5 factors that affect the brand value of IPL teams

If cricket is India's biggest religion then IPL is the biggest festival. A tournament that never fails to enthral the audience and keeps fans hooked for a period of 45 days, IPL has consistently grown in terms of the quality of cricket, the coverage and of course the revenue. There is no stopping the IPL juggernaut.

One of the most successful and highest grossing T20 cricket tournament for over a decade now, IPL has finally started to reap rich fruits to the franchise owners. A lesson that all the franchises seemed to have learnt over the years is that it takes time to build the team's brand value and image.

Since IPL 2018, with changes in revenue share policies by the BCCI, most of the franchises have started to make a profit and can see their brand value rising. The IPL 2018 brand value report by Duff & Phelps show that Mumbai Indians has the highest brand value amongst the IPL teams.

IPL brand valuation report by Duff & Phelps

Let us have a look at five factors that affect the brand value of IPL teams.

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#1 Celebrity Owners

When the King of Bollywood - Shah Rukh Khan does the signature open-arms pose, his 37.1M Twitter and 15.1M Instagram followers combined with uncountable admirers across the globe absolutely love it. The 70k audience present at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata erupts in joy on two occasions - one on seeing the prince of Kolkata, Sourav Ganguly and two when they see SRK cheering his Kolkata Knight Riders side from the stands. Celebrity owners have immense social media following and numerous brand endorsement contracts. As a result, it brings more popularity to the team and more sponsors willing to buy space on the team's jersey.

Shah Rukh Khan's fan following and endorsement contracts help improving brand value

KKR has close to 17M Facebook followers, 4M Twitter followers and as per a report by NDTV, KKR was the most profit-making franchise in IPL 2018 with 19.87% profit. With the increase in popularity and profit, the brand value increases two folds.

Other such celebrity owners of IPL teams include Pretty Zinta (KXIP) and Juhi Chawla (KKR) who like Shah Rukh Khan have been instrumental in getting support for their respective teams.

#2 Marquee players

Presence of marquee players helps to gain more popularity

The Thalaiva MS Dhoni's name is synonymous with CSK. The love and adulation offered by the CSK fans to MS Dhoni are overwhelming. MS Dhoni is the face of CSK and has been a major factor when it comes to contributing to CSK's brand value.

Similarly for other IPL franchises as well, such marquee players play a prime role in building the brand value. Fans get used to seeing their heroes donning the jersey of the same team season after season. Thus holding onto to such marquee players is an essential aspect of building brand value.

Their mere presence in the side attracts fans and greatly affects the team's social media following as well. More fans directly equate to more revenue in terms of increased viewership, ticket sale and merchandise sale resulting in better brand recognition and thus higher value.

Players like Sachin Tendulkar, AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli etc. have all played their part in building their respective team's brand value.

#3 Geographical location and demographics

Mumbai Indians have an advantage in terms of geographical location

India is a massive country with a diverse population but one thing that binds it's people together is the love for cricket. Although the love for cricket and IPL is omnipresent, the geographical location of the IPL team does have an impact on the amount of support it garners. The population of the regions in and around the IPL team's home location strongly determines the fan-following it gets. For instance, teams like Mumbai Indians have a huge population in and around Mumbai which passionately supports it.

Whereas for teams like Delhi and Punjab albeit the IPL following population is huge, the geographical proximity of these two regions splits the fan base resulting in relatively less support. Thus apart from marquee players and celebrity owners, the team's geographical location also governs the support it gets and the popularity.

The demographics of the people supporting a particular franchise determine the sponsors it gets. It has been observed that a modern, young and happening demographic attracts more sponsors and adds value to the team.

#4 Team's performance

The consistently performing team have more followers

The relation between an IPL team's performance in the tournament and it's brand value is a pretty straightforward one - consistently performing teams have higher brand value and vice versa.

Taking a leaf out of the football leagues across the globe, a big reason why clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Man United etc have a remarkably high brand value is their consistent performance over the years. A team that is able to weave magic on the cricket field with its pyrotechnics on a consistent basis inevitably attracts more viewers, more sponsors and builds a sense of trust upon the team.

Delhi Capitals' (previously called Delhi Daredevils) brand value is marred by a number of factors out of which it's poor performance in almost all the IPL seasons is the biggest one. On the other hand teams like CSK, MI and KKR have registered awe-inspiring performances with metronomic consistency in most of the IPL seasons resulting in higher value.

#5 Marketing strategies

Bhaji Blast was a hit show and helped to promote CSK well

Fan clubs, Twitter polls, team anthems, amazing insider stories, contests and player-fan interactions are some extremely effective and innovative marketing strategies which IPL teams have employed to promote and build their franchise. Over the years these marketing ideas have grown and matured, targetting the desired fan base.

RCB insider with Mr Nags is one such blockbuster marketing campaign wherein a stereotypical Bengalurean - Mr Nags crashes into the RCB dressing room or its shoots and brings in juicy insider gossips which the fans can relish.

Bhajji Blast with CSK is the latest entry in the group of innovative marketing techniques that was a hit with the fans. It is primarily a Youtube show hosted by CSK member Harbhajan Singh where he interviews CSK players unearthing some really interesting facts, inspiring stories of struggle and some really funny incidents with the players.

Such content-rich shows help to promote the franchises and to improve its brand value in the best possible way as the fans get a sneak peek into a player's life or a team's routine.