How the Indian Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev founded Patanjali which is making FMCG Brands run from Pillar to Post

Growth Hack– Doer –Customary Blog

Patanjali Ayurveda Limited has seen Extra Terrestrial Success!  We would like you to accompany us in knowing how Baba Ramdev has been successful in bringing this empire and is currently making the International FMCG brands running from pillar to post by his sheer perseverance and grit.

The Evolution of Indian Society from early 90’s

In India, back in the 90’s majority of the ads those were run on our television sets were mainly of handful of FMCG units which were so popular that the youth idolized it.  A notion of belief pervaded in the Indian society that better health standards can be achieved by consuming the handful of International FMCG products. Children were even prescribed health drinks by experts to raise their heights.

What happened now? The answer is that the society has evolved and they know that Peaches from Amsterdam are no better than Guava from the nearest farm!  Research theories started sprawling against the irrational beliefs of people which were instated by the existing FMCG brands. Food regulatory authorities and other Government entities came under the purview of RTI (Right to Information Act) and thus major findings of the sample testing and researches were made public. This was the time when the people were looking for some home-grown yet superbly authentic brand to feed them, what was natural! There were brands which existed like Dabur and Baidya Nath, and they were authentic too but they were only restricted to Ayurveda related products and less of FMCG.

While the society of the 90’s was evolving there was whooping hike in the awareness of health amongst people of India, the incumbent FMCG brands were unable to analyze this widening market gap. They were busy in signing fibsters as their ambassadors and asking them to attribute their success to the brand they were promoting. What went wrong was, these brands overemphasized their dependency on branding and marketing and thus finally they were intruded by a brand that was authentic & promotes the “Eat Local” culture!

The major change took place in the middle class that comprises of at least 25-30% of Indian population and use to consume the maximum FMCG products in India. They were more aware and knew that what they have been consuming was more of hyped and less of value! People who used to give carbonated drinks idolizing Sachin Tendulkar to their child now knew that the excessive sugar is not going to bring in, any health benefit.

Emergence of Baba Ramdev as a Yoga Expert!

While all this was happening Baba Ramdev started publicizing his own journey (from an excruciatingly painful stage to now a healthy wealthy and wise stage) and crediting Yoga as the main agent of change for his health and wisdom. He started to bring in the easy to use and simple translation of Yoga Asanas for people. The complex phenomenon of Yoga and Asanas were now brought to the limelight of simplicity and for common use. His Yoga Shivir and morning telecast of Yoga Asans were of so much popularity that the entire India started doing “Kapalbhati” and “Angulo Velum”. He was a Yoga Star! And people started following him. News channels started reporting his bites for issues related to health. He also seek inroads to the clan of influential political and industrial fraternity and he gradually he started to build his empire.

Preparation and Planning to Launch Patanjali

To make dent in the 9.75 Billion Dollar Market size of Consumer Durable (in 2015, according to IBEF) market in India. Baba has to plan intricately for two reasons. Firstly his brand distribution shouldn’t be challenged to the exponential growth pattern and the supply chain has to be capable enough to share the brunt of demand. Secondly, his competitors are not SME’s but the International brands that have been in the market for average of 3-4 decades. From lobbying to distribution they would have everything handy to ensure that the Brand is sabotaged.

To kickstart the project followers of Ramdev, NRIs Sunita and Sarwan Poddar gave loan to Patanjali which was headed by Baba’s close aide Acharya Balkrishna.

He thereafter puts a gigantic industry in the Industrial area of Haridwar. This was strategic, as Haridwar shares common routes to both the foothills of Himalaya as well as the alluvial soiled plains of Uttar Pradesh where his entire raw materials were supposed to be sourced from.  Then he started roping in land owners and farmers to build the chain of supply of raw materials in abundance. In fact he has also started putting his manufacturing units in the foothills of Himalaya in Nepal under the trademark of “Nepal Gramudhyog” for importing majority of herbs in India.

And Baba Ramdev finally nailed it!

He has successfully attained an incredibly clean, virtuous and simple image of a young Indian Yoga Guru who even risked his life by bringing agitation against Black Money! It was an acme of his Credible Brand Ambassador image of Patanjali as well as high rising insatisfaction of Indian consumer against the artificially prepared chemical food they were consuming. And this time Patanjali was fastest growing FMCG Company in India (According to CLSA and HSBC). Its valued at US$ 740 million (INR 5000 Cr) in the fiscal 2015-16 (Source Wikipedia). To everyone’s surprise Baba Ramdev does not hold equity shares in Patanjali Ayurveda Limited. His close aide Acharya Balkrishna is the Managing Director and owns 94% stake in the company!launched and it grew into folds so rapidly that it became the