Contents From the Editors’ Desk ....................................................................................... 3
Sports Marketing - The Various facets ................................................................ 4
Bengaluru FC - An exemplary case of Sports Marketing ...................................... 6
Tête - à - Tête : Mr. Abhinav Sharma .................................................................... 8
Key Drivers of Success in Sports Marketing ...................................................... 11
Private Sports Leagues: Two sides of the same coin .......................................... 12
Our Events ....................................................................................................... 14
August -September 2014
MARKEZINE
From The Editors’ Desk Dear Readers, Greetings from Club MarkUp, the marketing club of IMT Ghaziabad. We are proud to launch the seventeenth issue of Markezine on the theme ‘Sports - Retail Marketing’. This launch also comes at a time of the successful completion of two key events in the academic calendar Mark Roadies 7.0 and Ad-O-Holic 9.0. Germany being crowned as the FIFA World Champions, start of an exciting season of Barclays Premier League, introduction of Pro Kabbadi League and the Commonwealth games, only makes it an apt time to introduce the topic of Sports-Retail Marketing. The success of these leagues has led marketers to take notice and tap into new found avenue of sports as a marketing opportunity. Keeping the theme of Sports – Retail marketing in mind, we had Mr. Abhinav Sharma, Manager Retail Marketing and Brand Activation, Adidas as the Guest Editor for this issue of Markezine. Mr. Abhinav has over 5 years of experience in retail having worked previously with Titan, Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy before his stint with Adidas. His knowledge about retail and sports in general has contributed immensely to this edition of Markezine. Thanks & Regards,
Akrish Sharma 2nd year, PGDM (Marketing)
Akrish Sharma
IMT, Ghaziabad
Disclaimer: The views and opinions published in this magazine herein are those of the authors and Club Markup bears no responsibility for the same
Co-Editor: Vysakh Design Team: Atul & Brij Write to us markup.imt@gmail.com Follow us on:
MARKEZINE
August -September 2014
Sports Marketing – the Various Facets Sports marketing encompasses various activities that are directed towards the promotion of the sports events and the promotion of other brands through these. In addition, Sports marketers play the role of servicing the professional assets that a brand has on board. For example, Adidas sports marketing teams would look into the equipment needs of its roster of athletes – a cricket bat for Kohli, specialist squash footwear for Dipika or specialist apparel for a marathoner, a Sports Marketing manager is a servicing expert looking into the needs of the plethora of assets in the daily sense. Secondly, a Sports Marketing team is the bridge between Brand Marketing and the assets in question. At the micro level, managing assets’ availability for brand promotions is the most basic of the functions. A store visit by Rohit Sharma, a fan interaction with Kieron Pollard and a Masterclass by Dipika Pallikal, are examples of how managing these assets carefully helps augment a brand’s presence and positioning. If Adidas today is the brand that assists the budding athlete maximize his/her performance, access to these assets only helps cement the positioning of the brand through a real on-ground experience. Sports marketing can be considered different from the other branches of marketing because in this the buying behavior of the consumer is probably influenced more by the left side of the brain i.e. emotions, relational, intuition, passion etc. The sports marketer doesn’t deal so much with a rational consumer who wants to maximize his monetary utility but more so with a consumer who bases his decision on sentiments.
4
Anshul Jain PGDM, IMT-Ghaziabad
Kshitij Shandilya PGDM, IMT-Ghaziabad
Right from the customer buying behavior, the purchase processes, promotions, product content and distribution, everything in sports marketing follows a different path from the normal purchase of typical goods and services. One of the key tasks in sports marketing is to deliver relevant product to a captive fan base. In the fan spaces, the scope for merchandise to be marketed is immense, but daunting. Figuring out trends in consumer interest and spending, is by itself as big a challenge as deciding what product to ship where. Generic and popular things such as jerseys are an exception.
A good starting point for sports franchises in India (and modeled after the American system) is to build fan-bases based on geographical proximity. As by creating an association of the team names of Indian premier league, Hockey Indian
MARKEZINE
August -September 2014
League, Kabaddi league etc. with the names of the states or cities they are able to develop a natural sense of belongingness and among the people towards these teams.
mune to this, it is proven in the recently concluded friendly of an erstwhile powerhouse of football – England; when they played at Wembley – only half the stadium was full!
The product content in terms of sports which are followed around the globe like tennis, football remain consistent however the products of global brands like KFC, Pepsi differs in terms of content, packaging and other aspects which are localized. However with initiatives like ProKabaddi League the sports marketers are developing products with the local customers in focus. The challenge faced by Indian franchises across all the leagues that have been developed, is to market compelling products, which a proven success story like the IPL also hasn’t been able to, in its eight-nine years since inception.
Sports marketing strategy is centric around generation of revenue by capitalizing on fan passion; often this leads to very quick turnaround time around events. It certainly doesn’t help that assets can sometimes be made available at a few hours’ notice! Developing licensed merchandise, arranging fan access and deciding what product to put forward (!) are just a few of the things that are a source of this last minute haberdashery. It eventually creates a feeling for fans that they are a part of a larger community connected with other fans and the team; and that, in essence, is the crux of being a sports marketer.
Sports brands also have a quicker cycle in terms of the ups and downs faced by a wavering fan-base. Consumer spends are heavily influenced by the performances of the franchise/asset in the ‘recency bias’. While some ‘fans’ might be im5
5
MARKEZINE
August -September 2014
Benglauru FC: An exemplary case of Sports Marketing Bengaluru FC. Founded: 20 July, 2013.
Prashanth Srivatsa
First I-League title: 21 April, 2014.
PGDM,
Known as the new men in blue, the rise and rapid success of the Jindal Steel Works (JSW) owned Bengaluru FC as the champions of India’s primary football league in their debut season has got more than just heads turning. Indian football, long under the shadow of a sport tenfold more popular in the country, has begun to take a peek into the curious void left open by a nation still reeling under the aftereffects of retired cricketing heroes. It is in these times that a group of unsung heroes, both on and off the field, has gotten Indian football to emerge as a culture, driven by some of the most innovative marketing minds working at Bengaluru FC. With established names such as East Bengal and Mohun Bagan grabbing the headlines over the past several years, it took more than just the appointment of Ashley Westwood, the former English league footballer, for Bengaluru FC to secure the ultimate prize, the I-League title. This was planning. Realizing the value of footballing fanaticism that was prevalent in Bangalore, the club marketed its entry by holding successive 6
IMT-Ghaziabad
events during preseason for the youngsters and late20s alike. They visited colleges, malls and restaurants and even schools. Their eye-catching competitions increased the awareness among the youth. This was positioning. The club’s special Match Day Programmes, the first of its kind in the I-League, has made waves among the supporters who took to the stadium in flocks of blue with unprecedented attendance, game after game. The programme, given to the spectators, contains the team information, statistics, chants, flashbacks and a column from Westwood himself. The level of fan engagement, although not to the level of their superior British counterparts, has been effective in generating the kind of enthusiasm that club sought during its initial days. This was packaging.
MARKEZINE
Tickets were sold in CafĂŠ Coffee Day outlets several days before the actual match. The club had its first tie up with a local pub, the Arbor Brewing Company, where matches were screened every week and over a 100 fans turned out to cheer with their novel chants and slogans. The competitions and promotional events came with incentives and offers that pulled crowds like never before, generating the highest average stadium turnout in the I-League last season. All in their debut season. Fancy that! This was perception. The BFC Bazaar is another example of successful sports marketing where the fans were incredibly surprised to find the players themselves selling personalized club merchandise. The Club consultant, Mr. Tamhane, has been gregarious in expressing the plan to add events such as BFC Care and BFC Awards in the pipeline for the coming years.
August -September 2014
ers into a close knit bunch with the club. The extent of the mixture of online and on-ground association between the club and its fans went to the extent where over 500 fans travelled to Goa and Kerala for the away matches, a record turnout for the club, leading Puma to sign a deal with the club as their official kit sponsors from the coming season. Striking a fine balance between its on field footballing extravaganza and off-field marketing phenomena through social media, and on-ground promotion and perception strategies, Bengaluru FC has now established itself as a force to reckon with in the I-League.
Building up on their on-ground promotional activity, the club simultaneously developed a vigorous social media presence, on both Facebook and Twitter, where constant updates of dayto-day events, innovative posts and match reports began to gather a loyal online following. They opened a forum for discussion among fans and administrators alike that pulled the support7
MARKEZINE
August -September 2014
Tête - à - Tête : Mr. Abhinav Sharma Mr. Abhinav Sharma, Manager, Retail Marketing and Brand Activation, Adidas. Mr. Abhinav has over 5 years of experience in the retail industry. He has previously worked with Titan, Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey and is currently with Adidas. A self confessed Arsenal FC fan and a sports enthusiast, he opens up to Markezine about his past experiences in retail and the future of sports—retail in India. Q) What do you think are the nuances of retail ambience for a sports brand like Adidas? A) The challenge that any sports brand faces is the presence of multiple sub categories that each need to be highlighted to talk to a discerning consumer. With a proliferation of sport in India, the demand for specialty footwear and apparel has increased. While a fashion brand may get away with a simple distinction of merchandise – like men’s and women’s, or formals and casuals, a sports brand has to deal with sub categories like Football, Running, Cricket, Basketball and Training, to name a few. The task for any Retail marketer is to integrate all these categories and bring each one alive so as to make sure even the niche consumer is brought into the fray. This is done by effective in-store communication.
Q) How important is in-store communication in retail space? And how is it evolving in India? A) Retail in India is evolving and most of the stores in the country are on par with their international counterparts. The look and feel of the store in Mumbai and in New York is now almost the same, if you disregard the obvious differences such as size, facades etc. For premium products it is important to communicate their technical features. A generic ap parel brand might have it easy with just communicating the generic features and mood imagery. For a sports brand, however, it is important to communicate the technical details and link them to the benefits. For example, it isn’t just enough to say these yoga pants have lycra inserts; one needs to inform the yoga enthusiast how it’d help them in moisture wicking, stretch support etc.
Q) How do you position two contrasting products like the Adidas originals and Adidas performance in the same retail space? A) Adidas Originals is targeted at people in the self-expression and street culture space. It is a huge presence overseas with global assets like Kanye West, Rita Ora and Pharell Williams on board. The 6 8
MARKEZINE
August -September 2014
trick is to build a smaller presence, a shop-in-shop, so to speak within the performance store to highlight this product which is radically different from the Sports Performance range. Of course, the best way is through Exclusive stores which allow us to put forward the product range and the brand identity in the best way possible.
Q) How is marketing and activating a sports brand different from marketing a luxury brand like TAGHeuer or the other LVMH brands? A) It is slightly easier in sports as the captive group is instantly keyed on to it. However, it also has a flipside as the consumers for sports products are loyal and have an emotional connect to their teams, hence any frivolous attempts made by the marketer, especially in an on-ground activation, can easily be sniffed out by the fans. The brand activation must be authentic, for example, the Adidas experience Zones built around the World Cup in leading malls, or the Brazuca Tour carried out in six cities in India which reached out to hundreds of thousands of fans. Having said that, a Luxury consumer is more discerning through the end-to-end experience and the pressure points are many, many more. The ability to own all parts of the experience is central to a brand to be able to put itself forward in the best way. That, in a country like India, is always challenging.
Q) Sticking to Sport, and in particular Football, the Indian Soccer league is coming up in a big way. Do you see this as a retail opportunity? A) Cracking the merchandise code for an Indian Sports franchise is tough. Making money off merchandising in a proven successful league like the IPL itself has been tough and isn’t a lucrative Proposition for a retail brand. However, aggregators like online portals might be able to make a limited success of it, through reduced pressure of inventory and the ability to reach fans through one channel and one click. There’s always scope to start at entry price points though and the sports franchises themselves should take the lead by selling at the best point-of-sale, the Sports Venue! Arrangements like cash-and-carry work out best for all parties involved.
Q) What was the value that Adidas saw in the $750mil kit deal with Manchester United that their present kit sponsor didn’t? A) Manchester United is an obvious addition to the Adidas stable. I wouldn’t be able to comment on why their current kit sponsors dropped them. I can only say the obvious; that they are one of the most marketable sports franchises in the world. We are confident that they would reclaim their lofty standards with an exciting stable of new talent. The league has never been tougher and more exciting to watch! 9
MARKEZINE
August -September 2014
Q) What is the contribution of other categories like Running in a company like Adidas?
A) The Running category is the bread-and-butter of any sports brand. Running has picked up in India due to the awareness about the health benefits of running. A lot of running clubs have mushroomed across the metros and people are waking up to the use of specialized apparel and footwear for running. We’re facing a lot of enquiries from even casual and first-time runners about our new range of foot wear – ‘boost’ – and it is truly in keeping with the times that a discerning consumer only wants the best.
Q) How is Adidas planning to promote this healthy culture of running? A) Adidas has collaborated as a ‘Running partner’ with some major running events around India. World Run Day is on November 9th and Adidas plans to collaborate with major runners across the country. Both the Bangalore marathon in November and the Chennai Marathon in December are opportunities to once again engage with our core consumers and have meaningful con versations around the best-in-class products that we have in our arsenal.
Q) How about an IMT connect to the World Run Day? A) Why not? Most post-grad students (such as you…laughs) are at an age where it be comes imperative to adopt a healthy life style so as to mitigate the ill effects of stren uous professional life. I recommend tar geting the Delhi half-marathon for those in decent shape and the ‘Great Delhi Run’ for everyone! With exactly 10 weeks to go, it Is the right time to step up into a training pro gram to come fully prepped at the Start Line. On World Run Day itself, why not have an IMT 5k? It’s an interesting idea!
10 10
MARKEZINE
August -September 2014
Key drivers of Success in Sports Marketing “Revenue generated by commercial partnerships accounts for more than 40% of Olympic revenues” The 2012 London Olympics had sponsorship revenues of GBP 1,404 million (USD 2,178 million). Sports Marketing is not a novel concept. In fact sports have always been a great channel for marketers to reach new people. Tiger Woods earned USD 1.3 billion in endorsements with companies like Nike, Accenture, Rolex and many others. Among the key spenders on sports marketing have been Chrysler Group spending USD 115.4 million, Ford spending USD 197 million, AT&T with spend of USD 226.7 million, and Anheuser-Busch InBev spending a whopping 309.2 million dollars. Today, cricketers are the choice for sports marketers in India. Sachin Tendular and MS Dhoni command a premium. Let us have a look at some of the reasons why sports marketing is so effective in India. First and foremost is the mass appeal of sports people in the country. It may largely be dominated by cricket but other sports people also form a large fan base in India and among their fan base, these sports people hold a lot of clout. Sushil Kumar, the two times Olympic winning wrestler holds a strong connection with people in rural areas of North India and is the embodiment of mass appeal of a sportsperson in the Indian masses.
Second reason is continuous and mostly positive media exposure to sports persons in India. Across the country, Sachin Tendulkar is recognised with qualities like hard work, honesty and silent, yet relentless pursuit of excellence. No wonder companies like MRF, Britannia, Fiat and VISA are just some names on a long list of brands he has been associated with.
Mohit Kumar Manager,
Branding
and
Internal Communication, Inter Globe Technologies
Third reason is that sports events by their very nature are at the same time both global and local. People who are sitting in the stadium are mostly comprised of local audiences who travel a few kilometres to actually witness the event in person. Yet the core focus of sports marketing is on the people who watch the game on TV. One case of how sports marketers have used TV to reach a huge set of audience has been that of Accenture which by some quirk of facts was able to ‘’advertise’’ on BBC, a network that is known for being commercial free. Fourth reason is the duration of sports event. Unlike most of the countries where mass following is for games like football, India has people following cricket where one match can last up to 8-9 hours a day. They get a completely chair bound, focused audience which will be religiously sticking their eyes to the TV screen or ears to the radio set. This means any in-stadium advertising will be a continuous brand exposure. Imagine a football advertiser getting that kind of exposure- it will be doors of heaven for them. To put the matters in a nutshell, sports marketing in India has been a true success story and it has been because of almost all stakeholders in the proverbial ‘game’ – be it because of players, marketers, audience or the game itself.
11
MARKEZINE
August -September 2014
Private Sports Leagues: Two sides of the same coin The day 18th April, 2008, will go down as a red-letter day in the history of Indian Sports. That was the day when the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 cricket tournament commenced. There has been no looking back since and Indian sports changed forever. Yes, there have been many hiccups and hurdles along the way, but IPL has managed to steer clear of all that and is going stronger than ever. The growth of IPL has been phenomenal and what it has done to the business of sports in India is beyond comprehension. IPL is today a global sporting brand worth over $3 Billion. But the real success of IPL lay in the way it has opened the doors for other sports to emerge in the country. Internal sporting leagues involving franchises have sprung up in every sport. Modelled on IPL, these sports are able to emerge from the shadows of cricket through these leagues. Increasingly, the corporates are looking to invest in these sports other than cricket. A case -in-point is the recently concluded Pro-Kabbadi League. A brain-child of the former cricket commentator 12
Ashwin Murali PGP,
Batch 2013-
15, IIM Kashipur
Charu Sharma, Pro-Kabbadi League took the traditional Indian sport of Kabbadi attracted some big investments from corporates like Reliance Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra, the Future group and also from celebrities like Abhishek Bachchan. The league was broadcasted live on Star Sports. Not only did the league attract good crowds on the ground, it also attracted a significant TV viewership. However the flipside to this is that these leagues haven’t added much to the sporting infrastructure of the country and are just seen as investment options by the owners. Another big league that is waiting to happen soon is India’s own franchise-based football league named the ‘Indian Super League’.
MARKEZINE
The popularity of football has significantly increased in India over the past decade due to the telecast of the European football leagues. Now a football league of our own would only add to the clamour for the sport. The ISL has already attracted some big investments from celebrities like Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and Salman Khan. Indian Badminton Federation also started an Indian Badminton League, the first edition of which was a huge success in terms of the audiences it could pull to the stadium. However it lacked the penetration in terms of TV viewing audience and the match that witnessed the maximum viewership was Sania v Sindu and it just had a penetration of 5%. What the success of these leagues has done is that it has established India as an attractive destination for commercial sporting investment. Thanks to the IPL, all these sports are now learning how to market themselves to the corporate world. The corporate world across the globe is now coming to terms with the fact that India is an attractive destination for commercial sporting investment and is beginning to invest in improving the sporting infrastructure .
August -September 2014
These leagues have also made the general public look into sports as a viable career option as more and more youngsters get picked into these squads to represent a franchisee. The lack of money which was once seen as a deterrent to taking up sports as a career, have now been replaced with corporate houses pumping in money into sports. While there’s no denying the positive impact that the success of these leagues have had on Indian sports other than cricket, it is too early to say if this phenomenon is here to stay. Whether the success of these noncricket sporting leagues actually signifies the start of a new era in Indian Sports or if it is just another flash in the pan, is something that only time can answer.
13
MARKEZINE
August -September 2014
Our Events: 1) Mark Roadies 7.0 - The Journey begins here Club MarkUp, the marketing club of IMT Ghaziabad conducted its first event for the academic year with Mark Roadies 7.0. This was the first chance for the new students on the campus to get a glimpse into the exciting and challenging world of marketing.
With over a hundred teams registered for this event, the first round was all about speed, creativity and quick thinking. The contestants were put through a treasure hunt that required
Finally after a closely contested round, team ‘White Punters’ were adjudged to be the winners of the event. Their innovation and creativity had given them an edge over the other teams.
ad making skills, innovative sales pitches and tested their marketing acumen in a unique crossword puzzle contest. The top ten teams from the first round were called for the final round where the teams had to develop a product or service targeted at the rural population of India. The teams had to conduct thorough research and prepare a comprehensive presentation. Prof. Harvinder Singh, faculty in the area of Marketing Management was the judge for the final round.
14 14
MARKEZINE
August -September 2014
2) Ad-O-Holic 9.0 - Breaking the stereotypes Club MarkUp held its annual inter college advertising extravaganza, Ad-O-Holic in August 2014 with the final round on 5th September, 2014. The theme for Ad-O-Holic 9.0 was metro sexuality. The growing demand for men centric grooming products and services has created opportunities for marketers to cash in on this growing trend and tap into a new market segment. For the first round the teams had to put themselves in the shoes of a creative director of
for the selected product. Contestants had to apply their innovative skills to present a mall activation strategy for their product. The event was judged by Mr. Sandeep Puri, faculty in the area of Marketing Management, IMT Ghaziabad.
an ad agency and solve a case related to market entry in this segment. The ad while being creative must be able to convey the story and meaning behind the product.
Teams made 15 minute presentations on their chosen strategy and had to justify the reasons for each choice. Ultimately team ‘Katalyst’ from IMT Ghaziabad were the winners of this exciting contest. They employed novel methods to address the issues that made all teams sit up and take notice.
The first round entries included teams from IIM-Indore, MICA, IIM-Ranchi, IIM-Trichy, IIFT and K J Somiya. The theme of metro-sexuality challenged the teams to think out of the box and create an ad to appeal to this new metro sexual customer base.The next round saw the best teams from across the country, invited to IMT Ghaziabad to present their advertising strategy
15