Amul sees business sense in the association of India’s largest dairy consumer brand with Netherlands, the world’s leading dairy-food producer
It was not the punters alone who were smiling when Netherland’s Ryan ten Doeschate scored a century against England in the Cricket World Cup. Several people in a small town of Gujarat were also cheering the Dutch team.
Reason: the Anand Milk-producers’ Union Limited, better known as Amul and governed by Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), is sponsoring the Dutch team.
While others vied for space for their logos on the Indian team’s blue uniform, Amul chose to go with an associate member country in the World Cup. Amul says the association of India’s largest dairy consumer brand with the world’s leading dairy-food producer, Netherlands, makes ample sense.
First, the move is aimed at exploring more market space among the youth across the world. “We were looking to associate with the game of cricket for long and the World Cup came as a good opportunity and it clicked,” GCMMF Managing Director RS Sodhi says, adding “We could have thought of television insertions or commercial ads during the events, but that is something that everybody does. So, we thought why not explore other possibilities for better branding and higher visibility? And we got an opportunity to sponsor the cricket team of Netherlands. The team is new and young, so it worked out with them.”
Amul's ambition is to use the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 as a platform to strengthen its brand overseas . As far as reaching out to the masses is concerned, Amul is already present in about 42 countries with its branded consumer products including Amul Butter, Cheese, Shrikhand, deserts etc. The company generates revenues worth Rs 150 crore from its export operations.
Apart from strengthening brand Amul, the World Cup is also expected to open doors to many overseas markets. As per the sponsorship agreement, the players will sport the Amul logo on their shirt sleeves. So would the training apparels of the entire team throughout the World Cup.
Moreover, the association between India and Netherlands is also built around imports of the famous Holstein Friesian breed of cows. “We have had an association with Netherlands in the past and we imported cows from there. But now export of dairy products to Netherlands or for that matter in the entire European region is not very easy. They have a lot of tariff barriers on imports of dairy products. We don't have any operations there,” Sodhi adds.
Not too long ago, India became the world’s largest producer of milk at around 120 million tones, overtaking Netherlands.
But does sponsoring a smaller team help? “Smaller teams come cheap and do not have the clutter that other bigger teams carry. There is a certain clarity around small teams and not many people are vying for them. And, big teams charge huge amount of money. In fact, a small team costs one sixth that of a large team and hence the returns are quick and high,” says Harish Bijoor, chief executive officer of Harish Bijoor Consults and a branding and marketing expert.
On its part, GCMMF has virtually no other association with Europe, even as it caters to overseas markets including Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, Far East and the US. Among these, the US and Middle East are major markets for the company. GCMMF, a cooperative dairy federation of around three million milk producers producing 4 million tonnes of milk every year, is expected to touch Rs 10,000 crore turnover this year.
Spending low to get adequate returns was not limited to Amul alone. Bangalore-based Base Corporation, an UPS and batteries company, has also joined the bandwagon by sponsoring the Canadian team; again an associate member country at the World Cup. “With sponsoring of mainstream teams, come low-cost efficiencies. We end up giving more than getting. For us the decision was tough. However, we chose Canada because there were many players of Indian origin. Plus, it also shared our brand colour ‘red’. And we have been receiving our share of visibility in the event so far,” says Aditya Arora, head - marketing at Base Corporation, which is now mulling conversion of its World Cup sponsorship of the Canadian team into a three-year deal.
The Indian connection with overseas teams didn’t end there. Another Indian company, Karuturi Global, is sponsoring the Kenya cricket team under a one-year deal with Cricket Kenya. But going by the team’s performance so far, the jury is out whether the money has been well spent.
