Swadeshi Strategy: Insights from Baba Ramdev’s Life Story

Abstract

Patanjali was an unknown entity about a decade ago; today it is one of the leading Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) brands in India. The man behind the incredible success of Patanjali brand is a sanyasi with the Midas touch—Baba Ramdev. This paper takes a close look at Ramdev’s business strategies that have helped him translate his telegenic personality as a yoga guru and Ayurveda practitioner into positive brand equity for the company he founded, and distills the strategy lessons that entrepreneurs and individuals can draw from the way he has transformed a wide and unchartered bottom-of-thepyramid consumer segment into Patanjali’s loyal customers, in the process expanding and deepening the FMCG market in India.