Possible disruption by Patanjali Yogapeeth

I liked the use of application of mental models here. My 2 cents.

Nestle being the market leader for Noodles still does not state whether the product contains trans fats/cholesterol. Patanjali on the other hand uses Rice Bran oil for its noodles as well as states zero trans fat and cholesterol.
I called up the 1800 number for Nestle since my sister has Maggi regularly. The answer was vague. The call center guy said: “If it is not mentioned it is not there. No need to worry.” So much for voluntary disclosures by a MNC Food giant.
I am ready to compromise on taste for my family but not on health. BTW the taste of Patanjali Noodles is as good if not better than Maggi.
There are certain qualities that lend itself well to Ayurveda such as health and purity. So a Chayanprash or a Honey is suited to Patanjali’s portfolio of products where as something like Biscuits or soap are quite remote from so called Ayurvedic Products.

Again when it comes to Ghee, I had a look at the top most brands at D’Mart which included Amul, Sagar, Hatsun, Chitale, Patanjali, Gowardhan etc. Only Patanjali and Chitale had no trans fat in it.
There clearly exists some yawning gaps such as these which were just waiting to be fulfilled. The question is NO trans fat needs a refining process which would need more money which in turn would require higher pricing which may lead to lower sales.
But because of the Persona of Baba Ramdev coupled with the fact that there are certain health attributes that other brands do not offer, there exists a substantial market for these products.

I am no fan of Baba Ramdev, but the products are certainly good and most of them are reasonably priced barring few like Ghee.

The above is purely feedback from a consumer as to why I select Patanjali Products and the incentives/motivation for the same.

I think Patanjali is still underrated here. We use patanjali products (a variety of them) because they are good quality (atta, ghee, biscuits, juices, soaps etc) and swadeshi.

Patanjali has the potential to destroy profit margins of FMCG cos.

It has very ambitious targets -

I decided to do some scuttlebutt analysis in the following outlets
-Bangalore Modern Trade(reliance trends)-June-16
-Mumbai traditional trade(Mulund East Patanjali Exclusive Store)-Aug 16
-Deolali traditional trade(Non exclusive)-Aug 16

I noticed that the Patanjali assortment was not uniform-eg hair dye available in Deolali but not in Mumbai(albeit this could be a SCM challenge). Also, other brands like Sri-Sri are capitalizing on the Patanjai led health proposition to sell their products.

Where I differ from the above comments is in terms of pricing. For example:
Shaving Cream Patanjali 100gm-Rs 55(versus Rs 40 available in modern trade for Park Avenue )
Glucose Biscuits-100gm Rs 10(as versus Rs 5-7 for general trade)
Amla Oil-100ml-Don’t remember the price but when I compared it to Dabur Amla, it was costlier by 30%
My wife uses facewash and she pays the same however.

It seems Patanjali has adopted a premium propositioning and I am really surprised at why it is perceived as cheap. If I am a value conscious customer in these days of inflation, I would rather purchase from the other brands except where the price premium is justificable. Else, Patanjali may go the way of organic food which has unquestioned ‘premium’ tag but low market penetration.

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