Decoding the Branding Strategy of Patanjali

 One of India’s largest FMCG companies, Patanjali Ayurved, is one of the most well-known companies in the country that offers Ayurvedic and organic products. The company sells a wide range of products, including food, groceries, clothing, household goods, and beverages.

With its revolutionary products and services, Patanjali has quickly gained a large market share as well as consumer loyalty. It has seen a meteoric rise in a short period of time. In this blog, we’ll uncover the branding strategy of Patanjali, as well as its digital marketing strategy.

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How It All Started

Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna launched Patanjali in 2006 with a futuristic goal in mind. They founded the company with the aim of catering to both rural and urban consumers.

The founders began with the intention of creating a healthy society by raising the living standards of ordinary people. Their goal is to develop ground-breaking, all-natural products for preventing and treating acute illnesses. They combined cutting-edge technology with a variety of Ayurvedic aids and literature in order to get the finest results from natural inputs.

Patanjali produces chemical-free herbal goods across all several production units. Future Group also joined the Patanjali family, resulting in increased overall production and a more centralized logistics system.

The Branding Strategy of Patanjali

An interesting feature of Patanjali is that, unlike most companies, they have never just solely relied on celebrity endorsers to promote their products. Instead, Baba Ramdev, the company’s founder, is also the face of Patanjali.

A yoga guru, Baba Ramdev has already inspired a huge number of people to lead better lives through his yoga camps. So the initial Patanjali customers were his followers, who not only served as customers, but also helped market the company through positive reviews. With yoga and its advantages, Baba Ramdev also promotes India, its history, and its culture in his talks.

Every feature of Patanjali products demonstrates that they are natural and consequently superior to their competitors. Let’s look at the brand name and logo: the term “Patanjali” is derived from the name of a second-century scholar Maharishi Patanjali, who is known as the Father of Yoga. Not only that, but the brand’s emblem also has a green and saffron line underneath the name, evoking patriotism in the audience.

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We explain why the branding strategies of Patanjali are so famous through the 4-P framework.

1. Product

Patanjali disapproved of the stereotype that Ayurveda is only for the elderly, and made it cool enough to be adopted by the youth. To form a connection with millennials and Gen Z, Patanjali produced natural and organic products with an interesting spin, such as gooseberry candy, choco flakes, noodles, and more. Moreover, they also targeted young adults by producing high-quality and chemical-free cosmetics and body care products.

2. Price

Patanjali’s pricing has played a crucial role in placing the company ahead of its competitors. Other popular FMCG companies, such as Hindustan Unilever and Procter & Gamble, are doing everything to keep up with the rising competition and the growing popularity of Patanjali’s products. Patanjali uses price comparison as an effective marketing tactic, along with informing people about the benefits of utilizing its goods. They clearly recognize that with higher pricing, they will not be able to capture the target market.

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3. Place

Patanjali is India’s fastest-growing FMCG company, but that hasn’t stopped it from expanding into neighboring countries like Nepal. In Nepal, Patanjali operates a manufacturing facility. This well-established commercial relationship is allowing Patanjali to expand rapidly in Nepal.

Baba Ramdev will undoubtedly attempt to overtake the market in a number of other nations as his popularity grows in India and Nepal. Patanjali is poised to have enough funds for expansion and growth, thanks to its remarkable turnover of Rs. 30,000 crores. Thousands of businesses in India now carry Patanjali items, and many of these stores sell Patanjali solely, posing a threat to local retailers.

4. Promotion

While many individuals switched to Patanjali products because of Baba Ramdev’s influential status, a growing number of Indians began to join him once they learned how beneficial and affordable Patanjali products are. Patanjali’s marketing campaigns have always concentrated on informing people that Patanjali’s revenue is for charity, and not for any person or company.

Baba Ramdev seized the opportunity and began influencing Indians by disseminating information about the price disparity that existed in the Indian FMCG market and the efficacy of herbal Patanjali products. He successfully grasped the opportunity with both hands and created a significant change in Patanjali Ayurved’s branding strategy. The brand is now also offering its products through ecommerce, thus expanding its reach.

Digital Marketing Strategies of Patanjali

Patanjali takes a comprehensive approach to digital marketing. It has a number of digital advertisements focused on showing its products and emphasizing how healthy and natural they are. It has amassed a sizable Instagram following as a result of its outstanding efforts.

Content is posted to highlight the health advantages of these items as well as strategies to incorporate them into everyday cooking. Patanjali has concentrated a lot of its marketing efforts on convincing youth to love its products.

Additionally, Patanjali routinely uses Baba Ramdev as its brand ambassador in social media posts. They’ve effectively aligned their nutritious products to the brand image of a yoga teacher, who is famed for alleviating the country’s common maladies through healthy living. It has ensured this image sticks through its digital marketing efforts, and that customers are significantly influenced by this strategy.

All of Patanjali’s campaigns are designed meticulously. Patanjali does great research on its target demographic to understand the message it should convey through its advertising campaigns. It also helps the company understand which marketing platform would be most effective for its strategy.

SWOT Analysis of Patanjali

A SWOT analysis is required to thoroughly understand Patanjali as a brand. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This analysis is a management tool that examines a company’s positive and negative possibilities.

Patanjali is a one-of-a-kind corporation with numerous capabilities, as it demonstrates, but it also faces dangers and problems. Let’s evaluate them below.

1. Patanjali’s strengths

Founder

Baba Ramdev, a Hindu spiritual guru, is known as Patanjali’s founding father. He is the driving force behind the brand’s rapid expansion. He has utilized his influential status to urge customers to purchase his items. The guru has successfully managed to expand the company’s consumer base by utilizing religious, moral, ethical, and spiritual aspects of Indian society. If Baba Ramdev wasn’t the brand ambassador for Patanjali, it might not have been as popular today.

Pricing strategy

Patanjali’s pricing strategy offers it an advantage over its competition. The brand has been effective in capturing the interest and devotion of India’s poor and middle classes. The products are about 20%-30% less expensive than those of its competitors. Budget-friendly products are readily available and preferred by consumers with limited financial resources. Patanjali’s rivals find it difficult to keep up with such a favorable pricing plan.

New product launches

Patanjali has launched a slew of new products. Cow milk, flavored milk, curd, buttermilk, and cheese are now available from the company’s dairy division. The firm stated in an official press release that on the first day of the launch, it produced four lakh liters of milk.

Patanjali has also launched a clothing brand called Paridhan, making inroads into the apparel industry after attaining remarkable success in the FMCG sector. The company has targeted one of the most important necessities, clothing, in response to increased worries about dependence on other countries for clothing essentials.

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Patanjali now sells frozen veggies, such as peas, sweet corn, and mixed vegetables. It is also now in direct competition with McCain Foods. Patanjali has also launched Divya Jal, a brand of packaged drinking water. In addition, the company intends to provide urea-free calf feed as well as solar energy production.

Ayurvedic and herbal items

Patanjali has cleverly combined Ayurveda and herbal ingredients. Its marketing strategy emphasizes its herbal goods, in particular, focusing on the advantages of natural and organic materials. Patanjali’s Swadeshi products are well-liked and widely consumed by the Indian public. The brand’s inclusion of natural elements in its product lines has given it a competitive advantage over its competitors.

2. Patanjali’s weaknesses

Excessive product offerings

Patanjali’s product array is far too large. Some of these products are profitable, while others are not. Despite having a varied product portfolio, only a few products, such as shampoo and toothpaste, produce significant revenue. Hence, the company needs to phase out or solidify low-profit items in order to achieve significant revenues.

Lower distributor margin

The business strategies of Patanjali are formulated such that its primary focus is on volume rather than profitability. In comparison to other consumer goods corporations, it provides distributors with lesser profit margins.

Limited presence in the international market

So far, Patanjali has mostly focused on the Indian market. Baba Ramdev has a global audience. So the company should consider expanding to newer markets across different regions.

3. Opportunities for Patanjali

Organic and natural products

A growing number of consumers are opting for organic and natural products. Patanjali should invest more in its organic agricultural industry now, especially in terms of creating awareness about the health benefits and danger-prevention capabilities of its products.

Global markets

For a company like Patanjali, global markets provide fertile ground for expansion. Spirituality and anything associated with mysticism is popular among Africans, Asians, and Middle Easterners. The corporation should take notes from Haldiram, Amul, and Dabur, among others, and implement a similar strategy. The company has a direct connection to yoga, thanks to Baba Ramdev. Therefore, it has the ability to develop in other countries where yoga is a common practice.

4. Threats to Patanjali

Controversies

Patanjali has been involved in a number of scandals. The most recent advertising strategy of Patanjali was that of a product called Putrajeevak Beej, which promised to cure infertility. While the brand did not overtly assure people of a male child, many claim that the name of the product translates to a “son’s life.” A government investigation was launched as a result of the massive outcry. Many people advocated for a ban on the product’s sale. It degraded the brand’s reputation and has had a negative impact on revenue.

Negative publicity

When the Nepal Department of Drug Administration issued a public notice to Patanjali, claiming that some of its medicinal items were of “sub-standard quality,” the company faced a serious crisis. The company’s reputation was harmed as a result of this crisis, which resulted in unfavorable word of mouth.

Patanjali has caused quite a stir in the FMCG industry since its inception. Each of its steps has been meticulously planned to maximize the brand’s potential. Thanks to the branding strategy of Patanjali, the company has, over the last decade, amassed a huge following. Despite a few setbacks, the company continues to grow at a rapid pace, and is now the fastest-growing company in India.

Key Takeaways

• Patanjali is one of the largest and fastest-growing FMCG companies in India.
• The ad copy for each of its campaigns appeals to the emotion of the masses, as it draws on India’s ancient Ayurvedic culture.
• The company sells only Ayurvedic and 100% organic products.
• The advertising strategy of Patanjali is focused on informing people that the revenue earned is used solely for charity work in India.

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