Baba Ramdev after using his brand to sell every product ranging from shampoo to cereals to instant noodles, now plans to sell clothes plus in an attempt to boost business, his company shook hands to tie up with big giants like Google and Facebook to market the brand on a digital platform, at a time when India is turning into a digital economy.
Patanjali said it will launch home produced clothes for men, women and children by April 2018 with a sales target of Rs 5,000 crore for the first year, Mint reported.
"We'll start with woven clothes, knitwear and machine-made apparel, including denims," said Patanjali's spokesperson S K Tijarawala.
Manufactured clothes will be available on 250 exclusive retail outlets by April, next year. Further, Patanjali – branded clothes will also be accessible on other outlets like Big Bazaar led by Kishore Biyani, state-run retail outlets like the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC). At present, there are about 15,000 KVIC outlets across the country.
After a tie-up with Big Bazaar in 2015, Patanjali has also teamed up with hundreds of handloom weavers in northern India with an attempt to re-establish the Khadi industry.
"Besides, we will have arrangements with apparel makers, and we will set up our own manufacturing units for making clothes," added Tijarawala.
Digital platform to boost a brand name
As India becomes more bullish on going digital, biggest herbal product manufacturer – Patanjali, also planned to use the digital platform. To do that, Patanjali tied up with Google and Facebook to reach the online audiences with a hope to harvest more results than its campaigns in the print and electronic media.
Patanjali's views on YouTube climbed to 15 crore from 30 lakh and searches for its products on Google have surged 11 times in the past four years according to the official.
"The response by the online audience to Patanjali proves the very strong association of the users with the brand. It goes on to show that the brand is future," said Vikas Agnihotri, industry director at Google India.
Google and Facebook have worked out advertising strategies to attract more customers and generate demand among the untapped customers. Patanjali has created online advertisements in local languages for regions like Karnataka and Kerala.
With movements like "Go Swadeshi" that aims to boycott foreign products Baba Ramdev is giving a serious competition to the international companies.
Patanjali is projected to grow at a rate of 9 percent every year till about 2022, found a report by the retail consulting firm Technopak.
The firm's sales have jumped almost five times since last year and reported sales of Rs 10,561 crore in the year to March 31, 2018. It targets to cross Rs 20,000–25,000 crore in sales by the same time next year.
