CRICKET IS BUSINESS

Was at Landmark, Nungambakkam, last evening for the launch of the book The Business of Cricket : The Story of Sports Marketing in India. It is authored by Vijay Santhanam and Shyam Balasubramanian, the authors of If Cricket is Religion, Sachin is God. While the duo’s first book helped bust many myths about Sachin Tendulkar not being a match-winner, their second one is expected to provide an insight into the evolution of sports marketing in India.

Santhanam, Memon and Krishnaswami

The event was presided over by Ayaz Memon, renowned cricket writer and analyst, and V.Krishnaswami, a consultant with the Delhi Daredevils (he blogs for them here). The discussion began with Santhanam recounting how cricketers endorsing brands has become a big business these days with every single Indian cricketer having a brand value attached to him. It was a far cry from the 60s and 70s in terms of the money on offer, the customer base in the country etc when Farokh Engineer went into brand endorsement. All changed post-1991 with more and more brands entering the market and competing for a small place in the mind of the consumer.

The discussion then shifted to the IPL and about how it has redefined the business of cricket. There was a short question and answer session in the end and I took the opportunity to ask Memon about whether the abundance of money in IPL would force young players to go the Ravindra Jadeja and Manish Pandey ways (negotiating deals with other franchises). Memon expressed that the current young generation of cricketers cannot be expected to go through the same rigour and hardship that players like Sehwag, Dhoni, the Pathans etc went through. It is akin to a father not wanting his son to go through the same ordeals that he did to come up in life. It is characteristic of a societal mindset in general when one person sees himself as relative to another (as happened in the Pandey controversy when he felt shortchanged on seeing Saurabh Tiwary getting a million dollar deal from RCB). Krishnaswami added that most Indian youngsters these days talk about real estate prices. A solution, Memon expressed, was to have a mentoring system in place at the National Cricket Academy (NCA).

The book is in my wishlist for now. Financially constrained for the time being, it would be some time before I go out and purchase it. Check it out here.

GIVING WAY TO MODERNITY

I was at a distributor’s place in Shenoy Nagar where I came to get the price list of the products of a well known consumer goods company. The salesperson there told me to get it from the company’s Chennai office in Spencer Plaza and off I went there, visiting it for the first time in the last five years.

The mall, which was once the hub of modern retail in Chennai, appeared to be a shadow of its glorious past. The AC was not switched on and the lighting in the corridors was dim. Soon I realized it was a power cut. And there was no back-up facility which meant the escalators and the lifts would not work. I had to use the stairs till the third floor from where I came out into the open parking and headed to Phase II where the corporate offices were located.

After completing my appointment, I window shopped for a while, walking past the same footwear and clothing shops which I last visited during my under-graduation placement time with my friends. I switched to Chennai City Centre owing to its proximity to Besant Nagar. Then I moved away from Chennai for about three years before coming back last year and just before moving away to Trichy, I shopped at Express Avenue which happens to be a hotspot these days. Of course, there is Ampa Skywalk at Aminjikarai which I am yet to visit despite passing by it every day in the last three days.

The existing Spencer Plaza building came up after fire destroyed the original one in 1985. Now in the 21st century it faces the risk of being ravaged by the fire of rapidly mushrooming modern retail outlets in Chennai. Will its glory be restored before it is lost forever ?

MINTY MATTERS

I have this irresistible urge to try using a new product once I see it on store shelves. I would be one of the most brand-disloyal customers on this earth as I have easily switched brands within short time frames. Back in March I visited an exhibition at the Ordnance Factory Trichy and bought an Oreo and the next day found Treat-O stacked up in a supermarket shelf. I ended up eating Pure Magic vanilla cream finally, unable to decide between the former two brands.

Yesterday I was sipping a cool drink at a Greams Road pharmacy when I noticed a blue coloured Hajmola. Saw that it was named ‘mint masti’. I bought two and popped one into my mouth. The taste was no different from a Mint-O and I wondered why a mint candy from Dabur should be named Hajmola, which is known more as a digestive candy. The candy melted and melted and began giving way to the tangy characteristic taste of a Hajmola !

A breath freshener cum digestive. The paan stalls now have competition. Ads for this product are yet to be aired and it would be interesting to see if mint masti can sustain itself in the medicated mint candies dominated by Halls and Vicks. My favourite among the breath freshener mints were Halls Fresh Mint (which seems to have been scrapped now) and Chlormint (which I rarely see these days, but does exist as my friend at Perfetti says ).

BENEFITING FROM IPL KNOWLEDGE

Sometime in last December I was inquiring with a few of my friends the price of a 150cc bike. That was when I was doing a study of the 2-wheeler industry for my Marketing course. A few months before that, I was even contemplating on switching to a 150cc bike but the 70k price tag was too steep and I was content with my Splendor. Little did I realise that some months down the line, I’d become the proud owner of a Hero Honda Hunk.

It all began on Friday when Gaaru sent an email to the PGP1 mailing list informing us of a Cricket Quiz  organized by Dinamalar. Very soon I got a partner in Muthu and with Gaaru teaming up with Vignesh, the four of us headed to Vepery at as early as 10:30 AM to reserve seats. We waited and waited and finally at 12:30 the registration process began and the quiz that was supposed to begin at 12:30 started an hour late. Quiz master Dr. Sumanth took us by complete surprise when he announced that it was going to be an IPL quiz and not a cricket quiz (after all, IPL is not cricket, they say).

20 questions in the prelims. Some were complete sitters such as “how many foreign players are allowed in the playing XI”. Some related to stats such as “player with the maximum number of M0M awards in all IPL editions”, “number of Indian umpires in the current IPL”. There was a visual question on the Rajasthan Royals mascot which we left unanswered. Part points in a few questions saw us through with a score of 13, the maximum being 14.5.

We did not make much headway in the first two rounds of the finals. We lagged behind but bounced back in the third round which was a visual one. It helped that other teams did not know what Godfrey Phillips’ association with IPL is (for the record, it is the company owned by Lalit Modi) or the face behind the name D.Y.Patil. We surged to the lead position and had a chance to consolidate it in the next round of split visuals. The upper half of one player’s face and the lower half of another player’s face would be presented and we had to find out the two players. There was one such question in the prelims in which Alfonso Thomas and Wayne Parnell were indistinguishable in the top half and while I guessed the lower one as Juan Theron, it turned out to be Morne Morkel. We got a lot of passed questions but did not capitalize on it for the sole reason that the lower half was unrecognizable. Not many teams cracked this round and when our turn came, I got the upper half right as Ryan McLaren. I gambled a bit by answering the lower half as Shaun Marsh and it turned out to be correct. We stayed in the lead till the end from then and emerged winners.

Then came the super round where the six people from the three top teams would compete individually for a Hero Honda Hunk. A buzzer round, a press of the buzzer followed by a correct answer gives 15 points while a wrong one would lead to -5. I played it safe and answered only one question thus keeping my 15 points safe. It was because of a partial lack of knowledge that I did not press the buzzer for the other questions. The fellow sitting near me got two right but messed it all up by getting four wrong. For a moment it appeared there would be a tie-breaker as the scorers messed up with the total scores but a double check by the quiz master ensured there was only one winner and that was me.

The audience were kept engaged with both passed and exclusive questions that earned them chocolates and facial kits. There was one person who kept giving out all answers right when the chance came and the quiz master felt he should have been there up stage. A kid in the audience thought that Ranji Trophy is an IPL-like competition with an owner in Ranjit Singh (mascot of Kings XI) while an old lady felt Sachin Tendulkar was the most unsuccessful captain in the IPL (he is actually the most fined captain). Some of the responses were amusing.

My dream of owing a 150cc bike has come true in a totally unexpected manner. I will have to sell off my Splendor. The bond between a man and his bike is a special one and in my case, it is one that lasted 7 long years. While I have been caring enough to service it once in 2 months initially, it later began to wear out due to disuse. It has undergone spoilage due to rain, sun, improper maintenance, irregular servicing, irresponsible packers & movers etc but it rides on and on, like an ageless warhorse. Long live my Splendor.

A sample of the questions that were asked

1. Two players from the same team who took hat-tricks in the 2008 IPL (Balaji and Ntini )
2. Minimum base price for a player ( $20000 )
3. Country, apart from India, that is financially benefitting from the IPL (Mauritius)
4. Number of Indian umpires in the IPL (7)
5. Visual–name of mascot of Royals (Moochu Singh)
6. Visual–Players’ faces-Alfonso Thomas top-half and Morne Morkel bottom-half.
7. Director of Kochi’s theme video and the singer ( Director Priyadarshan, singer-none. There were no lyrics in the song )
8. Team to win Fairplay award twice (CSK)
9. Team to have maximum wicket takers in two editions (Deccan Chargers-R.P Singh 2009, Pragyan Ojha 2010 )

SUMMERS

It’s been a week my summer internship here in Chennai. Hardly a week after first year of MBA came to an end and I had to be up for it. Found that an internship in Sales & Marketing is way different from what is generally made of it. Given that I was assigned the project in Chennai itself, it gave me the luxury to use my bike to go around the city, visiting customer accounts.

One difference between a distribution agency and an IT company is that most things are unstructured here. Meetings happen impromptu and at a point in time, some salesman or sales officer is in a one-on-one meeting with the head of the distribution agency. One has to be on the phone all the time taking orders, following up dispatched orders, address customer complaints, replace return stocks, do billing etc. By the end of the two months, I am expected to pick up at least half of all this.

Majority of the accounts assigned to me happen to be 5-star hotels in the city. At first I conjured up images of relaxing in the lobby of a Taj Coromandel or a Royal Meridien but later I learnt that I would never have to use the main entrance. Instead, I would have to meet up with the procurement department that is generally located in the basement and has its entrance at the side, near the two-wheeler parking. While the hotel as a whole may possess the best-in-class aesthetics in its appearance and facilities, the procurement area presents a stark contrast. The two-wheeler parking area reeks of smell of meat and vegetables and the floors inside are an eyesore. As if one level is not enough, the basement in one hotel had three levels !

One hotel that presented a different picture was Raintree, both the ones at Alwarpet and Teynampet (Anna Salai). The purchase and materials area was located in the basement while the admin offices were in the upper lobby. Utmost care was taken to ensure that the place remained spic and span. The staff greeted everyone, right from guests to contractors, with a smile.

There are more accounts left to be visited, about 50 of them. At a hotel in Pondy Bazaar, the purchase manager asked me why I am taking the trouble of travelling in the hot sun. A truly summer internship !

SAVOURING THE GREAT MOMENT

A World Cup final featuring India is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence and so watching the match Live without missing on the great moments. Some seniors from the welfare committee and the students council understood this and made arrangements for viewing the match on giant screen. All it needed was an LCD projector which they borrowed from the lecture halls, some chairs for the audience and a nice place to keep the set-top box.

The crowd was sparse for the Sri Lankan innings. Shows that no matter how much fans support their team, batting is the only part of the game they like to watch for hours together. A section of the crowd began to disperse after Sachin Tendulkar’s dismissal only to return after Gautam Gambhir reached his 50. Fans watching the match on TV want to watch mostly Indian batting, Sachin Tendulkar’s batting, to be precise.

The Dish TV connection began to conk up every 5 seconds showing a “Signal not found” message on screen. In order not to miss the last few moments, when only 20-odd runs were needed, most of us began to abandon the place and head to the other TV room where a better working Tata Sky was in place. The room which had only about ten people in it began to overflow.

The ultimate moment came finally. Began with Dhoni stealing two successive 4s off Malinga. The six off once-ICC-No.1-allrounder Kulasekara sealed it. My mind went back to 1996 when India, playing against the same team, began to stutter after Tendulkar’s dismissal. To 1999, when the dismissal against Australia had all but sealed the exit for the team. To 2003, when Sehwag, Yuvraj, Zaheer and Harbhajan were upcoming players under the stewardship of Sourav Ganguly. Today they are the senior players in the team and have grown more responsible over the years.

The most talked about retirement of Sachin Tendulkar – it will not come any time too soon now. We will have to still wait for the day.

EXPRESS SHOPPING

Wanting to spend the evening doing something different, I visited the newly opened Express Avenue mall on Whites Road in Royapettah.

Express Avenue is located at the same place where the Indian Express office once existed. It is claimed that the mall is the biggest in South India. I wonder if South India here includes Bangalore for I found the Mantri Square mall at Malleswaram to be bigger than EA.

EA addresses the problems that Spencer Plaza and Chennai City Centre face. While Spencer Plaza is more like those numerous shopping complexes/shopping plazas that dot commercial areas like T.Nagar and Purasawalkam, CCC faces the problem of insufficient vehicular parking space. Apart from a spacious basement parking lot, there are parking spaces all around EA. Spencer Plaza did not have sufficient space inside to conduct product promotional events until its Phase 3 building came up. EA, in typical shopping mall style, has plenty of space to conduct promos.

I noticed in Bangalore that the first ones to set up shop in any new mall are McDonalds and KFC. It seems in Chennai, it is Lifestyle that puts the “Pillaiyar Suzhi”. It was among the first to open its showroom in CCC as well and in EA it is no different. Most of the shops were under construction and among them was a large and spacious KFC on the topmost storey. Someone told me that a multiplex was also coming up but I could not find anything that pointed to a multiplex under construction.

I discovered later that the newly opened Big Bazaar, the third in Chennai city after Saligramam and Pondy Bazaar,was in the basement. This one was far more spacious than the ones in Bangalore (I have shopped in all of them). After wandering around the store for about half an hour, all I purchased was a small packet of biscuits and a bottle of Pepsi’s lemon juice. Names of all the racks were in Tamil probably for better connect with the customers but the offer display sheets read “Buy 1 Get 1 Free”. Made a suggestion to the store manager, who was overseeing the arrangement of some products, to “Tamilicize” the offer sheets.

I plan to visit the Skywalk mall on Poonamallee High Road, next.

PATHETIC SINGER,PATHETIC PUBLICITY

After a long time, I happened to visit Ferrari’s site when I stumbled into the post about why the Airtel Super Singer programme on Star Vijay is more like a mega serial than a talent hunt show.

This morning I came across a poster that probably answered why losers in reality shows create too much of drama by weeping over their losses.

Location: Kalakshetra Colony,Besant Nagar,Chennai

There seems to be significant expenditure involved in publicity of this sort. And probably some risk as well, as sticking such posters on junction boxes is illegal and the above poster would most likely have been stuck during the night. For all the expenditure and the risk , I only hope that the girl in the poster, Nithyashree, does not meet the fate that the poster-on-junction-box will most likely do – get pissed off by the public.

THE AVERAGE INDIAN CRICKET FAN

Various reactions of the average Indian cricket fan :

India scheduled to play a tri-series in Zimbabwe : Pointless tournament

India thrashed by Zimbabwe in the opening match : This team can’t even beat Zimbabwe.

India reaches No.1 in Tests : No big deal. Given the number of Tests they are scheduled to play in the next one year, they won’t stay at No.1 for long. BCCI is killing Indian cricket.

BCCI comes up with an impromptu Test series with a visiting team : The series is organised for Sachin Tendulkar to increase his Test run tally.

A tour of Sri Lanka scheduled for July-August : Sri Lanka again! Give me a break!

India loses the Test series in Sri Lanka : Everyone knows what the real purpose is. Better luck next time, Sachin.

India wins the Test series : Tendulkar fans must be happy that their hero has added more runs to his name, like he has been doing for two decades.

CRASH! BANG! MERC!

I was riding my bike back home along the Old Mahabalipuram road. I had crossed the Sholinganallur signal when near Accenture, a Mercedes E-class went past me in the adjacent lane. I admired it for a second and shifted my attention to the road to see a calf lazily meandering in the middle of the road, unmindful of the speeding vehicles. I braked instantly and since I was going at 30 kmph, I came to a stop. Not the Merc which was cruising at 60+ with a Swift and a few other cars in tow. The moment my bike came to a halt, I heard a crash. The Merc came to a halt but the Swift banged into its rear. Then another bang and some other car had banged into the Swift. Then the sound of screeching tyres and it was a two-wheeler which almost brushed past the third car. A triple whammy, it was.

I proceeded on my way past Accenture and saw in my rear-view mirror the sight of the Merc passenger getting down to have a confrontation. Then I turned back to see the calf going on its way completely unaware of the damage it had caused.