Class assignment:

Patanjali case study:

Yoga which had been in his life from a young age, made him cure his paralyze disease and
also made baba Ramdev learn and cultivate it as a lifestyle. Brought up in Shahbazpur village, he
learned yoga and Sanskrit from Acharya Shri pradyuman. He started to spread about yoga In the
year 1995 through Divya Yog mandir trust. The trust was started with two other members –
Karamveer and Balkrishna. The trust aims to teach yoga in all parts of the world.

In the year 2002, Sanskar television started telecasting yoga classes of baba Ramdev which
turned out to be the first step in the million-dollar journey. Soon the rival television Aastha signed up
with Baba Ram dev to telecast his yoga classes. The TV shows were telecasted during the morning
hours and it had the highest TRP as many followed the morning routine of Yoga in India. Soon his
yoga sessions were telecasted in more than 170 countries.

Acharya Balakrishna started Divya pharmacy under the collaboration with Baba ram dev’s
guru, Swami Shankar devs ashram to make ayurvedic and medicines. For the first three years, the
medicines were distributed free of cost and due to the popularity of the medicines, they were able
to diversify into other products. However, since the medicines were produced and distributed under
the name of trust they could not expand much and finally Patanjali Ayurveda limited was born in
2006.

Marketing mix of Patanjali:

Product:

Patanjali decided to target the whole Indian population who are willing to stay healthy
through yoga and also those customers who are dissatisfied with the pricing and quality of FMCG
goods from MNC. Patanjali entered into most of the FMCG products and Ghee was the major profit-
making product for them, Ghee alone accounted for 30 -35 percent of the revenue for Patanjali. Its
products were successful because of two major things- quality with cost advantage and the
ayurvedic base of making the products. In 2015, Patanjali held around 20 percent share in some of
the FMCG products such as toothpaste along with the other MNCs. It was expected that in the year
2020, its market share would rise to 50 percent.

Price:

The products of Patanjali were priced at 10 – 40% less than that of the other MNC products.
The cost-plus pricing method was used for Patanjali’s pricing policy. After some days the pricing
strategy was revised and some of the products were sold at a higher rate than the initial price. Ghee
as said earlier was one of the most revenue-generating products and it was sold at a premium price
which was costlier than the other MNC.

Place:

Patanjali products were initially distributed through exclusive channels and slowly the
channel became selective and intensive channel distribution methods were adopted. The
distribution system included Patanjali’s chikitsalayas, Patanjali Arogya kendra and swadeshi kendra.
The group was able to establish 15000 exclusive outlets across India and is aimed at developing
100000 outlets. Patanjali provided a low margin to the other retailers which led to a slow entry into
the other forms of distribution. It gave a low margin for the retailers and also didn’t give credit
options for buying goods in the initial stage. But later on due to the popularity of the brand, the
retailers were able to sell a large number of products of Patanjali which in turn gave them good
income. Thus even when they were getting only a 10% margin over Patanjali products, due to the
quantity selling they were able to make good profits than other products. This led the retailers to
give more space in their shelves for Patanjali. Patanjali made a contract with Future group and made
its entry to the stores such as BigBazaar and star hypermarket. Seeing this good growth reliance
group also made a partnership with Patanjali and separate kiosks were given.

Promotion:

The HTL factor which means – Herbs + Trust + Low Cost gave a wonderful promotional
strategy for Patanjali products. Following are the various promotional strategies handled by Patanjali
for its massive success.

 Events and experiences: Baba Ram dev marketed the products of Patanjali in every event he
conducted across the world. Benefits of using those products were preached which gave a
good push for selling the products.
 Baba Ram dev taught Yoga to many celebrities of India which helped him to make them
endorse the products for better reach. Celebrities such as Amithab bachan, Shilpa Shetty etc.
 Direct marketing: Baba ram dev earned the consumer's trust with Yoga preaching and it was
easier for him to sell the products through that trust.
 Word of mouth was another major marketing strategy that increased the sales of Patanjali
products. More than 5lac trainers were trained under his yoga and each served as a point of
sales for Patanjali products.
 Online marketing: Patanjali created a separate website for itself –
www.patanjaliayurveda.net. The website was internationally accessible for the customer to
buy products.
 Baba ram dev also motivated the customers to use swadeshi products and also raised voice
against the use of foreign products.
 Public relation and publicity: Testimonials of the people on the use of products, experience
Yoga sessions both through live and digital gave Patanjali a strong feeling of trust. Baba ram
dev also used the campaign of Narendra Modi's Make in India which helped them to boost
the product sale.
 Advertising: Initially advertising was not given more concern but later the number of times
ads that were shown and also the pamphlets which were given through the newspaper
increased. In 2015 Patanjali became the most advertised brand on television crossing all the
MNC ads such as dairy milk.

Thus all these strategies were integrated and it led to a way of success for Patanjali.