Branding Yoga Case

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R O H I T D E S H P A N D É K E R R Y  H E R M A N

A N N E L E N A  L O B B

Branding Yoga

I guarantee you, yoga will compete with computers, music, sports, automobiles, the drug industry. Yoga will take over the world!

—  Bikram Choudhury1

In a way, our issue is that yoga has thrived, but Hinduism has lost control of the brand.

—  Aseem Shukla, co-founder, Hindu American Foundation 2

In 2008, almost 16 million people in the U.S. were practitioners of yoga,3 a physical, mental and spiritual discipline that originated in ancient India. Their practices ranged from meditative to highly athletic styles. The publication Yoga Journal pegged the industry, including classes, merchandise, and vacations, at a whopping $5.7 billion.4 In 2009, the advocacy group Hindu American Foundation (HAF), concerned over yoga’s commercialization and disconnect from what they claimed were its Hindu roots, launched a campaign called “Take Back Yoga— Bringing to Light Yoga’s Hindu Roots.” HAF’s goal was to get U.S. yoga devotees, whose motivations often had nothing to do with Hinduism, to acknowledge that the roots of yoga came from the Hindu faith.5 One director published a position paper on HAF’s website about connections between yoga and Hinduism; senior staff discussed HAF’s position with major media outlets, and wrote opinion pieces that generated a great deal of   comment.

Reactions to the campaign ran the gamut. Donna Rubin, the founder of Bikram Yoga NYC, said, “To start nitpicking or criticizing this type of yoga or that type of yoga or what it’s not doing or what it should be doing, I don’t really see the point of that.”6 Deepak Chopra, an Indian-born self-help author and medical doctor, said, “Hindus and Indians have an ax to grind. We have a tendency to claim ownership of everything, especially if it goes back to ancient times.” Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, leader of the Pennsylvania-based Himalayan Institute, a non-profit organization focused  on  spiritual  and  humanitarian  programs,  said,  “People  are  looking for

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Professor Rohit Deshpandé and Assistant Director Kerry Herman and Research Associate Annelena Lobb, both of the  Global  Research  Group, prepared this case. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management.

Copyright © 2011, 2012 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545- 7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to www.hbsp.harvard.edu/educators. This publication may not be digitized, photocopied, or otherwise reproduced, posted, or transmitted, without the permission of Harvard Business School.

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