TABLE OF CONTENTS

S. No. Contents Page No.

1 Introduction 2
2 Background 23
3 Scope 3-5
4 Swot Analysis 5-6
5 Expert Opinion 6-7
6 Recommendation 7
7 Bibliography 8

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Introduction
Patanjali Ayurveda Limited is an Indian Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company formed as a
Private Limited Company on 13th January, 2006 and subsequently converted into Public Limited
Company on 25th June, 2007. It was founded by Baba Ramdev and Sri Acharya Balkrishna. It is
headquartered in Haridwar, Uttrakhand. The company has one of the largest food and Herbal Park in
the world with world class manufacturing machinery and research and development facility, which is
located in Haridwar. It offers over 600 products in various segments such as herbomineral health
care, dental care, food, cosmetics, toiletries, hair care etc. The company focuses on offering
ayurvedic products, products made from natural resources and no use of harmful chemicals.

Background
Yoga for India is as old as the Vedas and it has been preached by various different gurus in various
eras. But it never caught the mass appeal until Baba Ramdev started his yoga campaign across the
length and breadth of the country. In 2003, Aastha TV started featuring him in its morning yoga slot,
post which he gained a large following and was able to create a very strong brand image of himself.
He taught the nation to lead a healthy lifestyle, the Vedic way. He then started criticising the foreign
brands. He tried to imbibe in people that soft drinks should be used as noting but toilet cleaners.
After few years Baba Ramdev brought Mr Rajiv Dixit, an Indian social activist, to share the stage with
him, where Mr Rajiv Dixit explained to the audience how MNCs were plaguing our country. He
explained to the masses how MNCs, especially in the FMCG sector, are selling us products which are
harmful and are earning huge profits from them. He related this to pre-independence era where our
freedom fighters brought swadeshi movement by burning and abolishing products of foreign
companies and asked the audience to follow suit. With an excellent oratory skill he was able to
convince the audience and created a negative image of the MNCs in them.

Time was ripe for Baba Ramdev to cater to his large audience with Ayurvedic products as he had
created a market for himself due to his huge following and by creating the negative image of MNCs.
Thus he founded the Patanjali Ayurveda Limited alongside Sri Acharya Balkrishna. By this time he
had also built a strong political influence which helped a great deal in making Patanjali Ayurveda a
success as he had almost nil political hurdles in his pathway due to the political support. Though
Baba Ramdev doesnt owns any stake in the company but takes active part in the promotion and
functioning of the organisation. The company has seen huge rise in its revenues from Rs. 68 Crore in
2010-11 to Rs 5000 Crore in2015-16.

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SCOPE
Marketing Strategy

Baba Ramdevs brand image was quintessential for Patanjali to see the light of the day. He started
by advertising his products during his yoga sessions. He talked about the ayurvedic ingredients and
health benefits of his products and brought the videshi hatao, swadeshi laao concept. He started
off by bringing in products which were directly related to peoples health, for example Amla and aloe
Vera juice which would cure indigestion, gastric problem and also increase their immunity. These

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products appealed to the customers right away and they started having further confidence in him.
Post which he launched various products like noodles, biscuits, health drinks etc. which also was
liked by people. Patanjali in sometime will launch its home worship category and enter the sacred
space.

During the initial years the company used only few means to promote itself. The major promotion
was through the yoga sessions telecasted on television. The company started selling its products by
opening stores across the country. It had a three-tier distribution system consisting of clinics,
wellness centres, and non-medicine outlets. Of late the company has started huge promotional
campaigns with television advertisement. The company used very less of models and famous
personalities and in maximum number of advertisements we saw Baba Ramdev himself taking part
in the act. The advertisements mainly focused on the ayurvedic ingredients involved in making the
product and also the swadeshi appeal. Packaging of its products which though being crude appeals
to the customer as a marker of genuineness and quality, the reason being that Baba Ramdev has
created an established brand image by which people are assured that what he is providing is genuine
and the crude packing signifies that they focus on the product and not packaging. The company has
also provided enough content on youtube were Baba Ramdev himself is explaining the whole
process how they are manufacturing these products. This makes the consumer more confident
about the quality of the product and thus he builds his trust in the brand. More so, not only do these
videos play a very important role in building trust with customers, these videos educate, inform and
consequently, sell its products. This content marketing is the best, most effective and affordable
method. The company started selling its product through thee patanjali chikitsalayas, patanjali
arogya Kendras and swadeshi Kendra. To enhance its business the company has now made tie-ups
with future group and to make online presence it tied up with bigbasket to sell its product. Though
now the company has barred bigbasket to sell its products online as the company has started its own
website www.patanjaliayurved.net to sell its products online. It will soon be launching its mobile
app, which will allow customers to locate nearby outlets that are selling patanjali products and also
facilitate online ordering of products. The company also exports its products to country like England,
Mauritius and is expanding it to various other countries.

The company has very effective pricing strategy. Its products are cheaper than its competitors. The
main reason being that the company directly procures its raw material from the resource owners
and not from middleman and thus it saves commission. Moreover the top management of the
company doesnt take salary and they dont have huge expenses. The company has also saved huge
amounts in advertisement expenditure as they dont have a lot of famous personalities as brand
ambassador. During the initial years it didnt advertise its products and used direct marketing where
Baba Ramdev used to market his products during his yoga session. Another reason for the low price
is also slim profit margins that company makes. The company is more focused on revenue than on
profits. It should also be seen that not every product of the company is cheap rather some of them
are costliest in their range. But the company has been careful to do so by doing it only in the
categories which it has been able to make a command over the market. For example the patanjali
cow ghee is the costliest in the cow ghee market but since the quality factor creeps in this product,
which is generally related with high adulteration, the company has been able to command the high
price based on its image of good quality along with the content marketing of these products.

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Product Innovation

Patanjalis core-competency is Ayurveda and it markets mainly on the lines of selling healthy, natural
and quality products so it had to do a lot of innovation to enter into different categories. The
company has a well-established research and development facility which is well equipped with all
the latest machinery necessary for testing the products. The company has a separate R&D
department for each of the production units where the manufactured products are tested. The
company also has a highend central R&D facility situated at the park. This facility ensures the
products meet high quality standards and undertakes R&D for new product development. It
procures new herbs from Himalayas and it does constant research on all such herbs and various
other materials to bring in new and better products on a continuous basis. The company came up
with its noodles variant promising to eliminate maida which is harmful for the body. The company
has also researched and brought sugar-free chyawanprash to cater to the huge diabetic caused
people of the country. Recently the company has innovated energy bar which is a chocolate
substitute and is claimed to be saccharin free and very nutritious in nature. The company is focusing
on innovation in all such items which contains items which are harmful for our body. It has
innovated maida free biscuits, healthy snack options, health drinks and various other options to suit
the needs and requirement of its customer base. The company has also made ayurvedic innovation
in beauty and Wellness products. The company is not only innovating its products but also innovates
the raw materials or there sources. For example the company is on its project to increase the units
of milk a cow gives by cross breeding.

SWOT Analysis
Strength

Established brand name

Low price products
Product in all categories
Ayurvedic products
Increasing marketing share
Excellent Research and development centre for the product innovation
High Quality and healthy products

Weakness

Need to establish brand name in global market

Less number of production units
Food products not accredited by FSSAI
Weak supply chain
Too much emphasis on Ramdev Baba

Opportunities

Untapped product variety

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 Increased demand of healthy products
Establish its brand name in global market
Regional markets left untapped
Rising Income and purchasing power
Growing population

Threats

Competitive market
Dabur and Himalaya already present in ayurvedic segment with better established brand
name
Other competitive organisations have big names attached to them

Expert Opinion
Mr Itu Chaudhuri is a lead partner at Itu Chaudhuri Design. He is a guest article writer at afaqs. He
spends most of his time in analysing trends. He has been practicing, teaching and writing about
designs since 1984.

OPINION: Mr Itu studied closely the design and quality of patanjalis packaging and found that
though t is crude but it shows patanjalis mark of genuineness and quality. Notice that Patanjali's
designs are not simply earthy, or with a culturally specific or kitschy charm, like Rooh Afza is. Nor do
they project a lack of means: its packs are well-made, of expensive material. Patanjali's design intent
appears to be to emulate the 'enemy's' visual style, in much the same way that urban ugliness is
often an awful homage to international architecture. He concludes that if patanjali can extract its
particular brand of Ayurveda appeal and apply it to packaging and beyond, it can enlarge its
audience to take in affluent doubters and earn a better price.

Suchi Bansal is mints media, marketing and advertising editor.

Opinion: Clearly, Ramdevs chant may be spiritual but his business mantra spells money, as evident
in the spectacular success of Patanjali Ayurved. The yoga guru whos taught a generation of Indians
how to breathe right, seems to be on the right track with a dexterous mix of savvy marketing and
smart pricing .

Opinion by top beauty bloggers:

Anamika Surekha (www.wiseshe.com): To my surprise, some products turned out to be actually

good. For instance, the aloevera gel, multani mitti soap, honey and coconut oil. But some were
beyond bad, mainly because they smelled so horrible that I am sure it must have reached the

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neighbours. The acne pack, for instance. The body lotion is terrible too it does nothing to the skin,
not even moisturises. She concluded by saying that she would recommend the products because
they are affordable but warned regarding monotonous packaging.

Ritu Rajput (www.theindianbeauty.com): I quite like them, given they are pocket-friendly and
pretty much deliver on their promises. I am huge fan of aloevera gel, and bank on it for most of my
skin care needs. It actually leaves the skin quite hydrated and soft. I like the Tejas coconut oil too,
which I feel nourishes my hair well. I realised the oil works as a good make-up remover too, and
even wipes off that stubborn mascara. But one product I disliked was the cold cream.

Recommendation:

Patanjali Ayurveda Ltd. after being founded in the year 2006 showed its major growth post 2009.
From then the companys sales had sky rocketed and it started becoming major threat to most of
the giants in the FMCG industry. The company is continuously developing, innovating and growing.
Experts say What makes Patanjali a credible threat is that it does not try to beat other FMCG
companys at their game; it changes the game for them. Based on my analysis there are few
recommendations to further boost its growth:

Innovation in untapped areas

Region based promotion alongside customisation of products based on region specific taste
and preferences
Tie up with large scale consumers such as irctc
Focusing on exports in countries, specifically the ones having taste and preferences in sync
with companys product offerings and where buyers are price sensitive
Promoting the products in hotels and resorts with prime focus on the ones having foreign
tourist so as to attract foreign markets
To increase production and improve supply chain so as not to have supply shortfall
To sell products through channels which is available and easily accessible for all
To get its products certified by various agencies so as to increase customer confidence, as
the companys products are not accredited by FSSAI
The company should now find a replacement for Baba Ramdev as the major focus in
Patanjalis product because if his image falls then it may hamper the companys position

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Bibliography
https://www.scoopwhoop.com/We-Asked-Top-Beauty-Bloggers-What-They-Feel-About-Patanjali-
The-Answers-Will-Surprise-You/#.za65nphsn

http://www.afaqs.com/news/story/48495_A-good-story-like-Baba-Ramdevs-may-survive-bad-
design

https://kenresearch.wordpress.com/tag/swot-analysis-patanjali/

http://www.patanjaliayurved.org/about.html

http://modifyed.in/baba-ramdev-one-greatest-content-marketers-india/

http://www.livemint.com/Companies/hLEBBx17cFY5rPjTjmIP9O/The-Patanjali-story.html

http://www.acharyabalkrishna.com/

http://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-brands/baba-ramdevs-
patanjali-enters-sacred-space/53867517

https://yourstory.com/2016/03/patanjali-story/

https://www.scoopwhoop.com/We-Asked-Top-Beauty-Bloggers-What-They-Feel-About-Patanjali-
The-Answers-Will-Surprise-You/#.za65nphsn