The news must have come through to you too: Patanjali reported Indian revenues of around Rs.

5,000
crores (~ USD 750 million) for the last financial year—and
    in doing so went past Colgate in India.
Even more interesting is that Colgate is almost 8 decades old in India while Baba Ramdev’s brand is
barely 8 years old.

The saffron-clad Baba’s forecast was quite eye-catching too—he    thinks the brand will double revenues
to Rs. 10,000 crores (~USD 1.5 billion) in India by next year, 2017—which
    would effectively take
them past two other-decades old companies—Nestle
    and Procter & Gamble—and
    leave Patanjali
second only to Unilever in India, all in just about 10 years.

So what helped them grow this fast? After all, nobody particularly thought that the Indian FMCG scene
was ripe for disruption.

Sure, there will be many parts to this answer. Quality products, or at least the promise of these will be
one reason. Reasonable pricing will be another. Aggressive distribution will be a third.

But I believe the true innovation is something that was probably done without much thought.

A single brand strategy.

The Colgate company sells brands under its name, Palmolive, Ajax and others.

Procter and Gamble go further—there’s

    Gillette, Tide, Pampers, Ariel, Duracell and so much more.
Unilever is the classic proponent of the multi-brand strategy: from Surf and Dove and Lipton and Lux
and Ponds to variants like Surf Excel and Lipton Yellow Label and Lux Supreme and Ponds
Dreamflower and far, far beyond.

But take a look at the Patanjali range above—whether

    it’s toothpaste or rice, noodles or chyavanprash 
—it’s
  all under one brand, Patanjali.

Flying in the face of traditional brand theory.

Traditional marketing thought has held that one needs to build and nurture a portfolio of brands, each
carefully positioned against a separate audience for a separate need.

Perhaps Baba Ramdev wasn’t the first to cock a snook at this dictum. Richard Branson was one of the
first to get there, with his “Virgin” brand draped around everything from colas to planes, trains, mobile
services and comics.
The thinking is straightforward—if
    you have heard of my brand and like the personality—then
    you
might be comfortable buying something else I offer. No matter how different the product category.

The modern technology brand playbook.

Technology brands like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and others follow this playbook.

The naming formula here is simple: Unique Brand + Generic Sub-brand/category name = Product
Brand name.

Google and Maps makes for Google Maps. Ditto for Google Search. Or even balloons in the sky—
   
Google Loon.
The word ‘Microsoft’ is a prefix that fits everything from Mouse and Keyboard to Windows Server.

Apple’s generic sub-brands are almost category like: Apple iPod, Apple iPhone, Apple iTunes, Apple
iPad and so on.

So what Baba Ramdev is doing is not very different from the new thinking in the business world.

The undoubted benefits of a single-brand strategy.

How severe is this problem? Till a few years ago, Nestle marketed over 8,000 brands in 190 countries.
Unilever had 1,600 brands across 150 countries and P&G was a bit of laggard with just 250 brands in
160 countries.

But even P&G thought that was a hundred too many, and announced a cull of its brand portfolio down
to ‘just’ 150 in 2014.

But in today’s over-branded, over-communicated world, even that may be 149 brands too many.

Each brand requires its own marketing and promotional budget, its own brand management team.
From evangelizing the idea of Yoga to FMCG Business
Evangelism, the spreading of gospel by public preaching or personal observer, concept does not
originally belong to marketing text. Brand Evangelism sounds like a marketing jargon in modern
digital societies for an ancient medium called ‘word of mouth’ publicity or advocacy. At the turn of
21st century, Baba Ramdev was neither spreading any religious gospel nor executing a marketing
campaign for his FMCG business. He only knew Yoga and that’s what he taught. There were perhaps
no product concepts in the NPD funnel. If he was a business visionary, he would not have limited
himself only to Yoga exercises promotion. In fact, Ayurveda and Unani product manufacturing or
marketing companies like Baidyanath, Dabur, Hamdard, Zandu Pharmaceuticals, besides local
Ayurveda doctors and vaids, were already practicing ancient knowledge in healthcare and personal
care. In early 1990s, companies like Dabur had started leveraging the power of advertising & celebrity
endorsements to build brands with western notions of marketing as practiced by MBAs. Ironically, it
distanced itself from Ayurveda in a corporate restructuring by parking all traditional Ayurveda products
in a different company named Dabur Ayurvedic Specialties. Patanjali was not even a known
organization till a decade ago. In hindsight, one can see that Patanjali was busy during 2003-2008
period to research and develop healthcare and personal care products.
Mr. Sunil Duggal, Dabur CEO fairly admitted "He (Baba Ramdev) is someone no one has dealt with
before and there are no existing analogies which can match him. So, we have to deal with them
differently. We're taking them seriously. I've sampled products which are in direct competition with us.”
Patanjali Founder- Yoga Teacher Baba Ramdev (or you may narrowly define him as Patanjali CEO),
has 538,000 followers on twitter as against Dabur’s 2005 followers. He controversially gets banned at
JNU but is invited by Government to promote Yoga also. On YouTube, He has 53,166 subscribers with
11,059,312 views. On Facebook, 915,496 people are talking about Baba Ramdev with 5,676,103
likes. No wonder, FMCG companies CEOs are still trying to figure him out. His current influence is
growing faster after NDA government at Centre in an uncanny parallel with Dhirendra Brahmachari’s
rise during 1975-77. But this small parallel ends here. It took Ramdev years of evangelizing an idea of
Yoga for a society that was increasingly living less healthier life, perseverance, and practicing what he
was preaching.
Connecting National Pride with Consumption
Recently Indian media reported that Baba Ramdev's Patanjali, with more than 350 products ranging
from noodles and biscuits to shampoos and toothpastes, is giving the heads of consumer goods
companies a reason to sit up and take stock. “They've realized Patanjali can't be dismissed as the whim
of the baba”— the brand is rapidly becoming a contender in the consumer goods space.

A Revolution to Build Individual and National Character with Yog. India’s Self-Esteem.

Business Schools anywhere in India don’t teach how to think and build consumer brand ideas
based on 'revolutionary' concepts. The notion of building an ‘individual 's or national character’
is seen as an alien subject or something not capitalist or exciting enough. The idea of ‘profit’ and
‘accountability to stock markets’ gains supremacy over everything else and corporates need
regulatory bodies to fulfill their social responsibilities. But let us not go there.
Building Brand through Evangelizing an Idea
Patanjali products are 'not revolutionary per se' but they come from an institute (Vidyapeeth) that
evokes credibility. In India, Ayurveda universities had been working for decades but academic and
industry interface was so poor that both didn’t leverage each other’s strengths. So what’s underlying the
source of credibility for brand Patanjali? One would argue that it is the only brand that has been located
in the ‘physical, mental,spiritual application of Yoga’ or 'Mind-Body-Soul Axis'. It may be understood
as more of ‘Ritual Brand’ than a ‘Product Brand’. It is not that Indians started reading oriental
scriptures or Patanjali text books, it is just that Yoga Workout has fired up millions. People have a new
hope drawn from an ancient wisdom. A hope that doing “Pranayama’ will oxygenate deeply seated cells
and provide healthy long life. The hope gets converted into belief as people endorse the experience - It
works! This value belief , built over a decade, now effortleslly travels through most Patanjali
products .
Reframing Ancient Wisdom and Practices
Why should consumer brands come only from USA or Western Europe and not sourced from ancient
wisdom locked in Africa, Asia or Eastern Europe or Middle East? Perhaps the civilization in North
America is too young to think about ancient wisdom. In any case,
SA is too hot on new technology and innovation; however, there are many cultures around the
world who can share their knowledge & ideas in healthcare, food, personal care and to the world
that is now more connected and freer than ever before. China, Tibet, Mongolia, Japan can
probably share ideas with the world that the entire humanity will immensely benefit. Not many
will know that Men-Tsee-Khang – Tibetan Medical Centre in Dharamshala (India) is celebrating
its 100 years of Education and Higher Studies in the fields of Tibetan Medicine and Astrology.
The main objective of Men-Tsee-Khang is to preserve, promote and practice Sowa Rigpa, the ancient
Tibetan system of medicine, astronomy and astrology.
Redefining the concept of Brand
American Marketing Association (AMA) traditionally defines a brand as a “name, term, sign,
symbol or design or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one
seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition”.
This definition reads incomplete now. It lacks the word ‘action’ - A brand can be an ‘action’ or an
‘exercise’ (e.g. Yoga) is worth consideration by academicians and industry professionals.
The fastest growth of Patanjali in the past six years and the fact that all FMCG companies’
leaders are acknowledging it as a ‘brand' - as a competition to worry about - is a testimony to the
need to insert the word ‘action’ in the defintion of 'brand'. Today, it is impossible to decode brand
Patanjali without Yoga Exercises which is at the heart of its origin, name and source of trust; not
its products or any other service.
The brand Patanjali was named after an ancient Ayurveda & Yoga saint “Patanjali”. But it doesn’t
evoke brand recall because of its logo (Unlike Nestle), design (Unlike Dabur’s Banyan Tree), name
(unlike Coke), term ( unlike Intel), provocation (Nike's Just Do It), or competitive differentiation (Lay’s
‘No one can just eat one’). The brand does not seem to be rooted in a brilliant consumer insight as part
of a foresighted strategic thinking. It defies many marketing principles while reaching out to its
consumers so to that extent Evangelising Yoga Idea first to Build a Brand deacde later created a
disruption; leaving competition completley unaware.
 •

• 52
• 12
• 9

Atulit Saxena

Publish a post
Evangelize an Idea first. Build a Brand later.
• Published on

• 52
• 12
• 9

Atulit Saxena
Chief Operating Officer - Brands at Futurebrands Ltd.
Soon we will have request from business schools in India to co-author case study on Brand Evangelism
as Patanjali (an Indian cross category FMCG brand) will reportedly grow to INR 5000 ( USD 757 Mn)
FY 15-16 since its launch in 2009-10, at the fastest growth rate in Indian FMCG market, as recently
reported in Indian media. The case study will be humbly sent to HBS for approval and publishing. HBS
will own copyright and Indian professors will have to pay to a foreign University for a limited period
'rights to use'; to teach an Indian brand case to Indian students. Oops, did I use the word ‘foreign’?
These days the moment one writes the word ‘foreign’, one feels the world will fly accusations for being
non-liberal or too nationalistic or intolerant in India.
Caves to Camps – Yoga returns Homes in India
In 1970s, when black and white television was more watched at a relatively better-off neighbor’s house
more than one’s own living room, Acharya Dhirendra Brahmachari (A Yoga Guru) used to explain the
ancient practice of Yoga. To the amusement of many in India, he was reportedly Yoga Guru (teacher) to
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who was named ‘Durga’ (an Indian Goddess famous for
ferociously killing demons in mythology) after Indian victory in Bangladesh war.
Dhirendra Brahmachari was a bachelor. He chose not to marry because he had taken ‘Sanyas’ –
renunciation matrimonial & material world- therefore his name was suffixed with ‘Brahmachari’. He
became influential in 1975-77 as Indian government imposed emergency. Years later, he mysteriously
died in a plane crash in 1994. Rest is history.
The problem with Dhirendra Brahmachari was that he did not wake up at 4 AM, mobilize people to
organize Mass Yoga Camps, through all seasons, in small towns of India. He did not travel much and
failed to personally connect with millions of ordinary people. He was also not called ‘Baba’, an
enlightened or detached soul. He wore white cotton dhoti and not saffron colored robes. He tried but
failed to bring Yoga Revolution through TV. The household penetration of TV in late 1970s was very
low in any case.
No one could forecast the market that three decades later in 2003, power of mass media television
channel would be fully realized when Baba Ramdev’s live telecast of Mass Yoga Camps across small
towns in India (also Yoga Camps on Luxury Cruise) would kindle a new interest in healthy exercises
and Ayur Veda ( the fifth Veda after the Rig,Sama, Yajur and Atharva Veda in Vedic Civilization).
Interestingly, Indians’ need to re-connect with the idea of Yoga & Healthier Lifestyle, at a newer level,
was visible twelve years after consumption was driven by economic reforms in 1991. Subsequently
foreign brands had embarked on India Entry launches and re-launches across categories. Baba Ramdev
was presumably interested only in Yoga and Ayurveda so he set up Patanjali Yogpeeth in Haridwar.
Unlike Dhirendra Brahmachari who had chosen Jammu, Baba Ramdev preferred an ancient pilgrimage
town Haridwar on the banks of river Ganges. With the choice of Haridwar, Patanjali was planted in the
pious soil of Indian culture and grew on the centuries old belief system.
From evangelizing the idea of Yoga to FMCG Business
Evangelism, the spreading of gospel by public preaching or personal observer, concept does not
originally belong to marketing text. Brand Evangelism sounds like a marketing jargon in modern
digital societies for an ancient medium called ‘word of mouth’ publicity or advocacy. At the turn of
21st century, Baba Ramdev was neither spreading any religious gospel nor executing a marketing
campaign for his FMCG business. He only knew Yoga and that’s what he taught. There were perhaps
no product concepts in the NPD funnel. If he was a business visionary, he would not have limited
himself only to Yoga exercises promotion. In fact, Ayurveda and Unani product manufacturing or
marketing companies like Baidyanath, Dabur, Hamdard, Zandu Pharmaceuticals, besides local
Ayurveda doctors and vaids, were already practicing ancient knowledge in healthcare and personal
care. In early 1990s, companies like Dabur had started leveraging the power of advertising & celebrity
endorsements to build brands with western notions of marketing as practiced by MBAs. Ironically, it
distanced itself from Ayurveda in a corporate restructuring by parking all traditional Ayurveda products
in a different company named Dabur Ayurvedic Specialties. Patanjali was not even a known
organization till a decade ago. In hindsight, one can see that Patanjali was busy during 2003-2008
period to research and develop healthcare and personal care products.
Mr. Sunil Duggal, Dabur CEO fairly admitted "He (Baba Ramdev) is someone no one has dealt with
before and there are no existing analogies which can match him. So, we have to deal with them
differently. We're taking them seriously. I've sampled products which are in direct competition with us.”
Patanjali Founder- Yoga Teacher Baba Ramdev (or you may narrowly define him as Patanjali CEO),
has 538,000 followers on twitter as against Dabur’s 2005 followers. He controversially gets banned at
JNU but is invited by Government to promote Yoga also. On YouTube, He has 53,166 subscribers with
11,059,312 views. On Facebook, 915,496 people are talking about Baba Ramdev with 5,676,103
likes. No wonder, FMCG companies CEOs are still trying to figure him out. His current influence is
growing faster after NDA government at Centre in an uncanny parallel with Dhirendra Brahmachari’s
rise during 1975-77. But this small parallel ends here. It took Ramdev years of evangelizing an idea of
Yoga for a society that was increasingly living less healthier life, perseverance, and practicing what he
was preaching.
Connecting National Pride with Consumption
Recently Indian media reported that Baba Ramdev's Patanjali, with more than 350 products ranging
from noodles and biscuits to shampoos and toothpastes, is giving the heads of consumer goods
companies a reason to sit up and take stock. “They've realized Patanjali can't be dismissed as the whim
of the baba”— the brand is rapidly becoming a contender in the consumer goods space.

A Revolution to Build Individual and National Character with Yog. India’s Self-Esteem.

Business Schools anywhere in India don’t teach how to think and build consumer brand ideas based on
'revolutionary' concepts. The notion of building an ‘individual 's or national character’ is seen as an
alien subject or something not capitalist or exciting enough. The idea of ‘profit’ and ‘accountability to
stock markets’ gains supremacy over everything else and corporates need regulatory bodies to fulfill
their social responsibilities. But let us not go there.
Building Brand through Evangelizing an Idea
Patanjali products are 'not revolutionary per se' but they come from an institute (Vidyapeeth) that
evokes credibility. In India, Ayurveda universities had been working for decades but academic and
industry interface was so poor that both didn’t leverage each other’s strengths. So what’s underlying the
source of credibility for brand Patanjali? One would argue that it is the only brand that has been located
in the ‘physical, mental,spiritual application of Yoga’ or 'Mind-Body-Soul Axis'. It may be understood
as more of ‘Ritual Brand’ than a ‘Product Brand’. It is not that Indians started reading oriental
scriptures or Patanjali text books, it is just that Yoga Workout has fired up millions. People have a new
hope drawn from an ancient wisdom. A hope that doing “Pranayama’ will oxygenate deeply seated cells
and provide healthy long life. The hope gets converted into belief as people endorse the experience - It
works! This value belief , built over a decade, now effortleslly travels through most Patanjali
products .
Reframing Ancient Wisdom and Practices
Why should consumer brands come only from USA or Western Europe and not sourced from ancient
wisdom locked in Africa, Asia or Eastern Europe or Middle East? Perhaps the civilization in North
America is too young to think about ancient wisdom. In any case, USA is too hot on new technology
and innovation; however, there are many cultures around the world who can share their knowledge &
ideas in healthcare, food, personal care and to the world that is now more connected and freer than ever
before. China, Tibet, Mongolia, Japan can probably share ideas with the world that the entire humanity
will immensely benefit. Not many will know that Men-Tsee-Khang – Tibetan Medical Centre in
Dharamshala (India) is celebrating its 100 years of Education and Higher Studies in the fields of
Tibetan Medicine and Astrology.
The main objective of Men-Tsee-Khang is to preserve, promote and practice Sowa Rigpa, the ancient
Tibetan system of medicine, astronomy and astrology.
Redefining the concept of Brand
American Marketing Association (AMA) traditionally defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol
or design or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group
of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition”.
This definition reads incomplete now. It lacks the word ‘action’ - A brand can be an ‘action’ or an
‘exercise’ (e.g. Yoga) is worth consideration by academicians and industry professionals.
The fastest growth of Patanjali in the past six years and the fact that all FMCG companies’ leaders are
acknowledging it as a ‘brand' - as a competition to worry about - is a testimony to the need to insert the
word ‘action’ in the defintion of 'brand'. Today, it is impossible to decode brand Patanjali without Yoga
Exercises which is at the heart of its origin, name and source of trust; not its products or any other
service.
The brand Patanjali was named after an ancient Ayurveda & Yoga saint “Patanjali”. But it doesn’t
evoke brand recall because of its logo (Unlike Nestle), design (Unlike Dabur’s Banyan Tree), name
(unlike Coke), term ( unlike Intel), provocation (Nike's Just Do It), or competitive differentiation (Lay’s
‘No one can just eat one’). The brand does not seem to be rooted in a brilliant consumer insight as part
of a foresighted strategic thinking. It defies many marketing principles while reaching out to its
consumers so to that extent Evangelising Yoga Idea first to Build a Brand deacde later created a
disruption; leaving competition completley unaware.
Brand Patanjali: Future Outlook
It will be interesting to track how is Brand Patanjali evolving in India and what it means to Indians
today or to the world tomorrow. Today, Patanjali stores have no distinct brand identity. In fact, these are
no-frill stores with open shelves, no air conditioning, no brand color-coded uniforms, no computerized
billing and no trained sales or support staff. With its e-commerce presence, patanjaliayurved.net, it is
already an emerging IT-enabled ‘retail service brand’. It has chosen not have a privileged ‘Ayurveda
Concept’ section in modern trade. Patanjali successfully competes with global and national brands on
the shelf and more significantly at full prices without consumer promotions in most categories.
But is it committing a mistake by spending crores in advertising instead of sustaining public interest in
Yoga to drive its potential FMCG consumers' recruitment in its mass Yoga camps, which perhaps no
event management company in India will be able to match year on year. The brand must continue to
build its energy reserves through Mass Yoga Camps to drive its FMCG business.
The Economic Times recently published its annual Brand Equity’s Most Trusted Brands Survey 2015.
Though Patanjali is emerging to be one of the most trusted new FMCG brand in India, it was absent in
the survey findings. However, Brand Evangelist Baba Ramdev is among the top ten Businessmen to
watch out for in 2016. It won’t be surprising if Patanjali is also voted to be 'the fastest trust earning'
FMCG brand in 2016 and is analysed in business schools to learn a new way ‘Brand Evangelism – The
New Trust Driver to Build Brands, Faster'.

Thus, if you are planning to start up, Baba Ramdev’s management principles should definitely be
taken into consideration. These ideas will give you an overview or help your business get bigger
profits.

1.Work on something which you have enough knowledge

about and practice
You cannot reach the pinnacle in a single day, so hold strong expertise on the subject before starting up.
However, Baba Ramdev also did not become successful overnight. Behind his muscle flexing and
knowledge about nature, lie years of practice and building an expertise in yoga and products of
Patanjali. Patanjali is now a well-known brand. Baba Ramdev has enough knowledge about Ayurveda
and this is the main reason behind the success of the brand.

1.Market research is very important

Before starting any business, market research is very important. Patanjali Ayurved Limited is
an Indian FMCG company, which is located in the industrial area of Haridwar. The place has full-time
security cover of 35 armed Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) commandos. And this was possible
because Baba Ramdev did a proper market research and established it accordingly in Haridwar, where
people are into pure herbal products. According to CLSA and HSBC, Patanjali is the fastest growing
FMCG company in India because of the fact that there were already many mixed impure products, but
he made it an advantage by finding the demand of people and worked accordingly. If you have enough
and right information; your catch in the market will be strong like Patanjali.

1.Save money regarding the brand ambassador

Baba Ramdev focussed more on the quality rather than quantity,that is he increased sales by advertising
through some other channel. He did not waste his money on any brand ambassador, instead he
promoted it himself. Building a brand is not an easy task, but you can do well by following Ramdev
Baba’s mantra of pleasing his audience himself.

1.Company of skilled people

For building a business, you will require people with knowledge and skill sets a bunch of qualified
people is required to execute the plan. Baba Ramdev build a successful brand by selecting qualified
people (two lakh currently working), especially in the field of science and biology or the ones with
PhD, who are dedicated towards work and production of the product. Even for yoga, the instructors
who are under him are all flexible and well-versed in it. No cutting corners for this one.

1.Direct connectivity
Generally, people are not sure about whether the brand ambassadors are themselves consuming the
product or not. But is his case, people are sure that he being the ambassador uses the product every day.
He teaches yoga to people every day. Via these sessions, the audience get a direct connection with Baba
Ramdev. Since he is directly connected to people through his yoga sessions, it is easier for him to build
trust.

1.Clever promotion
No one knows better about your production yourself. Keep this in mind and move forward confidently
meeting new people with high-level contacts. In case of yoga, Baba Ramdev met a lot of people
including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He directly spoke to people, which increased his credibility.
For example, he met Lalu Prasad Yadav and made him as a model for his special cream and energy
bars.
 1.Try to keep the product cheap
The biggest mantra to success is best quality product with cheap prices. According to the company, all
the products manufactured by Patanjali are made from Ayurveda and natural components,which are
cheaper than other alternatives in the market due to lesser production and marketing costs. The quality
of Patanjali is better and comparatively cheaper than other products in the market. To stay ahead of the
competition, you should always keep in mind the price, quality, and quantity produced.

1.Easy availability
For any business, it is important for the company’s product to be easily available anywhere at a
reasonable market price. Patanjali Ayurveda sells through nearly 4,700 retail outlets as of May 2016. It
also sells its products online and is planning to open outlets at railway stations and airports. It tied up
with Pittie Group and Kishore Biyani‘s Future Group on October 9, 2015.The company manufactures
444 products including 45 types of cosmetic products and 30 types of food products, which are all
easily available. The plus factor of Patanjali is that whether you buy it from a mall or a retail shop, the
price for the product is always same and easily available.

1.Timing
Get complete information about the other brands that are going to compete with you at the time of
launch. For example, when there was a controversy related to Maggie, Ramdev Baba launched instant
noodles on November 15, 2015. You should launch your product as per the demand of the consumers in
the market.
You may love him, you may hate him, but you cannot ignore him.