www.dyworks.in, Email: contact@dyworks.in

Solutions through semiotics

As people – we gravitate towards ‘people like us’. Shared values, shared tastes, shared belief systems are what we seek when opening our hearts to make new friends. Similarly, we accept brands that reflect our values, our style, our taste.

So the simplest solution, really, is to create brands that reflect the innermost belief systems of the consumer. Understanding the consumer, therefore, is the mantra for all marketers. The question remains, how?

Market Research does not work.

How can an individual tell a researcher what his/her deepest desires or motivations are? As people, we are unaware of the causality of behaviour. And need the help of psychoanalysts or spiritualists to identify our inner selves. To believe that a market research practitioner can do the same in an interview is patently absurd.

The other way to understand the consumer is by ‘reading’ behavioural and cultural markers around him. If we identify markers that are unique to a consumer group, we can then decode them to unravel patterns that give us an insight into the inner recesses of the consumer’s mind.  Much like the weatherman that reads atmospheric pressure and wind speeds to understand the current climate, a semiotician understands all symbols and behaviours which are ‘different’ to understand the consumer.

Often leading to dramatically different results. Take for instance the emerging probiotic products in the supermarkets. Yakult from Danone and Probiotic Dahi from Amul are already on the shelves. Others are poised to enter the market. Typically, the process would have been this: Identifying a product category that is doing well in other markets, doing a 3-4 city qualitative research through focus groups, and then bringing the product to the market.

Probiotic?  It is like selling Coal to Newcastle.  There are many Sanskrit shlokas extolling the virtues of buttermilk – which after lunch is compared to ambrosia. It is part of an Indian diet and there needs to be no education about it.

Takram laghu kashayaamlam deepanam kaphavaatajit ||
Showphodaraarshowgrahanidoshamootragrahaaruchee |
Pleehagulmaghritavyaapadgarpaanduvaamayaan jayeth ||

(Takram or Butter milk (BM) does not cause heaviness when consumed. Hence it is known to have the quality "laghu". It gets digested quickly and easily. Aggravated kapha and vata are mitigated by this wonder drink. It is the best appetizer. According to ayurveda it reduces bloating of stomach, eases symptoms of haemorrhoids, soothes intestines and helps in indigestion.)

Yet, the insistence on using an alien and utterly mystifying term such as ‘probiotic’ instead of riding on all the accepted benefits of dahi/ yoghurt is frankly, senseless.

When applying semiotics, it is necessary to understand what symbols and markers can be encoded in a product or brand so that the consumer accepts it in his/her world. A semiotic approach to a problem such as this would have looked at beliefs in terms of digestion, the time of day such products are consumed.

Yakult would be better off placing their drink after lunch, than at a breakfast table. Similarly, flavoured yoghurt would do well to take on ‘dahi – cheeni’ at the lunch table.  

Contributed by Alpana Parida, President - DY Works.