The Kolaveri Question: How to Sell South in North? (from sunday ET)

For every big south Indian brand that’s pan-national, there are many that can’t manage the crossover. How and when should South Indian brands target the consumer up north?

    Fourteen million plus hits on Youtube later, “Why this Kolaveri Di?” — a rather silly Tamil song — is proof enough that the music and absurdity transcends language barriers. The Kolaveri phenomenon also proves that any creation or product — one could argue that the Kolaveri craze is a brilliant bit of promotion by Sony Music India — can do the same thing.
    So why is that some Indian brands and products stay regional powerhouses but don’t become any bigger? Ghari, one of India’s largest detergent brands, is firmly established in north India, even as it has a thinner presence in the south. Or take south Indian companies like TVS and Jyothy Laboratories that sell their products across the country.
    At the same time, for each south Indian brand that has crossed the Vindhyas there are another dozen companies that haven’t made the journey. ET on Sunday spoke to brand consultants and south Indian companies (ones who made it up north, those who didn’t, and did not want to) about what it takes to succeed in the colder climes of the north. 

Veshtis and Culture “We are proud to be god’s own product from god’s own country,” chuckles Ulhas Kamath, deputy managing director for Jyothy Laboratories. Despite the pan-India popularity of brands like Ujala, Jyothy Labs makes it a point to launch its products first in Kerala and then elsewhere (except for Maxo, which they launched in West Bengal simultaneously). Kamath says that a particular product goes beyond the border only if it does well in the state, else it’s shunned. “Everything — right from production to communication — is in our control there. It’s our strongest base,” he says.
    Jyothy is a Kerala-bred company. P Ramachandran, chairman and managing director of Jyothy Laboratories, obsessed about whites when he worked in Mumbai in the 80s. Ramachandran knew that his fellow Keralites, with their penchant to wear veshtis, shared his obsession. That led to the birth of Jyothy’s first product, Ujala in 1984. Since then, Ujala and Jyothy have conquered other states and established a robust business in the north. Apart from getting the its advertising right, Jyothy made it a point to hire local stockists and distributors for a better interface within north India.
    Today, almost 56% of Jyothy’s revenues comes from the south. However, the magnitude of Ujala’s success down south has not been replicated elsewhere, especially in the North. “In the south, there’s high emphasis on white and hygiene,” says Kamath. “Its all about the culture.” 

 
Cultureless Brands It’s a point of view that S Viswanathan, general manager of Chennai-based FMCG company, CavinKare agrees with. “Unless the brand is rooted and takes shape in a particular culture, it won’t find it difficult to move across geographical boundaries,” says Viswanathan. CavinKare has products — some that are completely regional and some that are national.
    For example, Cavin-Kare’s Meera Hair wash powder does well only in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka because the format of a hair wash powder doesn’t find resonance in other states. At the same time, there is Chik shampoo — the pioneer of the sachet category — that sells across India.
    “A south Indian brand faces roadblocks only when it is identifiable as one. Look at Titan, Britannia, Infosys, Wipro. Although, they are established down south, they don’t carry a regional imprint,” says Anand Halve of co-founder of Chlorophyll brand consultancy. Halve cites the case of south Indian male actors who send out typical “southie vibes” — think Rajnikanth, Kamal Haasan, Mammooty, MohanLal, Nagarjuna — and hence, find it difficult to move up north.
    On the other hand, actresses are on a two-way street, he explains. Examples: Vyjayanthimala, Hema Malini, Sridevi, Asin, Khushboo, Simran. “Can you say Yes Bank is a Punjabi brand or HDFC is a Gujju brand? When a product is agnostic to taste, it will easily move across,” adds Halve.
    But it’s not just about non-south Indian ‘aesthetics’. It took almost 30 years for stabilizer maker V-Guard to make its mark in north India. Established in 1977 in Kerala, V-Guard went pan-India only around 2006-7. Mithun K Chittilappilly, executive director of the company believes that the acceptance of a brand isn’t a matter of choice but of familiarity. “A chunk of our first distributors, our initial customers and a clutch of our first employees in the north were south Indian migrants,” he chuckles. 

 
Lust for Gold Moreover, cultural perceptions can vary drastically between northern and southern India. Kerala-based Muthoot today sells its gold loans across the country. “When we launched in new markets, we had to bust inhibitions and dogmas. Parting with family jewels was and continues to be a big taboo [in the north]. We had to educate the consumers about the simplicity of getting a loan, playing around the aspirations of individuals,” says Cherian Peter, general manager, marketing, Muthoot Group.
    Peter says that the presence of a corporate office in the national capital region helped. CavinKare too shifted its marketing base to Mumbai due to the lack of marketing talent in Chennai.
    Brand mavens contend that in an increasingly globalised marketplace, brands can move more easily beyond their areas of strength. “Even if a product has a culturespecific appeal, thanks to our globalised marketplace, enough traction can be achieved if a particular section of the population is targeted,” says Ramesh Jude Thomas of Equitor Management Consultants. And that’s exactly what Kolaveri has demonstrated so beautifully.