In the powerful Indian market, “spirituality” has become an industry or a market category. Spiritual leaders like Baba & Sadhvis are influencers turned entrepreneurs those who practice “perception marketing” with the clear understanding of their TG. Some of these leaders have recently floated FMCG ventures viz Pantanjali, Sri Sri Ayurveda, MSG etc to push their belief or opinion in the form of commodity called as “opinion products”. In today’s business sphere these ventures are the “startups”.
The investors in these startups are the “followers” those who invest their loyalty (without asking for any reward card, effective than a regular customer or a full time employee) ,faith (without asking for any insurance) & also buy these “opinion products”, thus pumping “stake free” & “interest free” money into these startups
Followers also act as “brand ambassadors” those who influence others buying decision without charging any endorsement fee. These followers also contribute to the distribution network in order to maintain & supply the opinion products without asking for competitive margins. Same force of the followers are also the PR agents those who manage crisis for these opinion products (example- Pantanjali Noodles FSSAI certification issue). Last but the most significant role, these followers are also the consumers those who are ready to consume the “opinion products” with “no question asked” philosophy.
With the above insights, the old notion of management theory that “Customer is the king” seems no longer relevant atleast to this emerging & powerful market category.
The objective of this write-up is to bring a new term into the light i.e. “Opinion product” so as to clearly demarcate the lines between spirituality & business.
