Baba Ramdev: A Marketing Mistake?

Being a marketing evangelist and an avid reader,  I always try to learn from the incidents from the different sections of life. The aim of writing this marketing blog is to experience the principle of congruity between being a blogger and evangelism for knowledge and vice-versa. I also believe that there is no fun in learning without sharing.

In past few months my twitter timeline was full of views about Anna, Corruption, JanLokpal, Baba Ramdev etc. Definitely whole India is talking about corruption as this issue touches everyone's life. Everyone is talking about Anna and the Janlokpal movement. Even Academic fraternity is studying the incident and developing the case studies. Recently Delhi University Organized a special lecture on the movement and it was widely covered in media.

The fame of Anna overshadowing the Movement initiated by Baba Ramdev against the black money in Swiss Banks. The objective of writing this post is to highlight the marketing mistakes done by Baba Ramdev.

46 year old Baba Ramdev needs no introduction. This eighth grade pass yoga guru popularized yoga in India and build a business empire whose annual turnover is Above Rs 1000 cr. Devotees come at Patanajali Yogpeeth in different parts of the country to get cure through his ayurvedic medicines. Delhi and National Capital Region alone has 30 farmacies selling more than 50 types of herbal medicines. He has huge following for his yogic teachings. My father and mother follows him and got positive outcomes from his pranayam.

What went wrong?

Doing business and earning money ethically is not a crime unless it is harming the society. In that context Baba Ramdev stands tall. But the fact is, you cant afford to be businessman, yoga guru and politician at the same time.

Diversifying product portfolio and altering brand positioning is not an easy affair for any organization and individual specially when your brand has one established brand positioning and offering entirely different product which does not matching the existing brand positioning in the existing market segment. Being a Guru, being a Businessman and Being a politician presents entirely different image in  the mind of a follower which may dilute the image of the individual as a brand. Building a brand image is not an event, its a process in which there is no place for instant gratification.To gain acceptance you need to practice right segmentation, right message,  favourable media adoption, effective public relations and right positioning for every offering.

Team Anna used all the marketing strategies and promotion tools well in advance to get mass acceptance and chose the right timing to trigger the JanLokPal movement against corruption thats the reason team Anna was successful to woo the mass. Team Anna had a Solution (Janlokpal bill) against a problem (Corruption) to satisfy a need ( freedom against corruption). The clear message about problem, solution and need was missing in the case of Baba Ramdev's movement and thats why he was failed to provide a complete package to connect with the common man.

Baba Ramdev's initiative and intentions might be justified but in a marketers point of view he needs to learn marketing skills.

Whats your opinion?

For more read this Economic Times aticle on Baba Ramdev

Also read  biography of Baba Ramdev

Credits: Economic times, wikipedia, Prof Harsh Verma

Tweet