Coronil as COVID-19 cure, a Marketing Gimmick?
We carried out a small sample online survey across India on Patanjali’s Coronil. A few caveats before we share the findings
- This is not yet an approved drug
- According to the Institution doing the testing, Coronil testing is ongoing and will be completed in 2-3 weeks
- Only Mild Cases were taken for the testing
- Allopathic medicines were apparently used as well during the testing
This new data could position Coronil more as an immunity boosting drug rather than a cure for COVID-19. This is something that the Uttarakhand Government also seems to be saying.
So we asked 4 simple questions to respondents across the country and this is what we found
- 85% had heard about Coronil. This is not surprising given how everybody is desperately waiting for a cure and any such news becomes viral very quickly. Even then 85% is quite high
- 61% mentioned that they will buy Coronil even if it is sold as a immunity drug
- 57% mentioned that they will use the product if they were infected by Coronavirus
- However, this drops to 32% if there is no Government certification
What the data is saying is that Ayurveda and Patanjali have strong connect with Consumers and any product related to Corona would do well. This is visible from how consumers are responding to purchasing Coronil even if it is for just immunity protection.
Coronil as a Corona Cure, A Marketing Gimmick?
The big question is, would there have been 85% awareness if it was presented as an immunity booster product in the first place?
Even for Patanjali, starting off at 85% awareness even amongst online users is huge. The bigger the starting point of the purchase funnel, the better the final sales.
The use of allopathic medicines during testing (as reported by Indian Express and no denials as of now) seems to suggest that this was always an immunity boosting product. Most of India was anyways consuming Ayurvedic/Home Made immunity products to resist Corona. So if Patanjali had launched a pure play immunity drug, the media coverage and virality would have been many times lower. Presenting it as a cure for Corona enabled Patanjali to cut through, gather media attention, create controversy and register in consumers minds. This may not be a cure to Corona but will surely be a blockbuster immunity boosting product.