Patanjali Takes Over The No.1 Spot As India’s Top Brand

Patanjali has had a meteoric rise to become India’s top brand, according to reports released by the Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC). The brand has marketed itself aggressively since the start of the new year with the bombardment of television commercials across all national and regional channels, according to the report. The products, promoted by yoga guru Ramdev, has seen its fair share of controversy in the previous months, but that hasn’t acted as a detriment for Patanjali to market its products aggressively.

Product Commercials

Launched last year, ads for the Patanjali brand of products were ranked at the top during the period of January 23-29 of 2016 , according to BARC’s weekly reports, putting it well ahead of established brands like Cadbury, Parle and Horlicks. The TVCs for its wide range of products in its portfolio has been played over 17,000 times between the aforementioned period. Comparatively, TVCs for brands like Cadbury has been played under 16,000 times. Speaking about the TVCs for its products, SK Tijarawala, a spokesperson for Baba Ramdev, said, “We got the first ranking this week also because of all our seven TV commercials were rolled in together this time. We are coming out with seven more products, so there are more ads in the pipeline.”

Aggressive Marketing

According to several reports, Patanjali has set aside nearly Rs. 300 crores for marketing of its products through ads and TVCs. The reason behind the aggressive marketing technique could be attributed to the need to turn Patanjali into a recallable brand, according to Tijarawala. The TVCs are said to target intelligent audience through advertising on news channels. Ads on new channels are on in greater frequency with lesser rates as compared to other channels. Vandana Das, president of DDB Mudra, which handles the creatives for Patanjali, said, “The increase in ads is only to make Patanjali products visible. TV has that reach.” 

Ad Worth

Even with the significantly higher number of commercials on TV, there is a distinct doubt whether the bombardment of ads is financially sound. The aggressive marketing techniques could provide a minimal boost in the short term but the sustainability of the brand’s recognition is one mirred in doubt over the longer haul.