It was in 2001 that Hindustan Unilever (HUL) launched Ayush,
the Ayurveda based portfolio of wellness products. The brand was later shut
down as it didn’t find much traction with the audience. The brand was
ostensibly targeted at the premium customers who would embrace it for its
ayurvedic core values. HUL representatives claimed that the products were ‘ahead
of time’.
The Rise of Patanjali
The year 2006 welcomed another kid on the CPG (Consumer
Packaged Goods) platform that touted itself as the ayurvedic alternative for
all the ‘unhealthy’ and ‘westernised’ products. Clubbed with the ‘nationalist’
sentiment the brand struck a chord with a mass audience, majorly due to its brand
ambassador, Yoga-guru Baba Ramdev. To add, right pricing for the right audience
hit the sweet spot of the Indian consumers and the cash registers stated
ringing for the brand. Patanjali soon became a household name and crossed a
revenue mark of 10,000 crores in the last financial year displacing major
bigwigs of the FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) industry.
Baba Ramdev, who already had won millions of followers
through his Yoga practice, promoted the products in an unbashed manner. For his
followers it was a marriage made in heaven between their favourite Yoga-guru
and Ayurvedic products. His follower base that majorly came from tier-2 and
below cities stood by Patanjali and helped it rise miraculously. Media channels
like Aastha and Sanskar in the played a major role in making Baba Ramdev a houshold
name in 2000s. Even he himself acknowledge the fact that media was a big factor
in the rise of the brand.
India is a price sensitive market when it comes to CPGs and
the right pricing almost always holds the key for the success of a product.
Failure to do so can wipe the brand off the shelves of stores and minds of
customers in no time. Patanjali got it right here too.
Patanjali hit the jackpot with the trinity of – Brand
Ambassador, Brand Resonance and Pricing. A very difficult but extremely
rewarding endeavor.
Positive Word-of-Mouth
Patanjali also succeeded in acquiring new customers and
retain the old ones by creating a positive perception of the quality of
products, which was subconsciously influenced by its reasonable prices. After consumer
acquisition, Patanjali products were able to make good of the promise made to
them hence eliciting a positive post-purchase behaviour largely driven by the
Halo effect and lower financial risk due to cheaper products.
On the other hand when Ayush was launched as a premium brand
in 2001, the market wasn’t gungg-ho about Ayurveda based products. Ayush could
not offer anything concrete to its audience to trust (HULs house of brand
strategy was not very helpful). Subsequently, the audience turned a blind eye
to the products. The Brand had to be shut in the aftermath of consistent poor
performance.
Brand Ambassador
Among the three aspects highlighted, Brand Ambassador was
the key in the phenomenal rise of the Patanjali Brand. Baba Ramdev never shied
away from marketing Patanjali brand and while his followers went by every word
he said about the products and Patanjali, even those who did not follow Baba
Ramdev were able to trust the credibility around the brand. His unapologetic
rant against the MNCs also made him the poster-boy of nationalistic sentiment
that clicked with the burgeoning middle class of the country. On the other
hand, Ayush has brought in film stars Akshay Kumar and Tamanna as brand ambassadors.
This was a run-of-mill approach as both the actors have no genuine link with Ayurveda
and are seen in many other ads that create more confusion then clarity. The ad
showing the actors also chose to claim to be the real Ayurveda based brand
which may be perceived as arrogant or even petty. Due to the missing connect
with the core offering of the brand, the ambassadors stand no chance against
the massive appeal of Baba Ramdev and his Patanjali products.
Brand Resonance
The core offering of the Patanjali brand was no-nonsense Ayurveda
based products which didn’t have fancy packaging and touched up images of good
looking models. The ads also didn’t look ‘rich’ and were intentionally painted ‘simple’
to demonstrate its values. This strategy personified the brand as honest,
simple and trustworthy, hence making people believe in the offering. Ayurveda based
products must be able to invoke emotions like purity and trust due to many factors like –
lack of knowledge in people regarding the roots of the products, formulation
and application, mushrooming of a huge number of Ayurveda based product
companies and finally the perceived physical and health risks involved in using
the products. Ayush has maintained its premium packaging and hasn’t been able
to come up with a major differentiator vis a vis a host of other products available
in the market. In absence of a strong usp, it hasn’t been able to make any
specific place for itself in the segment.
Pricing
In terms of pricing, while Ayush has shed the premium tag
with its re-launch a quick analysis of the products show that they are still quite
expensive than Patanjali. The Ayush products taken into consideration are
anything between 33% to 94% expensive than Patanjali products. Clearly, the reference point for Ayurveda based products in
customers’s mind is Patanjali and a quick comparison between Patanjali and
Ayush products will lead to an easy choice for her, if it is based on price
only. With a more than satisfied customer base of Patanjali products, Ayush doesn’t
have footing on the quality attribute either while some detractors and a small
customer base who map uality on price may give Ayush a shot. But this will be a
small base, far from viability for HUL. Hence, the price point becomes even
more important which doesn’t seem to be helping Ayush.
In a nut-shell, Ayush’s relaunch by HUL may be more of
optimism and an 'easy way out' rather than a of rational ‘Product Development’ growth strategy. Whether
Ayush has more punches to pull in future, only time will tell. As of now, it doesn’t
seem to be too much of a worry for Patanjali.
