Marketing Strategy of Patanjali: Case Study & SWOT Analysis

About Patanjali – Ayurvedic Products

Patanjali Ayurved Ltd. is the fastest growing FMCG company in India that only deals with herbal products. Founded in 2006 by Acharya Balkrishna and yoga guru Baba Ramdev. It’s headquarter is located in Haridwar. In the year 2023, it earned revenue worth ₹318 billion dollars by Patanjali Foods.

Patanjali’s digital marketing strategy revolved around connecting modern India with its culture and heritage of medicine, Ayurved. Patanjali undoubtedly had a range of products under its brand, but being a new evolving brand it had a good number of competitors. Patanjali tagline surely mentions the entire essence of their product range, “Prakriti ka Ashirwad”. Patanjali’s tagline assures consumers that all products are crafted from natural and herbal ingredients.

While looking at the business side of the organization, it caters to the personal care and food industries. It produces more than 2,500 products and manufactures over 300 ayurved medicines for the treatment of various body ailments.

One of the major reasons for its success is its products being 10%-30% lower in cost than other FMCG products. The second reason for its success could be the shift in Indian consumers’ lifestyle towards natural and ayurvedic products.

Competitors Analysis – Patanjali Marketing Strategy & Success Strategy

The major competitors for Patanjali are HUL(Hindustan Unilever Limited), Dabur, and Baidyanath. Both of these FMCG and Natural products industry giants, yet Patanjali succeeded in turning the tables in its favour, in a short period. We have analyzed two sources of Patanjali success story. They are:

1. Patanjali Marketing Strategy – Targeted Strategy

Every product runs with a targeted marketing strategy that later acts as the major reason behind a product’s success. Brands like Baidyanath made quality products that attracted consumers but could never find a successful targeted marketing strategy way to expand. Patanjali with its brilliant marketing strategy yet high-quality products was able to expand while generating amazing demand from its successful marketing strategy. As a result, it earned a profit of more than INR 9000 crores in 2019, whereas Baidyanath’s turnover is only INR 700 crore in the same year.

2. Patanjali Marketing Strategy – Face Value

The second vital reason is “Face value”. With the growing media and face value, brand ambassadors act as a trust stamp. Ramdev Baba is known for his yoga and ayurvedic knowledge for years added to the success of Patanjali’s marketing strategy. His face in various advertisement campaigns created trust amongst the consumers which acted as a vital reason for it to be a hit in the market.

These two factors are the core pillars of Patanjali’s success strategy. With a brilliant marketing campaign and branding strategy, they outmanoeuvred well-established companies like Dabur and Baidyanath.

Now let us take a look at Patanjali’s digital marketing and advertising strategy.

Digital Marketing Strategy of Patanjali

Patanjali has a very holistic approach to its digital marketing efforts. It has several digital campaigns that revolve around showcasing its products and reiterating how healthy and natural the products are. With its amazing effort’s it has reached a massive following on Instagram.

Patanjali’s approach is two thronged. It boasts such a massive array of products that all its posts revolve around showcasing these products. Their posts try to showcase the health benefits and ways to use these products in ordinary day cooking. With such a massive following, Patanjali has focused a lot of its marketing efforts on converting youngsters to appreciate it’s products.

Secondly, Patanjali uses Baba Ramdev as its brand ambassador on their posts, very frequently. They have successfully married their healthy products with the brand image of a yoga guru, known for curing the country of daily ailments through healthy living. This is one of the best marketing strategies of Patanjali as they leverage the brand image of the founder Baba Ramdev in marketing all their products. With digital marketing efforts, they have made sure this image sticks and the customers are heavily swayed by this stratagem.

Now let us look at the advertisement campaign strategy of Patanjali and understand the versatile way they have evolved into a health-conscious FMCG company and carved a massive market.

Patanjali Advertisement and Campaign Strategy

A marketing campaign means using different types of media and online platforms for promoting a product. The specific pieces of promotion they create constitute their advertisement strategy. They have to be carefully planned as marketing campaign plays a major role in any brand’s success or failure.

Patanjali Ayurved has done great research on their target audience and understands the message they should put across through their advertisements and which campaign medium is most effective for their strategy.

We have noted the advertisements that were the most memorable, have a look:

#Swadeshi ka swabhiman

After achieving great success in the FMCG sector, Patanjali has now entered into the brand apparel segment with its new brand named “Paridhan.

Invoking the national image of cloth weaving, Patanjali has made a move on to the textile industry. With the rising concerns of dependence on other countries for necessities, and combining itself with the “Make in India” trend, Patanjali has targetted the most essential items we all need, clothing.

# Healthy India banaenge, Patanjali biscuit khaenge

Patanjali has launched its biscuit with the tagline “Healthy India banenge, Patanjali biscuit khaenge” which means “India shall be healthy, Patanjali biscuits is what we shall eat”. Patanjali claims that their biscuits contain zero maida, sugar, and trans fats, and are healthier than any other biscuits. Taking a moment marketing spin at the growing obesity in the 21st century and sugary food overload, Patanjali marketed itself as a healthy option for biscuits. This struck a nerve with the Indian audience, especially with the 35-year-old+ customer segment, who daily enjoy a biscuit with their teas as a lifestyle habit.

SWOT Analysis of Patanjali

To understand Patanjali as a Brand, we require to do a SWOT Analysis. SWOT or Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats Analysis is a management tool that looks at the company’s prospects, both positive and negative.

Patanjali is a unique company with many strengths as it showcases, yet it does suffer from threats and problems of its own. Without further ado, about the swot analysis of Patanjali:

Strengths:

• • Brand Ambassador: Baba Ramdev as the brand ambassador makes the appeal of the company extremely high due to his charisma and image as a health and yoga expert across the world.
  • Right Time, Right Product: Capitalising on the trend of healthy eating and natural products, Patanjali’s product was well suited for the demands of the mass consumers
  • Pricing Strategy: Patanjali Products are found to be 5-to-10% below the average price of its competitor products. This gives them a massive edge, especially in a price-conscious market such as India. For example, Patanjali’s well-known Dant Kanti toothpaste retails for INR 70 for a 200g tube, whereas Colgate’s 150g toothpaste is priced at INR 88. Likewise, Patanjali’s Amla Juice is available for INR 110 per liter, whereas Dabur’s Amla Juice is priced at INR 140 per liter.

Weaknesses:

• • Logistics: Since Patanjali don’t have any long-term deals with transporters the company’s planning got complicated and their cost got increased too.
  • Declining Revenue: The company’s standalone consumer goods revenue declined more than 10 per cent in the year ended March 2018 for the first time since 2013. Their strategy of high volume and low pricing has started to hurt them.
  • Lack of International Clientele: Patanjali products dominate the local markets but it does not have clients in ASEAN and European markets like its competitor Dabur does. Patanjali only enjoys an audience in India due to its low pricing and Baba Ramdev’s influence. They need to expand to other countries to diversify their business.

Opportunities:

• • • International Markets: Patanjali can capitalise on India’s massive ex-pat audience. According to one case studies, Patanjali enjoys its second-biggest market in the USA, where the NRI audience are attracted to it’s nationalist and heritage driven brand image. They can extend this into a proper international marketing and sales strategy.
    • Targeting the luxury market: Patanjali till now has only focused on low priced and mass-consumed products. It can capitalise on it’s natural and heritage driven brand to market more expensive and higher quality products to appeal to and compete against better products.

Threats:

• • Political Instability: Due to the high politicisation of the brand, the company is bound to suffer political winds of change. Investors tend to not support such organisations due to high politicisation, a change in government and a fall of graces that can affect its performance.
  • Whistle-Blowers: There have been reports of degrading quality of the Patanjali products. Though not sustainable in evidence, such rumours can over time erode even the best of brand images.
  • Increasing competition: With all the existing brands such as HUL and Dabur adjusting to the new Ayurveda market of consumers, they have all adopted new strategies to compete with Patanjali, with its element of surprise gone, it will face old and tested companies.

So this is what we think are the major points under swot analysis of Patanjali brand. Patanjali is a strong and large volume-driven company with many prospects but ever-rising threats as all other FMCG companies are now eyeing to take back their share of the market. The company needs to come with ever-brilliant marketing and leverage the power of digital marketing to face such obstacles.

How Patanjali’s marketing strategy cracked the code?

• Highlighting the use of natural and organic ingredients. Patanjali’s success can be largely attributed to its unique selling proposition: providing natural and organic products that are both affordable and accessible to everyone.
• The company strives to democratize access to natural and organic products by offering budget-friendly options to all customers.
• Patanjali’s diverse product range spans from food and beverages to personal care items, clothing, and household products. This comprehensive strategy allows the company to appeal to a wide audience, offering a convenient one-stop destination for all their natural and organic needs.
• Patanjali has capitalized on celebrity endorsements to enhance its brand image, foster customer loyalty, and draw in new patrons.

Conclusion

Customers’ perception towards a brand is built largely on the satisfactory value the user receives after paying for the product and the benefits the user looks for. In the above Patanjali case study, we noted that a large portion of the user is satisfied with Patanjali products. It may be because of the reasonable price of the product or due to the ability of the product to cure their health problem. 

The satisfaction brings in the retention of customers. Patanjali is enjoying an advantageous position in the market by capitalising on a brand image that resonates with every Indian citizen’s sense of patriotism. However, it should not ignore competitors like Naturals, pure roots, Vindhya herbals. Patanjali to retain more customers and satisfy them must fulfil the claims made by the company before any other brand may start-up and take away the benefits of marketing through spirituality.

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