BUS620: Marketing Managment

Prepared By Prepared For

Maeesha Tasnem – 1815277060 Prof. Dr. Sheikh Mohammad Rafiul Haque
Tasnim Muntasir Sami – 1815468660 School of Business & Economics
Ashfaq Uddin Faisal – 1735173660 North South University
Sadnan Shoumik Islam – 1735326660

Submission Date: 28 March, 2018

 Patanjali Ayurved Limited

Table of Contents
A Brief Case .................................................................................................................................... 1
Road Towards A Successful Journey ......................................................................................... 1
Question & Answer Segment.......................................................................................................... 2
Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 5

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 Patanjali Ayurved Limited

Patanjali Ayurved Limited

A Brief Case

The case discussed about how “Patanjali Ayurved Limited” managed the long journey by epic
raising and the essential key role it played to be the game changer in the Indian FMCG Market.
During this study it briefly discussed about its background journey and the necessary steps taken
to perfectly imply on their core marketing mix.

Ramdev who was little known as yoga teacher associates with Acharya Balkrishna set up the
foundation of the business. Later on, “Patanjali Ayurved Limited” (Patanjali) started as a private
company in 2007 and aim to spread Ayurveda, the ancient medical science in India.

Road Towards A Successful Journey

 Huge media attention: Baba Ramdev‟s national fame as a yoga guru helps him to build up
the value of this brand. He himself believes that his own role is 10 percent and the rest he
acknowledge to media. Baba Ramdev, the celebrity endorser of the brand, was always in the
news. Even whenever the press wrote something about him, his brands got publicity.
 Smart pricing: Input cost of Patanjali was low as it has no middleman in their supply chain.
The company sources directly from the farmers and avoid the rest. Keeping the price low is
one of their strategies. Moreover, because of its cost plus pricing Patanjali products were
priced 40 to 50 percent lower than its other established rival brands.
 Variety of products: Analysts from the HSBC who visited the head office claims that
Patanjali owes its success to two categories of product. One is from disrupter because of
quality and cost advantage and other one is their special Ayurveda focused products. They
categorize the products even when customers are unhappy about the pricing. Also they
diversified the segments. Patanjali also plan to enter the beauty products to compete with
major MNC‟s, baby care segments, and sports segment to compete with Nike, Adidas, etc.
 Advertising: Patanjali goes for very limited advertising policy in the past, but lately they are
appearing on general entertainment TV channels. Baba Ramdev prefers to follow direct
marketing as he cleverly integrates his various products in his own yoga camps and TV
shows. He taught Yoga to famous celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan and Shilpa Shetty,

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which actually enabled the brand to gather attention of general consumers. They also
launched an official mobile application where the users could order the product. For other
online marketing Patanjali updates its Facebook page with new information and new
launches.
 Swadeshi factor: Baba Ramdev motivated his followers to use Swadeshi products and raised
voiced against foreign products. The brand heavily relies on positive word of mouth
advertising. He himself being the brand ambassador often claims that the cosmetics or food
people buying from MNC‟s were poison and used to tell his disciples to spread their
Swadeshi Patanjali products.

Question & Answer Segment

Patanjali as a brand has a strong positioning in the minds of the consumer as a natural and
an Ayurvedic brand. Will Patanjali’s foray into so many diversified segments lead to a
brand extension trap and confused positioning?

Indeed, Patanjali has a strong brand positioning in the minds of the consumer being a natural and
ayurvedic brand. Patanjali‟s brand architecture has always been natural and ayurvedic.

Throughout all these years, Patanjali has always kept their brand architecture firm. Although,
Patanjali has dived their products into diversified segments, but, from the case we know that the
brand is well established and competes „neck to neck‟ with the established global FMCGs‟.
Diversified segments necessarily will not be a problem for Patanjali, this is because they focus
on related diversification where much of the essence Patanjali has on any segment is of natural
and ayurvedic.

As Patanjali tends to reflect the brand promise of natural and ayurvedic, they are also the
disruptors in the industry and have the competitive advantage of specialist know-how in this field
of all natural and organic products. It is also clearly visible that, Patanjali has always thrived for
brand extension, however it has stayed aligned to related diversification, and as long as Patanjali
delivers according to their brand Promise which is a blend of products that are low price but all
natural and ayurvedic they are good to go.

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Even if Patanjali went for unrelated diversification, it would not mean Patanjali‟s product would
fail, this is because Patanjali as brand associates to trust and as long as a new product reflects
that trust Patanjali‟s product will yield handsome revenue.

Because Patanjali, as a brand, solely rides on Baba Ramdev’s image, if Baba Ramdev ever
finds himself at the centre of a controversy, will his brand equity take a hit? Will it affect
the brand Patanjali? Even if Baba Ramdev does not get into any controversy, what will
happen to the brand Patanjali when Baba Ramdev is no more? Who should be the next
face of Patanjali? Can the brand survive without a face?

Patanjali, a reckless increasing FMCG whose net sales for the financial year 2015-2016 stood at
Rs. 5,000 Crore, is an everyday using brand now in India. Having a deep understanding of Indian
mentality Baba Ramdev is just a face of the consumer product giant. Because Patanjali, as a
brand, solely rides on Baba Ramdev‟s image, if he ever finds himself at the center of a
controversy, his brand equity will take a hit obviously, but only for a very short period of time.
Even if he is no more without getting into controversy it will not be affecting that much for
Patanjal. Because, Patanjali has already created that trust and brand image in the market and if it
is not Baba Ramdev then someone else like him will be their face of the consumer product giant.
It could be Sri Sri Ravishankar who is one the most popular and renowned Indian guru who
gives art of living foundation to the world and as popular as Baba Ramdev. Patanjali followed
some real essential steps from the beginning of their marketing thus bringing the company to
such a position today. Patanjali uses word of mouth publicity, publicity in yoga camps,
mainstream advertisement through national broadcasting and having a strong distribution
network for their marketing. After market analysis Patanjali have found widespread acceptance
among consumer for three extensive reasons:

 Belief of the consumers on the products high quality in terms of ingredients as well as health
benefits;
 Products from Patanjali are available at around 15-30% cheaper cost than similar products
from peer companies;
 Marketing the products on the lines of “Made in India”. Consumer belief: the Indian FMCG
market especially the food and beverages segments have recently been flooded by adulterated
goods which have severe detrimental effects on health of the consumers. Patanjali, led by
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Baba Ramdev has since its inception stressed upon the pure and adulteration free nature of
their product.

Acharya Balkrishna – a close aide of the yoga teacher is the main man behind the huge business
and is solely responsible for creating that image and the brand value of Patanjal. Like an expert
businessmen, Balkrishna magnificently implicated the psyche of the Indian consumer and
launched a campaign for Swadeshi as homegrown products, challenging the monopoly of the
current FMCG majors in the Indian market.

The promotion of the company and its products was started through Ramdev‟s yoga camps and
events as well as TV programs. Conspicuously, Ramdev does not grip stake in the company. To
cash in on the popularity and huge following of Ramdev worldwide, Balkrishna later helped set
up number of other businessmen serving as the managing director in 34 of them. He heads the
three trusts associated with Ramdev and Patanjali. From the conception and development to final
packaging, Balkrishna remains involved with each product and it hits the market only after
quality with a rural or rustic image of the company‟s products. Patanjali has consumer
observation that Indian products are inferior to international products. Patanjali launched its
product in the market under a competitive price construction with natural, herbal and Patanjali‟s
marketing strategies defied traditional norms. While other companies are cautions about new
product launches and conduct market research before entering new categories, Patanjali has
launched its product in multiple categories almost instantaneously without any market research.
Patanjali just beats all formation FMCG firms in India and the company has also entered into
joint ventures with some foreign firms and has been exploiting its products to countries like the
Middle-East, the United States and Canada to meet the projected turnover target of Rs. 10,000
Crore in the ongoing financial year. By fiscal 2020-2021, the company aims achieve its sales
target of Rs. 1 Lakh Crore. So, the main reason behind Patanjali is – not Ramdev Baba‟s brand
image which is just a face, rather, an effective way of marketing by Balkrishna. The company is
now is such a giant only because of Balkrishna‟s intelligence of understanding, planning,
marketing and creating that brand image and having such a huge business all around the world.

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Summary

Pantanjali is the current leading local company in India, which has become a competitive treat
for the prevailing FMCG companies. The brand‟s main motive is to throw away the foreign
companies out of India and make people realize how harmful the products of those companies
are. This brand sells quality organic products of various categories to its consumers at very low
price. Their product categories are: Natural Health Care, Natural Food Products, Ayurvedic
Medicine, Herbal Home Care, Natural Personal Care and Patanjali Publication.

With revenue of Rs. 10,000 Crore in the year 2016-17 this company is expanding the business
with minimum amount of advertisement, though their brand ambassador Baba Ramdev who
himself is a brand is promoting the products at his TV shows and yoga and medical centers.
FMCGs like, HUL, Nestle, Dabur, Kelloggs, GlaxoSmithKline, P&G, etc. companies are
worried about themselves. For the brand has placed itself really well within the market by
strategically using the 4P‟s of the marketing mix, i.e. Product, Price, Place and Promotion, giving
them the advantage over the foreign companies.

The variety of quality ayurved products of the brand has made a special place in the heart of its
consumers. But with the expansion of the company in sector like apparel the brand may face a
downfall. For the concept of “Swadeshi Jeans” might not attract the consumers in a befitting
way, as Baba Ramdev himself does not wear such cloths. This might also cause a negative
impact in the mind of users regarding the fact that, is the product really about the welfare of the
people‟s health or is it another way of gaining market in India and making profit. But with the
support of Baba Ramdev nothing seems too farfetched for this brand.

There is also the matter that, though their brand ambassador, Baba Ramdev does not own any
shares of the company, he might at some point face controversies that can have a negative impact
on the company‟s image. For, Ramdev is the only celebrity person who is branding the product
and because of whom the brand has reached such lengths so quickly in the Indian market. From a
very limited number of distribution centers the brand is now seen on the shelves of retails shops
such as Big Bazar, Reliance Fresh along with the online marketplace like Amazon. Pantanjali has
given importance to its farmers and their resources, which in turn creating a holistic market for
the brand. And the brand might as well keep growing with the trust of its consumers.