Challenge is to make the CSK brand grow, says Rakesh Singh of India Cements

Critics have scorned the Indian Premier League’s diminishing brand value. But franchisees, obviously, have to put their brave foot forward. “The challenge for IPL teams is to make their brands grow amid all the negativity,” says Rakesh Singh, Joint President – Marketing, India Cements, which owns two-time winner and last year’s runner-up Chennai Super Kings. The entry of a big name like Sun group is good for the tournament’s brand equity, as it is important that all stakeholders are strong, says Singh. Excerpts from the interview…

IPL has managed to pull off five years. As teams pad up for IPL-6, does the tournament’s falling brand equity worry you?

We like to talk negative things. The best TV show in India is KBC, which had an opening day TV rating of 6.2. All IPL finals have had TRP of 10 plus. The average for CSK matches is 4.7. The Formula race in the first year had no tickets unsold, but during the second time, the stands have not been full. Excitement in the first two years will always be high, then the interest will taper down and slowly stabilise.

The number of people watching IPL has gone up in fact, though the average time spent watching a match has come down. As a CSK fan, I will not spend lot of time on a Pune vs Delhi match. During the first IPL, everybody was watching all matches. Now, team loyalties are being established.

Within this negativity, the challenge for us is to make the brand grow.

How do you view the entry of Sun group?

IPL must have good teams in the fray. It is important that all stakeholders are strong and there is no weak team, in terms of the playing eleven and the brand itself. We could see Deccan Chargers going down the tube. Sun has a big task. But the management has the advantage of media control and can possibly create a better brand.

You broke even in third year. KKR too has come in the black. But most teams are still struggling…

There are two aspects: One is purely profit and loss and two, team valuation. Taking only P&L, it is a reasonably okay business, not phenomenal. But if you bring in the enterprise valuation, then it becomes phenomenal. And it keeps multiplying every year. If you take football clubs, they have actually encashed this.

(Brand Finance had voted CSK as the most valuable brand at a valuation of $75.13 million.)

In IPL-4, we made Rs 140 crore revenues, with 13 per cent profits on the topline. In IPL-5, we may not make a lot of money because we bought Ravindu Jadeja. We may just break even. But there is money in this. We use Chennai Super Kings to promote our own brands. The back of the shirt is always for India Cements. When we entered North, a new market, it was a walk in the park when we said we are from the house of Chennai Super Kings. At that time, we had Partiv Patel in our team; he was an icon in Gujarat. Today, we are a premium brand in the market, competing with Ultratech.

What is CSK’s brand philosophy?

It is important for our fans to feel they own the whole team. Fans of Manchester United believe they own the club. India Cements sees itself as custodians of the team. But fans will run the club for us. For the team name, mascot name, etc we went to the fans. Our latest campaign for the Champions League carried snippets from videos made by our fans, including those from outside India. Of course, we are far off from reaching a global clubs cult status and that is our target.

It is also important to keep the players engaged with the brand. That is why we try to retain the core team. When a big star leaves a football club, it creates issues… hate mails float. Constant changes do not help in brand building. Raina always tweets about CSK. He and Dhoni are wedded to CSK.

What are your other plans to stay engaged even during non-match days?

We want to tap them young, so that they are our fans for life. We recently held a ‘junior super kings’ school tournament in Chennai to identify talent who will be groomed and coached by us. Next year, we want to take it across Tamil Nadu. We are also planning a painting competition and a Corporate Cup before IPL-6.

BCCI has now allowed IPL teams to take their teams outside the country. We are looking at playing in the US. This will help create a fan base outside India.

You also want to exploit the potential of merchandising…You ramped up distribution aggressively during the last edition…

In IPL-4, we sold merchandise worth Rs 3 crore. It is still early days. In Europe and America, people wear T-shirts even outside matches. Here, fans wear a CSK shirt only to a match. We want to create a lifestyle experience by making shirts for a party, a jog in the morning or any other occasion. Sports clubs worldwide get their major revenue from merchandise. We are moving in the right direction but there is a long way to go.

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