-KH News Desk(cbedit@imaws.org)
The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets the popular Amul brand, has launched a new initiative to make edible oil prices more realistic for consumers. Under the brand name ‘Janmay,’ the company is selling six varieties of edible oil, with a newly launched pack of 650 ml refined cottonseed oil priced at Rs 100. The company claims that the new initiative will help consumers to get the best quality oil at a reasonable price by removing the inflated MRP and displaying the quantity of the pack instead.
Jayen Mehta, Managing Director of GCMMF, said that the volume changes depend on the change in the market price, and the changes in prices display the quantity of the pack. The company is inspired by consumer behavior at petrol pumps, where they ask for fuel worth a certain value instead of a certain quantity, and believes that this is the best way to get value for money for consumers. Currently, the company is selling this pack only in Gujarat and plans to roll it out in other states soon.
However, some experts are skeptical about the initiative. Sourav Borah, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, believes that it might backfire as consumers may not be able to process the complex information about the prices and quantity and might end up feeling cheated. Borah also thinks that such innovative techniques in marketing require heavy advertising budgets, and companies should explain to consumers about the commodity prices going up.
The new pack targets consumers who mostly prefer to buy lesser quantities by spending less. In 2020, the Janmay range of edible oil was launched under sunflower, cottonseed, mustard, groundnut, and soya bean varieties. While the concept is not entirely new in the FMCG market, the company hopes that its initiative will make a difference for consumers.
