Cricket and India are two terms which go hand in hand! Since the inception of the IPL, it could easily be said that fanaticism for cricket has gone to the next level. With the masses already crazy for the sport, it becomes easy for the implementation and thus, creating brands for these teams.

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The best example for this is the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). The brand strategy implemented has made the team the richest amongst all its contenders. This is despite its streak of poor performances at the IPL matches. The team has been deduced to have a brand valuation worth of US$ 42.1 million in 2009. This is as per Intangible Business which is a leading international brand valuation firm in UK. The study was conducted in association with MTI Consulting.

So what makes this team so valuable inspite of its delineating performances? What is the key factor for this team to create an image amidst all the winning glory being taken by its competitors?

The answer is simple…Play It Right! Winning is just one aspect of a game in sports. The more important factor is that the team must be known. The team should be easily related to by the locals and the masses. This is where branding comes in.

In case of KKR, be it the FakeIPLPlayer blog or the reality show for the cheerleaders, the audience had something or the other to lookout for. It has to be agreed that controversy is good for a healthy team. However, it has to be ensured that there is a balance being maintained. More so, it should be in the news for the right reasons.

Another important factor is that KKR already came into existence with certain pre-requisites. These include the team owner Shah Rukh Khan and the captain Sourav Ganguly. Here, the important factor was for the audiences to connect which was easily possible with the two icons of the country. They are someone who are brands in themselves and strike a chord with the general public. So, with them in hand, it is not very hard to create an effective marketing communications or a public relations strategy.

It has to be remembered that the public memory is very short…so it is easy and expected to forget who won or lost a game, but brands are something which remain alive forever. So if a brand is alive, so is the team and its commercial success. Because change is constant!

All in all, brand values could be defined as a forecast predicting the capability of a brand to generate income in the future. It is study which looks into the past performances to generate trends for the future.

Note – The above story is based on the previous two seasons of IPL and it is yet to be seen on how the team performs and where it stands in the coming season.