Brand wars are perhaps the best and the juiciest wars that we, the consumers, eagerly await! With the brand wars we get more choices for ourselves but Patanjali, the Indian conglomerate, sees it as part of its duty to bring the swadeshi movement back. Patanjali’s Swami Ramdev has opened a front against Colgate and the nation is hooked. Patanjali is the challenger to Colgate and it has its research ready to show the conglomerate how it has ‘erred’ in the past for selling its toothpaste!
Colgate under the scanner of Baba Ramdev!
Colgate, in the 80’s had run a campaign denouncing the traditional Indian practice of cleaning teeth with charcoal powder and salt claiming that it hurts the enamel. But 31 years later, in 2016, the company is selling its product with the very same ingredients! In short, Swami Ramdev wanted to convey to the consumers about the U-turn that the company had taken and to tell the Indians to trust their knowledge and traditional medicines.
Swami Ramdev has emerged as an icon of the independent India’s swadeshi movement and has introduced many products in the market, most notably, its instant noodles in response to Nestle’s Maggi, and is busy capturing the market otherwise held by bigger players. Here is Swami Ramdev hitting out Colgate on Twitter in a few characters:
Colgate used to warn against Indian traditional ways of using salt & coal on teeth. But now they actively endorse it pic.twitter.com/eYywXQpK4P
— Swami Ramdev (@yogrishiramdev) August 20, 2016
A user asked Colgate to reply to this and here is what the Twitter handle replied:
@VedamSatyam:We're proud to share the latest products combining modern technology with traditional practices: https://t.co/Khb4EM6btD
— Colgate Smile (@Colgate) August 23, 2016
What happens next in this saga is something that the Indians would await but it is clear that Colgate needs to be prepared because Swami Ramdev is just warming up.
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