Brand Deccan Chargers - Positioning

The last time we talked about Positioning of a brand, it was for the KKR brand. It was the team that had won the wooden spoon in IPL 2009 tournament and still continues to be a big brand. But this line of thought brought us to another big brand, that of DC or Deccan Chargers who have the dubious distinction of paving the way for KKR by winning the wooden spoon in IPL 2008.

But the way they position themselves is a lot different.

They do not have a glamorous owner and they are not associated with a glamorous brand ambassador. Not surprisingly, their brand valuation has been lower than most other teams.

In the first IPL, DC were the star studded, being positioned as such, considering it made the costly purchase in Andrew Symonds and boasted of the presence of hard hitters in Gibbs, Afridi and Gilchrist apart from Symonds. In the initial years, the brand was more focussed on individual players and not the team.

Deccan Chargers' latest ads, on the other hand, be it McDowells or Idea, show it as a team of friends who play together and win together. In the parlance of brand positioning, it tells us the following three things:

• Deccan Chargers win in IPL 2009 did not do much for its individual players, but created a distinct team identity.
• There is no single player in the team that can position the team brand on its own.
• It is the only brand which has got foreign players which act as better brand ambassadors than their Indian counterparts. However, these foreign players can never carry an ad alone in the Indian waters.

We believe that Deccan Chargers have a lot of work to do with regards to their brand, and not just on the field. May be, the next time we sit down to evaluate them, they will have worked harder as a team and make a turnaround like they did from IPL 2008 to IPL 2009.

Deccan Chargers - The Brand for The Week

We started with the brand leader in IPL- Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and now we discuss the brands relatively lower in the valuation table

The Deccan Chargers (Hyderabad Team)

The DC was regarded the best team on paper after the first auctions, attracting a lot more followers with a legendary lot of international hitters - Adam Gilchrist, Shahid Afridi, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds, and others. But, gave a lackluster performance in the first season, which failed not only the cricket strategies but also the branding strategies.

The team Deccan Chargers, in the first season was placed as a performance oriented team with the best team players that were the major brand equity of the team. A blistering hitting by these top of the league hitters was what got people excited about the brand. At the same time the owners Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd are not a well known brand by themselves.This all failed and thus called for a major marketing step up by the brand. The facts say that :-

Owners:	Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd.
Franchisee Fee:	US $107.01 mn
Sponsorships and Brand Associations	Idea,Puma,Odyssey,Kingfisher,McDowell's,Pepsi,92.7 FM
Income in Sponsorships (2008 and 2009)	Rs. 70 crore.
Income in Central Pool	Rs. 111.5 crore
Eyeball Factor	The foreign hitters - Gilly,Symonds,Gibbs,Afridi
Team Logo

Source : livemint.com

Now, in the last 2 seasons still the brand has concentrated more on performance, with no major steps in adding to their brand value. There have been no glamour, no controversies and not much of marketing tools applied by the owners - probably the team's performance spoke for it in the last season by winning the IPL and in IPL-3 they rocketed to semis with consecutive wins.So, wonder what the Deccan Chargers' vision to earn profits because its just not cricket, afterall its sports marketing and we at brandistics tell you this week ,how the Deccan Chargers have still developed as a brand.

Brand Kolkata Knight Riders - Sponsorships

What is it about Kolkata Knight Riders, that despite the fact that the team has performed poorly in both the seasons, it has been able to garner sponsors, and a lot of them at that, at will?

What I mean here is that any corporate player (and these sponsors, all of them, are just corporate players at the end of the day) would wish to get associated with a brand that is a winner in its field. It is a basic rule which we call the "Implication by Association Rule (IBA)". This attitude of the corporate to get attached to a winning team is to send out a message to its audience that the corporate is a winning outfit as well.

But KKR has not been that, at least not in the past. So, what is it that gets corporate players, all market leaders in their own way, to sponsor a team that is not a leader in its field?

The answer lies in the table of this post. You remember the table of facts, don't you?!

Couldn't find it? Well, let me spell it for you then.

The answer is the first eyeball factor, given in the table. The answer is Shah Rukh Khan. No, IBA does not fail in the case of KKR, either. However, in the case of KKR, IBA is not signified by the association with the team, but with the owner of the team, who is a leader in his field of entertainment.

You don't agree with us? Figure this:

Nokia, Belmonte, Tag Heuer were associated with Shah Rukh Khan before KKR existed. Star Plus had an association with SRK from the KBC 3 times. Reebok got product placed in My Name is Khan (MNIK), a Hindi film released by Fox worldwide, as it got associated with SRK. Sprite, XXX and Lux Hosiery feature SRK in its advertisements and simply because they are associated with KKR. SRK needs to make an appearance on the advertisements to promote his own investment in the team of KKR. 

Yes, the team has got a load of sponsors. But aren't these players really getting associated with Shah Rukh Khan and that is about it?! You tell us.

Ankit Chabbra talks about Positioning of KKR brand in another post. Find out how KKR have positioned themselves.

Brand Kolkata Knight Riders - Positioning

Well, the team of the week requires an extension to another week folks !! .. just couldn't post the last week a hectic one for both of us.

So, it is KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) an excellent brand nurtured by high face values of ShahRukh Khan ,Juhi Chawla and bollywood star power. Plus, the cricket crazy( or say "DADA" crazy) Kolkata crowd,one of the best cricketing grounds in India - The Eden Gardens and yes a successful brand positioning.

Brand Positioning, is what I would emphasize in this post.

• The team KKR is positioned to be the "People's Army" - an army of soldiers with their king as the "Badshah of Bollywood" and their commander as the "dada of Kolkata"
• The Armour designed jersey of the team further positions it right as an army.
• The battleground of EDEN GARDENS.

This is exactly how the company want to position the brand, but it is important to know how to position it the way you want; so let's put up some efforts of SRK through these 3 IPL seasons

It all started with the 'Dubbing the Knight' ceremony ( an ancient ritual in which the knighthood was presented to a soldier by gifting him a sword) when all the players of the KKR team were presented the gold plated Knight helmets as was done in ancient days by the kings to their knights.

Next, the team song "kerbo,lodbo,jeetbo re" , the video and the lyrics both inspiring the army to victory !!

Finally, the arena of battle - EDEN GARDENS ,a well decorated ground with iron grills at the boundary as it used to be in the ancient arena.Then, the king inviting his friends and foes to view the battle - his bollywood star power.
All have positioned it right as the people's army - the bengali army - KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS.

Kolkata Knight Riders - The Brand for The Week

For those who are reading Brandistics would know, that Brandistics is the first Indian blog to treat players as brands, and teams as mother brands. Indian Premier League, by that analogy, would probably then become the grandfather brand of them all.

Yes, IPL is a huge brand name today, and Ankit Chabbra has told you that it is so, because it is the 22nd most innovative company in the world today. This company gives us some awesome entertainment, some brilliant cricket, a lot of glamour, and stars that become so, almost overnight.

But if there is something that IPL gives us, apart from all of this, that makes the marketers very excited is the 8 established brands other than itself that IPL brings along. Yes, I am talking about the already established 8 teams, which would soon be joined by 2 more (Pune and Kochi) from IPL 2011.

For the sake of KISS (Keep it short and simple), Brandistics here will be taking one brand a week, and talk about it from all perspectives. Of course, if there is a lot more that we wish to discuss about that particular brand, we could extend that brand to the next week too.

So, the Brand for the Week is:

Kolkata Knight Riders

The team hasn't had the best of runs in IPL 2008 and IPL 2009, and while the performance has been better in IPL 2010, it is certainly not enough for the side to be counted as one of the favorites.

But the side definitely is a favorite among the public, which makes it a favorite for the marketers. We know IPL is a Mecca for Marketers, and KKR is one of those most desired seats.

So, this week, we would be talking about what makes KKR such a strong brand, in spite (or because of, as they case might turn out to be) of poor performances on the field.

But before we get down to any of that, let us find out a few facts about the team.

Owners:	Red Chillies Entertainment Pvt. Ltd
Franchisee Fee:	US $75.09 mn
Sponsorships and Brand Associations	Nokia, Belmonte, Star Plus, Gitanjali Jewellers, Sprite, Boomer, Reebok, Bilt, Tag Heuer, PlanetM, Next, XXX Energy Drink, Lux Hosiery
Income in Sponsorships (2008 and 2009)	Rs. 125 crore.
Income in  Central Pool	Rs. 111 crore
Eyeball Factor	Shah Rukh Khan (Co-owner of the team) Sourav Ganguly (Captain for IPL 2008 and IPL 2010)
Team Logo

Data Courtesy: Live Mint

The facts are out of the way, our opinions will now hit you. Wait for our opinions and come back for the same. Till then....