The Benefits Of Bikram Yoga

Yoga is a physical and mental practice as well as a philosophy that began in India about 5,000 years ago (Lee, 2014). There are many types of yoga practice and over 15 million people in American practice yoga at least once a month (Statistic Brain, 2016). Yoga has grown to over a $6 billion industry (Girard, 2013). Bikram yoga is a specific routine of postures originally created by Bishnu Charan Ghosh and then modified by Bikram Choudury in Calcutta, India in the 1950’s. Today Bikram yoga is practiced in a room heated between 35-42 degrees Celsius or 95-108 degrees Fahrenheit with humidity of 40%. Bikram yoga is a series of 26 postures and two breathing exercises done over 90 minutes in exactly the same order each time.
The product of Bikram yoga has undergone some negative press in the last decade due to the actions of the founder Bikram Choudury. First of all Bikram franchised his yoga: doing to “yoga what McDonald’s did to food” by trying to copyright his posture sequence and demanding brand loyalty and sameness to his franchised studios (The Economist, 2004). On the one hand, Bikram has arguably trained more yoga students than any other type of

Both a value proposition and Bikram yoga is a promise of value to be delivered. Interestingly, Bikram yoga—the product itself is a value proposition. All yoga claims to make you healthier in mind, body and spirit. The Harvard Business review wrote that products and services deliver fundamental elements of value that address four kinds of needs: functional, emotional, life changing, and social impact (Almquist et. Al, 2016). The Albuquerque Bikram yoga studio has the potential to deliver on each of these four needs rooted Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for people to be healthy and happy. But, how to convey this value proposition powerfully, meaningfully and succinctly such as Apple iPhone has done with “The Experience IS the Product” (Shewan,