India Cements, the owners of Chennai Super Kings are mulling over an interesting idea. Their core business, cement, has three brands – Sankar Cement, Rasi and Coromandel – brands that have an equity in the South. The company now believes that, thanks to the IPL, they can now market the brand in the North. The plan is to use the Super Kings brand as a cement brand in the North. You could say that Chennai Super Kings ‘cemented’ their place in the IPL and the company wants to ‘build’ on that success. Bad pun.
Anyway, while all this is only at the planning stage, there is a problem to deal with. Lafarge Cement has signed up M S Dhoni to endorse their brand, Concreto. Will the team have the same magic sans Dhoni in the communication? Does the brand really enjoy equity up North? I guess every team owner is grappling with such questions and planning to exract every penny out of their investments. The trick will be to maintain the excitement around the brand names, now that the IPL fever has died down. The planned Twenty 20 Champions League in September, in which Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings are taking part is an opportunity. The next round of marketing action around the IPL teams will begin soon.
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