The man himself, Baba Ramdev!
Not too long ago Baba Ramdev might have been the most televised person in the world.
In 2016 you could see his face on Indian TV channels
for an average of nineteen and a half hours every day.
He’s a penniless yoga guru but his messages aren’t all spiritual.
You can see him applying face cream onto politicians,
gulping coconut oil in front of a thousands-strong crowd
or explaining on stage why you should clean your floor with cow urine.
A little bit weird?
Yes, at first.
But in fact it’s ingenious.
This is free advertising for his brainchild Patanjali,
a 'Made in India' brand now selling everything
from cooking oil through hair loss products
to diapers and candles.
Here is how a local herbal remedy business
grew into a consumer goods empire,
leaving multinational corporations scrambling in its wake.
All thanks to this one godman turned businessman...
Godmen are so-called spiritual leaders that mediate between God and man.
This is fairly common in India and
these guys are almost treated and respected like God.
Some become really huge organizations and
people sometimes believe them really blindly.
These guys wield enormous influence and power.
But like many other godmen, for Ramdev this path to power had humble beginnings.
In the mid ‘90s he renounced all material possessions
and moved to Haridwar, a holy city on the Ganges, to teach yoga.
There he was also managing an ashram, a type of religious community,
with his school friend Acharya Balkrishna.
Together they were running a pharmacy where they were selling homemade herbal remedies
based on the ancient Hindu system of medicine called Ayurveda.
This was when yoga was gaining popularity in the West.
Yoga will change your life, that’s all I’m saying.
But in India it was still associated with ancient texts and rigorous studies.
Ramdev wanted to democratise it.
He simplified the poses and was running free workshops,
showing that everyone could do it.
He was also promoting yoga as a treatment for many ailments.
Obesity, infertility, depression…
even breast cancer,
his yoga had you covered.
In 2002 Ramdev’s yoga camps started being broadcast on TV.
Despite airing in the early morning hours,
Ramdev’s signature 'belly roll' and his playfulness made him an instant hit.
But Ramdev and Balkrishna had a vision that went beyond medicines and yoga,
they wanted to reach every Indian household
and in 2006 they set up Patanjali, with Balkrishna owning more than 98% of the company.
Patanjali started selling juices, grains and beauty products, all based on natural ingredients.
In the very early years you could hardly see any marketing by the brand.
All you could see was the products on the shelves.
Baba Ramdev is actually the brand and the power behind the brand
and without him the brand would be very little.
But a lot of people who may not necessarily be his followers use a lot of his products
because they believe that they are less contaminated than other products available in the market.
Between 2011 and 2014 the number of Patanjali’s products increased from 50 to 500.
They started very small and launched a few products
and then it started catching fire in terms of popularity.
I think it coincided with a sort of a rekindling of nationalism in India
and a lot of Indians started identifying with this company that was homegrown
and used very ancient Indian recipes
to make things like soaps, shampoos and even food products.
Ramdev tapped into consumer patriotism and became a symbol of India’s economic independence.
This turned out to be a great sales pitch.
Ramdev’s popularity was growing, and so was his influence.
Having previously flirted with politics, Ramdev started campaigning alongside right-wing politicians.
In 2014 he mobilzed his followers to vote for Narendra Modi for Prime Minister.
When Modi won, Ramdev gained powerful allies.
According to an investigation by Reuters,
Patanjali received more than 46 million dollars in discounts on land deals
in states controlled by Modi’s party.
Both Ramdev and Balkrishna claim they’re not earning any salary.
Their employees are told to accept lower pay and treat their labour as a form of 'seva',
a spiritual practice of selfless service to the community.
All that helps Patanjali price its goods up to 10% lower than its competition.
India is a market of 1.3 billion people,
a huge section of this population is at the lower end of the pyramid
where they look for value for money, mass products.
So Patanjali kept doubling and tripling its revenues
and around 2016 - 2017 it was a huge competitor
for the largest multinationals operating out of India, including Unilever and Procter & Gamble.
And all of these companies had to re-strategize
and also introduce herbal products like herbal toothpaste,
herbal soaps and shampoos so that they could compete with Baba Ramdev's Patanjali.
Yet Patanjali has had its fair share of controversies;
noodles with dangerous ash content,
gooseberry juice failing lab tests,
legal actions over misleading ads.
Ramdev’s reply?
It’s a foreign conspiracy!
Despite the controversies, in 2017 Patanjali’s revenue surpassed a billion dollars,
making Balkrishna a billionaire
while Ramdev was gloating.
Baba Ramdev has good reason to smile, Patanjali Ayurved is growing at a gallop.
Two years later that hasn’t happened, rather the opposite, revenue has fallen.
But Baba Ramdev’s ambition is increasingly far-reaching.
Ramdev’s vision of India - independent of foreign influence -
seems to be attractive to an increasingly nationalistic country.
But he’s still a highly controversial figure.
In India there’s 1.3 billion people and he certainly does not have 1.3 billion followers.
His charisma and his influence is balanced by the fact that
a lot of his rivals are the largest global corporations in the world.
So I wouldn't think that he would get a pass every time because he is a godman.