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Chak Diya, Dhoni

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DQW Bureau
New Update





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As I write this, the whole of India is

waiting with bated breath to know if Dhoni's boys can lift the World

Cup or will it go to the Emerald Isle across the Palk Starits. When

you read this, obviously the answer will be known-whether Sachin's

unfulfilled dream has finally come true or if it is disappointment at

the last hurdle. The moot point though will be next week, either

there will be a general sense of euphoria all around or dismay at

failing to breach the final frontier. But as euphoria/dismay dies

down, what will emerge as the toast of the nation (either way) will

be the 15 men in Blue.

As the huge success of the 'Bleeding

Blue' and other ads show, the brand equity of the Indian cricketers

will reach epic proportions after the World Cup (even if they do not

lift it). And as has been proved, celebrity advertising (even with

cricketers) works for tech products; so many of the vendors are bound

to make beelines for our cricketers. The important question will be

can our partners take advantage of this frenzy to bolster their

businesses.

One can say, partners do not have much

influence on this; it will be more the impact of the marketing

campaign of a particular brand. While that is true to a large extent,

the partners too can have impact, especially at a regional level,

depending on where the player is hailing from. While Sachin more or

less transcends all regional aspirations, still obviously

Sachin-branded tech products could mean better business for Western

region partners. Or those endorsed by Sehwag or Yuvraj could mean big

bucks for North partners. Coupled with IPL which follows almost

immediately, this could mean cricket mania. It is now up to the

partners to leverage this mania skilfully to improve their toplines

and bottomlines.

Normally, the partners were unhappy

that the World Cup impacted their businesses directly; also, not too

many World Cup related schemes were brought forward by the vendors.

However, things could change, as the euphoria that had slowly built

up over the last two months had reached a crescendo now and chances

are very few marketing gurus of vendors will like to miss these

opportunities. Partners should immediately jump into this bandwagon;

align better with the vendor marketing campaigns; insist for more

schemes leveraging cricket; and most importantly do some aggressive

marketing on their own to hit the ball harder, using a cricket

metaphor.

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