A YOGIC BUSINESS REVOLUTION Dr. Priyanka Rawal* Jagran
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ISSN: 2249-7196 IJMRR/Sept. 2016/ Volume 6/Issue 9/Article No-6/1169-1181 Dr. Priyanka Rawal / International Journal of Management Research & Review INDIAN MONK WHO WANTS A BILLION-DOLLAR COMPANY: A YOGIC BUSINESS REVOLUTION Dr. Priyanka Rawal*1 1Jagran Lakecity University, Bhopal (M.P), India. ABSTRACT India has always been known for its spiritual leaders who have not only guided the nation to be unified, but have also preached peace and service to mankind. In the recent few decades India has seen emergence of religious Gurus who are super influential and have become a celebrity and a brand on their own. Be it consumer products, lifestyle or entertainment, religious gurus are stepping into big business and are leaving no stone unturned in making their way to experience success. Consumers of today are more health conscious and are maintaining good quality of life. They have a preference to consume the products which give them good state of their health as well as provide maximum satisfaction. The preference and usage of a particular brand by the consumer over the time is affected by the quality benefits offered by the brand particularly when the brand is from the category of eatables and cosmetics. Failing to understand the changing consumer preferences towards safe and healthy products by FMCG companies has given PAL an opportunity to make its presence by giving its customers the widest product portfolio. Old ideology of market segmentation is no longer found suitable for today's turbulent markets and thus is been replaced by marketing strategy of Mass customization, in an era dominated by high individual customization. To frame their value propositions companies choose from product leadership, operational excellence, and customer intimacy which form the three value disciplines. An affirmation that the company's products have the greatest performance impact or experiential impact for its customers forms the product leadership discipline leading to the `best product' value proposition. A declaration to be the `best total cost' bid, determines the operational excellence where the combination of company‟s prices, product reliability, and hassle-free service is matchless. The customer familiarity discipline leads in providing `best total solution' – an affirmation that the company helps its customers recognize their accurate problem and the best solution, ultimately taking charge of implementing it. Baba Ramdev through his product offerings addresses all the three value disciplines offering a unique blend of Ayurveda and Vedic philosophy to provide value for his customers. This paper attempts to study the success story of Baba Ramdev's Make in India brand and how an Indian yoga guru‟s promising consumer goods empire is making multinationals in Asia‟s third-largest economy sweat. Keywords: Marketing, Health, Patanjali, FMCG, Ayurveda, Mass Customization, Consumers, value and satisfaction. *Corresponding Author www.ijmrr.com 1169 Dr. Priyanka Rawal / International Journal of Management Research & Review INTRODUCTION “Nestle ka panchi udne wala hai, Colgate ka gate bandh hone wala hai, aur Pantene ka pant kharab hone wala hai “ are the words said by an Ordinary Indian Monk who has already met customer needs by manufacturing products ranging from noodles and biscuits to shampoos and toothpastes . Most of us know him as a yoga guru but in recent years, he has metamorphosed into a 'baba' with a cause who co-founded Patanjali Ayurved with Acharya Balkrishna in 1997 and is promoting all things swadeshi (domestic). Baba Ramdev is a strong believer that all Indians should consumer Indian made products is aggressively working towards creating a situation in which multinationals would be unable to sell anything in India despite their best efforts to do so. The motto of Mass Customization is "Aham Brahamasmi" which means that I am omnipresent and omnipotent; thereby catering to the needs of all, irrespective of gender, age, caste, creed, culture and religion. PATANJALI’S UNSTOPPABLE JOURNEY Back in 2003, a comparatively obscure channel “Aastha TV” opened its early morning slot for a yoga guru who could be seen bare-chested, dressed in a saffron dhoti, performing various asanas twisting and twirling his body to eye-popping angles. With a humble setup linked to India‟s best export to the world: Yoga led to the beginning of The Patanjali saga. Popularly known as Swami Ramdev, he is the most accepted, energetic and the one who has the power within him to virtually captivate the modern genre to connect them with Indian ancient body of knowledge which is commonly known as Yoga and Ayurveda. Baba‟s close associate Acharya Balkrishna harbored a dream of amalgamating the yoga guru‟s popularity and his knowledge of ancient Ayurveda with best of breed technology giving birth to PAL, which began manufacturing medicinal products and, gradually but progressively, ventured into segments like dental care, cosmetics, and food products. The brand building of Patanjali started when Ramdev decided to enlarge the healthy yoga empire to FMCG delivering Cheaper Products with ‘Healthy’ Push. It is easier to convince a health conscious consumer to use patanjali products, especially when suggested by the „well-being messenger‟ himself. Aspires to be part of every SKU in kitchen this company is constantly working on a kitchen concept, as part of which it will launch products that are used in the Indian kitchen such as dish wash bar, ghee, rice, pulses, spices, mustard oil, flour and jaggery under the Patanjali brand name. Powerful endorsements by Baba Ramdev and word of mouth publicity through his yoga camps helped build scale instead of relying on advertising for its scalability during its nascent yearsAlso an exclusive store network operated by third party vendors proved a winning strategy by providing nearly 10,000 consumer touch points as “Chikitsalayas” (Dispensaries) and “Aarogya kendras” (Health centres). With hostile market conditions and rapidly increasing competition, PAL is now relying on a bombardment of advertising campaigns directed at end-consumers. To provide their customers place utility Patanjali partnered with the Future Group, making use of the traditional distribution channels to offer the whole range of products through Big Bazaar outlets across the country in October, 2015. As the Patanjali brand continues to make headway into the consumer market distributors are more than keen to stock PAL products. For a manufacturing company which was set up about 10 years ago, Copyright © 2016 Published by IJMRR. All rights reserved 1170 Dr. Priyanka Rawal / International Journal of Management Research & Review achieving a 5,000-crore turnover is not an easy figure to achieve. Patanjali Ayurved, FMCG major co-founded by televangelist Ramdev, aims to double its revenue to Rs 10,000-crore revenue in 2016-17, after seeing the growth in sales coming to 150 per cent in the previous financial year which was calculated to be worth Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion).The target figure if achieved, will put Patanjali Ayurved ahead of some very well established multinationals like Nestlé, Colgate-Palmolive and Procter & Gamble in India. With four business divisions namely home care, cosmetics and health, food and beverages, and health drinks Delhi-headquartered PAL to reach their growth target are planning to venture into new categories such as animal feed and khadi garments for yoga. PAL will also be entering in the dairy segment by 2016 with the launch of dairy products namely milk, cheese, butter milk and paneer. In 2015 PAL tied up with retail chains the Future Group and Reliance Retail. The company has 4,000 distributors, 10,000 stores and 100 mega-marts with plans to increase its distribution network in 2016-17. In order to meet the rising consumer demands the FMCG firm will set up at least 4 new manufacturing units in 2016 with a budget costing Rs 1,000 crore along with six processing units in various parts of the country. Also the company is planning to invest Rs 150 crore in research and development to understand the changing consumer behavior towards FMCG products. High profits with minimum marketing expenses are making patanjali compete with global FMCG brands like Emami Ltd., Marico Industries Ltd., and Pepsi Co. Today‟s consumer market can be summarized in two words i.e. “unlimited choice”.Baba Ramdev has got the pulse of the basic needs of people which is more towards living a healthy lifestyle and has brilliantly managed to fine tune his offerings to suit the needs of all. With mass customization strategy where each individual feels that he is talking to him individually baba ramdev is ruling hearts of Indian consumers. From being health conscious to maintaining quality life today‟s consumer prefer to consume products which facilitate them to protect the good state of their wellbeing as well as provide maximum satisfaction. This particular tendency has been accountable for astonishing popularization of Patanjali products and thus has generated curiosity to find out the attributes responsible for such revolutionary trends of Patanjali ayurvedic products. In a very short period of time Patanjali products have gained noteworthy place in market and captured quite Copyright © 2016 Published by IJMRR. All rights reserved 1171 Dr. Priyanka Rawal / International Journal of Management Research & Review a huge lot of consumers. With its annualized turnover expected to cross the Rs 7,000-crore mark before the end of fiscal 2017 PAL is giving a tough fight to India‟s top most FMCG majors heading to become the fifth largest FMCG company in the country, after Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Nestle India and Britannia Industries. LITERATURE REVIEW Evolved from the Latin word spiritus meaning the breadth of life the word spirituality has been defined as, “An individual‟s endeavors to explore and, intensely and importantly connect one‟s inner self to the known world and beyond” (Kale, 2006).This implies that every human being wishes to feel a connect to something greater than oneself and another is to be able to benefit other people and the world around him.