What a 50-year-old child can teach us about Marketing

“Marketing & Sales”- it’s always given me jitters when people refer to these two interchangeably. Through all the best practices, case studies and theories that I’ve picked up over my 3 years at university, I’ve learned one simple truth: Marketing is beyond sales. Marketing is embedded in culture: it either reflects or reshapes it. A few marketers have realized and utilized its potential to create brands that don’t just sell but serve.

This post and the subsequent ones aim to curate and comment on campaigns by such marketers, to reflect and remind all of us getting into or already in the workforce of the huge potential that lies in this field.

My first post is going to be dedicated to a brand that I was in love with way before I knew anything about branding, whose brand mascot was what I thought I saw in my 3-year-old reflection, and whose tagline was sung by every child, parent, and senior: Amul.

For those who aren’t familiar, Amul is a Dairy Co-operative in India. Would you be surprised if I told you that this cooperative has a campaign that has been running for over 50 years, using mainly one channel (billboard advertisements) with the same mascot, same packaging, and the same tagline, and still somehow, manages to make almost every Indian smile? That its enabled ads of standard, grocery items like butter and milk to become something that people look forward to every week?

This is the beauty of Amul. In the age of disruption and self-cannibalization, Amul’s managed to stick to what it does best and still stays incredibly relevant.