admin
March 26, 2016
Viveat Susan Pinto, Business
Standard
Mumbai, 26 March 2016
Amritha
K is a homemaker based in the central suburb of Ghatkopar here. Like
most housewives, affordable grocery shopping is an important item to
manage. She keeps a hawk’s eye on quality but never fails to bargain
for that extra rupee of discount from the grocer. There’s a new
Patanjali shop in her neighbourhood. “I’ve heard the products are of
good quality and reasonably priced,” she says. “But, there is such a
crowd there that I don’t know when I will be able to find the time to
go there.”
This is a dilemma that confronts a number of
middle-class households in India. Yoga guru Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved
has presented itself as a credible alternative in fast-moving consumer
goods (FMCG), compelling many to switch from age-old preferences and
brands. “Herbal and ayurveda is one aspect of what Patanjali stands
for,” says Aditya Pittie, chief executive officer, Pittie Group, a
distributor of Patanjali products in modern and general trade. “The
success of Patanjali has to do with its positioning on health. The fact
that Swamiji (Baba Ramdev) is a yoga guru who has always canvassed for
good health is not lost on people. This is what is helping sales.”
To
many, Patanjali Ayurved, which has targeted a Rs 5,000-crore turnover
this financial year, is symptomatic of a trend sweeping the country
today: The entry of babas into business. Whether consumer goods,
lifestyle or entertainment, spiritual gurus are no longer averse to
stepping into business – doing it confidently and even emerging
successful.
A string of them
Take
‘Sri Sri’ Ravi Shankar, for instance. A recent report by brokerage
Edelweiss says that Sri Sri Ayurveda, ayurvedic FMCG arm of Sri Sri’s
Art of Living Foundation, is expanding into more categories and has
begun to use mass media, point of sale advertising and push its digital
presence aggressively through its app, e-store and via e-commerce
portals.
Additionally, Sri Sri Ayurveda is looking to ramp up
distribution of its products by taking it to 2,500 stores by 2017 from
600 stores now. The next leg will see it get into modern trade as well,
talks for which are currently on, the report said. Future Group’s CEO
Kishore Biyani said recently he was open to distributing Sri Sri’s
products.
“Sri Sri Ayurveda has a wide range of products in
personal care, diet supplements, food and accessories. It is planning
to expand its presence into breakfast cereals, cookies, atta, oils,
spices, ready-to-cook items and a range of organic staples for select
markets. Though lagging Patanjali, it has the right ingredients to help
grow the ayurveda space, posing competition to other consumer peers,”
analysts Abneesh Roy, Pooja Lath and Tanmay Sharma noted in a report
dated March 14.
While a detailed mail and calls to Sri Sri Ayurveda Trust elicited no response till the time of going to press, Devangshu
Dutta, chief executive of consulting firm Third Eyesight, says the
coming together of religion and commerce is not new. “If you look at
the West, whether it is TV evangelism or other large movements, there
is a whole system that has developed around it. A part of this involves
the lifestyle of followers, which includes products and services. What
we are seeing is an explosion of this in India.”
Tapping followers
Experts
say the wave of babas stepping into business is linked to their larger
and core ability to tap into a captive base of followers. It serves as
the first line of defence for most of them before going mass. Take
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, chief of Dera Sacha Sauda, a Sirsa,
Haryana-based organisation, estimated to have a following of 55 million
across India and the globe (Sri Sri is larger at 370 million and
Patanjali has 70 million followers worldwide).
Singh, popular in
Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan as a rockstar saint, burst into the
national consciousness last year, when he directed and starred in two
films – MSG: The Messenger and MSG-2: The Messenger.
While the
first instalment is estimated to have grossed Rs 126 crore in
box-office collections, MSG-2, according to Aditya Insaan, the Dera’s
spokesperson, has entered the Rs 500-crore league recently. ” The
objective was to convey a social message in an interesting and
entertaining format,” he says.
The response to the first two
instalments appears to have goaded Singh to direct and star in two more
– MSG: Online Gurukul and MSG: The Warrior, to be released later this
year. Additionally, Singh has taken the MSG franchise launching a line
of eatables, cosmetics and grocery items this January. A singer,
composer and lyricist, Singh also has a line of music CDs, speeches and
discourses available for sale. Further plans include taking his
consumer products into international markets and looking at means to
leverage technology, Aditya Insaan said.
While revenues for both
Sri Sri and Dera Sacha Sauda are not available, there is no denying the
potential of the business ventures promoted by these organisations,
experts say.
“If marketed
and distributed in an organised manner, these businesses have the
potential to do what a Patanjali has,” Dutta says.
Kishore
Biyani, chief executive officer, Future Group, who saw the trend
coming, wasting no time to tie-up with Patanjali last year, says, “The
customer is king. It is what he or she dictates that counts.”
OTHER GURUS IN FMCG SPACE
Source: Edelweiss/Industry
(Published in Business Standard)
