the ipl was well

7/28/2019 The IPL Was Well

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The IPL was Well-MarkettedBy Ananya Das

College: Great Lakes Institute of Management, ChennaiUniversity:

e-mail: [email protected]:In 2008 the Board of Control for Cricket India, initiated the Indian Premier League(IPL) -a professional league for Twenty20 cricket format competition. But even before its start

the IPL was in the news for its altercation between the Indian Cricket League (ICL) started by

Subhash Chandra of Zee Telefilms Ltd. The BCCI used many tactics (including threatening

players who joined ICL that they would not be picked up for national team, raising prize money,

inviting celebrities...) to eventually crush the ICL format that had started almost a year before.

The constant confrontations between ICL and IPL were perennially in the top news in all the

news channels. This along with the fact that it was cricket made sure that the Indian viewer was

hooked.

The IPL is currently contested by 10 teams consisting of players from around the world.

Introduction

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional league for Twenty20 cricket championship in

India. It was initiated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India(BCCI), headquartered in

Mumbai, Maharashtra and is supervised by BCCI. Admits all the controversies & scandals, IPL

stands as the most glamorous and the most well-known cricket league in the world.

The success of such leagues in the game of football was a well-known fact, and there was a need

for a similar platform to be introduced in cricket. This need was accompanied by the fact such as

BCCI being the worlds richest cricket board, Indias fanaticism for the game of cricket, the

Indian big shot businessmen who had never invested in sports before, and the Bollywood.

Need for Brand

The concept of 20-20 cricket was laid down to make the game of cricket more entertaining. Butthe fact that cricket earlier played in one day and 5 days format couldnt have been played as a

league helped the 20-20 cricket bloom as a league. This was very similar for shorter games like

football played for 90 minutes, 90 minutes of adrenaline.

The failure of ICL, which was launched a year before the IPL was marked by the following facts:

1. Lack of good players who can create brands.


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2. Lack of advertising glamour.

3. The rules & regulations imposed by the BCCI

In all we can say that the ICL couldnt establish itself as a brand, for various reasons.

How do Sports Events create Brand?

If is often said that the A Product lies on shelves of stores whereas Brands are created in the

minds of the customers. Sports Marketing is no different, its success lies with its viewers turning

into fans and then into addicts.

So the question is what drives people towards viewing sports? Below are few facts that help in

selling sports:

1. Adrenaline

2. Entertainment

3. Favorite Players

4. Belongingness towards a...

IPL as a brand

IPL was thoughtfully targeted at the rich businessmen and celebrities who were likely to make

huge investments. IPL appealed to the local as well as the global audience, added glamour and

ensured revenue generation to the BCCI. Its value proposition is unique and as a brand, IPL is

growing stronger every year. IPL offers differentiation; the matches are compact and are played

for 3 hours when compared with normal ODI and test matches. The content is primarily cricket

which is showcased in a format similar to that of a football match or a movie, gripping the

audience for long enough to engage them, at the same time ensuring that they do not get bored.

According to a report from the brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance, IPL brand in

2010 was valued at $4.13billion when compared with international leagues such as EPL, which

is valued at more than $12 billion. This highlights the potential as well as the success generatedby the IPL in a short span of 5 years.

IPL is sponsored by popular brands like DLF, Coca Cola, Samsung, Maruti, TVS, Parle etc and

it is predicted that brand IPL will bring over $1.6nbn to BCCI in 5-10 years through

sponsorships and TV Rights.

Team portfolio:


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wait-and-watch approach. Three major brandsParle, LG Electronics and Godrejchose not to

continue their association with the league this season. Alok Bharadwaj, senior vice-president of

Canon India, told the Times of India earlier this month that advertisers are starting to considerother options as their returns from the IPL are not proportional to the increasing costs. Canon has

reportedly cut down its spending on the league by 80%.

What was hit and Misses from marketing point of view:

Though IPL in all its 5 avatars has been a marketing success, but declining popularity of T 20,which is evidently reflected in decreasing TV viewership and hence the TRP. Even the number

of people going to stadium has also been falling year after year. So, probably there is needed to

relook into the marketing effort of IPLs.

Even in the earlier avatars of IPLs, there have been attempts to present IPL more as an

experience rather than just a sport. It had been made a confluence of Hollywood, Bollywood,Dance, Drama, flesh and obviously cricket too. The huge spending by broadcasters to make IPL

a success has been consistent year on year. The effort made to convert IPL an Indian version ofEuropean league has been a success to some extent. It contains all the element of entertainment

that an audience can ask for. Now recently the stage performances by various artists have alsostarted catering to this kind of need of entertainment. Though I believe, catering to the need of

particular segment many a times, the marketing efforts have been gone to too much length than

actually needed. As have been observed, skimpily dressed cheerleader and their dances are notmuch welcome to traditional society like India, where entire family watches TV together and still

such a show of exuberance combined with excessive show of flesh is generally a taboo.

IPL has successfully poached into viewership of TV soaps, as it was a welcome change and

affect created was of mirth and merry and welcome break from Saas-Bahus painful saga. IPL

has been successful in bringing the entire family together as it has something for everyone. But itwill be a challenge for IPL to retain the viewerships year after year which have been decreasingon the successive avatars.

IPL has lost in retaining few aspects of cricketthe sport. Though it has been a huge success and

has attracted crowd from various walk of life, but there has been a loyal segment of following of

cricket- people, who understand finesses of cricket, who know the difference between Mid-onand midoff. These classes of people, who want to see cricket along with entertainment rather

the other way around, have been dithering away from this new genre of cricket.

IPL has also failed in targeting the wide spread rural population, which forms the major chunk ofaudience for International cricket team. In this divide of team and hence the loyalty has left a

huge mass of rural people from semi-urban and rural places looking for belongingness. For ex, a

person from Patna, Bihar may wonder whether he should support Kolkata, being the neighboringcity or Delhi as the representative of all the northern states like Delhi, UP, Bihar and Madhya

Pradesh.

How to resolve this?


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IPL can introduce the idea of wild card entry for team of smaller cities. It can use its deep pocket

to sponsor this kind of team and supporter base. In India, whose other name can be a nation of

diversity need developing these small city team, based on density of cricket lover and existingspread of teams. For example BCCI can target cities like Patna, Indore and Bhubaneswar for

developing its consumer base, which will also help country develop a deeper cricket culture.

Lately there has been effort to make cheerleader look more traditional and representative of the

teams rather than making it a vulgar show. That is a welcome change and must be applauded.

To allay the fear of consumers i.e. the cricket lover that IPL and other numerous T-20 format is

making the schedule very tedious and leaving senior player no room to rest and putting them on

injury. BCCI can mull over the option of making separate squad of T-20 and 50-50 and testformat. India with a one billion plus population should be able to cater this demand of

professional cricketer. In case, BCCI is not able to do this, it will reflect poorly on its

management of nation full of cricket enthusiast and mismanagement of deep pocket owing to the

huge popularity of cricket.

The IPL tried to penetrate the mind of the consumer using continuous bombardment

of its marketing messages rather than subtly trying to get the message through. As a

result, the IPL is everywhere.On the hoarding outside your office window, on your

Android device as an app, on the public transport vehicle which you use to commute

and even on your computers through YouTube and other portals.

If we were to form a marketing matrix for consumer reactions to cricket in general, we

would find that most of the consumers would be true fans. The IPL marketing matrix

can be divided into the following subgroups

a) Cricket lovers who watch any and every form of cricket

b) Cricket lovers who watch the IPL because of the lack of other alternatives

c) Non cricket lovers who watch the IPL because of its EQ (entertainment quotient)

A small survey would tell us that the majority of the consumers of the IPL brand

would be youngsters (both male and female) followed by middle-aged men and

women and the rest would be switchers who are indifferent towards the IPL.Furthermore the majority would be middle aged men followed by young boys.

Thus we can clearly see that the IPL consists of mostly spurious followers who would

switch given a better option and, in effect, actually leads to the loss of a certain

section of puritan true fans of cricket because of its overkill. The question then arises

is: Is the IPL marketed well enough as a promoter of cricket?


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The marketing strategy of the IPL is to subconsciously get the consumer to market the

event through word-of-mouth strategies because in a culture like India, this form of

communication works better than any other. Thus the IPL advertisements on national

television were vocal in promoting the IPL as a festival of sorts using a sofa and a

television to showcase it as a family event at times while focusing on large crowds at

other times to market it as an event of mass appeal. The expectation was to strike achord in the mind and heart of the consumer that everyone is watching the IPL and,

more importantly, everyone should watch the IPL.

The IPL had something to offer for everyone. T20 had exploited the popularity of a

fast, compact game previous associated with soccer and American football. The IPL

explored the possibilities of the dalliance of T20 with the world of entertainment thus

bringing a closure to the needs of the consumers who were bored with drawn or

washed out Test matches or soggy soap operas. The result was a heady marketing

cocktail to quote Business Standard. The IPL stimulated consumers across the

spectrum on the parameters of innovation, excitement, action and entertainment and

literally forced them into buying into its equity. It sold nationalism and other

secondary alliances at premium prices on a golden platter and the sensitized audiences

were quick to lap it up.

Lastly, unlike other sporting events which often follow muted marketing strategies to

ensure that the sensibilities of sport lovers are not hurt, the IPL unabashedly marketed

itself as an umbrella brand for its sponsors. So when a batsman succumbed to a

Karbonn Kamal catch while trying to go for a DLF Maximum, it was considered to be

a Citi moment of success. Probably for the first time in the history of the game

advertising had crossed the hallowed altars of the commentary box. The IPL was a

corporate event with the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies serving as the pitch

and the glitterati and the paparazzi as the spectators.

Yes, the IPL was extremely well marketed but not as a cricketing event. Thus, without

a core competency, it might struggle to find its footing in the long run. Secondly, the

aggressive marketing strategies of the IPL raise a very pertinent question. Can we

term it as a best marketing practice when a popular brand expend large amounts of

resources in the pursuit of larger gains and, knowingly or unknowingly, take the game

beyond its right direction?

the ipl was well

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