印度本土品牌的成功之道

刘佳丽

For nearly half a century， India’s most subversive social satirist has been a blue-haired， round-faced moppet2 who wields3 dairy-based puns on everything from multibillion-dollar financial scandals to government corruption and celebrity gossip. The Amul girl， the cartoon mascot of a 3m-strong collective of dairy farmers， is India’s most famous advertising mascot and has helped turn the company she represents into one of the country’s most trusted brands.

Amul， the nation’s biggest dairy products company with revenues of $2.5bn， sits at the nexus4 of old and new India， linking the Gandhian ideal of a country based on co-operative rural villages and today’s emerging 21st-century economic powerhouse. “It’s completely Indian，” says Rama Bijapurkar， a market research expert. “It’s a brand that belongs in the canvas of life [here]—and I can’t think of many other brands that do that... It deals with my life， my country， my family， it understands the local idiom—so it’s beyond simple marketing.”

Gurcharan Das， a former chief executive of the Indian operations of Procter & Gamble， the fast-moving consumer goods company， and an economic commentator， echoes this view. “The values it is conveying are modern liberal values through those hoardings5 and through those messages，” he says. “It’s not just selling a product—it’s actually selling ideas about things that are right and wrong with our country.”

Amul’s enduring success is best understood through its marketing. Amul spends just 1 per cent of its annual turnover on advertising but its campaigns built round the Amul girl and cartoon characters that send up current events have made the brand part of the national conversation.

On a recent Tuesday illustrator Jayant Rane of daCunha Communications， the Mumbai agency that has run the campaign since its inception， turned his hand to the biggest news story of the day： the decision by India and Pakistan to reopen cricket ties for the first time since the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

The ad depicted an Indian and a Pakistani cricketer shaking hands， each with a slice of buttered bread in the other hand， and the Amul girl standing by smiling. By the next day， the billboard was up on Mumbai’s streets with the tagline： “Share with neighbours”.

In recent weeks Amul has riffed on Time magazine’s cover story on the disappointing tenure of Manmohan Singh as prime minister， Roger Federer’s tennis victory over Andy Murray at Wimbledon and the death of Bollywood actor Dara Singh. The ads—most often involving puns based on bread and butter or dairy， in a mix of English and Hindi or a regional language—have helped the company build an identity that is both rooted in traditional India and， by tackling contemporary issues， stays tuned into the concerns of younger Indians.

Rahul daCunha， whose father created the Amul advertising campaign 50 years ago， which he now runs himself， oversees production of the ads and divides the country into five regions： Mumbai， south India， the east （including Calcutta）， the Hindi belt in the north， and a new addition， Facebook. Each day， Mr daCunha and his team create ads for one of those regions and can， in a pinch， get it from concept to billboard in six hours.

But branding only partly explains Amul’s continuing dominance. According to R.S. Sodhi， managing director of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation， Amul’s parent company， the unusual business model， involving more than 16，000 village co-operative societies， nearly 3.2m farmers， 5，600 distributors and a network of more than 1m retailers， works because “the production， processing and marketing [is] owned by the farmers”.

The organisation was founded as the Kaira District Co-Operative Milk Producers’ Union in 1946. At that time， farmers were seeking to escape exploitation from middlemen and Britain’s colonial dominance of the milk sector， and sought help from Sardar Patel， one of the country’s independence leaders. He proposed the model that remains in place： professional management of a union of local village co-operatives through which farmers control the procurement， production and marketing for—at that time—the government-run Mumbai Milk Scheme.

The Amul brand， short for Anand Milk Union Ltd， was launched in 1957 by Verghese Kurien， a Syrian-Christian from Kerala who had studied nuclear physics. Over the course of subsequent decades， his model was exported to other states， creating a network of linked co-operatives that continues to underpin the Indian dairy industry.

“In terms of a country rapidly coming out of poverty and with a growing middle class， that kind of structure is ideal because it has enormous trust and confidence within the subcontinent6， and it has been supporting the livelihoods [of many farmers] for many， many decades，” says Dame Pauline Green， president of the International Co-operative Alliance.

That model has also made it hard for big international food groups to gain a foothold in the dairy market. “Amul is a very reputed brand if you talk India as a nation，” says Mr Sodhi. “In India no private brand is able to emerge as a leader， because at a national level Amul is there to compete and at state level， regional brands are there to compete.”

The company’s reliance on a diffuse7 network of milk procurement centres， because poor Indian farmers cannot afford to travel far to sell their milk， has also proved a powerful defence against foreign competitors. Where more commercial ventures might require big contracts with industrial farms to increase margins in order to meet shareholder demands， Amul’s suppliers can choose to sell their milk in whatever volume they can muster on that particular day. The average intake per farmer is just over 3 litres per day.

While this is a small amount， the Amul model allows the company more flexibility than any international entrant might have. With so many suppliers on which to call， even if thousands of their suppliers were unable to supply milk on a certain day， they would not struggle to meet demand. “This is an extremely efficient company when it comes to supply，” says Arvind Singhal， head of Technopak， an Indian retail consultancy. “Their co-operative model gives them incredible options.”

近半个世纪以来，印度最具颠覆性的社会讽刺作家是一个蓝头发的圆脸小女孩，她能用与乳制品有关的双关语讥讽任何事物，从金额高达数十亿美元的金融丑闻，到政府腐败，再到名人八卦，无所不能。阿穆尔女孩作为300万奶农集体的卡通吉祥物，是印度家喻户晓的广告吉祥物，促使阿穆尔乳制品公司成为印度最值得信赖的品牌之一。

阿穆尔是印度最大的乳制品公司，岁入25亿美元。它居于新旧印度交替的节点上，将基于乡村合作模式的甘地式国家理想与当今新兴21世纪经济强国的现实相结合。市场研究专家拉玛·比伽普卡认为：“该公司极具印度特色。这个品牌深深扎根于印度的生活——我想不出许多能够做到这一点的其他品牌……它与我的生活、我的国家、我的家族紧密相连，深谙当地习俗——这不是简单的营销策略问题。”

经济评论员古尔查兰·达斯曾在发展迅速的消费品公司宝洁公司担任其印度分公司的首席执行官，他的看法与上述观点不谋而合。他说：“那些广告牌和广告词传达了现代的自由主义价值观，它兜售的不仅仅是产品，更是那些有关我们国家是非对错的观念。”

要想透彻了解阿穆尔的成功为何经久不衰，最好的途径是从其市场营销入手。虽然阿穆尔乳制品公司仅将其年营业额的1%用于广告支出，但该公司通过阿穆尔女孩和卡通人物针砭时弊，使该品牌成为了全国性的谈资。

达肯哈广告公司孟买分部一直负责阿穆尔女孩的活动，该公司插画师贾扬特·拉内在最近的一个周二把目光对准了当日头条新闻：自2008年孟买恐袭以来，印巴双方首次决定重启两国板球赛事。

广告中来自印度和巴基斯坦的两位板球运动员握手，两人的另一只手都拿着一片涂了黄油的面包，旁边站着面带微笑的阿穆尔女孩。第二天，广告牌就出现在孟买的大街小巷，上面写着“与邻同享”。

近几周，阿穆尔接连拿《时代》周刊杂志的封面故事做文章，如：曼莫汉·辛格担任总理期间的施政令人失望，罗杰·费德勒在温布尔登网球公开赛中击败本土宠儿安迪·穆雷夺冠，以及宝莱坞演员达拉·辛格去世。广告中频繁使用与面包、黄油或奶制品有关的双关语，混合使用英语、印地语或某种地方语言。这有助于该公司在建立一种根植于传统印度的身份认同，同时又通过触碰当前的热门话题，关注印度青年一代的忧虑。

50年前，拉胡尔·达肯哈的父亲曾经是阿穆尔广告宣传活动的发起人，现在他自己负责管理公司的广告部门，担任广告的监制。他将全国划分为五大板块，分别是：孟买、印度南部、印度东部（包括加尔各答）、北部印地语带，以及一个新的板块：脸书。达肯哈和他的团队每天都会为其中一个地区制作广告，必要时能在6小时之内完成从概念到广告牌的制作。

然而，品牌推广只是阿穆尔长期独占鳌头的部分原因。其母公司古吉拉特邦奶业合作销售联盟的常务董事R.S.索迪表示，这是一种不同寻常的商业模式，之所以取得成功在于它涵盖了16000多个村庄合作社、近320万农民、5600个经销商及超过100万零售商组成的销售网络，“生产、加工、销售都由农民自己掌握”。

古吉拉特邦奶业合作销售联盟的前身是凯拉区牛奶生产者合作联盟，成立于1946年。那时候，农民正试图摆脱中间商的剥削和英国殖民者对牛奶行业的操控，并向其中一位印度独立运动领导人萨达尔·帕特尔寻求帮助。他提出的模式沿用至今，即采取当地村庄合作社联盟进行专业管理的方式，通过该联盟，农民可以控制当时由政府运营的孟买牛奶计划的采购、生产和营销。

阿穆尔是阿南徳奶业联合有限公司的缩写，这个品牌是由来自喀拉拉邦的叙利亚基督徒维格塞·库里安于1957年创建，他大学时学的是核物理专业。在随后的几十年中，其他邦也引进了该模式，创建了相互连接的合作社网络，成为印度乳制品业的牢固基础。

国际合作社同盟主席保利娜·格林女士就此说道：“对迅速摆脱贫困、中产阶级日益壮大的印度而言，这是理想的模式，因为在印度阿穆尔深受信任，消费者对其充满信心，且过去几十年里一直帮助许多農民维持生计。”

该模式也使大型国际食品集团难以在印度乳制品市场立足。索迪先生表示：“如果人们说起印度这个国家，就不得不说知名品牌阿穆尔。从全国范围来看，有阿穆尔，而在各邦内，也有各种区域品牌参与竞争，所以没有任何一家私人品牌可以在印度成为领头羊。”

因为贫穷的印度农民负担不起为了卖牛奶而远途奔波的成本，所以阿穆尔依靠分散在各地的牛奶采购中心网络收集牛奶，这强有力地抵御了外国对手的竞争。商企为了满足股东要求，可能需要通过与工业化农场签订大额合同的方式来增加利润，而阿穆尔的供应商可以选择当天能收多少就卖掉多少。而每天平均从每个农民手中收购的牛奶量仅3升多。

尽管数量不大，但阿穆尔模式给予了公司更大的灵活性，这是任何国际竞争者都无法相提并论的。有这么多的供应商可以联系，即便有成千上万的供应商在某天无法提供牛奶，该公司也不会为了满足牛奶需求而发愁。印度零售咨询公司Technopak的负责人阿温德·辛格尔认为：“在供货方面，阿穆尔的效率惊人。他们的合作模式为公司提供了大量备选方案。”

（译者单位：北京林业大学）