Baba Ramdev turns Goafest 2018 on its head

Patanjali Ayurved, the company that has altered the boundary lines in the consumer goods space, is going to give competing brands more reasons to worry about.  

 

At the inaugural session of Goafest 2018, Yogrishi Baba Ramdev said that his company would be entering more categories including packaged milk and bottled water in a large scale very soon.

He added that the companies ambition was also to make a dent in categories like apparel and even get into categories like denim and even spread its wings into the business of fashion accessories.

Baba Ramdev said that the vision at his company Patanjali was to create a business empire that would give back to society and create the India of his dreams. 

 

He said that his company was well within target to create its first Rs 5,000 crore brand and he articulated that Patanjali was also within reach to create several Rs 500 crore brands in its diverse portfolio.

 

From theatrics, that included walking on his hands on stage, to demonstrating eye-popping abdominal exercises, Ramdev kept the audience engaged for more than an hour with his wit, peppered with a big and loud call for serving good quality products to Indian consumers. Taking a swipe at his detractors, the Yoga guru said that his company was willing to undergo any test to prove that its products were of outstanding quality.

 

Taking plenty of potshots at multi-national companies, Ramdev said that his only grouse was the huge percentage of profits that multinational companies made by selling products in India, while compromising on product quality and cutting costs while not giving value to the consumer.

 

Even at the risk of insulting his hosts from the world of advertising, Baba Ramdev did not spare his punches. He said that many advertising agencies had advised him from time to time to stay away from the Patanjali brand because of “his socio-political connections”. He was also advised to take brand ambassadors and invest more in brand building. He said that he paid no attention to that advice, and his success was in presenting product stories as it is, without creating commercials that were rooted in a make-believe world.

 

Baba Ramdev also said that the big mistake most companies were committing was in excessive pursuit of profiteering and an unending reliance on cost cutting – both of which provided newer entrants like Patanjali with a huge market opportunity to carve out a healthy market share for themselves.