The first advice to sports marketers – from Shyam Balasubramanian and Vijay Santhanam, the authors of The Business of Cricket: The story of sports marketing in India ( >www.harpercollins.co.in ) – is to focus on fans and reduce reliance on TV.
Local fan base
Reminding that IPL franchises cost a lot of money, with returns coming through a share of the media and central sponsorships and additional local sponsorships they are able to rustle up, the authors reason that the opportunity for a local franchisee to make money lies in more merchandise, more local sponsorships, and more fan events. “All these call for an active creation of a strong local fan base as opposed to the more passive media-focused strategy where central media and sponsorships target mainstream consumers – even those who are interested in IPL not for its cricket but entertainment value.”
A related counsel from the authors is to build loyalty by improving fan experience. They fret that watching cricket in India is far from a pleasant experience. “The weather, the crowds, the unhygienic conditions, the difficulty of entering and exiting the stadium, all tend to put off families.” The book, therefore, expects that at some point the administrators will need to consider increasing the size of stadiums and converting large parts of the stadiums into air-conditioned boxes for family or business use, and charge accordingly.
Be distinctive
Of value is this suggestion from the authors on how brands can aim to be distinctive in the clutter that accompanies an ODI or a Twenty20 telecast: ‘Bring sporting insights.’ They cite, as example, the NIIT’s sponsorship of Vishwanathan Anand; for, it set the company apart from other IT educators as one having an ambassador who embodies intelligence and application.
Another example is of VIP apparels, which banked on Dara Singh, the famous Indian wrestler who also had a successful career in film and television. The company’s tagline, ‘Mazboot itni, Dara Singh jitni,’ was a smart way of communicating the product’s benefit of strength and durability by using the wrestler as a benchmark, the authors opine. One other example, mentioned in this context, is of Narain Karthikeyan’s association with JK Tyres, which ‘makes perfect sense, as one of the first things one associates with F1 is the screech of the tyres being put to test at high speeds.’
Brand ambassadors
As for ‘brand ambassadors,’ the authors’ recommendation is to persist with someone who stands for a quality attribute like performance, rather than change sports properties too quickly. A brand should neither panic when the brand ambassador loses on the field, nor celebrate excessively when he or she wins, then authors instruct.
A caution, however, is that brand ambassadors, being human, carry risks. The more brand ambassadors you have the greater the risk you carry, note Shyam and Vijay. Since sporting events can be beset by scandals such as match-fixing, drug abuse, and other forms of cheating, they observe that it is best to keep the brand ambassador connection rational, instead of hastily saying that the ambassador embodies your brand’s values off the field.
The book wraps up by calling upon Indian cricket, the source of more than 70 per cent of world’s cricket revenues, to behave like a leader, by creating a vibrant, well-governed sports market.
And, to companies, the authors’ advice is to recognise that the spirit of adventure is common to business and sport. “Companies that use a lot of data in decision-making to avoid any marketing risk sometimes go very wrong in sports marketing, which requires an intuitive understanding of fans and sport.”
Educative study.
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