"TWO INDIAS"

Less than a decade in north India, there’s a colossal cultural shift that I have witnessed between north and south India. It’s not just the food and climate though that makes South India the finest state to me; it is the people and the environment, music, culture, religion, education, language, and their attitude and behavior that I have personally witnessed from both the directions.

 In the last few years, there has been much written and said about "two India’s" – called north and south. One is largely dependent in the metros and large towns - the entry point for most multinational brands, and where the early adopters of new products were located. The second India is where the early majority of the market exists, and the markets where scale could be achieved. India 2 is always seen to be looking up to India 1 and adopting things a 'bit' later. However, mixes needed to be somewhat adapted for the local conditions and communication needed to go beyond the brand to layers of emotion. Just as an indication, let's compare numbers for the four "Bimaru" states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) representing North India and the four South Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Bimaru states account for about 450 million people, and the four South Indian states, about 250 mn.

The average monthly per-capita household expenditure for North India across the states in both urban and rural regions is much lower than the India average of Rs 1,984 and Rs 1,054 respectively, while for the four southern states, it's largely higher. The same is true about the penetration of consumer items like televisions and two-wheeler - and for latrines within the premises too. The average South Indian family has a better quality of life than its Northern counterpart.

 
The numbers may not be definitive but indicate that the North and South are evolving as two different economies, and could be treated as different countries. It's already well known that modern trade is more evolved in the South than the North. And basic infrastructure is also superior in South India versus the North. Marketers have been historically sensitive to the cultural difference between the two regions. And mixes have often been adapted for the same - from language to caste to modifying rituals in advertising and even products to suit local tastes and needs. Mass media has evolved in an isolatable manner and so made the creation of distinct communication easy. However, as we move forward, this new dimension to the "two Indias" story could provoke fresh, fundamental thinking in marketing. It would be facile to say that more evolved market mixes would suit the South and that of more developing markets be adapted for the North, based on the indicators mentioned at the start of this piece. These numbers just indicate that the South is ahead of the development curve compared to the North, and is growing older.

However, it may be interesting to consider different tasks in these markets and develop both marketing mixes and communication palettes accordingly. This recognizes that the two markets could be at different stages of evolution for the same category. There could be a penetration task in the North and a consumption task in the South; it could be a transactional task in the North and brand affinity-building in the South.

Even the tonality of communication and the role of larger purposes assigned to brands could be different. As the South is older, brands should be less irreverent, yet able to stand for larger purposes including social causes given the market iss more evolved, especially educationally. Some brand stances that work in the West today could be more easily used in the South for brands and categories that are more evolved in those markets; the North may still need some basic market development concepts. The greater presence of modern trade in the South means different shopper behavior, at least for a core segment, and hence different media opportunities to drive brand-building.

South India is far from being pollution free; the streets here are visibly cleaner.  The streets appear to be much better looked after by the people, with no sign of people abandoning their plastic to the streets anywhere and everywhere.  I am certain this contributes to how beautiful it is in the south, the land is free to be seen without being covered in a sea of garbage. . Another welcome difference is south Indians give first important preference to education than what we see in north where children  are business  learned  I am not sure why this behavior is so different here, possibly education is a factor, or perhaps there is something else going here culturally in the way people are raised.

On the basis of my readings and net search,there is more educational infrastructure per capita in the south, which is likely to be a major contributing factor to the improved environment. I have to say, it has certainly made a huge difference, enough for me to contemplate whether perhaps it is somewhere I could call home in the future.