MARKETING OF PRODUCTS SOLD BY SPIRITUAL ORGANIZATIONS:

AN ANALYSIS

SHIKHA MAKKAR
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, SHRI RAM COLLEGE OF COMMERCE, UNIVERSITY OF DELHI
E-MAIL ADDRESS: [email protected]
Contact Number: 9999693035

VAISHALI JOSHI
SCHOLAR
E-MAIL ADDRESS: [email protected]
Contact Number: 9718051228

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2985331

MARKETING OF PRODUCTS SOLD BY SPIRITUAL ORGANIZATIONS:
AN ANALYSIS

ABSTRACT

Spirituality has been studied and discussed in management and other disciplines. In the recent
years, the significance of spirituality cannot be ignored in marketing of products as consumer’s
belief influences his buying behavior. Today’s new age spiritual consumer seeks more than mere
physical satisfaction of his needs. He seeks to “transform” his life by consuming products that
promise well being of his soul and answers questions related to seeking higher meaning of life.
The term spirituality here refers to the new age spirituality without referring to any religious
contexts. Ranging from spiritual books, aromatherapy candles , to ayurvedic self care products
spirituality sells like hot cakes in the market. Spirituality through marketing is a wide area of
research. However, this paper delves into the study the products by sold by spiritual
organisations. A survey was conducted among female youth in Delhi to study whether spiritual
beliefs of consumers and loyalty towards these spiritual organisations affects the buying pattern
or not. Findings of the research are concluded along with directions for scope for further
research.

KEYWORDS: Spirituality, marketing, quality of life

JEL CLASSIFICATION: I3

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2985331

MARKETING OF PRODUCTS SOLD BY SPIRITUAL ORGANIZATIONS:
AN ANALYSIS

INTRODUCTION

From spiritual books to candles, from aromatherapy to self care products, spirituality is a big
business today. We see Oprah Winfrey,(the famous American talk show host who has been
regarded many times as one of the influential woman in the world) commercializes faith on a
regular basis by helping her viewers in “connecting to their higher self.”

Spirituality has been studied in management but it still remains under researched in the domains
of marketing. Many studies link spirituality to happiness and well being. And marketers today
don’t shy away in reaping the benefits of it. They are fast realizing the need to satisfy the
consumer’s search for purpose and meaning in life by adding a tinge of spirituality in selling
their products. Consumer’s spiritual needs are addressed along with physical needs. This offers
an inexhaustible void to be filled and provides excellent marketing niche to be capitalized. It is
being used even in branding of materialistic goods like soft drinks and car etc. for example “You
can deprive the body, but the soul needs chocolate” (Dagoba Organic Chocolate), “Yoga inspired
athletic wear” (Lululemon Athletica) Spirituality can be sold as a profitable product as
consumers consider brands and images more essential than the functionality of the product.

What is Spirituality?

The definition of spirituality is vague and has been debated over by scholars in various
disciplines like philosophy, management and psychology. Spirituality is derived from the root
spiritus which means breath- referring to the breath of life. Scholars define it in two patterns:

The first is in the structured form of religion which is mainly associated with practicing
traditional rituals and services.

The other is the highly individualistic way of finding deeper meaning and connection to
something higher than the ordinary life.

This paper narrows the focus on the latter type of spirituality. Contemporary spiritual consumer
follows this spirituality which is different from institutional religion. This new age spirituality
defines different things to different people. To some it means finding answers to metaphysical
questions. To others it means using environment friendly organic products or a lifestyle

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2985331

involving herbal and ayurvedic products or incorporating ancient practices of yoga, tai chi and
pranayam. While some associate the word with a certain types of books, music, aromatherapy
and holistic treatments. In brief phrases like “seeking deeper meaning” “connect to higher
purpose” “holistic development” “conscious living” “mind body spirit” define the term new age
spirituality.

Spirituality in marketing

Spiritual market is a hugely growing industry. India’s estimated spiritual and religious market is
over $30 billion dollars. Its not uncommon to come across innovative ventures like
Onlineprasad.com which delivers prasad from different temples. It has a network of 50 temples
and promises to deliver prasad anywhere in the whole country. Not only this, its founder
Goonjan Mall has launched Zevotion, a brand which offers certified rudraksha beads and other
yantras. It primarily comprises of upper income educated females. Studies found out that women
comprise two third of active spiritual consumers, but men’s and youth market is also growing.
Empirical study says that young people are a big market for incense sticks and burners. Sale of
candles, body care products, aromatherapy items, books, home decor merchandise and jewellery
are the drivers of this growth. Consumers are reminded of the right type of yoga wear
(Lululemon Athletica), fragrance oil to meditate and relax and create soothing stress free
environment. It has boosted the sale of Buddha statues prayer beads and many more. Spiritual
organisations selling consumer products, Spiritual gurus and organisations “show the right path”
not only through their teachings but also through their products. Hence it’s not uncommon to
find product brands launched by them. There is a huge demand for products ranging from
products like fashionable Osho slippers, Patanjali’s and Art of living’s line of body care
products. These brands have created a niche for themselves in the market. According to industry
observers these products have potential to give competition to top notch brands in the business.
For example Baba ramdev Swadeshi brand has a market worth Rs 2,000 crore and more than
4000 outlets in 2015 as compared to around 150 in 2012. A Times of India report sayss, Patanjali
had a turnover of Rs1200 crore in fiscal year 2015. This huge success of the brand is not
surprising as its products are 30% cheaper than products of mainstream MNC’s like HUL and
P&G. Organisations like these are widening their reach in the production and distribution of
these consumer goods. Further some have entered into backward integration to source raw
material also. Once sold only at their ashrams or particular outlets, today they can be found
online or in supermarkets or in kirana stores. Giant retailer Spencer plans to give more shelf
space in its store to these brands. While FMCG companies needs to invest a lot of time, effort
and money in branding and advertising of their products, these spiritual gurus already have
devotees as their loyal consumer base.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

According to Myers’ (1990) spirituality is, “a continuing search for meaning and purpose in life;
an appreciation for the depth of life, the expanse of universe, and natural forces which operate; a
personal belief system”. P.V. Der Veer (2009) states, “spiritualism is seen as secular truth-
seeking, experimental in nature and opposed to religious obscurantism and hierarchy.”
Spirituality in management has majorly been studied with respect to leadership and
entrepreneurship. (Herriott et al., 2009) Mercer (2006), has discussed spirituality in marketing
targeting children in USA. He explores children’s spirituality in context of consumer
capitalism.He observes how various companies are selling products like music books etc. for
spiritual development and impact of this commodified spirituality. (Kale, 2006) supports the
view that spirituality is profitable and growing industry. He found out that spirituality does have
an influence on consumer’s buying behaviour and should be considered as it helps in identifying
the buying patterns and customer loyalty. (Rindfleish ,2005) points out that both marketers and
consumers gain through the exchange of goods with spiritual utility. However (Kale, 2006)
observes that there is not much literature available on scope of marketing through spirituality.
(Van der Veer et al) [2]-[8] have discussed the emergence of new age spirituality in
neocapitalistic environment and spread of spiritual marketing. The conclusion of their study [2]-
[8] is summarised below :

 Eighteenth century marked the rise of enlightenment which questioned the dominance of
the church in the western civilisation and industrial revolution of the nineteenth century
gave birth to technological development which led to growth of industrialisation and
capitalisation. Also, eastern religions and spiritual practices were being discovered and
became popular in the west.
 The post Second World War led to an era of eliminating hegemonic powers including
authority of institutional religion which led to emergence of freedom and individualism.
 With Reagan and Thatcher government propagating neoliberalism as their main
economic ideology capitalism became a global phenomenon. These shifts in cultural and
political values spread across the world. Events like collapse of Berlin wall and
development of world trade organisation (WTO) and advancements in communication,
technology and travel led to further institutionalisation of capitalism and increase in
globalisation.
 Finally, changing trends in consumption patterns in western society where image of the
product is more important encouraged marketers to adopt spiritual marketing. Moreover
diminishing of traditional institutional religion and emergence of new age spirituality
made spiritual marketing popular.

(Carette and King, 2004) identifies 4 types of spiritualities in respect of neo-capitalism.

However, the classification presented takes both traditionally religious and spiritual aspect. He
identifies first two categories known as Anti Capitalist and Reforms. These categories do not
indulge in much consumption and hence their participation in spiritual market is low. The next
two categories which are identified as Consumerist and Capitalist, forms majority of the spiritual
market and forms the subject matter of our study.Consumerist spirituality is genuinely interested
in answering questions of individualism and search for identity like tai chi (a kind of martial arts
popular for defense techniques and health benefits) classes, books on metaphysics etc.
(Rindfleish, 2005) states ,” the products of new age spiritualism tend to be different
combinations of eastern and western traditions and scientific practices and theories, altogether
serving unique meta-theories to the consumer.” .On the other hand capitalist spirituality exploits
consumers for materialistic benefits. As (Bruce, 2002) suspects, that consumption of goods is
more important for new age movements than having loyal followers.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

To find out whether consumer’s belief and loyalty towards spiritual organizations has an affect
on the sale of their products.

HYPOTHESIS

Following hypothesis was made while conducting the study:

1) Youth targeted do not believe that spirituality contributes to quality of their life.
2) Products sold by spiritual organization are bought only by their followers and non
followers do not consider buying the products.
3) The sale of products by spiritual organizations is based on their loyal customers and other
factors like quality and price does not effect it.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

To study how spiritual beliefs affect buying behaviour of consumers, the study was targeted on
the products sold by spiritual organisations. The aim of this study was to see if people’s belief in
these spiritual institutions influenced their buying behaviour in any way. For this purpose, an
extensive questionnaire was prepared using Google Forms and circulated among the targeted
audience. A total of 267 questionnaires/forms were sent through email and a total of 208
responses were received. Previous study has shown that a typical spiritual consumer is high
income, educated and middle aged female. So the objective was to see the buying pattern among
female youth and hence the target group for the study consists of females aged between 19-30
years in Delhi-NCR region. Microsoft Excel was used to analyse the responses.

FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

Following are the conclusions of the findings:

Researchers found out that a very large number of young females positively relate to spirituality.
Youth surveyed perceive spirituality as a means to lead a contended and satisfied life, as 95.5%
of respondents feel that spirituality improves quality of life.
It is observed that they clearly distinguish spirituality from traditional concept of religion. The
popularity of westernized concept of New Age Spirituality seems to be the reason behind this
changing perception and increased acceptance. From reiki (a healing technique in which the
healer taps into ‘universal energy’ to activate patient’s body’s natural healing system) to tai chi
to organic and herbal products or aromatherapy to literature on metaphysics delving on deeper
meaning and purpose in life, new age spirituality is highly flexible with pick and choose
ingredients which can be customised according to one’s needs. It caters to the need for instant
gratification. Neo-liberalism and globalization have commodified spirituality as a highly
personalised product. Researchers wanted to analyse how the target group (female youth)
respond towards sale of products by spiritual organisations. Studies were conducted to find out
whether the target group purchases the products sold by these organisations. And if yes, then
does belief in these institutions influence their purchasing behaviour. And if not, then what could
be the possible reasons for buying these products.

However, studies conclude that only 19.11% of the female youth follow any spiritual leader or
organisation. But, we also found out that 46.3% of the respondents use the products sold by these
organisations which majorly includes self care products.
So, from last two findings it is concluded that even those who do not follow these organizations
buy their products. The branding of these products plays a major role in their sale. These
products are mainly marketed as organic and chemicals free. Survey concluded that 81%
respondents give preference to ayurvedic or herbal brands.
And 53% agree that they use the products based on product quality as these products are
marketed as a way to better quality of lifestyle.

Other reasons could be the economical price of the product. Moreover, the increasing popularity
of spiritual gurus in the media have also made them a household name leading to increase in
demand of their products.

Researchers also wanted to analyse whether some people deliberately avoid using the products
sold by spiritual organisations because they don’t like to be associated with anything spiritual.
But this factor does not really influence the purchasing decision as only 13 % avoid these
products due to their spiritual tag.

On asked if they buy the products because these organisations are non- profit and do a lot of
charitable work, studies show that only 36.6% of the population feel that profits are reinvested
in charitable activities.
Hence, researchers draw the conclusion that the main reason for sale of the products is the
product quality and its branding as organic and a promise of healthier lifestyle. Its the
lifestyle,more than the product that the consumer is buying.

SCOPE FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Spirituality in marketing is a very wide topic of area to cover. The study covered only a niche
area of products sold by spiritual organisations. Many companies imbibing spirituality in
branding of their products and services remains open to be studied. Apart from that, separate
study could be done on health and fitness industry like yoga, tai chi, counselling, ayurveda and
spa thriving on. The target group studied included only female youth aged between 19-25 years.
And that covered only a narrow range of demographics. This study can further be targeted at
different target populations keeping in mind different demographic features like other gender,
people of different age groups, education, income etc. The results then could be compared to see
how various groups respond to sale of products by spiritual organisation. Moreover a scale could
be developed to study the influence of spiritual organizations on consumer buying behavior.

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Websites:

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