Introduction

The Indian Premier League (IPL), created by the Board of Control for Cricket
in India (BCCI) and sanctioned by the International Cricket Council (ICC), is a
Twenty20 format cricket competition. It was announced after the BCCI
declined permission to allow BCCI-contracted players to play in the rebel ICL

BCCI launched the Indian Premier League (IPL) on September 14, 2007.
Based on the lines of the English Premier League (EPL) and the National
Basketball League (NBL)

The idea was first floated in 1996 but was shot down as the board felt it would
go against the zonal system of domestic cricket. The project moved into top
gear when the Zee group launched a rival Indian Cricket League on similar line
in April 2007

IPL is a franchise system where the franchisees will own the teams,they can
run them in their own styles, bring their own sponsors and even name the team
according to their choice. They will even be free to list their teams on the
stock exchange

Man behind IPL

Lalit Modi is the President and Managing Director of Modi Enterprises created
and run by his family.Modi has been the Executive Director of Godfrey Philips
India since 1992,one of largest India’s tobacco company.

You may not like the man but he has taken a existing concept,fine tuned it and
ensure that the cricketing world will never be the same again.

He became the Vice President of BCCI in 2005.The setting of rebel cricket

league (ILC) by Zee TV in January 2008 was a huge thread to BCCI.Modi was
charged with setting up with BCCI’s own league,for which he engaged IMG one
of the world’s leading sports entertainment companies.Modi ensured that IPL’s
journey from concept to execution was accomplished within four months.IPL’s
commercial success is to a large extent to his business acumen.

At present he is suspended from BCCI on corruptions charges.

Sponsorship rights
Indian real estate developer DLF Universal secured exclusive rights to the
Indian Premier League title sponsorship worth INR 200 crore (over US$50
million) for five years. Hero Honda has been selected as an associate sponsor
for five years in a deal worth US$22.5 million.
In addition, soft-drink giant Pepsi secured the title as the tournament's Official
Beverage by signing a five year deal worth USD 12.5 Million. The proceeds of
the latter are to be shared equally by the league's franchiseowners.[

Kingfisher Airlines has been named IPL's umpire partner with rights to
advertise of umpire's clothes and also sponsoring third umpire decisions for
five years. The deal is worth Rs. 106 crores (appx. US$ 26.5 million)

Balance Sheet
IPL committee had devised the sources of revenues for franchises also the expenses were
chalked out. IPL had given a whole proposal to attract the franchises.

Sources of Revenue

Broadcast rights: The broadcast rights have been sold by IPL to World Sports Group
(WSG) and Sony for $1.026 billion for 10 years in a contract that is linked to the success of
the League and to television rating points (TRPs). In the first two years, 80 per cent of the
money earned from the broadcast rights will be shared by the franchisees equally with
the rest going to IPL. The latter's share will increase gradually and by the fifth year, IPL
will get to share 40 per cent of the broadcast revenue

Sponsorship: The title sponsorship fee of over $50 mn paid by DLF, a leading real
estate company in India, will be shared with the franchises. IPL will retain 40 per cent
of this and the balance 60 per cent will be shared between the franchisees equally. While
these revenues accrue from the central pool to the franchisees, they will generate team
sponsorship at individual levels as well. In addition to these, Hero Honda and Pepsi were
associate sponsors worth $22.5mn and $12.5mn for five years. Also, Kingfisher Airlines
were IPL's umpire partners worth $26.5mn. The incomes through these were equally
shared between the franchisees.

Ticket Sales : The final revenue source is ticket sales at home stadiums.Each
franchise will get seven matches at home and the revenues from ticket sales
will be shared with IPL which will get 20 percent with the rest going to the
franchise.

Other sources : There are also other smaller revenue sources such as from
instadia advertising a part of which will go the franchise.

Expenses
Franchisee fee: The two big expenses incurred by Franchise are player costs and the franchise
fee paid to IPL. The franchise fee will be payable in equal sums over a 10- year period. For
instance, if a franchise is to pay $100 million to IPL, he will pay $10 million every year to
IPL.

Player acquisition cost: The player costs were determined in the auction. The franchisee
has to pay players who are available even if they are on the bench. Players have a three-
year contract with the franchise that bought them but they can be traded at the end of
the first year between the franchisees

Stadium Hire Charges: The franchisees also have to pay for the use of the stadiums for which
they have to enter into contracts with the local association. For instance, the Kolkata
franchisee will have to pay the Cricket Association of Bengal for the use of Eden Gardens.
Other Expenses: There are also other marketing costs such as events for promotion of the
team, star ambassadors, and so on, which the franchisees have to bear

Indian Premier League (IPL) : The Business Controversary

The IPL is a miracle in the world of cricket.We have experience the drastic
changes in cricket after the evolution of new cricket concept : The T20 cricket.

Let us see how IPL is the case for marketing controversary

Marketing controversy either way, the end result is unparalleled coverage;
residual awareness of your product, which later most definitely translates into
brand recall, and even sales.

Business controversy is the situation where in new entrant in the market covers
up the entire field and establishes itself as a new brand in a very short span of
time affecting the existing ones directly or indirectly.Controversy could be an
amazingly low cost marketing tool that makes for the phenomenal media
coverage and can be very effective if managed well it reaches the minds of the
masses and will be of immense help in eliminating the odd dose of adverse
publicity in the short term.

IPL: the DLF Indian premier league is a big drama which has involved huge
amount of money and intellectual capital.Not only Indian but throughout the
world the games has been promoted.

Some of the marketing strategies that are broadly seen and made the league as
a case for business revolution are as follows

1.ICL : The rival ICL has been one of the reasons for the publicity and
emergence of IPL.People started comparing ICL and IPL that caused the huge
publicity for the IPL.
2. Auctions of the players and the state teams in the IPL have attracted big
business houses, Bollywood actors, millionaires from all over the world.Names
like Mukesh Ambani,Shahrukh Khan,Vijay Malya and the likes fetched huge
public attention and helped create curiousity in the minds.

3. Auctioning the players participating in the IPL tournament: BCCI has not let
any marketing strategy go down they announced the amounts for players by
asking a bid by some sponsors, players like Mahendra Singh Dhoni,S.Shrisanth,
R.P.Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguli, Rahul Dravid called for a huge
amount, that eventually gave the IPL a publicity stunt.

4.Cheerleader controversary : The revealing uniforms of cheerleaders offended

many in India.This led to outrage on the part of govt authorities,law
enforcement and political activisits.Eventually teams changed the attire of
their squad to modest uniforms that were acceptable to Indian sensibilities and
controversary subsided.

5.Conflict with some media partners and some cricket boards again demanded
the attention of people.

6.Lalit Modi vs Shashi Tharoor : There has been a conflict between them
regarding a bid process for new franchise even as IPL 3 was in its final stage.

Even as IPL 4 is six months away, it is surrounded by controversary because

two teams owned by Bollywood actress Preity Zinta & Shilpa Shetty has
been axed by BCCI due to irregularities during the term of contract and
breach of franchise agreement. All IPL teams are being probed by the
Enforcement Directorate for violations of foreign exchange laws while
transferring funds for the purchase of players.

Marketing Mix

Product

1.The production of IPL as a service product is exemplified by the mere volume

of the production of revenue from every aspect of the game.

2. Teams, players and every small aspect related to IPL has become an IPL
product.

3. One of the leading products in the segment

4.A perfect blend of entertainment and cricket.It was truly entertaining to see
ones favourite cricketer as well as the Bollywood stars on the same platform.

Price

1.Follows a policy of price leadership strategy and premium price strategies

Place

1.The venue chosen for the cricket matches was a strategic choice of places
which are named after franchisees which helped attract people.

Promotion

1.Use all medium of advertisements it includes TV,newspaper,internet,bill

boards,etc

2.Live matches were streamed on Youtube and live matches were shown in 700
cinema screens across India.

3.Grand opening ceremony.

4.Live concerts

5.Worldwide telecast:the broadcasting rights were given to various TV channels

across the world.

5.Worldwide telecast:the broadcasting rights were given to various TV channels

across the world.

6.Timing: Time selected for the game is in the evening so that people can have
a great entertainment after the hectic experience in the offices.

7. ZooZoo, the new brand ambassador of Vodafone, has created a furore in the
advertising industry.Vodafone chose the Indian Premier League 2 (IPL-2) as a
platform to launch their advertisement, which proved to be a great marketing
strategy.Zoozoos are small pseudo-animated characters with big egg-shaped
head, round belly but extremely thin arms and legs. It was a fresh and
innovative concept and Vodafone wonderfully promoted their services by
creating different stories featuring Zoozoos.People eagerly waited for breaks
between matches to see more stories about Zoozoo.
Promotion with Consumer Engagement

IPL ensure participation from audience so as to have to adequate active

management. Aircel, a telecom service provider, introduced the “Aircel Kaun
Dega Man of The Match Contest”, where the winners were offered the chance
to fly South Africa and present the man of the match trophy to the winner from
the Chennai Super Kings team.

IPL-2 also hosted a unique contest known as “Miss Bollywood IPL South Africa”
where a model and actress by name Dune Kossatz won the title along with
prize money of 50,000 South African Rand. The contest also promised the
winner to chance to act in bollywood movies in future.

SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths
1.The Indian Premier League (IPL) is based upon the Twenty20 cricket game
which should be completed in 2 ½ hours. That means that is fast-paced and
exciting, and moreover it can be played on a weekday evening or weekend
afternoon. That makes it very appealing as a mass sport, just like American
Football, Basketball and Soccer. It is appealing as a spectator sport, as well to
TV audiences.
2.The IPL has employed economists to structure its lead so that revenue is
maximized. The more unified the sport, the more successful it is.
3.IPL is based upon the Twenty20 cricket game which should be completed in 3
hours.

Weaknesses
1.Twenty20 has been so popular that it could replace other forms of cricket
i.e. damage the game that generated it.
2.Stakes are very high! Some teams may not weather short-term failures and
may be too quick to get rid of key managers and players if things don't go well
quickly. Famously, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) sacked their CEO Charu
Sharma for watching his team lose 6 from their first 8 games.
3.Some teams have overpriced their advertising/sponsorship in order to gain
some short-term returns (e.g. Royal Challengers), and some sponsors and are
moving their investment the more reasonably priced teams.

Oppurtunities
1.Since it has a large potential mass audience, IPL is very attractive as a
marketing communications opportunity, especially for advertisers and sponsors.
2.The league functions under a number of franchises. Each franchisee is
responsible for marketing its team to gain as large a fan-base as possible. The
long-term success of all of the franchises lies in the generation of a solid fan-
base. The fan-base will generate large TV revenues.
3.Different fans will pay different amounts to watch their sport. There will be
corporate hospitality, season tickets, away tickets, TV pay-per-view and other
ways to segment the market for the IPL.
4.There is a huge opportunity for merchandising e.g. sales of shirts, credit
cards and other fan memorabilia. Grounds can also sell refreshments and other
services during the games.
5.Marketers believe that the teenage segments need to be targeted so that
they become the long-term fan-base. Their parents and older cricket fans may
prefer the longer, more traditional game. The youth market may also impress
on their parents that they want them to buy their club's merchandise on their
behalf - as a differentiator or status symbol.
6.Franchise fees will remain fixed for the up until 2017-18, which means that
the investment is safe against inflation which is traditionally relatively high in
India.

Threats
1.The level of competition that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)
can generate determines long-term viability of the league. If the level of
competition drops, then revenue will fall. For example, if the top names in
cricket cannot be attracted to India, the appeal of the game will fall. Often
getting hold of the big names is a problem - Australian domestic cricket runs
concurrent with the IPL and if players move form Australia to India to follow
the money then their domestic game will be hit. This is known as 'Free Agency.'

2.If the franchisee's fan-base does not generate income then they may not have
the cash to pay the salaries of the best players. However, if you invest in the
best players and they do not win the trophies, then you may not see a return
on your investment. It won't be a quick return on investment - so owners need
to be in it for the long-term.

3.Franchises are very expensive. The most expensive franchise - Mumbai

Indians - was bought by Mukesh Ambani for $111.9 million, whereas the lowest
priced ranchise - Rajasthan Royals was picked up by Manoj Badale for a mere
$67 million.
4.The most highly priced teams may not be those that have the early success.
Revenues will come from the most highly supported teams

PEST ANALYSIS

POLITICAL FACTORS

1.Government of India was unable to provide security

Why IPL is termed as one of the most successful sports league in the
world?

1. It has penetrated in the entertainment industry as Manoranjan Ka Baap. Major films

and TV programmes are not scheduled to coincide with the IPL as it will bring huge losses.

2. Each and every associate of IPL has benefited from it.

3. Market share of sponsors have experienced good results. In the second edition
Zoozoos of Vodafone have created a whole new marketing challenge for Vodafone's
rivals.

4. There is a whole new genre created. First, it was the ODI world cup which came once in
4 years. But, IPL is to be played every year and thus the excitement has lived on.

5. Sony Entertainment Television has trebled their TRPs.

6. The media coverage of IPL has been phenomenal.

7. Mixture of Cricket and Entertainment, two of the most favourite past times of Indian
population.

Conclusion

Sports as a recreational product, and cricket in particular, is facing increasing

competition from a variety of entertainment offerings. It has, therefore,
become necessary to adopt a more organized marketing approach to promote
sport, just like other forms of entertainment. Higher visibility, deeper
availability and easy affordability is required to win more loyal fans towards
sports events. Exemplary protective marketing, as in the case of IPL, can add
more recreational value and consumer engagement in the particular summer
engagement in the particular sports events. Such efforts create a dedicated fan
base, which, in turn, leads to successful commercialization and helps the sports
events to get established on a global platform. The example of IPL can be a
lesson to the marketing of other sports in India and also for the promotion of
sports at the regional level.