Amul - Utterly Butterly Delicious!

I can't even begin to explain what an important brand Amul is! Tell me one Indian who didn't have this Utterly Butterly Delicious butter in his childhood! Or as an adult smiled at the advert in the newspaper!
Even though the branding changed today - The girl mascot so totally stay and how!

A little girl's illustration with a slogan like "utterly butterly delicious" - still rings in my head when i see this brand. The marketing was fantastic the product was i think the only one of it's kind at the time. Well atleast the only one with a real branding and campaigns. So, it constantly played on tv and we saw the ads in the paper and ofcourse in the fridge!

Amul is another histroic brand from the 1960s. The first day it put it's hoarding up with a little girl "spreading" the message - it became the talk of the town and the country soon to follow. For ages it was just the butter.. You would walk into the grocery store and blindly ask for AMUL and not butter.

Their adverts were fantastic! Because these were hand illustrated - they always maintained the old world charm about them - but at the same time they were up to date with the latest happenings and events in - the parliament, bollywood, stock market or fashion trends - which made them so easy to relate to and constantly be the buss of the nation. They followed the KISS (keep it simple stupid) rule perfectly.. humble ads that related to every household and with no extra effort! Ofcourse there was effort from teh creative teams behind the scene who were wracking their brains every day for this ripple effect!

Amitabh Bachhan - Kaun Banega Crorepati

Gladiator

Bollywood movie

These a minor percentage of the the ads.. They should have an art exhibition with this classics!

A few decade ago.. The milk, paneer, chocolates and ice creams came in and made this product grow roots so deep into the indian market that no new brand has been able to shake it. Sure we have Britannia and mother dairy - which is divided amongst sections of people - but amul rules the masses! THe smallest town in India sells Amul.

The newest addition to the Brand has been the sugar free ice creams. With the new trend of DIET food - this hits the nail on the head! Love the packaging. The colors and photography and the spaced out layouts.. So unlike what you get to see in India - up until now anyway..!

Read more about the histroy of this brand on their website

Packaging - Haldiram

Haldiram started as a tiny sweets shop in Bikaner, India in 1937. In 1982 came to Delhi - the capital of India and has grown ever since.

As a child, i grew up on haldiram sweets and savories. Every Diwali, there were boxes of sweets from haldiram piled up in the house - packed in colorful cellophane wrap and each box opened to a wonderful variety of colorful sweets.

Today Haldiram is a common household name in India and Indian homes abroad. I now live in Switzerland and i still have ready food mixes, namkeens and gol gappa packets stacked in my kitchen. Every Indian shop here also prides itself to sell Haldirams. I don't remember seeing an advertisement of Haldiram on TV ever - but their quality, hospitality and great food speaks for itself.

Today they have namkeens, varieties of sweets, ready to eat foods, syrups and sherbets, pre packed foods for people like us abroad and restaurants all over india that take pride in amazing vegetarian food. (This is making me hungry)

Not too long ago they revamped their look and came out with a brand new packaging and brand identity. Word has it - the sons joined the business :-)..

I love their new packaging and i think it's totally in line with today's fashion and targets every age group. The logo changed and the interiors looked great and packaging was beautiful. But they can't seem to let go of the original logo. It keeps coming back. I see a bit of inconsistency with some of the packaging staying as it was. Would've love to see them go all the way.

Nevertheless, their food still rocks, the website looks great !!


I once met with Itu chaudhary - who worked with his team on the packaging for Haldiram and many other  great names in India. At the time Haldiram was in the making and i got a sneak preview into it.  I have to say - they did change the brand around!


Logos: Before and after
 

Some of the new packaging

Even though all this packaging is very nice and colorful -  much better than the cluttered look  before - what i can't seem to find anymore is the packaging below - which came around two years ago in a big way - but kinda got lost half way through - You see this every once in a while:

Small icons in colorful illustrated forms very very nice and clean - the packaging had lots of white space with splashes of color and great focus on the branding. Not much of this is visible anymore... WHAT HAPPENED??