Ayurveda

Ayurveda is a system of medicine that originated in India more than 2,000 years ago and is believed to have been one of the earliest forms of holistic healing. It relies on natural remedies that support the body’s ability to heal itself.

Ayurveda is well-known and trusted by people in India and is now being commercialized throughout the country and gaining rapid success in various markets. Some of its product lines are performing at a competitive level with corporate giants such as Colgate and Nestle.

Ayurveda products are being produced by several companies eager to capitalize on its popularity. Patanjali is the leading producer of Ayurveda-based products, including those for dental, hair and skin care, natural healing, and natural foods. It is the only company to directly challenge the industry incumbents in India, such as Unilever and Coca-Cola. Other companies such as Himalaya and Dabur have also engaged in the Ayurvedic-based market, and are diligently striving to rival Patanjali. A critical factor in their success is that Patanjali has been able to offer low prices and has broken through barriers to entry such as high startup and manufacturing costs, achieving rapid success where its cohorts could not.

One of the significant obstacles to launching a new product is consumer resistance: people naturally shun the unfamiliar, and they prefer to stick with what they know. Ayurveda is a trusted and well-established medicinal practice in India, so the new market for Ayurveda-based products has been able to avoid that obstacle entirely. Instead, this profound legacy allowed Ayurveda-related products to leapfrog into the market, bypassing many of the time-consuming steps of establishing a foundation and building name recognition among the public that most new products must endure.

Another common obstacle is the cost of advertising a new product. If a company can't get the word out, no one will know it exists. Social media outlets have been vital in breaking down this barrier and allowing Ayurveda products to gain traction without excessive spending on marketing.

The success of Ayurvedic products could be a wakeup call to the industry leaders in areas such as personal care, home goods, and consumer health, signaling them of the importance of continually reassessing and reinventing themselves, if necessary, to survive in a competitive market and keep up with shifting trends. Ayurveda has sparked a revival in all-natural products, and the larger corporations have responded by producing their natural product brands. It is a testament to the success of Patanjali that it has been able to influence the direction of such large, well-established brands.

Patanjali's low prices have also forced larger companies to become more price-sensitive, which benefits the consumer since buyers are now able to get higher-quality products at lower cost.