Analysis of Factors Influencing Consumer Buyer Behavior for Amul

Customer Acquisition and Retention

Submitted By

Hina Gupta E022

Nishank Jaura E028

Pallavi Kini E029

Arjun Krishnan E030

Divyanshi Pandey E038

Urvi Parikh E041

Prateek Vadodaria E053

Introduction to the project:

When purchasing any product, a consumer goes through a decision process. This process consists of 5 stages – Problem recognition, Information search, Evaluation of Alternatives, Purchase Decision & Post-purchase behavior. A consumer may not act in isolation in the purchase, but rather may be influenced by any of several people in various roles. The number of people involved in the buying decision increases with the level of involvement and complexity of the buying decision behavior. The consumer buyer behavior is broadly influenced by four major factors – Cultural, Social, Personal and Psychological.

Objective:

To analyze the various strategies used by Amul to leverage the following factors influencing consumer buyer behavior - Cultural Factors, Social Factors, Personal Factors, Psychological Factors - Motivation, Perception, Memory, Learning.

There are basically 3 parts to understanding the strategy that Amul has used, to leverage consumer buyer behavior which can be represented as below:

There are various factors influencing consumer buyer behavior that are targeted by Amul using various forms of stimuli including its product range, product promotion, pricing, distribution etc. These stimuli are focused towards leveraging the social, cultural, personal and psychological factors influencing the target consumer’s behavior directly or indirectly (e.g. by influencing their peer group who could in-turn influence them) and orient them towards choosing Amul as their purchase decision. In our analysis, we will be looking at the various influencing factors that have been targeted by Amul and the corresponding stimuli which have influenced people towards purchasing Amul products.

Stimuli Influencing factors

Purchase Decision

Explanation of all the concepts in the thought process through Amul –Which of the below factors have been leveraged by Amul to influence consumer buyer behavior? What strategies have been used by Amul to leverage these factors?

Cultural factors:Culture is the fundamental determinant of a person’s wants and behavior.

India is a country of vast cultural diversity and consists of various sub-cultural groups and social classes. In the past few decades, India has experienced western influences and this has had an impact on the eating habits and preferences of its people. Since its evolution, Amul has focused on both the traditional Indian taste and the western influences on Indian food preferences while launching its products and ad campaigns.

Amul has leveraged the diverse culture of India by designing specialized advertisements to target specific cultural groups. For e.g. Amul used the following advertisements for its product - Amul Lite. 1st ad - launched in south India, it shows the use of conventional bread spread being used over Idli; 2nd ad – launched to target north India, it shows how it is used over paranthas and the 3rd ad – launched to target the consumers influenced by the western culture in India, it shows how it is used over garlic bread. Thus, by focusing on various geographic regions and cultural differences, Amul is able to connect to the people of India according to their varied needs and tastes. Below are some examples:

The Indian culture is known for its diverse variety of food and eating habits. Amul has leveraged this variety to its advantage by offering products that can be used in complement with the main food. In the above advertisement, we can see how Amul has complemented cheese spread with two completely different food items like aloo parathas and chaklis. Through its advertisements, Amul is teaching its consumers new ways of consuming its products.

Leveraging the rich traditions and various festivals of Indian culture:

There are many rituals and traditions that play significant importance in the lives of Hindus. For e.g. In the link provided, we can see that a mother is giving yogurt (dahi) to her son before he leaves for his job. This signifies blessings and luck. Amul has captured this small yet significant ritual as a cultural factor to influence consumers to buy its products.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbdk89-8v1M

During the festive seasons, Amul comes up with relevant themes for its advertisements. Also, it has brought products in special packaging like Amul Avsar Ladoos for such occasions.

Indian culture consists of many sub-cultures including people from different religions, racial groups, and regions. One factor that runs common across all these sub-cultures is consumption of sweets. Amul has harnessed this fact and brought out its range of sweets and products that can be used for preparation of sweets.

Social factors:

Family is the most valued institution in India. Amul through its various advertisements has leveraged the strong family bonds and the roles played by various members of the family and how Amul contributes in small way towards the making the entire family happy. Also by associating the brand products with aspirational, dissociative groups as well as leveraging the influence wielded by children, Amul has used social factors to influence buyer behaviour Family:Amul has traditionally leveraged the influence which children have on the buying behaviour of the family. Over the years children have been main focus of the advertising campaigns of Amul. The special place that children hold in the hearts and minds of the customer is the reason why Amul chose a little girl as its mascot.

Another example of how Amul structured the products with reference to children is Emmental Cheese - ‘Cheese with Holes’. This fact resonates clearly with children, who normally first view cheese on TV cartoons. Hence, the strategy used here is to leverage children’s demanding behavior.

Reference Groups:Amul has leveraged the social factor of association with reference group by showing the kind of people consumer would like to associate or dissociate with. For eg., the following ad shows that non-consumption of Amul Paneer will lead to frail health by showing a wiry person being thrown away by slight push of the little boy’s shopping cart. The mother points out to her son, that not consuming Amul Paneer will make him weak like the lanky person:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W11eg81Q9Cc

For the product Amul Kool, the ad highlights the kool factor, co-relating the activities done by young people (hanging out, adventure sports) with the consumption of Amul Kool. The strategy used by Amul is that of Aspirational behaviour, linking Amul Kool with the in-group of cool people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgSRYWvksmw

Eat milk with every meal – Facebook Social Media Campaign

Capitalizing on the recent phenomenon of memes, Amul seeks to engage with the youth by allowing them to create memes with photos of their Facebook friends. This is a novel way to engage with the demographic, which heavily influences buying decision in modern India.

Personal factors:

Amul deals with essential dietary products which are used by people across different age groups and value systems. Amul has harnessed this wide usage by showcasing how its products along with its different variants can cater to people with different needs.

Following are a few examples of how Amul has captured various personal characteristics that influence a buyer’s decision:

Age and Stage in the life cycle:

Catering to the health needs of consumers belonging to different age groups: The following ad for Amul Milk shows how milk can be consumed by people belonging to different age and stage in their life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFKY1WB2yYU

Targeting three different age groups with the same product- e.g. Amul Calci+ - High calcium content double toned milk

The stimulus for buying the product is the special health need of calcium intake for the following age groups:

Pregnant women and lactating mothers Old people with high risk of osteoporosis Growing kids for growth of bones and teeth

Personality and self concept:

For the people who consider themselves gourmets or who like to experiment with new flavour or who like to associate themselves with international flavours, Amul launched two variants of cheese: Amul Emmental Cheese - the Swiss taste and Amul Gouda Cheese - Dutch variety

The stimulus is the exquisiteness of the cheese and its promise to offer international flavour. As the product was the first of its kind in the Indian market, Amul, through its advertising campaigns, showcased various dishes and cuisines with which it could be used.

Lifestyle and values:

Health consciousness is gaining special importance in urban India owing to fast paced life, pressure to perform, diseases caused due to sedentary lifestyle & growing awareness. Health conscious people are reluctant to buy dairy products as they are high on fat content. Hence to stimulate their buying behavior, Amul came up with low fat variants along with its broader product categories.

For e.g. Milk category – (1) Amul Taaza (low fat milk variant) & (2) Amul Calci+ (double toned milk variant with high calcium content)Butter category – Amul Lite (low fat butter variant)-The following ad of the product emphasizes this aspect and how it is a low cholestrol product. This directly influences the health conscious customer and people suffering from health problems to buy these products.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oOB7bYnCmM

Cheese category - Amul Health Spread (low fat cheese spread)

Dahi category - Amul Prolife (probiotic Dahi)

Amul promotes the health factor even in its regular products which can be seen in the following ads of Amul Paneer-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W11eg81Q9Cc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyh8rVdlYbw

Psychological factors:

(I) MotivationFreud’s Theory

Sigmund Freud assumed that the psychological forces shaping people’s behavior are largely unconscious and that a person can’t fully understand his or her own motivations. What a brand should do is to position itself motivationally in the consumer’s minds.

The brand Amul communicates a lot through the Amul girl, the punchline, its jingle, the slogan - ‘Taste of India’, the patriotic feeling, use of humor, typical Hinglish (mixture of English and Hindi) usage.

Maslow’s Theory:

According to Abraham Maslow’s theory, human needs are arranged in a hierarchy from most to least pressing- physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self- actualization needs. People will try to satisfy their most important need first and then try to satisfy the next most important need.

Physiological needs (food, water, shelter): Amul through its various products (milk, ghee, butter) satisfies the physiological need of food of all consumers. Also, the first hoarding of Amul that said: 'Give us this day our daily bread with Amul Butter' was a good example of how Amul wanted to portray itself as being able to cater to the physiological needs of consumers.

Safety Needs (security, protection): Amul has always given assurance to the buyer about the quality of their products and also the assurance that the quality is being sold at a reasonable price.

Social Needs (sense of belonging, love): The brand’s slogan – “The Taste of India” instills a patriotic feeling among the consumers. Amul butter ads portray a little girl in a polka dotted dress symbolizing a true spokesperson of the masses with an infallible gut and a tongue-in-cheek attitude.

Esteem Needs (self-esteem, recognition, status): Amul through its various products like “Amul Emmental Cheese” (ready to eat platter cheese; goes best with wines & cocktails, it has a Swiss taste), “Amul Chocozoo” (choco-bites with goodness of rich creamy milk & delicious cocoa), Amul Gold (Standardized Long Life Milk) and Amul fresh cream (low fat cream used to prepare fruit salad, ice-creams and sweet dishes).

(II) Perception: In marketing, perceptions are more important than reality, because perceptions affect consumers’ actual behavior. People emerge with different perceptions of the same object because of the following perceptual processes:

1. Selective Attention:Attention is the allocation of processing capacity to some stimulus. Selective attention means that marketers must work hard to attract consumer’s notice. Amul through its various advertisements have built a social connection with people by including cues of various social issues in its advertisements. Also, the Amul mascot and the tagline, ‘Utterly Butterly Delicious Amul’ is very recognizable, infact very catchy.

2. Selective Retention: Majority of people retain only that information which supports their attitudes and beliefs due to selective retention. Hence, they’re likely to remember good points about a product they like and forget those of competing products. Therefore, marketers need to use repetition to make sure that their message is not overlooked.Amul captures headlines and news in such a way that the minute one sees them, they are registered in the brain. It has been able to do this through-

Theme and style unchanged in nearly 50 years. Reinventing itself every Friday (a new hoarding goes up at 90 locations across India)

Sylvester daCunha designed an advertisement campaign as series of hoardings with topical ads, relating to day-to-day issues. Thus was born the Amul Moppet, a little girl who would warm her way into a housewife’s heart. Amul since then has been following different promotion and advertising campaigns with Amul moppet taking central role in the advertisement.

3. Subliminal perception:To promote a brand, marketers embed covert, subliminal messages in ads or packaging. Amul ads have witty one-liners which capture relevant events and that have caught the fancy of the nation. This instantly creates a connect with the populace and helps them to identify with the brand in a surrogate manner. The style of drawing is also very distinctive, and there is instant recognition of the brand without even needing to take a close look.

(III) Learning:Learning is the process by which, a consumer learns about the product/brand through its experience by using the brand. So the good experience of using one of the products of the brand leads the consumer to buying other products from the same brand.For e.g. The good experience felt by consumers making use of Amul butter leads them to purchase Amul cheese as well (when they want to buy cheese)(IV) Memory:Amul has always laid emphasis on heavy advertisements through its print ads, hoardings and TV ads in order to reinforce its brand image.

Brand associations consist of all brand-related thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, experiences, beliefs, attitudes that become linked to the brand. Marketers’ aim is to make sure that the products and service experiences create the right brand knowledge structures and are maintained in consumer’s memory.Throughout the 67 years of its existence, Amul has always been a very trustworthy brand. By embedding social issues and celebrities in its ads, it has built strong brand associations in consumers’ minds.

(V) Emotions:Emotions play a very important role in consumer decision making in India. Amul through its “Taste of India” tagline and various ad campaigns makes consumers feel proud.

Following are some of the Amul advertisements which encompassed various components of perception:

1990s: Alleged Ties and shady financial

transactions between the then PM Narasimha

Rao and a pickle baron

July 2012

The landmark research findings about a new

subatomic particle, the Higgs boson or 'Godparticle,'

in July.

.

So as discussed above, the various specific stimuli used by Amul to influence various

factors of consumer buyer behavior through 4Ps are:

Amul mascot – Amul girl Product variety Easy Access High Quality Promise National sentiment brand attachment Promise of healthy and hygienic products Affordable products Heavy advertising Strong distribution network

- 50 sale offices- 5000 wholesale dealers- More than 700000 retail dealers

Amul ad after the Delhi Rape case (December, 16)

Aug 2012: India's MC Mary Kom won an Olympic bronze medal for boxing at the London games

Quote from scholarly research articles:

"An individual motivated to enhance or support his concept of himself would be expected to accept the influence of a referent by associating himself with positive referents and/or dissociating himself from negative referents."

Informational and Normative Social Influence in Buyer BehaviorAuthor(s): Robert E. Burnkrant and Alain CousineauSource: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Dec., 1975), pp. 206-215Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2489056

"However, many products project important nonverbal cues that must be seen, heard, tasted, felt, or smelled to be appreciated properly. Indeed, in many consumption situations (viewing a movie, eating at a restaurant, playing tennis), several sensory channels operate simultaneously"

The Experiential Aspects of Consumption: Consumer Fantasies, Feelings, and FunAuthor(s): Morris B. Holbrook and Elizabeth C. HirschmanSource: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Sep., 1982), pp. 132-140Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2489122

Conclusion:

Amul has thus used various strategies to leverage many factors influencing consumer buyer behavior. We have analyzed the stimuli that have been targeted by Amul and the corresponding strategies employed to ensure final purchase of Amul products.

Social, cultural, personal and psychological factors have been leveraged across various products and across all stages, from problem recognition to final purchase decision, which has led to Amul becoming the market leader in milk products.

A mental map of the consumers helps to understand how the various strategies of Amul have influenced their response to Amul products:

References:

Amul Corporate Website http://toi.amul.com/products.html

Informational and Normative Social Influence in Buyer Behavior Author(s): Robert E. Burnkrant and Alain Cousineauhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/2489056

The Experiential Aspects of Consumption: Consumer Fantasies, Feelings, and FunAuthor(s): Morris B. Holbrook and Elizabeth C. Hirschmanhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/2489122