MARKETING STRATEGY

OF

GROUP MEMBERS

1135 HITESH JANGID 1139 ANUSHKA KARANI 1148 ANURADHA MENON 1156 VINIT POOJARY

INTRODUCTION The Indian Premier League (IPL: currently known as the Pepsi Indian Premier League

for sponsorship reasons) is an annual Indian Twenty20 cricket tournament founded in 2008 by the BCCI.

It is contested between eight franchisee teams representing various Indian cities. The tournament is conducted in India between April and May.

In 2008 it achieved a very high level of popularity with more than 140 million TV audiences and a brand valuation of more than 4 billion USD.

The high publicity and glamour filled, franchisee owned cricketing event has also seen unprecedented money paid as franchisee fees, players fees and through advertisement revenue along with scandals of match fixing.

The business model needs appreciation for integrating a number of complex processes such as entertainment, glamour, marketing, pricing and hard-hitting cricket.

However, the recent couple of seasons indicate a decreasing trend in TV Ratings, reduced audience, fall in advertising rates and a withdrawal of franchises.

SPONSORSHIPS India's biggest property developer DLF Group paid ₹250 crores (around US$50

million) to be the main sponsor of the tournament for 5 years from 2008 to 2012. 

From 2013 season, the U.S. food and beverage company PepsiCo took over title sponsorship for five years valued at ₹396.8 crores (around US$66 million), and also exclusive beverage supplier for the IPL teams in the 2013 season.

The IPL is expected to bring the BCCI an income of approximately US$160 crores, over a period of five to ten years.

All of these revenues are directed to

40%

54%

6%

%

IPLFRANCHISESPRIZE MONEY

The money will be distributed in these proportions until 2017, after which the share will be

The IPL signed up Kingfisher Airlines as the official umpire partner for the series in a ₹1.06 billion (US$17 million) deal. This deal sees the McDowell’s No.1 brand on all umpires' uniforms and also on the giant screens during third umpire decisions.

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5%

%

IPLFRANCHISESPRIZE MONEY

MARKETING STRATEGY IPL paved its unique Marketing strategies which ensured that IPL became a huge

success, IPL also ensured that the list of sponsors keep on increasing with the every associated team.

IPL is only about marketing. What makes IPL all about marketing is the concept itself. It begins not with cricket

but with what the consumer wants of cricket. It has re-packaged sports into an entertainment product with a view to maximize

eyeballs. Indian Premiere League has passed a great way during the last four years.

According to a study by Ormax Media (A research and consulting firm specializing in the media and entertainment industry), brands registering in the highest Unaided Recall in the first three days of IPL 2012 are Vodafone (40%), Pepsi (24%) and Hero (20%).

Marketing strategies of IPL, which were used in all the different season can be presented as follows:

1. Packaging of the Event It was clearly noted from day 1 itself as entertainment is the biggest strategic hit. Cricket just happened to be there, IPL was also extensively marketed with the help of Cheer Girls and loud Music, exciting lighting due to all this elements entertainment was there from day 1 itself. 2. Media Hype India is a crazy country where cricket is followed as a religion, IPL ensured that each and every movement gets the required media coverage, the public and press relations during the first two versions meant media hype was maintained and that has lead to immense unpaid publicity. Interestingly in IPL5, the organizers have offered strict terms for freebies for non-official media. The initial purpose having been achieved, the official TV channel is getting its due. 3. Celebrity valueIPL attracted a huge celebrity value in forms of celebrities like Shahrukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty, Priety Zinta apart from them it attracted industrialist like Vijay Malaya etc. which led to more public eye balls rolling over IPL which was a great success. 4. Organizers packagingA proper packaging of all above ensuring that event was always in news, which ensured a total branding package, which ensured all associated with IPL heaved a huge sigh of relief after getting loads of pay cheques.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

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The given chart justifies the power of IPL; due to its extensive marketing campaign it created huge number of viewership, which was increasing very heavily, the chart helps us to know that viewership of IPL never came down, comparing season 4 and season 1 of IPL; IPL 4 witnessed a 56.44% rise in

viewership. This was possible only due to its high class marketing campaign

IPL BUSINESS MODEL The model is both profit and entertainment driven. Profit comes from the

audience who watch the matches on TV and in stadiums. A number of entities and process are involved in the business model. These

include players, teams and franchises, infrastructure, the actual game play, models and cheer leaders, revenue flows and games allocation.

Unique selling points - USP indicate the main points that have made the game popular.

IPL games have consistently gained very high response and tickets are 'sold out' in a few minutes of the counters opening.

There is also the element of glamour with top Indian movie actors and business leaders being franchisee holders. The presence of cheerleaders from West also adds to the glamour.

The game is very fast and keeps the audience entertained. Hence, the business model is a combination of glamour + beauty+ fast game.

REVENUE MODEL

IPL has two revenue streams and these are central and decentral streams. In the central systems, sponsorships, franchises and broadcasting

arrangements provide revenue. For 2012, the IPL title was bought by Pepsi for 400 Crores INR while other sponsors such as Vodafone, Yes bank, Star Plus became the sponsors. McDowell's became the Umpire Sponsor while Sony Max, Sony Six and Times Internet purchased the broadcasting rights.

In the decentral stream, franchisee owners sell ad space on team uniforms and other ad material, TV displays to other firms. In 2012, Aircel, one of the leading mobile phone service provider paid 85 Crores INR to Chennai Super Kings for a three years deal. Delhi Dare Devils has Muthoot Group as the main sponsor while Mumbai Indians had Hero Honda for three years.

ROLE OF ADVERTISING IN MARKETING OF IPL

Advertisement played an important role in marketing of IPL, the main sponsor of Indian Premier League was DLF and at present Pepsi. Various celebrities started to promote such as Shah Rukh khan, Preity Zinta, Shilpa Shetty etc. promoting their own teams by bringing various songs and motivating people to watch it. There are various important factors which were used in advertisements to promote or for the purpose of marketing of IPL such as: Role Of Celebrities:People in India follow celebrities. They have an illusion that if their favorite celebrity is doing it, it means it is right. People have a crazy fan following for celebrities that’s why they play a vital role in promoting IPL. They do various advertisements to promote IPL and participate in IPL to the most. SPONSORS:Sponsors like Pepsi started promotion, by bringing various offers like crash the Pepsi IPL, the winners gets the opportunity to watch live match in stadium in PEPSI VIP BOX which is the best view to watch the match. Other sponsors like Nokia, Venky’s, starsports.com promotes IPL in their own way.

FREE SAMPLES AND GIFTS FOR ADVERTISING: Various owners and franchisee provides free gifts such as T-shirts, caps, balloons, flags of various teams in their home ground. Such act is done to promote their teams and to motivate people to watch IPL live in stadium. More people will watch in stadium, more will be the revenue. BROADCAST LIVE ON VARIOUS APPS AND IN THEATRES:Each and every match is broadcasted live on mobile applications such as hot star, star sports app, etc. so that people should watch each and every match even in their home as well as in their offices even if they are busy. Finals of every season of IPL are broadcasted live in Theatres and multiplex. People have a craze to watch the final so IPL came up with an idea to broadcast it live in various theatres. Tickets can be booked in advance which creates a demand for the final match of the IPL. Even in theatres various caps as well as whistles are provided to enjoy the match assuming it as they are watching it live in stadium. The idea of broadcasting it proved a huge success and it is done in every season of IPL.

CONCLUSION It can be now justified that, IPL is not just about Cricket, it is a complete package of

glamour, Brands, Marketing totally combined to present a new offering of Cricket which is offering not only something for the cricket lovers but also for the marketers by making them eligible to earn loads of revenue by Marketing their products and services in the million dollar Indian premier league.

The IPL has achieved a very huge amount of success in just six seasons the revenue model indicates that a large amount of money is involved in player's wages, fees that franchises pay to BCCI and other expenses.

Revenue generation is mainly from advertisements and sponsors and these people are interested as long as there is an assured audience for TV so that they get sufficient exposure.

With TV viewership reducing and audience interest waning, the revenue model is under pressure. Franchises have not made any profits and operate under loss since they pay franchise fees to the BCCI, pay for players wages and take care of other expenses. The prize money for winning teams is still inadequate to compensate for the losses. With this analysis, IPL event is not sustainable.