IPL Teams – Branding and Selling

What’s in a name? Of course a lot if the name is an established brand. Jaguar remains a Jaguar whether British, American or Indian companies own it. But will this brand rule apply to Indian Premier League T20 teams also?

Out of the 8 IPL teams, two of them sport their promoter brands, though not directly. One is the UB Group chairman, Mr Vijay Mallya owned Royal Challengers Bangalore (Remember: Royal Challenge is one of the premium whisky brands of UB group). And the other one is the Hyderabad Deccan Chargers team owned by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd. Here the name says it all. Also in their team logo they use the abbreviation DC, which again is used extensively by the Deccan Chronicle newspaper.

Now that Deccan chronicle has decided to sell its IPL franchise, will the new owner retains the same name for the team?

For the owners, IPL franchise provides a lot of opportunity to promote their brands. Yes, team name is one of the easy and effective ways to do that. But if they are not committed with the team for a long term, such a move will hurt that team brand and also its fans.

Sport teams are not like FMCG brands. People may experiment with different FMCG brands every now and then, but when it comes to their favorite sports team they would mostly stick with one for a lifetime, as all these premier league cricket teams are regionalistic based. So the loyal fans won’t love to see their team name getting changed every time a new promoter comes in.

So it would be better if the team names do not have the promoter’s brand in it directly or indirectly.

What do you think? Will the new franchise owners change the name for the Hyderabad IPL team or will stick with Deccan Chargers?

Comments

  1. So interesting….
    it will be very challenging situation 4 any new franchise to decide whether it will change the brand name or not.
    As a Business legend one has to think about every corner and then to decide.
    However Company will definitely decide to change the brand name…..because there is no reason to owning a team than…

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