Marketing and Spirituality!

Recognized by UNESCO as an ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’ in 2017 and popularly known as being the largest human congregation on the planet ‘Kumbh Mela’ is attended by millions from all over India as well as from other countries. This annual festival which lasts for a couple of months gets humongous footfall and is considered to be a sacred Hindu pilgrimage where pilgrims or tourists come to witness the sheer spirituality, some with the hope of atonement from their sins marked by a dip in the holy rivers.

In the past few years, there has been a significant shift towards better governance, a cleaner environment, and making it more welcoming for people from across India and foreign tourists. Detailed arrangements are made to ensure a safe, secure, and conducive environment for such a large congregation.

So how does marketing get involved with something so sacred?

Well, numerous brands have been leveraging this festival ground for the past many years by advertising and promoting their products to the pilgrims, tourists, visitors, etc. During the festival, the huge acres of land becomes a marketing carnival for brands- small and big.

In 2019, 150 million people attended the ‘Kumbh Mela’. It also got bigger in terms of amenities, investment, brands’ engagement, etc. Approximately 100 brands took part in the festival to create, awareness, interest, desire, and action. Amenity areas like rest zones, mobile charging booths, selfie zones, changing rooms, etc were the hot spots for brands to build their presence.  FMCG brands, banks, Telecommunication, fixture-fittings, and also first-time advertisers such as Welspun and Brooke Bond promoted their brands and products at the event. Marketing activities included digital and mobile activations, apart from hoardings and sampling activities.

Brands try to build real experiences during this festival while also trying to make efforts to build consideration and drive usability. Brands that need awareness driving campaigns look at OOH opportunities. In 2019 ‘Kumbh Mela’, brands were looking to build relevance and increase usage, they tried to engage with the audience through product trials such as toothpaste dispensers (Dabur Red Paste, Colgate), Charging points (airtel), hand wash (Dettol), food stalls (lifebuoy), laundry facility (Wheel and LG), etc. Some also went beyond their brand benefit and acted as enablers like lost and found (RFID by Vodafone), giving away water-resistant saris to women for safety (HUL’s #GoSafeOutside campaign), etc. Dabur (Red Toothpaste) and Red Label Tea had taken up the context of Kumbh to television commercials as well. Both showcased different aspects of Kumbh with cultural insights. The upcoming Bollywood movie ‘Brahmastra’ released its logo at ‘Kumbh’ with a light show in the sky which was a live event.

Thus, we can now imagine how far brands can go to connect with consumers at such an event by spending money, time, and effort on a large scale. All these advertising campaigns, promotional activities, aiming for high trials and sales make me ponder upon a few questions like

How does a brand create unique interaction and therefore impact with people when there are hundreds of brands talking to the same audience? 

Do the tourists/pilgrims take home any of the brand conversations post the interaction? 

Does the core idea of spirituality and devoutness at a ‘Kumbh Mela’ gets diluted with so much of commercialization?

In the recent years, the significance of spirituality has grown exponentially across the world. It’s connection with the consumer behaviour has also changed over the past few years. In today’s world, this new age consumer is not only looking for physical needs but also a way to ‘transform’ his/her life for the better. Things such as spiritual books, aromatherapy candles, ayurvedic health care products, etc sell like hot cakes in the market. In order to sell their product to consumers who are in constant search of making a meaning out of their lives, marketers in today’s world have realized the importance of adding a pinch of spirituality while selling their products. In some cases, spirituality gives rise to a potential market where they already have a loyal consumer base to target their brands. Spirituality can be sold as a lucrative product to these customers without much persuasion.

India is a booming market with a lot of innovative ventures that we have come across. Let us take the example of the website www.onlineprasad.com, which provides the service of ‘Prasad’ home delivery from the listed 50+ temples across the country. Its founder Goonjan Mall went ahead and launched a brand called ‘Zevotion’ which offers authentic ‘Rudraksha’ beads and other amulets. ‘Onlineprasad’ and ‘Zevotion’ are examples of how spirituality can be successfully sold in the market with a strong consumer base. Now, lets talk about an example where a product or brand is marketed through spirituality. I personally can’t think of anything better than ‘Patanjali’. It was started in 2006 by Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna. Baba Ramdev is a yoga guru who gained popularity amongst the masses in the early 2000s; he used this popularity to start his own brand ‘Patanjali’. Spiritual ‘gurus’ such as him show the ‘right path’ not only through their teachings but also through their brands/products.

Thus, there is no denying that spirituality and marketing are entwined and it is up to us as consumers to decide if we want to believe in a brand’s ideology- spiritual or not. But how do we decide? How do we figure out if it’s authentic or reliable spirituality, or just a smartly wrapped product?

Well, I don’t have answer to that. Maybe you can share your views on this.

In the recent years, the significance of spirituality has grown exponentially across the world. It’s connection with the consumer behaviour has also changed over the past few years. In today’s world, this new age consumer is not only looking for physical needs but also a way to ‘transform’ his/her life for the better. Things such as spiritual books, aromatherapy candles, ayurvedic health care products, etc sell like hot cakes in the market. In order to sell their product to consumers who are in constant search of making a meaning out of their lives, marketers in today’s world have realized the importance of adding a pinch of spirituality while selling their products. In some cases, spirituality gives rise to a potential market where they already have a loyal consumer base to target their brands. Spirituality can be sold as a lucrative product to these customers without much persuasion.

India is a booming market with a lot of innovative ventures that we have come across. Let us take the example of the website www.onlineprasad.com, which provides the service of ‘Prasad’ home delivery from the listed 50+ temples across the country. Its founder Goonjan Mall went ahead and launched a brand called ‘Zevotion’ which offers authentic ‘Rudraksha’ beads and other amulets. ‘Onlineprasad’ and ‘Zevotion’ are examples of how spirituality can be successfully sold in the market with a strong consumer base. Now, lets talk about an example where a product or brand is marketed through spirituality. I personally can’t think of anything better than ‘Patanjali’. It was started in 2006 by Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna. Baba Ramdev is a yoga guru who gained popularity amongst the masses in the early 2000s; he used this popularity to start his own brand ‘Patanjali’. Spiritual ‘gurus’ such as him show the ‘right path’ not only through their teachings but also through their brands/products.

Thus, there is no denying that spirituality and marketing are entwined and it is up to us as consumers to decide if we want to believe in a brand’s ideology- spiritual or not. But how do we decide? How do we figure out if it’s authentic or reliable spirituality, or just a smartly wrapped product?

Well, I don’t have answer to that. Maybe you can share your views on this.

As promised last week, today I am going to bring to you the story of Baba Ramdev’s brand ‘Patanjali’ which made its mark in a market full of leading brands like HUL, PnG, Reckitt Benckiser, etc  

In the past decade, spiritual gurus and ashrams have gained traction in the society not only through their teachings but also their products. ‘Patanjali’ is one such brand founded by Baba Ramdev which is giving head-on competition to all the other FMCG brands.

It all began in the year 2002, when Sanskar Television channel started airing Baba Ramdev’s yoga sessions making him a huge hit overnight. He was then signed up by Astha channel; within 2 years, he became a phenomenal figure garnering huge viewership ratings for the channel. Today, 15 years later, he is not only a spiritual guru performing Yogasans but also an entrepreneur with his own brand. He is the perfect example of how marketing can be driven by spirituality.

People mostly believe in being good while some move towards a particular spiritual path. As per past surveys, it has been observed that the buying behaviour of consumers are influenced by spirituality. Here the spiritual gurus sometimes rise up to the occasion and impact their consumption pattern.

As far as Patanjali Yogapeeth is concerned, Baba Ramdev has also influenced life of many with Social and Behavioural Sciences, Pranayam and Yoga, for welfare of people. Hence, within a very short span of time, this particular brand has become not only a national success but also have been acknowledged internationally. Baba Ramdev has accentuated on pranayam and yoga dimensions of spirituality to target the mass population worldwide. The edge that Patanjali has over the other competitors is ‘Spirituality’ and it is using this aspect to sell products in the market. Patanjali has diversified itself from aryurvedic products to FMCG products. Moreover, they are involved in a lot of other philanthropic work.

Hence, it can be rightly said that Ramdev has been successful in creating a positive image through spirituality, thus utilizing it in the marketplace.

I would like to leave you people with one question. Do you think that Babas and Swamis commercializing their image create a negative impact amongst the consumers? If so, where should they draw a line?