Powered by Mother Dairy

Mother Dairy, a well known brand in the dairy, and fruit and vegetable business (brand name Safal), launched its corporate campaign yesterday. A set of two TVCs created by Saatchi & Saatchi will be aired on channels such as STAR Plus, Zee TV, SET Max, STAR Gold, National Geographic Channel, STAR Movies, Discovery Travel & Living, Cartoon Network, Pogo and Hungama.

The first of the two TVCs, ‘Classroom’, has three students appearing for a mathematics test with their teachers. Each of the students takes turns in deciphering the answer to the question asked by the teachers. (Submit your opinion on this ad.) The second film, ‘Gym’, shows young boys and girls practising karate and kick-boxing in a gym. In both films, the voiceover in the background says, “Kuchh mushkil nahin, namumkin nahin. Shakti doodh ki hai mujh me (Nothing is difficult or impossible. The strength of milk is in me).”

The film ensures that Mother Dairy is no longer seen as a mere milk brand, but from a broader point of view, as a comprehensive dairy player. Nevertheless, the core business is milk, and all the other products come out of Mother Dairy milk. Accordingly, the film depicts how Mother Dairy milk can power a whole range of other Mother Dairy products.

Nandu Narasimhan, creative director, Saatchi & Saatchi, reveals that the script was written when he joined the agency last year. V Shantakumar, managing director, Saatchi & Saatchi, came up with the idea for the brand during an in-house workshop conducted last year in the agency. Narasimhan gave it its final shape.

“According to the film, Mother Dairy products, which are made of Mother Dairy milk, will enable children to do incredible things. Equity and empathy are being built for the brand, the values for which it stands, and the various other Mother Dairy products, which draw their core values from Mother Dairy milk,” says Paul Thachil, CEO, Mother Dairy.

The film attempts to connect not only all categories in which Mother Dairy has a presence, but also the mother and the child, who are the brand’s core target audience (TA). The TA has been defined from the point of view of both consumption and purchase. Milk, butter, cheese and ice cream are consumed the most by children, but purchased by their mothers.

Narasimhan says, “The idea itself came across as aggressive, with a ‘go get it’ attitude, rather than the nurturing that is usually associated with milk. It is supposed to represent the modern face of milk and its values.”

“Making milk attractive to kids is an extremely difficult task. The nurturing mother is urged to take a more contemporary approach towards making milk more acceptable to her child. In this communication, we have tried to combine the traditional goodness and values of milk as the need of the hour, in a slightly modern context, with a more vivid and ‘here and now’ zone,” he explains.

Thachil says, “We are present by and large in most of the big categories; now it is more about foraying into niches and value-added versions in the same categories. For instance, we have been in the curd and ‘lassi’ categories for around five-six years, but we have now forayed into probiotic curd and ‘lassi’.”

Mother Dairy sells milk in only four markets currently, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and parts of Gujarat. The only other large player in the segment is Amul.

The focus is on key markets for each of the categories. In the curd category, we have been in Delhi for a while now and launched in Mumbai just three months back. We hold a 60 per cent market share in Delhi, but it is too soon to gauge where we stand in Mumbai,” says Thachil.

The sales turnover for Mother Dairy's products, including Safal, the company's fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen vegetables and fruit juices' brand, and Dhara, the edible oil brand, stands at Rs 2,700 crore for the current fiscal. The company which has been growing annually at a 20-25 per cent rate, has set aside 1- 1.5 per cent of its turnover i.e approximately Rs 25-27 crore for the marketing and advertising of its products.

Besides television advertising, the campaign will entail press and outdoor advertising. Web activities will not be considered for this campaign. “We may or may not release a film for each individual category that we are in today and that we plan to launch in the future, though it is too early for me to comment on that,” says Thachil.

Saatchi & Saatchi has been the agency for Mother Dairy for three years now. Before that, Interface, FCB-Ulka’s second agency, was handling the creative for the brand. While Interface was the brand custodian, print was the only medium of advertising used for the Mother Dairy brand.