Utterly, Butterly Delicious!

This slogan has gone miles in reaching out to the psyches of numerous consumers across India, so much so that Amul Butter has made an everlasting brand for itself. Being just a daily bread spread, understandably not a fancy novelty product, it has yet proved itself as being quite the opposite across the mean market. One of the major drivers behind this psychological acquisition is the collective effectiveness of the banner ads campaign that has been deployed over a large portion of the country.

The idea of the flagship cartoon of a young girl (and her avatars), most of the times licking the fingers of one hand and offering you a slice of bread with golden butter generously spread on it, with the other hand has built a strong one – to – one correspondence with the name Amul Butter. It’s like she is beckoning you to “at least taste it”, while teasing you, claiming that it’s the most mouth-watering thing you’ve come across! The entire package that this technique turns out be, is so visually appealing that such an image will always make you think of Amul Butter and vice versa.

With a perfect balance of humourous tag lines and suitably direct references to famous ideas, each banner ad tells a unique story of its own. From spoofs on Hollywood and Bollywood, modified titbits on Indian politics, world affairs, scientific research, terrorism and sports, the Amul cartoon has left no field of general interest untouched. The biggest plus point of this approach is that it enables the campaign to reach out to almost everyone, through their own fields of interest. The ads are made so catchy that it is impossible to miss the joke. In addition they always highlight the butter aspect in the process. This way, an extremely large section of society is made aware of the fact that Amul Butter exists, and that they are waiting to buy it.

Hritik Roshan and Barbara Mori’s romance on screen was being pretty enthusiastically questioned and followed by the masses, anticipating off screen sparks as well, when Kites was released. The ad screaming “Bites”, followed by describing the product as something that your lips can’t resist, became even more effective when superposed on a scene of the cartoons romancing “Kites” style, especially because Barbara is feeding Hritik Amul butter in it! It is well known that former US president had shoes thrown on him while in the middle east some time back. The ad aptly uses the phrase “Attack it”, with reference to hungrily attacking the butter while attraccting attention to the mood of attacking the US President!

Featuring Faceb(h)ook and Twitter(ly) in the ad reaches out to a different ‘slice’ of minds, those to be ‘buttered’ through social media mentions. The next ad questions you if you’d like some Br(e)ad Butter, well if it’s a Joll(ie)y good snack I definitely would love some! How about the Lashkar – e – Tauba spreading butter and not hatred? Or if Jacky Chan chopped a stack of buttered bread (instead of bricks) and yelled out Amul (instead of the classic Karate chop cry – kiai!). I’m off laughing and will keep recollecting these lines for the rest of the day at least, can’t imagine about you.

The point is that these ads tap the interests of its target audience, by  behavioural predictions based on pre-learned concepts and make the story of the banner ad come to life in your psyche. You percieve it so closely that to some extent it is like you can see yourself in the same situation as is being portrayed in the ad! Even a confirmed dyspeptic or a lactose intolerant will be well aware of the butter and its propositions, being unable to dodge the flashy sign boards and their stories. They actively (passively for you) engrave Amul Butter in your memory. No matter how much you try to forget it, you just can’t.

This has proved to be an extremely effective marketing technique with a huge hit area. You won’t be surprised if the roadside Sandwichwala offers you a choice between the basic ‘Sandwich’ and an upmarket ‘Amul Sandwich’, and that too for an incremental cost. This shows the extent of success and the strength of the message being passed through the campaign.

Amul Butter (being simply butter by Amul) has built a standing and brand value for itself in your daily market, placing it a notch higher than other bread spreads (even though they are also butter, by XYZ!), just by playing around with the way you think, percieve and remember events. And the best part is, you don’t even know. How cool is that?