It appears like neither the protests regarding the hateful labeling of the food packets at the time of the Chennai floods nor the condemnation regarding the portrait displayed at the Siachen martyrs funeral can daunt the rise of the Amma brand of J Jayalalithaa. The chief minister of Tamil Nadu has an eponymous brand in the state. Her followers have given Amma has the moniker to it. The brand is believed to her brainchild that was meant to engage her with her fan base. For the past four years, the brand has straddled the worlds of both business and politics.
Lately, many political leaders have attempted to market themselves as brands. The most recent election in the country is also a similar one. There have been attempts made by the political leaders to name the popular schemes by the names of the political leaders or give away free laptops and cycles having their images plastered on the items. However, not all of them get it right as they confuse between the image and political brand.
The Amma brand was launched in the year 2011 after she become the chief minister of the state for the fourth time. The brand flies in the face of the traditional marketing logic. It does not have a set marketing place or a single team to manage it. It extends into disconnected products and services such as bottled water, cement, etc. the expenditure and revenues numbers are impossible to unravel from the maze of the state finances and there is availability of the no profit and loss statements as well.
However, there is a fundamental philosophy that this Amma brand adheres to. O Panneerselvam, the Finance Minister of the state claimed that people are assured that the chief minister will make sure that they do not struggle from the pain of high inflation with the brand. This is the reason that there are 530 canteens that sell food at subsidized prices, 71 vegetable stores that sell stuff at only 40 percent of the actual market price and bottle water of one liter is retailed at Rs 10 instead of Rs 20 as the private brands.
Eventually, the canteens are running at losses on a daily basis and people believe that it helped the political party AIADMK of J Jayalalithaa sweep the assembly elections in 2014. The Amma brand could be a wake-up call for the major companies.
