Pongal 2023: South brands reap in on the festive zeal

As the southern states drown in harvest festivities, brands are upbeat about the renewed sentiment amongst customers this year

by Nilanjana Basu
Published: Jan 16, 2023 2:22 PM | 4 min read

After two years of cautious celebrations during the pandemic, Pongal festivities are back in full swing in Tamil Nadu and other parts of southern India. Pongal, which kicked off on Sunday the 15th of January, is a harvest festival whose benefits are also reaped by brands during this time of the year. This year, according to experts, was bountiful and revenues did an uptick.

Brands like Arrow, a national clothing brand, came with a bunch of new specific Pongal and Sankranti menswear collections.

Soumali Chakraborty - Head of Marketing, Arrow, says "Pongal is one of the biggest festivals for the southern region. Our priority is the southern markets whereby our festive range and iconic white shirts are what is preferred in these regions during this festive period. In addition to this, we have our capsule collection which is a festive fitter. Subsequently, we have increased our communication strategies on product stories that are in sync with the festivities. Furthermore, our in-store communication, overall communication and messaging embraces the festive fervour."

Sharing more on the marketing strategy around the festival, she said: "The Pongal festivities coincides with ongoing EOSS. At present, we have considered targeting with a two-pronged approach, one towards our CRM base and one towards our potential customer base. Given the current times, while there is continuous offline activities, we are also focusing on keeping up with the evolving digitalization and are working on communication strategies that will help us to build a strong objective for the consumers to shop from the brand. Lastly, when it comes to our tactical approach, we have evolved to including digital for both top-of-the-funnel and mid-of-the-funnel stages in our marketing strategy."

Amarendran Vummidi, Managing Partner, Vummidi Bangaru Jewellers of Tamil Nadu says, "Our highly trained and skilled in-house designers and master craftsmen create such contemporary classics that we are sure our sales and revenues will grow, this festive season. There is a whole lot of festivals & muhurtams lined up between Pongal and Akshaya Tritiya which would add to the numbers. The month of Thai is synonymous with new beginnings and surely, customers will head to our showroom to mark the special occasion with our jewels. There is lot more excitement among people to celebrate festivals and family special occasions now, more than ever before. We have in a sense started celebrating life in its totality, probably after the hardships we faced together as global citizens. So, I most definitely think the sales will grow."

Mark Titus, AVP Marketing, Nippon Paint India (Decorative) says months leading to Pongal always bring zeal amongst customers. “Most years, we see a positive uptick in the months leading to Pongal. Since Pongal is marked as an auspicious festival for new beginnings, many customers tend to paint their homes and shops. Festival marketing strategies are a great way for brands to connect with their customers. We consider this as an opportunity to connect with existing and potential customers as they redo and beautify their homes. Depending on our campaigns, we customise our media mix – we leverage multiple mediums like traditional mass media, digital platforms and TV. However, we mostly stick to the regional language, in line with the festivities and tradition.”

Ramkumar Ratnam, Chief Business Officer, Dvara KGFS talks about financial services and the need to be advertising more local during these festivals. "Since Dvara operates in the remote rural villages of India, our communication strategy has always been more direct in terms of Customer reach and engagement. In Tamil Nadu, we are present in over 20 districts and 7000 + villages and we reach our Customers in these villages primarily through our 160+ Branches and 4000+ Digital Agents.

Apart from this we also use Social Media channels like Facebook to reach these communities. We also use local print media to carry our stories and messages to these villages."

"This is the Festival in which the farmers thank the Sun, Mother Nature and the cattle that help to contribute to a bountiful harvest. They have a separate day of celebration for cattle named Mattu Pongal. This year, the rain god has been kind to the delta areas (save for Nagapattinam, Mayiladuthurai and Cuddalore where it was excess), on the whole. The farmers are in a great welcoming mood for Pongal. All this has resulted in good uptake in demand of funds for their working capital needs, stock requirements, business expansion needs and Dvara has been in the forefront in providing timely credit/financial assistance in the form of loans to the farmers," Ratnam adds.