CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

REPORT

TOPIC: IS THE IPL A

SUCCESS/FAILURE? WHY? WHY
NOT?

DM22138|Natasha
 1. The Indian Premier Leagues

Indian Premiere leagues is a professional Twenty20 Cricket tournament held by BCCI yearly

consisting of matches between teams from major cities in India. The teams (franchises) are owned

by billionaires, media companies and Bollywood celebrities and consists of eminent national as well

as several international players.

2. What do we mean by success?

To answer the question, “IPL, Success or Failure?” we have to first determine what do we mean by

something being a success and how do we measure it.

One glaring metric to measuring success is the financial figures associated with it. In the end, it is

about how much money a company makes. The same could be measured using parameters like

Revenue, Profitability, Break Even, Return of investment etc. However, the story doesn’t end here.

Financial valuation is often touted as the ultimate measure of success, and that doesn’t end purely

with the above parameters.

Many of the high valued companies actually don’t start profitable. Some classic examples would be

LinkedIn, PayPal and closer to home, Swiggy and Zomato. What then leads to the financial valuation

of the company being in Billions when the companies themselves don’t generate profit.

The answer lies in the future value the company has the potential to create. When LinkedIn started,

it created an ecosystem, a name people associated with professional networking, hiring and job-

searching. Similarly, PayPal created a company associated with easy online payments. Zomato and

Swiggy created a new way of eating. The companies essentially revolutionised how we view outside

food. We think of food, we automatically think of Zomato.

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All the above instances are example of brand equity and value the company created and the brand

success of the companies. An unnamed food delivery application with similar attributes wouldn’t get

the same valuation as Zomato. While new players can come in and they do come in, they would have

to build a name for themselves. They would have to build a brand equity for themselves.

3. So, is IPL a success?

Yes, yes and a resounding yes!

Indian Premiere Leagues is the most popular cricket league in the world with the greatest number of

spectators. IPL is also the richest cricket league in the world with a valuation of $6.3 Billion in 2018

by Duff & Phelps.

Figure 1. Attendance in cricket

leagues (2018)

Talking about finances

IPL has several streams

of revenue including

franchisee, broadcasting

rights, streaming,

broadcasting

sponsorship,

merchandising, stadium

tickets and sponsorship

amongst which

sponsorship amounts to upto 60% of the revenue. Title sponsorship of the IPL has seen the big

players putting in enormous amount of money to get the title.

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 Figure 2. Broadcast sponsorship sales for IPL

Most of the franchises have broken even and are

profitable with respectable brand valuation of

themselves. The revenue for the individual teams also

comes from sponsorships, home stadium

advertisements and tickets from the spectator in their

home stadiums.

The sponsors in turn gain enormously from their sponsorship in terms of increased sales, increased

revenues, instant visibility and greater brand awareness. The benefits of sponsorship serves further

to drive up the evaluation of IPL itself.

Dream 11, the title sponsor for IPL 2020 saw an increase in 44.4% traffic and got 5.3Mn+ users

during IPL 2020 not to mention widespread brand recognition.

So what drives these figures. How did a Twenty20

cricket league established itself so squarely in a

country which was initially reluctant to even

embrace this format of the game. How did IPL gain

such a place in the cricket ecosystem to come out

so successful.

Figure 3. Title sponsors for IPL

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 4. The Strategy for Success

Right mix of Cricket, Bollywood and Entertainment

Cricket and Bollywood are two religions in India. The Bollywood and cricket stars are considered

idols. There have been instances of people literally worshiping Bollywood stars and Cricketers like

Dhoni and Sehwag. Bollywood actors have shaped trends day in and day out.

“I had the huge honor of playing with MS Dhoni as my captain at Chennai and
seeing his life and seeing how he has to live day by day in terms of being
cooped up in an hotel and you literally cannot leave unless its to go to
training or a match, it’s amazing. It’s just mind-boggling how people
absolutely worship him,” Sam Billings, Headstrong podcast.

Moreover, the cricket season takes the nation in a fervour. Wins results in the crowd taking to

streets to celebrate and burst crackers while the losses can result in a sense of despondence taken

quiet personally.

Figure 4. People take to streets in Bhopal to celebrate

Figure 5. Some of the trends set by Bollywood actors World Cup win

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 IPL combined the best of Bollywood with the best of Crickets

and added a bit pf glamour with it. With Bollywood stars and

Billionaire owning the teams and splendid national and

international players in the team, IPL is a perfect eco-system

combining both the worlds and providing sufficient drama on

screen as well as off screen. There are so many prolific

names associated with IPL the sort of fervour it brings is but

expected. IPL synergised the two largest profit-making

machineries in India and the result is evident.

It had something for everyone. Nail biting close calls,

thrilling innings, amazing gameplays by cricketers like Chris Gayle, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, David Miller

to the presence of various celebrities like Shahrukh Khan,

Figure 6. Shahrukh Khan in IPL
Preity Zinta, Shilpa Shetty Kundra and their respective

supporters. IPL therefore turned out to be more than just cricket. It was Cricketainment.

Figure 7 Preity Zinta with her team

A family entertainment

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 The show is aired in the time period between March and May when school going children had their

summer vacation. The timing slot is around 7:30 IST, perfect for families to sit and watch TV

Moreover the duration of 3 Hours is

pretty close to a Bollywood movie. The

cricket enthusiasts of the families had

something to watch and there was

enough drama for the non- cricket

members to tolerate what was going on

the screen. This resulted in heavy

Figure 8. IPL viewership until 2017
viewership and IPL becoming a household name. It isn’t limited to those who watched sports. The

viewership is much wider spread. With its initial viewership on Sony Max, it further created a

perception of entertainment with cricket.

Leveraging regional diversities of the country

India is a cricket crazy country. It is also a country with a very diverse regional people. With teams

from different cities around the country, People found a sense of belongingness with the teams. The

teams further had their unique brand

personalities resulting in people relating to it even

more. It wasn’t just a game anymore. It was

personal. There were emotional stakes involved

for people from different regions. Viewers had

something to connect to, something to take pride

Figure 9. Association of teams with regions

in. Cricket has since long united the country

through world cups. IPL gave that fan base something more to hold onto. The regional identities of

the viewers aligned with those of the team.

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 This was doubly interesting to watch especially

since the players in the regional team would often

not belong to the region. MS Dhoni, a player

belonging to Ranchi has reverence in Chennai

simply because of his association with Chennai

Figure 10. Dhoni fan in Chennai paints his house the colour of
CSK
Super Kings. This goes on to highlight the strength of the regional association with individual

franchises.

IPL Season as a Festival Season

Figure 11. Festivities of IPL Inauguration

Figure 12. Festivities of IPL Season

IPL creates enough fervor all over India with excitement and pre-tournament buzz to widespread

sponsorship, merchandising and mentions all around to be compared to the kind of affect created

during festive seasons. Falling between the summer holidays, with larger-than-life inaugurations,

widespread coverage, extensive mentions, IPL discounts etc. adds to the association. People look

forward to it throughout the year. It is welcomed in a similar way to something like Diwali, New

years and Christmas and elicits similar reactions in the viewers and IPL fans.

5. The brand equity created

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The widespread awareness and a strong brand image have translated into an unprecedented brand

equity which benefits all the members involved in it. There are numerous positive and strong

association unique to the IPL. With creating a festive fervor, IPL has also managed to create a

frenzied affect in the viewers. This has pushed to greater viewership, higher bids for sponsorships,

more bucks spent on everything IPL by the fans and greater revenue with higher brand valuation in

general.

Brand Awareness

With IPL having high recognition and good recall when it comes to sports and cricket, it is a

household name. The fervor for Bollywood and Cricket combined contributed significantly to this.

Combined with being a family entertainment and having multiple benefit offering its easy to see

why. Moreover with the mix of sports and film celebrities added to the mix it acts as a coalescing

ground of several strong brands coming together.

Brand Image

IPL is associated with good sports, Prolific Cricket as well as Bollywood personalities. It has also

tapped into the regional associations with its different franchises. It promises good sports as well as

entertainment and good amount of drama. With people connecting strongly to the teams of their

region and finding a fan base of Cicketainment there is also a sense of belongingness. Moreover,

these associations are strong and means a lot to the people of India. IPL managed to tap into the

essence of what drove Indian Cricket and Bollywood and further capitalize on it.

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Figure 13 Brand Equity of IPL

Creating Affect

IPL manages to successfully create a fervor in the consumers by creating a festival like effect. People

cheer for their team, they wait for news. There is nail biting excitement on the pitch. The wins are

celebrated and the losses mourned. It gets personal, it gets emotional, it translates into a sentiment

so much more than cricket at times.

6. Translating Brand Success to Financial Success

The figures of valuation and revenue of the brand are humongous. The major streams of revenue of

the company are:

 Central Sponsorship Revenue

 Broadcasting Rights

 Team Sponsors

 Ticket Sales and Ground Advertisement

 Stall Rentals

 Merchandise Sales

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While some of the revenues are sraightforward some are astounding. A major highlight of the IPL

ecosystem is the sponsorship and advertisements both central and franchises based.

“If I had Rs500 crore to spend in a year, I’d rather spend it on the 50 days of
IPL rather than throughout the year because the amount of viewership it’s
able to generate is huge for anyone looking to build a brand.” - Madhavan,
Mobile Esports Platform

Dream 11 is a classic example of what the startup gained from investing in IPL sponsorship. Another

great example is that of Niine. Niine was the principal sponsor for Rajasthan Royals in 2020. It is a

company primarily manufacturing menstrual hygine products and was expected to wither away or

be acquired in the face of intence competition by behomeths like P&G, J&J. However after the

sponsorship the company saw huge increase in demands.

 “Now, all our distributors know what Niine is, markets that didn’t give us
shelf space earlier are calling us to place orders, and stockists are paying up
within 15 days,” Sharat Khemka, founder Niine

The widespread viewership, brand awareness and brand

association of IPL gives the sponsors a new sense of

visibility. Zaltman has famously claimed that 95% of a

consumer’s buying decision is made subconciously and

Figure 14. Figure 15. Niine Sponsoring
Rajasthan Royales
many researches

have found positive correlation between brand awareness

and purchase intentions. Given that IPL sponsors get top of the mind cognition as well as manifold

increased brand recognition it is easy to see why there is such a demand to get IPL sponsorship. The

increase in bidding price further increases the valuation of eco-system.

7. Conclusion

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IPL managed to be an astounding success by creating a brand value through forming strong and

unique mix of association of Cricket, Bollywood and Regionality creating a package which provided

entertainment, sports along with a festival like affect and a sense of belongingness. By having

something for everyone, being associated with a plethora of prolific names and employing unique

positioning it gained massive popularity and brand awareness.

The brand value in turn is capitalized by tickets, broadcasting rights and most of all sponsorships. The

sponsorship drives the valuation of IPL up and provide revenues in Millions while the brand gain

immense visibility and brand recognition resulting in more revenue, sales and conversion for them

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 8. References

By https://bcci-static-files.s3.amazonaws.com/bcci/document/2020/03/02/6c3d1d01-0369-4d34-
9e6e-edadf2ea6ec4/BCCI-Annual-Report.pdf, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
curid=65408007

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Premier_League

https://www.sportekz.com/list/popular-t20-cricket-leagues/

https://en.100mbsports.com/from-dlf-to-dream11-the-journey-of-ipls-title-sponsors-eng/

https://www.india.com/sports/its-just-mind-boggling-how-people-worship-ms-dhoni-in-india-sam-
billings-4706598/

https://crickettimes.com/2019/10/changes-in-schedule-and-match-timings-planned-for-ipl-2020/

http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/documentary-film-to-be-made-on-shah-rukh-khans-ipl-
team-kkr/1214995/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/825753/india-unique-tv-viewers-of-ipl-by-season/

https://www.dnaindia.com/ipl/photo-gallery-this-ms-dhoni-superfan-paints-his-house-yellow-calls-
it-home-of-ms-dhoni-fan-see-these-stunning-pics-2849948

https://cricfit.com/ipl-governing-council-planning-to-matches-in-kolkata/

https://www.india.com/sports/ipl-2021-opening-ceremony-ahead-of-mi-vs-rcb-no-fireworks-amid-
covid-19-pandemic-bcci-invites-differently-abled-council-to-launch-t20-tournament-4570614/

https://www.forbesindia.com/article/take-one-big-story-of-the-day/perfect-match-why-brands-
love-the-indian-premier-league/66985/1

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