IPL !!Bol bachan!!

The Indian Premier League has generated an amount of buzz whose enormity is unparalleled in this part of the world ie. South Asia. The exaggerated publicity may mostly be attributed to the popularity of cricket in the Indian subcontinent. The zillion news channels add to the hoopla by showcasing highlights and pre match preparations till the “Fan” gets transformed into a pitiable creature pleading for mercy. Here, I ought to admit that I am also one of the many Indians who thinks of himself as a cricket expert and proclaims his superiority by rendering unending bytes about the players, the relative might of each team in the league, how to use the restriction of number of foreign players(4 in each team ) to good effect and who deserved what kind of punishment ,as was evident in the slapping incident.

Apropos, the paucity of any pertinent topic rather than my bonsai-ed horizon forces me to blog on this topic. The marketing of IPL, right from the process of bidding to the commencement of the event and the profligate media coverage is an interesting topic to blog on. I believe that any new idea be put to scrutiny.

Mr.Lalit Modi, the conceiver of the event seems to have used his Business administration degree to good effect. However, the fact that he inadvertently announced the arrival of IPL as ICL-the rebel league and its rival in his inauguration speech, may be overlooked.

IPL, according to me constitutes the basic product-cricket here and the timing of the launch. I combine both because had IPL been introduced in the 1990 ‘s ,it would not have caught on with us as much as it has now. This could be attributed to the number of media channels at that time, focus on cricket, corporatisation of the game and now money wielding BCCI s status then, and the Rise of India as a potential superpower. A product which has no market has no place in the market. The product is unarguably the most popular sport here and thus its launch seems to be a no risk issue then. More so, the market structure is a monopoly as its only rival ICL is not doing remarkably well. This must not give BCCI enough reasons not to innovate, as sociologist cum economist Schumpeter would argue. Creative destruction!!! This line s a tribute to my knowledge of “Economic systems” which for me d been a bit of a drab then and was unenthusiastically guzzled down by me. The next line would be a testimony of the fact that there are very few around who ve the ability to change the topic as fast as i can. Over n out!!! Movin to cricket.. The only good thing ICL seemed to provide was the idea of 20-20 to BCCI. The first mover advantage seems to ve only served as a “What not to do” pointer for BCCI when holding IPL.

The most interesting aspect of this money spinning event is the promotional campaign for IPL. The Ads have tried to generate a sort of healthy rivalry among various states and encourage viewers to take sides. An ad features a woman in an elevator accusing the other of molesting her after she s aware of the alienity of that person in terms of the team he s supporting. For me, these ads dont work. They could ve as well shown a set of cric crazy fans engaging in fisticuffs, if dearth of innovative ideas is to be blamed. Perhaps, the brief given to the ad agency was not long term-ish in terms of instilling the sense of rivalry across states.

Future teams may prop up with their names depicting the specific cuisines of that place-any team from UP may call itself “Awadhi Rockers”(since am in lucknow at the time of writing, this team name seems obvious)—sounds like an oxymoron though. But this s what future teams would try to do-fervently try and protect the “culturalness” of the place of origin and try and serenade the youth by hooking on to a catchy name. Teams from Kanpur, Ahmedabad are in the fray and the latter s rumoured to be bought by Anil Ambani.

Individual teams are placing their own ads with Shahrukh Khan featuring in a music video and Vijay mallya making the generally demure duo of Dravid n Kumble pose as hunks. The astute businessman in him doesn’t stop him from advertising his team “The Royal Challengers” on TV and on billboards, which definitely is a surrogate ad for the whisky brand. A pertinent question to all those marketing geeks—is it a form of category extension??? It may well be since “cricketentainment” as the product is catching on fast. The prefix is that of the whisky brand while the product is a mix of cricket and entertainment. However,as we inhale and exhale, he s busy thinking about ways to dispose off his team.

As the players for IPL were being bidded over, me and certainly many others would ve wondered whether Muralitharan would teach Dhoni his “doosra” to help Chennai triumph, Can we expect Yuvraj and co to be finally conversant with Brett lee s grip when he bowls his slower ones. His Yorkers would always remain lethal because of the geometrical awkwardness in fending off the delivery. Would Ponting have faced enough deliveries from Ishant Sharma to understand how he gets the purchase that he does from the wicket, and what about Viru & Asif and Shoaib & Ganguly.

These are cricketers who ve enough talent and determination to develop deliveries that may still bamboozle the very batsmen who ve played them in the nets on numerous occasions. So all in all, the entire set up makes IPL extremely potent and a potential money spinner.

What KKR has done with branding and associating themselves to everything from a watch to a sports apparel company has left nothing to imagination in terms of the possibility of proliferating the business of owning a team towards attaining break even in case of a possibility of a no show by a team .

However i see one problem with branding here: they ve managed to transform Cricket the sport –which is perennially of interest to the audience TO “Cricketentainment”-the product, and assorted branding paraphernalia which has altered the status of a sport to that of a Brand. And, every brand has to deal with a so called life cycle !!

The possibilities for each team is immense in this respect and so are the challenges. So,we can surely expect change to be the only constant factor in such a scenario.

Lets hope the Cheergirls remain another source of constancy in this rapidly transforming IPL space. Let us give it to ‘em yaar—they are doing a great job!!!