- Founded in the year 2006
- Product portfolio of more than 1,000 products
- More than 38 production facilities/factories
- Rs. 12,000 Crore or $ 1.7 Billion revenue in 2017-18
- 37% product penetration within all households
- 21% CAGR between FY13 and FY18
The aforementioned numbers are not of any big shot FCMG companies like HUL, Nestle, P&G. This the growth story of India’s blue-eyed boy “Patanjali Ayurveda Limited”.
Started as a small pharmacy in the year 1997, Patanjali has built its Ayurveda business almost from scratch and gained market share and shelf space rapidly, challenging established multinational brands in all categories it has forayed in.
Patanjali in a true sense has been the biggest disruptor in FMCG space, giving HUL, Nestle, P&G, etc a run for their money.
From toothpaste, shampoos to cornflakes and instant noodles, Patanjali has products for customers of every age group.
The star performer for Patanjali is its Ghee, which contributes 14% to the total revenues, followed by toothpaste (9%) and hair oil (8%).
The growth story of Patanjali is not just a fluke but a well-defined and well-implemented business and marketing strategy.
Let’s take a look at the Marketing strategy of Patanjali and understand how it was able to achieve success in such a short span of time.
Differentiated Proposition >>> Strong Brand and Product Portfolio >>> Value Pricing >>> Strong Sales and Distribution Network >> Smart Promotional Strategies
Let’s understand what these 5 points actually mean and help in forming a great marketing strategy of Patanjali
Differentiated Proposition:
Patanjali’s natural and pure’ proposition and ‘swadeshi’ positioning are widely acknowledged to be the reasons behind Patanjali’s success.
Day in and day out, most of us use an arsenal of products that promise to make our skin softer and more youthful, our hair thicker and shinier, and our teeth whiter and brighter.
But one main thing that these million-dollar marketing campaigns don’t tell us is that majority of personal-care products have a high percentage of toxic chemicals as ingredients that may cause skin irritation, liver and kidney damage and also cancer.
Patanjali was smart to understand this issue and was quick in providing customers with Natural and herbal alternatives, which were far away from the harmful chemicals.
The “Natural and Pure product” proposition had hit the right chord among health-conscious customers and became one of the major reasons behind the success of Patanjali.
Strong Brand and Product Portfolio:
From toothpaste, shampoos and other personal care products to modern convenience foods such as cornflakes and instant noodles, Patanjali produces products offers a wide range of products in the categories of personal care and food.
That’s not it, Patanjali also plans to enter the clothing industry as well with its own range of kurta pyajamas and jeans.
Brand Architecture: In order to capitalize on the strong brand name of Patanjali, the company used the Branded house brand architecture where the sub-brands ( Patanjali’s Ashvashila, Patanjali’s Cow Ghee, Patanjali’s Kesh Kanti, etc) are just the subsets of the primary brand ( PATANJALI) and are mainly known by their parent brand only.
This strategy bestowed instant trust and credibility to the newly launched products due to the rub-off effect of Patanjali’s and Baba Ramdev’s credentials on Yoga and Ayurveda.
Refer this article to understand the SWOT analysis of Patanjali
Pricing Strategy of Patanjali:
Patanjali followed value pricing strategy for its products and this became one of the key corner stone in the marketing strategy of Patanjali.
The company priced their healthy and natural products 20-30% lower than their chemical laden counterparts.
This attractive pricing allowed Patanjali to target a much wider base of price-sensitive customers which companies like HUL, P&G, Nestle, etc were not able to do.
Strong Sales and Distribution Network:
One of the main reasons that Patanjali can offer low prices to its customers was because of its strong sales and distribution network.
Patanjali Ayurved sells its products online as well as through its 4,700+ retail outlets spread across the country.
Patanjali Ayurveda has also tied up with Pittie Group and Kishore Biyani’s Future Group to sell its consumer products through Future Group outlets.
Patanjali Ayurved has also started its FMCG expansion in form of dealership and distributorship channels across the country and expects wider growth in overseas distribution as well.
Promotional Strategy of Patanjali:
Ramdev is a great proponent of a direct marketing FMCG company
– Piyush pandey (CCO worldwide, India)
In a world, where customer’s buying decisions are influenced by the personality that they follow, Baba Ramdev is one fine example of influencer marketing.
Ramdev’s strong follower base helped the brand get the necessary push and loyal customers for its products.
Besides Influencer Marketing, Patanjali has successfully used offline as well as online channels for the promotion of its products.
TV Advertisements: Patanjali promoted its products through advertisements on news channels and used simple ads to provide all the necessary information to its customers.
E-commerce channels and online selling: Capturing the pulse of the millennials and to make products easily available to customers , Patanjali started promoting its products on e-commerce websites like Amazon and Flipkart.
Not just the e-commerce websites, customers also have the option to buy products directly from the Patanjali website.
Over to you:
This concludes the marketing strategy of Patanjali, if you have something interesting about Patanjali’s marketing strategy, do let us know by commenting in the comment box.