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.”

近半個世紀以來，印度最具顛覆性的社會諷刺作家是一個藍頭發的圓臉小女孩，她能用與乳制品有關的雙關語譏諷任何事物，從金額高達數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點上，將基于鄉村合作模式的甘地式國家理想與當今新興21世紀經濟強國的現實相結合。市場研究專家拉瑪·比伽普卡認為：“該公司極具印度特色。這個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的其他品牌……它與我的生活、我的國家、我的家族緊密相連，深諳當地習俗——這不是簡單的營銷策略問題。”

經濟評論員古爾查蘭·達斯曾在發展迅速的消費品公司寶潔公司擔任其印度分公司的首席執行官，他的看法與上述觀點不謀而合。他說：“那些廣告牌和廣告詞傳達了現代的自由主義價值觀，它兜售的不僅僅是產品，更是那些有關我們國家是非對錯的觀念。”

要想透徹了解阿穆爾的成功為何經久不衰，最好的途徑是從其市場營銷入手。雖然阿穆爾乳制品公司僅將其年營業額的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弊，使該品牌成為了全國性的談資。

達肯哈廣告公司孟買分部一直負責阿穆爾女孩的活動，該公司插畫師賈揚特·拉內在最近的一個周二把目光對準了當日頭條新聞：自2008年孟買恐襲以來，印巴雙方首次決定重啟兩國板球賽事。

廣告中來自印度和巴基斯坦的兩位板球運動員握手，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，廣告牌就出現在孟買的大街小巷，上面寫著“與鄰同享”。

近幾周，阿穆爾接連拿《時代》周刊雜志的封面故事做文章，如：曼莫漢·辛格擔任總理期間的施政令人失望，羅杰·費德勒在溫布爾登網球公開賽中擊敗本土寵兒安迪·穆雷奪冠，以及寶萊塢演員達拉·辛格去世。廣告中頻繁使用與面包、黃油或奶制品有關的雙關語，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印度的身份認同，同時又通過觸碰當前的熱門話題，關注印度青年一代的憂慮。

50年前，拉胡爾·達肯哈的父親曾經是阿穆爾廣告宣傳活動的發起人，現在他自己負責管理公司的廣告部門，擔任廣告的監制。他將全國劃分為五大板塊，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，以及一個新的板塊：臉書。達肯哈和他的團隊每天都會為其中一個地區制作廣告，必要時能在6小時之內完成從概念到廣告牌的制作。

然而，品牌推廣只是阿穆爾長期獨占鰲頭的部分原因。其母公司古吉拉特邦奶業合作銷售聯盟的常務董事R.S.索迪表示，這是一種不同尋常的商業模式，之所以取得成功在于它涵蓋了16000多個村莊合作社、近320萬農民、5600個經銷商及超過100萬零售商組成的銷售網絡，“生產、加工、銷售都由農民自己掌握”。

古吉拉特邦奶業合作銷售聯盟的前身是凱拉區牛奶生產者合作聯盟，成立于1946年。那時候，農民正試圖擺脫中間商的剝削和英國殖民者對牛奶行業的操控，并向其中一位印度獨立運動領導人薩達爾·帕特爾尋求幫助。他提出的模式沿用至今，即采取當地村莊合作社聯盟進行專業管理的方式，通過該聯盟，農民可以控制當時由政府運營的孟買牛奶計劃的采購、生產和營銷。

阿穆爾是阿南徳奶業聯合有限公司的縮寫，這個品牌是由來自喀拉拉邦的敘利亞基督徒維格塞·庫里安于1957年創建，他大學時學的是核物理專業。在隨后的幾十年中，其他邦也引進了該模式，創建了相互連接的合作社網絡，成為印度乳制品業的牢固基礎。

國際合作社同盟主席保利娜·格林女士就此說道：“對迅速擺脫貧困、中產階級日益壯大的印度而言，這是理想的模式，因為在印度阿穆爾深受信任，消費者對其充滿信心，且過去幾十年里一直幫助許多農民維持生計。”

該模式也使大型國際食品集團難以在印度乳制品市場立足。索迪先生表示：“如果人們說起印度這個國家，就不得不說知名品牌阿穆爾。從全國范圍來看，有阿穆爾，而在各邦內，也有各種區域品牌參與競爭，所以沒有任何一家私人品牌可以在印度成為領頭羊。”

因為貧窮的印度農民負擔不起為了賣牛奶而遠途奔波的成本，所以阿穆爾依靠分散在各地的牛奶采購中心網絡收集牛奶，這強有力地抵御了外國對手的競爭。商企為了滿足股東要求，可能需要通過與工業化農場簽訂大額合同的方式來增加利潤，而阿穆爾的供應商可以選擇當天能收多少就賣掉多少。而每天平均從每個農民手中收購的牛奶量僅3升多。

盡管數量不大，但阿穆爾模式給予了公司更大的靈活性，這是任何國際競爭者都無法相提并論的。有這么多的供應商可以聯系，即便有成千上萬的供應商在某天無法提供牛奶，該公司也不會為了滿足牛奶需求而發愁。印度零售咨詢公司Technopak的負責人阿溫德·辛格爾認為：“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：北京林業大學）