In a disruption to the edible oil retailing, cooperative major Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF) has launched a fixed-price retail pack of refined cottonseed oil for ₹100. The Amul marketer GCMMF sells six variants of edible oils under the brand ‘Janmay’.

This new initaitive, according to the dairy major, will make the edible oil prices more realistic for the consumers. “Normally, edible oil prices fluctuate everyday. Usually in retail packaging, there is a difference between the trade price and maximum retail price (MRP). Companies keep this difference to absorb any price variations. So, at any point, the consumers don’t know the right price of the edible oil. We are changing this game by keeping the retail price fixed,” said Jayen Mehta, Managing Director, GCMMF.

At ₹100, the newly-launched pack comes with 650 ml of refined cottonseed oil. “The volume changes depending on the change in the market price. We have eliminated the inflated MRP so that our customers get the best quality oil at a realistic price. The Delta here is 25 ml and based on this, the changes in price reflects in the quantity of the pack,” Mehta told businessline.

The Amul marketer has drawn inspiration from consumer behaviour at petrol-pumps, where they ask for fuel worth a certain value ₹100 or ₹2,000 instead of asking for a certain quantity. “This is the best way to get value-for-money for the consumers,” he said.

GCMMF currently sells this pack only in Gujarat, while it plans to roll out in different States soon. GCMMF keeps a week’s inventory for the ₹100 pack, so as to allow consumers to get the most realistic price and quantity at any time. It also ensures a price parity for the cooperative major.

The concept, however, isn’t entirely new in the FMCG market. Often soap players are found playing with the quantity. But is this latest retail packaging really a good marketing strategy?

Sourav Borah, Assistant Professor, Marketing at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) believes it might backfire as consumers may not be able to process the complex information about price and volumes, and might end up feeling cheated. “The approach here appears to be genuine and they want consumers to benefit. But such innovative techniques in marketing require heavy advertising budgets. If you can explain to the consumers about the commodity prices going up, they would not mind,” said Borah.

The new pack targets consumers who mostly prefer to buy lesser quantities by spending less. Janmay range of edible oils was launched in 2020 under cottonseed, sunflower, groundnut, mustard and soyabean variants.

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