Consumer Behaviour

The IPL was well marketed. What led to its success/failure?

What next for IPL?

Ashit Kela

DM20267
 IPL History
Cricket is like the region in India. Indian people are crazy about
cricket and majority of them have their day where at some point,
they discuss about cricket. Indian cricket board is the richest cricket
board in world. So, the numbers are not needed to define how much
potential this market has.

IPL started as a competition to the Indian Cricket League. But ICL was
not getting that success. Because they figured out that ICL don’t have
active players in the field of play. Most of the ICL players are retired.
So people are less interested in this tournament. So this shows
attitude of the people towards retired players.

Success:-

1) Cricket craze in India

2) Timing :- India’s 2007 T20 world cup win
3) World’s best players are playing in IPL
4) Bollywood connection
5) Money attraction
6) Match telecast timing on TV :- matches schedule in the
evening
7) Brings new talent for Indian cricket

Failure:-

1) Players Fixing Scam

2) Sponsorship Issues
Numbers:-

Some of the marketing strategies used by IPL:-

1) Creating online traffic through blog published by IPL team

owner like Shahrukh Khan.
2) International Cheerleaders.
3) IPL fantasy league
4) IPL fan park
5) Maximum ads during match prime time.
6) IPL teams merchandise

The sports industry is mostly target the niche market. So, the
strategies applied in this industry, totally different from commercial
products/services. But IPL changed this industry by attracting both
mass and niche market in India. The mass and niche market will get
segmented between English, Hindi and regional news channel. IPL’s
official advertisement and marketing strategies are planned and
executed by Ogilvy and Mother, advertisement firm. Online platform
is also one factor for increasing viewership for IPL. Hotstar streams
IPL in different languages. So this is one of the factors for increasing
viewership for online platform.

Consumer Behaviour concept used by IPL:-

IPL uses emotional campaign. In 2009 they used “EK DESH, EK

JUNOON”, in 2015 “INDIA KA TYOHAAR” and in 2016 “EK INDIA
HAPPYWALA”. These slogans are to engage viewers in cheerful
conversations about the game. This shows affective route is taken by
IPL.

“What we are trying to say is IPL has now reached an iconic level and
it’s become a huge brand. Now, it’s important that the brand
communicates with the people of India, with the viewers on
television and we are using this opportunity to spread a message of
happiness, peace and harmony in the country” – NP Singh, SONY
Pictures Network

So here brands are not taking about the attributes of the game and
taking more about the consequences and building their stories.

The road ahead for IPL:-

From the figures we can say that right now IPL is growing
exponentially despite so many controversies. But every time brand
actually pulled away from it.

Indian women cricket team is also performing very well. Because of

that the number of women watching cricket is increasing. In 2018,
43% of women were watching IPL. But in 2019 that number
increased to 45%. So IPL can do more in their marketing for women
to attract them.

IPL should change in some rules. So, that will make IPL more
entertaining and also help in increasing viewership.