CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

TOPIC-IS IPL WELL MARKETED.

TEAM – 2.
PGFX19019 - Manikandan K
PGFX19033 - Ravindran G
PGFX19040 - Siddharth Sabari
PGFX19054 - Srinivasa Raghavan S
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Introduction:
Cricket, pre IPL era was sedate, appealing mostly to young men primarily in the
subcontinent. It had lost its appeal to other continent people except for some iconic
series like the India, Pakistan rivalry, Ashes. But after IPL, we have an entirely new
supporters who have accepted the game, its many differences with the more athletic
counterparts still notwithstanding.
How has IPL managed to do it? IPL brought different nation cricketers and grouped
them into different teams, payed them high salary and advertisers played a major role
in booming the game. Cheer leaders added value to the game by cheering the
audience and the players. Thus, by a judicious mixture of managing the environment
nearly perfectly and staging fantastic experiences every time a match was played,
value creation was no more, the prerogative of a single entity. Instead, multiple
stakeholders came together on a mutually rewarding platform and lavished the cricket
loving crowds with some truly memorable fare.

Cashing in on the need for change:

Any product, service or even an experience cannot have a sustaining appeal in the
market place unless it addresses some specific needs of the consumer. IPL was able
to gauge that the large number of cricket fans no longer wanted to spend a day in front
of the television for an ODI encounter not to forget five days for a test match. When
the target customers are busy, it is better to cater to their lifestyle change by shortening
the game innovatively. The twenty over format already existed. IPL brought the model
of clubs as in the EPL and by deft packaging created a customer experience that was
too tempting for the customer to resist. The business was not one of selling twenty
over cricket matches to cricket fans; rather it was selling an experience of 3.5 to 4
hours to a much larger entertainment deprived public.

This was one of the reasons why IPL attracted viewers of every age and in young
women and house wives brought to cricket, a whole new swathe of followers. The
adrenalin rush inherent in the shortened version of the game was exploited by roping
in celebrities, cheer leaders, glamorous hosts and a hint of CSR while all along,
sending out the right impressions – encouraging small town cricket players to dream
big and providing them a chance to interact with acclaimed super stars. The result
was that whole families came together every evening to cheer for their favourite teams,
emotions ran high and the advertisers almost got a captive audience (of course, at a
very high price) since the excitement in a twenty twenty format was too high for anyone
to switch channels during over breaks.

The IPL Experience:

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In ‘Welcome to the experience economy’ by B Joseph Pine and James H Gilmore, the
authors emphatically declare that we have arrived into the experience economy after
crossing agrarian, goods-based industrial and services economy eras. In the authors’
opinion, “to realize the full benefit of staging experiences, however, businesses must
deliberately design engaging experiences that command a fee”.

As opposed to commodities, goods and services, experiences are deeply personal

and reside in the minds of the individual who has been engaged as a memorable
remnant. IPL has been able to leverage this to its benefit by throwing in something into
the experience that everyone who sees the match can relate to and find joy in. Be it
the celebrity stars, foreign players, post match fashion shows, social initiatives,
favourable commentaries from experts of the game, Bollywood superstars, attractively
packaged memorabilia – everyone had something to look forward to and precisely
because of this, everyone’s individual experience and joy was starkly different from
another person’s. Thus IPL challenged its competitors at a completely different plane
by successfully staging memorable experiences.

By adopting the model of movie theatres that have begun to charge for consumer
experiences instead of simply for the ticket, IPL also managed to include in its ticket
price and in its advertising slot rates, value for experience thus creating a very high
anchor successfully right from the very first edition. Once the initial anchor is set, it is
not very difficult to incrementally hike fares and still remain credible in the eyes of the
consumer from the pricing point of view.

Along two dimensions of experiences – customer participation and connection – IPL

would fit into the quadrant where both active participation and immersion are high. As
viewers, people hold the belief that their loud cheering and appreciation for their teams
can sway results. They are also completely immersed in the proceedings right from
the first over of the first innings.

Customers also have an idea of what to expect from an IPL encounter – high adrenalin
action. Basing the whole experience on the theme of enjoying cricket has given IPL a
focal point around which to organise its other activities. By providing ample positive
cues to reinforce indelibly, the first impressions in the form of blaring music between
overs and media focus and sound bites from foreign players, IPL has managed to
ensure that even the smallest cues are paid attention to.

The popularity of the IPL can be gauged from the number of people who routinely wear
t-Shirts and jerseys that espouse their support to favourite teams even during non
season times. This is in large measure due to the array of attractive memorabilia that
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are sold in shops through the year. Once a city based loyalty is induced in a customer,
it is very hard to be shaken by subsequent editions for in sport, there is a joy in rooting
for the underdog. It gives the consumer of the experience, the joy of feeling belonged
in a group. Peer approval and social norms as dictated by a person’s neighbour, for
example, influence him/her to spend on these memorabilia and sport them proudly as
a badge of his/her support to a particular team.

“The more senses an experience engages, the more effective and memorable it can
be.” Blaring crowds undulating to the sounds of drum music by a Sivamani, the sight
of huge swathes of people decked in attractive jerseys and the almost palpable smell
of thrill/victory/defeat combine together to produce the right balance of sensations.

Innovation as the mantra:

Business standard in an article titled “IPL: The $2 bn brand”, refers to IPL occupying
the 22nd position in the list of most innovative companies compiled by Fast company,
a magazine that reports on innovation and digital media, ahead of giants like Samsung
and Microsoft.

Some elements of IPL’s marketing strategy can be said to revolutionize the field of
marketing experiences and entertainment -

Screening of IPL matches in movie halls

Complete use of all social media channels – this helped strike the right chord with the
youth who normally take the first steps to know more about any format and who tend
to book tickets online.
Twitter – www.twitter.com/ipl
Facebook - www.facebook.com/IPL
YouTube live streaming channel - www.youtube.com/user/IPL
Online fan club - www.thecricfanclub.com
Banner ads
Wikipedia page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Premier_League
Official site - www.iplt20.com
Online booking for all matches
A mind boggling number of tie ups – To name a few, yatra.com with Delhi Daredevils,
EBay with Kings XI Punjab...
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The leveraging of immense unpaid publicity by word-of-mouth and other means
Adopting a well tried model of international clubs and auctions to the Indian
environment and making it a grand success
Innovative deals with a number of companies where the structure of the deal includes
a onetime licensing fee as well as royalties on the merchandise sold. Other examples:
Deals with Google for people to watch matches online and with television channels for
IPL related shows.
The sheer number of brands that were associated with IPL (In edition 3, the number
is expected to touch 80)! Brands that had multiple associations and were involved with
cricket through the year gained more out of IPL lending credence to the standard
marketing thought that “more the presence, more the impact”
Launch of several new and innovative campaigns by advertisers through IPL.
Examples: Idea (Oongli cricket) and Vodafone (Zoozoos)

Learning perspective:

In ‘Managing what consumers learn from experience’ by Stephen J Hoch and John
Deighton, the authors propose a framework of four stages – hypothesizing-
>Exposure->encoding->Integration – with three moderating factors – familiarity to
learn, motivation to learn and the ambiguity of the information environment – to capture
what consumers learn from experiences.

IPL by virtue of its gripping nature and a high value based price offered a high-
involvement experience for the consumer. Since “consumers tend to grant special
status to conclusions drawn from experience” and experience also “promotes better
memory because information is more vivid and concrete”, any consumer who watches
a IPL match either on television or on the playing field by paying for the tickets
experiences entertainment that reinforces the outcome he intended in the first
place. IPL managed to do this with a deft and balanced packaging of the different
elements on offer as part of the experience.

Consumers in post purchase situations tend to avoid dissonance inducing information.

After spending a good deal of money on the cricket field or worse still, a large amount
of time in front of the television set, the human behaviour is to rationalise the money
or time spent by justifying it as worthwhile. Hence consumers consciously avoid
situations in which they might potentially receive negative feedback about IPL and
instead surround themselves with people who “confirm a good buy” by lavishing praise
on the concept.
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A contrarian viewpoint:

IPL, for sure, managed to bring in more audiences to a game that was increasingly
bemoaned as a sport out of tune with the changing and evolving times. In the process
however, it alienated a section of cricket loving population that was rooted in the
traditional/classical school to whom, the sport best evokes memories of a “gentleman’s
game”. The aggressive marketing strategies followed by the different clubs, the muscle
power that BCCI brought to the centre with its rich and wealthy line-up and the
induction of glamour as an associated activity in the form of fashion shows and cheer
leaders were not received well by this traditional and puritan section of the population.

The strategies employed were at times seen even by supporters of the format as
harming the interests of the players resulting in more injuries. The outcome of many
of these games were driven by chance many a time leading some to cast aspersions
on the extent of skill required to come out on top. To this section, the marketing efforts
expended by popular brands was symbolic of aligning with interests contravening the
larger right direction, the game should be taken in.

Conclusion:

Examining both sides of the coin, one comes to the conclusion that the IPL was
extremely well marketed. Right from the choice of the name – Indian premier league
– having a streak of nationalism to countless secondary associations that were
successfully leveraged, IPL as an annual calendar event is extremely well marketed.
The increasing crowds in the stadium, the cross border popularity of the T20 format,
the numerous foreign players who are willing to sign up, the increasing auction
amounts, the rise in the number of franchises catering to more cities and the craze for
IPL memorabilia are all pointers to the ever increasing popularity standing testimonies
to shrewd marketing strategies.

Business Standard in an article way back in 2008 termed IPL as “The new marketing
cocktail”. To quote from the article, “on a jingoistic note, it (IPL) could be an Indian
"brand" export to the world”.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR