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Tuesday, 4 February 2014 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The fashion of selling cricket stars for big money was a big ticket item that propelled the IPL brand to be seen differently from other forms of cricket. In other words, IPL developed sub brands out of players that garnered a price.
It was an interesting concept but the issue was that some players could not take the pressure and some crashed to unlawful methods of earning money that has led to the brand losing a staggering $ 1 billion in the last six years. Last year especially rocked the game with match fixing scandals being proved and franchise owners questioned, which destroyed the ethos of a brand.
After all a brand is a trust mark. Once a brand comes under suspicion, its equity is diluted and then it loses its sharpness in the minds of a consumer, which is why Television Rating Points (TRPs) crashed from a high of 3.8 to just 1.1 in just over two weeks which was sad for a brand that garnered four billion dollars in value. I guess it’s a cue to businesses on how a brand can be destroyed in a week when credibility is hit.
Lesson 2 – Fit for the long run
One of the key challenges for IPL is if the brand can last for the next couple of years. There is no point of a brand growing in the short term with a fashion status consumer following. There has to be re-purchase and a loyalty base developed of core users in strictly marketing terminology. This is what IPL needs monitor in the 2014 edition if one is to do justice to the brand that gave a new imagery to brand India
If I am to single out a parallel, it can be Ceylon Tea. Every 15 years we see how the consumer base keeps changing. In 1960 the top five markets were UK, Australia, USA, Iraq and South Africa. In 1985 the top five were replaced with Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia and UK falling to No. 5 position at 13.4 million kilograms of tea from the 69.1 million kilograms it did way back in 1960.
By 2010 the top five countries were Russia, UAE, Iran, Syria and Turkey, which just explains the crunch issue that we are up against. This may be due to the formation of economic blocks or due to trade agreements or by different tariff adjustments coming to play but the fact remains that if we had a strong branding campaign this impact could have been mitigated given that consumer loyalty could elucidated for which people will be ready to pay a premium
Lesson 3 – Government Policy
When the IPL season 2 ran into tough terrain due to the Indian Government wanting to give priority to election from a security allocation perspective, the then CEO of IPL Lalith Modi very clearly made it known to the world that he would cooperate with the Government and not get into a ‘turf war’ even though billions of rupees were at stake. This came from the upbringing from one of his mentors Sri Kumar Modi who used to work closely with the Government of India and local state, which resulted in the company having the space to venture out to industries like Silk Mills, nylon and polyester threading, tyre and tube manufacturing and industrial leather to name a few that borders on political power. The relevance to Sri Lanka is that organisations cannot work in isolation. It has to be closely threaded to the Government policy. This might require the organisations of today to recruit a person who has a new skill set. If corporate Sri Lanka does not do that, the growth can be stunted. In fact this is the first lesson taught at Harvard when one follows executive education in the new curriculum.
Lesson 4 – Drill down to one idea
When Lalith Modi decided to commercialise the 20/20 cricket by launching the IPL brand, he believed that nothing was as powerful as an idea that the time had come. He passionately drove the idea when a few actually believed it. Today this brand is worth three billion dollars.
I was in Delhi on work when it was announced that IPL could not be staged in India due to the Indian election. Lalith Modi in its characteristic style took the high ground and said: “I am going to export this product to another market.” The event that was staged in South Africa was a masterpiece. It was an Indian-African mix that attracted the President of South Africa to be the Chief Guest at the final which tells us how hard this single idea was driven. A company that does this very strongly in Sri Lanka today is Lanka Soy. In fact it won Brand of the Year at a recent SLIM award ceremony.
From a macro perspective, maybe Ceylon Cinnamon can use this concept with NDB powering since last week. After all Sri Lanka has a 90% plus market share globally. This sure has the ability to be a power brand given that a new HS code has been mandated with strong policy work by the Government of Sri Lanka that differentiates Ceylon Cinnamon from the cassia that is flooding the global market.
Lesson 5 – Eyeballs?
It may sound a whipped concept but the reality is that at IPL just like any other consumer brand is targeting youngsters who make up a big market in the socio-demographic template. If one were to do a competitor map they were spending two hours at the gym working out, a group of friends enjoying an evening drink at a club or watching that favourite TV program at home. Hence IPL originators identified that the only way to lure them was to provide a carnival atmosphere with music, dancers and excitement with ruthless competitiveness that eventually garnered 40,000 eyeballs to the brand.
In Sri Lanka the parallel can be wildlife tourism. A recent study has revealed that Sri Lanka boasts the highest propensity to see wildlife animals. What is required is a strong policy to drive this to the key global markets where the eyeball attraction finds this concept interesting. The best example is the positioning of Rwanda as a mountain gorilla viewing experience. Today, this happens to be the number one foreign exchange earner for the country. Sri Lanka has the same potential to drive up ARR to $ 500 dollars plus but this will require marketing muscle.
Lesson 6 – Strong brand ambassadors
If one tracks back to why IPL has become a strong brand, one of the key reasons is that its founder Lalith Modi got the best talent to back him. Be it Sharuk Khan or Priety Zinta, Dhoni, the best young lifestyle TV presenters. Apparently the franchisees were told to focus on the 10 to 12-year-olds as they would be the target consumers of tomorrow and they also have the power to influence the family. The brand is targeting revenue of 1.6 billion dollars in the next 10 years, which is an interesting way of charting the future of a brand.
The best parallel to me in Sri Lanka is Cargills, which has revolutionised the shopping experience with its ‘Food City’ brand. It now has a set of farmers who are part of the extended community. With the agricultural bank coming to into play since 2014, I guess the value chain development will take a new turn towards generating a consumer pull. Something to watch is how competitors react to this strategy.
Lesson 7 – Performance over reputation
A key success factor at IPL was that big names did not count. All that mattered was performance. In fact there were many instances where the top names of cricket were spectators. The winners were those with the right attitude with skill. Age was also not a barrier.
I like to highlight the brand Hiru TV that has done this in Sri Lanka with cutting-edge marketing and a sharp content strategy. I am told that the ratings have made this channel the number one on TV viewership. Let’s see what the National Media Survey 2014 reveals.
Conclusion
Hence we see some of the key strategies employed by sports brand managers in developing successful business. The question is how much of these best practices can be used in the world of business.
(The author has twice the ‘Marketing Achiever award in Sri Lanka and sits on many a trade marketing boards of Sri Lanka on driving global marketing. He was awarded the exemplary leadership award by Global Association of Business in 2013. The above thoughts are strictly his personal views.)
