印度本土品牌的成功之道

劉佳麗

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.”

近半個(gè)世紀(jì)以來，印度最具顛覆性的社會(huì)諷刺作家是一個(gè)藍(lán)頭發(fā)的圓臉小女孩，她能用與乳制品有關(guān)的雙關(guān)語譏諷任何事物，從金額高達(dá)數(shù)十億美元的金融丑聞，到政府腐敗，再到名人八卦，無所不能。阿穆爾女孩作為300萬奶農(nóng)集體的卡通吉祥物，是印度家喻戶曉的廣告吉祥物，促使阿穆爾乳制品公司成為印度最值得信賴的品牌之一。

阿穆爾是印度最大的乳制品公司，歲入25億美元。它居于新舊印度交替的節(jié)點(diǎn)上，將基于鄉(xiāng)村合作模式的甘地式國(guó)家理想與當(dāng)今新興21世紀(jì)經(jīng)濟(jì)強(qiáng)國(guó)的現(xiàn)實(shí)相結(jié)合。市場(chǎng)研究專家拉瑪·比伽普卡認(rèn)為：“該公司極具印度特色。這個(gè)品牌深深扎根于印度的生活——我想不出許多能夠做到這一點(diǎn)的其他品牌……它與我的生活、我的國(guó)家、我的家族緊密相連，深諳當(dāng)?shù)亓?xí)俗——這不是簡(jiǎn)單的營(yíng)銷策略問題?！?/p>

經(jīng)濟(jì)評(píng)論員古爾查蘭·達(dá)斯曾在發(fā)展迅速的消費(fèi)品公司寶潔公司擔(dān)任其印度分公司的首席執(zhí)行官，他的看法與上述觀點(diǎn)不謀而合。他說：“那些廣告牌和廣告詞傳達(dá)了現(xiàn)代的自由主義價(jià)值觀，它兜售的不僅僅是產(chǎn)品，更是那些有關(guān)我們國(guó)家是非對(duì)錯(cuò)的觀念?！?/p>

要想透徹了解阿穆爾的成功為何經(jīng)久不衰，最好的途徑是從其市場(chǎng)營(yíng)銷入手。雖然阿穆爾乳制品公司僅將其年?duì)I業(yè)額的1%用于廣告支出，但該公司通過阿穆爾女孩和卡通人物針砭時(shí)弊，使該品牌成為了全國(guó)性的談資。

達(dá)肯哈廣告公司孟買分部一直負(fù)責(zé)阿穆爾女孩的活動(dòng)，該公司插畫師賈揚(yáng)特·拉內(nèi)在最近的一個(gè)周二把目光對(duì)準(zhǔn)了當(dāng)日頭條新聞：自2008年孟買恐襲以來，印巴雙方首次決定重啟兩國(guó)板球賽事。

廣告中來自印度和巴基斯坦的兩位板球運(yùn)動(dòng)員握手，兩人的另一只手都拿著一片涂了黃油的面包，旁邊站著面帶微笑的阿穆爾女孩。第二天，廣告牌就出現(xiàn)在孟買的大街小巷，上面寫著“與鄰?fù)怼薄?/p>

近幾周，阿穆爾接連拿《時(shí)代》周刊雜志的封面故事做文章，如：曼莫漢·辛格擔(dān)任總理期間的施政令人失望，羅杰·費(fèi)德勒在溫布爾登網(wǎng)球公開賽中擊敗本土寵兒安迪·穆雷奪冠，以及寶萊塢演員達(dá)拉·辛格去世。廣告中頻繁使用與面包、黃油或奶制品有關(guān)的雙關(guān)語，混合使用英語、印地語或某種地方語言。這有助于該公司在建立一種根植于傳統(tǒng)印度的身份認(rèn)同，同時(shí)又通過觸碰當(dāng)前的熱門話題，關(guān)注印度青年一代的憂慮。

50年前，拉胡爾·達(dá)肯哈的父親曾經(jīng)是阿穆爾廣告宣傳活動(dòng)的發(fā)起人，現(xiàn)在他自己負(fù)責(zé)管理公司的廣告部門，擔(dān)任廣告的監(jiān)制。他將全國(guó)劃分為五大板塊，分別是：孟買、印度南部、印度東部（包括加爾各答）、北部印地語帶，以及一個(gè)新的板塊：臉書。達(dá)肯哈和他的團(tuán)隊(duì)每天都會(huì)為其中一個(gè)地區(qū)制作廣告，必要時(shí)能在6小時(shí)之內(nèi)完成從概念到廣告牌的制作。

然而，品牌推廣只是阿穆爾長(zhǎng)期獨(dú)占鰲頭的部分原因。其母公司古吉拉特邦奶業(yè)合作銷售聯(lián)盟的常務(wù)董事R.S.索迪表示，這是一種不同尋常的商業(yè)模式，之所以取得成功在于它涵蓋了16000多個(gè)村莊合作社、近320萬農(nóng)民、5600個(gè)經(jīng)銷商及超過100萬零售商組成的銷售網(wǎng)絡(luò)，“生產(chǎn)、加工、銷售都由農(nóng)民自己掌握”。

古吉拉特邦奶業(yè)合作銷售聯(lián)盟的前身是凱拉區(qū)牛奶生產(chǎn)者合作聯(lián)盟，成立于1946年。那時(shí)候，農(nóng)民正試圖擺脫中間商的剝削和英國(guó)殖民者對(duì)牛奶行業(yè)的操控，并向其中一位印度獨(dú)立運(yùn)動(dòng)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人薩達(dá)爾·帕特爾尋求幫助。他提出的模式沿用至今，即采取當(dāng)?shù)卮迩f合作社聯(lián)盟進(jìn)行專業(yè)管理的方式，通過該聯(lián)盟，農(nóng)民可以控制當(dāng)時(shí)由政府運(yùn)營(yíng)的孟買牛奶計(jì)劃的采購(gòu)、生產(chǎn)和營(yíng)銷。

阿穆爾是阿南徳奶業(yè)聯(lián)合有限公司的縮寫，這個(gè)品牌是由來自喀拉拉邦的敘利亞基督徒維格塞·庫(kù)里安于1957年創(chuàng)建，他大學(xué)時(shí)學(xué)的是核物理專業(yè)。在隨后的幾十年中，其他邦也引進(jìn)了該模式，創(chuàng)建了相互連接的合作社網(wǎng)絡(luò)，成為印度乳制品業(yè)的牢固基礎(chǔ)。

國(guó)際合作社同盟主席保利娜·格林女士就此說道：“對(duì)迅速擺脫貧困、中產(chǎn)階級(jí)日益壯大的印度而言，這是理想的模式，因?yàn)樵谟《劝⒛聽柹钍苄湃?，消費(fèi)者對(duì)其充滿信心，且過去幾十年里一直幫助許多農(nóng)民維持生計(jì)?！?/p>

該模式也使大型國(guó)際食品集團(tuán)難以在印度乳制品市場(chǎng)立足。索迪先生表示：“如果人們說起印度這個(gè)國(guó)家，就不得不說知名品牌阿穆爾。從全國(guó)范圍來看，有阿穆爾，而在各邦內(nèi)，也有各種區(qū)域品牌參與競(jìng)爭(zhēng)，所以沒有任何一家私人品牌可以在印度成為領(lǐng)頭羊?！?/p>

因?yàn)樨毟F的印度農(nóng)民負(fù)擔(dān)不起為了賣牛奶而遠(yuǎn)途奔波的成本，所以阿穆爾依靠分散在各地的牛奶采購(gòu)中心網(wǎng)絡(luò)收集牛奶，這強(qiáng)有力地抵御了外國(guó)對(duì)手的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。商企為了滿足股東要求，可能需要通過與工業(yè)化農(nóng)場(chǎng)簽訂大額合同的方式來增加利潤(rùn)，而阿穆爾的供應(yīng)商可以選擇當(dāng)天能收多少就賣掉多少。而每天平均從每個(gè)農(nóng)民手中收購(gòu)的牛奶量?jī)H3升多。

盡管數(shù)量不大，但阿穆爾模式給予了公司更大的靈活性，這是任何國(guó)際競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者都無法相提并論的。有這么多的供應(yīng)商可以聯(lián)系，即便有成千上萬的供應(yīng)商在某天無法提供牛奶，該公司也不會(huì)為了滿足牛奶需求而發(fā)愁。印度零售咨詢公司Technopak的負(fù)責(zé)人阿溫德·辛格爾認(rèn)為：“在供貨方面，阿穆爾的效率驚人。他們的合作模式為公司提供了大量備選方案?！?

（譯者單位：北京林業(yè)大學(xué)）