How Polson made butter a commercial product in pre-Independence India
Polson butter had monopolised the business by the 1930s and become a household name in India, much before the Amul revolution.
Much before India became independent and Anand Milk Union Limited started the Amul revolution, Polson became India’s first commercially made butter.
Launched by Parsi entrepreneur Pestonji Edulji Dalal in 1900, Polson was initially a coffee manufacturing company. It diversified into the butter business when a customer complained that there wasn’t enough butter for the armed forces. It set up its first dairy in Kaira, Gujarat.
By the 1930s, Polson dominated the butter business in India.
“The brand was well distributed and advertised. So much so that Polson became a generic word for butter around the 1950s and 1960s,” advertising and marketing expert Navroze Dhondy said.
A unique taste
Polson’s butter was salty, but nothing to write home about.
So, the marketing strategy had to make up for the taste. And it did.
Polson started offering gift coupons with each purchase, which could be collected and redeemed to buy toasters or mixers.
It was marketed as butter that children loved. “Guard their health and give them the best,” the ad read.
Polson’s brand connect was huge, pointed out brand and marketing consultant Harish Bijoor. “It was about wholesomeness, it was local and Indians trusted and loved it,” he said, adding that Polson’s image kept growing until the late 1960s when Amul entered the market.
The competition
If in the early 1900s Polson’s competition was households who were making their own butter, after the 1960s it was Amul.
“Most housewives and mothers would churn milk to make butter, buying butter was an alien concept,” pointed out an advertising consultant.
The butter, with its not so pocket-friendly pricing, was targeted at the affluent and Anglo Indians. “It was almost like a status symbol to have bought butter at home. Mind you these were the days when few homes had refrigerators,” Dhondy said.
The downfall of the brand started when Amul entered the market.
Dairy farmers in the country were in a deplorable condition. Dairy engineer Verghese Kurien was entrusted with the responsibility of spearheading the co-operative movement that went on to become the mammoth Amul. In the beginning, Amul found it difficult to beat Polson because Indians were used to the Polson taste.
But Amul’s branding and quality was far superior and Polson was soon wiped out of the market.
Bijoor pointed out that part of the problem was Polson’s own creation. “Polson thought small,” he said, adding that the brand may be dead but its recall value is still “huge” with many Indians.
How Polson made butter a commercial product in pre-Independence India
Pity Polson could not beat the competition. As kids we loved Pol
son’s butter.
When Amul first came on the scene people didn’t want to touch It as Polson was the preferred butter by one and all. Poison had a unique taste and of course can’t forget the coupon we would so diligently collect.
Polson butter was the best in taste, appearance and truly appreciated and loved by everyone. I miss it even today. There is no butter that can compete with Polson. Hope they restart it’s manufacture .
As kids we were more attracted towards the Coupons given with each packet.
Polson’s Butter, would make our Hearts flutter.
I really miss Polson butter with its unique taste. No other butter could compete with it.
Honestly, I must have tasted Polson Butter for just a few years in the 1960s but the Salty Taste still lingers & the memory of that Blue bigger packet (in comparison to Amul’s slimmer one) with the removable (tearout) coupon on the side of the packet just refuses to fade away. Would switch over from Amul anyday to Polson if available today
It was a difficult time for me when we had to transition to Amul. Polson was Polson. Brought back fond memories.
Nothing to beat Polson not even Amul. The taste still lingers in the mouth. I remember as a kid, bathing in the bath tub, bought by Polson coupon. We also had a set of spoon & fork & many more things.
I loved Polson butter ànd more so the glass it came in.
If the name brand is still available, Tatas should buy it, copy the Polson recipe and taste to the T, and market it, possibly as ‘Tata’s Polson Butter’, even to a niche market. It will grow exponentially. And it must be made from desi A2 cows’ milk.
All Amul products are made from buffalo milk which is not that easily digestible as our desi cows’ milk. In fact, by law, no company using milk products are allowed to differentiate it as being from cows or buffalos!
This seems to be an unfair law that perhaps needs to be repealed.