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CASE
July 14, 2015 turned out to be a dark day for CSK fans, as the Supreme Court of India banned
Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals on the grounds of alleged betting and match fixing in
IPL. The judgement was a big shock to CSK and its fans, as it was the most consistently
performing as well as the most popular team among all IPL franchises. This judgement made CSK
to miss out the IPL season 9 in 2016 and it will also miss the Season 10 in 2017. CSK has lost its
brand value in certain ways, though it is still very popular. The CSK management is now keen on
wooing the fans back with its promotional activities. According to a brand finance report
Cricketing excellence, corporate governance, Marketing excellence/ commercial strategy are the
factors which drive the brand value of an IPL franchisee.
Cricketing Excellence
CSK is regarded as one of the most consistent team in the IPL in terms of performance. The team
founded in 2008, has MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai as its home ground. CSK has an
overall win percentage of 60.68 and has won IPL twice in succession during 2010, 2011. The
team also has won Champions trophy twice during 2010 and 2014. Apart from this the team has
always finished in top 4 in all IPL seasons.

The loyal fan base of CSK could be attributed to teams performance. CSKs identity and winning
performances are attributed to its team members and to a certain extent Captain Dhoni. The
squad also had several star players like Ashwin, Raina, Jadeja in 2015. Though star performers
are key attractions, how can CSK grow bigger than its star players ensuring performance, given
that there are possibilities of squad reshuffle in upcoming seasons is a question that needs to be
answered.
Marketing Strategy
Chennai Super Kings was amongst the most popular teams among the IPL franchisees from the
start of IPL. The fan base of CSK was mainly Tamilians and this was quite natural as IPL itself was

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conceived as franchises for different regions. CSK seems to be the most liked team in the states
which dont have their own representative teams. Refer to the Facebook fandom map attached.
Through its unique campaigns and promotions CSK has gained fans across the country.
Fan engagement efforts
Chennai Super Kings was the first and only IPL team to crowdsource its name. It conducted a
promotional naming contest before the start of the season. The name Chennai Super Kings was
zeroed in from a whooping number of 25000 entries. CSK has tried to engage with each of the
individual sub segments of its fan base in unique ways to ensure that the brand remains top of
mind throughout the year. The team launched its own fan loyal program in the form of Kings
Club on November 2008. The Kings Club is CSKs official club membership program for adults
and children. CSK launched its CSK Junior team hunt for kids between 8-12 years of age on
February 2009. The Whistle Podu Campaign was launched on April 2009, to give an in stadia
experience for its fans. Whilste podu remains the most widely popular team anthem for any IPL
team till date, generating the maximum no. of fan made videos. CSK launched its comic series
Chennai Super Komics for school children in the age group of 8 and above. Post season 4 exclusive
CSK store was set up at the Chennai Airport. In 2012, Mascot naming contest for fans aged 4-15
years was also conducted. CSK a launched a series of #superlocalchallenge videos which created
a huge buzz among the fans in 2012. They have also started Jr. Super Kings an inter-school cricket
tournament for high school students to give them an opportunity to play cricket at the highest
level of professionalism. The winners of the inaugural year were not only given an opportunity
to be mentored by the coaching team of CSK, they also played an international match with a
visiting Under 19 team from New Zealand. In view of its popular response, the Jr. Super Kings
continues to this date (2016), to include not just schools in Chennai, but has been taken to the
districts as well with 152 teams competing with each other across 4 phases. Contests like Spot
the super king on Facebook have garnered huge interest among the fans in 2012. In 2013, The
Super Kings launched the Super Cup, a multi-sport corporate tournament that saw huge
participation from Chennai corporates. Its popularity led it to be conducted for a 2nd year in
2014 as well.
CSKs official website www.chennaisuperkings.com has motley of offerings for fans. From team
news to exclusive memberships and merchandise like T shirts and cricketing gear, it is a veritable
treasure trove for fans. CSKs official Facebook page with 11,899,640 likes (as on Sep 25, 2016)
is very active all through the year- posting pictures of players on and off season, announcing
contests for fans and also winners throughout. CSK has also made conscious efforts to be engaged
in all sports popular in Tamil Nadu including sponsoring the Chennai Marathon, as well as an
international Chess Championship in the city. Through these efforts CSK was able to gain fan
base crossing demographic and geographical boundaries.
Fan sentiment post the ban:

On 15th July, post the announcement of the ban by the Supreme Court, CSK took to social media
to share their protest, and #NoCSKNoIPL trended organically, nationwide across Facebook and
Twitter for 3 straight days.

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The protest movement gained momentum with the fans organising a signature campaign to save
their beloved team #SaveCSK and the mass movement saw over 13000 signatures collected
across 3 days. The fans then went and submitted the signatures to a BCCI working committee in
Mumbai with a plea not to ban the team.
While the ban has muted fan sentiment, the super kings social media channels continue to add
followers every day, organically, gathering over 2.3 lakh followers on Facebook and over 2 lakh
followers on twitter since the ban was announced in July 2015. On twitter, @ChennaiIPL
continues to be the most widely followed IPL team till date.
CSK was placed among the top 150 most valuable teams in the world in an evaluation done by
London based firm Brand Finance. However a brand evaluation study by American Appraisal
Published in 2015, ranked Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians, and Chennai Super Kings in
first three positions respectively. CSK brand value dropped from $72MM in 2014 to $62MM in
2015. Also CSK was ranked no. 1 during the year 2014. The values of KKR and MI were $86MM
and $72MM respectively in 2015.

Brand Vision
The Facebook page of CSK defines itself as fearless entertainers, who play to win. Though CSK
has not been in action since 2015, the craze among fans havent died out. It becomes inevitable
to ponder upon what makes CSK a celebrated brand, though it is deprived of cricket and stars
like Dhoni, Ashwin, and Raina etc. currently. This phenomenon could be well understood if one
observes the type of fans CSK might have. (See attachment for type of cricket fans). It becomes
imperative to relook the vision of the brand at this point of time on how to win the disheartened
fans back.
Team Management & Corporate Governance
In October 2015, The India Cements Ltd, who had originally bid for and won the IPL franchise,
transferred the ownership of the team to a separate entity named Chennai Super Kings Cricket
Ltd which is being managed by a trust comprised of retired cricketers from the state . CSK
maintained a constant rooster for most part in past 5 seasons. Hire and fire is not prominent in
CSK as it is in other teams. It appears that CSK doesnt believe in changing their management or
sponsors often. Reebok (Kit sponsors), Aircel (Chest Sponsor), India Cements (Shirt sponsorback) were the sponsors from 2008-2014. The main focus of CSK lies in cricket and not on
glamour and parties. The Chennai Super Kings have received the Fair Play award six times in
the 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015 Indian Premier League seasons, the highest among
the IPL teams. The teams preference of local players and nurturing them with opportunities
went well with its fans. The players have always adhered to the spirit of the game showing high
levels of discipline. The team chemistry and bonding has been phenomenal when compared to
other teams.

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I cannot suddenly say I am very excited to play for a new team MS Dhoni, during the launch
of his new team jersey l. I will miss Dhonis leadership, there will never be another CSK says
Dwayne Bravo. Rohit Sharma has also said that his team will miss playing against CSK.
Since IPL is completing 10 seasons in 2007, new franchise agreements have to be drawn for
2018. This could be considered as a fresh start for IPL and its franchisees.

Experts feel that the relaunch of CSK is in a way similar to the relaunch of Nestles Maggi Brand
in India.

Put yourself into the shoes of CSK management and answer the following questions
1. What should the Super Kings do, starting now to officially relaunch the brand in 2018 when
it stages its come back?
2. What is the personality of CSK brand among different types of fans and what are the ways
in which CSK could enhance its connect with these different type of fans?
3. What should be the brand vision for CSK that would increase fan base across regional
boundaries?
4. What are the actions to be taken for successful relaunch of CSK in 2018 and to increase the
loyal fan base through various fan engagement activities?
5. What are the strategies to be implemented to score across the factors in the brand finance
framework?
6. Given the fact that team might change drastically in 2018, what steps can be taken to build
CSK as an admired brand irrespective of its performance and star players in the squad.

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Attachments
1.

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2. Sportskeeda classifies cricket fans into several categories the details of which are given below
A Typology of Cricket Fans* Typology Description
a) The Sports Fan
Interested in a number of sports in general and cricket is one of the sports that he follows.
Does not associate with the game emotionally or with any particular team and is interested in
the news of the happenings of the game as with any other game that he follows.
b) The Cricket Fan
Enjoys cricket as a game
Appreciates good cricket from any team
Knows the rules and the players of the game.
c) The Winning Fan
Takes the winners side; Not a loyal fan
Supports different teams at different occasions
May watch their teams matches and support it as the team reaches finals or semifinals
d) The Ultimate Statistician
Has statistics for every single ball with analysis ready for every possible event on the field
Ready to provide stats and enter into arguments
e) The Loyal Fan / The Angry Fan
Loyal fans of a particular player/team and are ready to fight for him/them
Fiercely emotional about the team and its players conducts
May blindly support their teams; may not accept any logical reasoning. Could be very emotional
and sometimes get violent too.
f) The Critical Fan
Very knowledgeable about different aspects of the game
Very critical and sometimes cynical about different aspects of games (including not very
significant issues)

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g) The Hollow Fan

Watches cricket just because everyone around him is watching
Watches it with great effort memorizes a few names for the post-match discussions but never
enjoys the game
Will not engage in discussions which slowly move to history of the game or requires generating
own insights.
h) A Stars Fan
May watch a match just to follow his/her favorite stars performance
The game is over for them when their star is out
For some it is Sachin, some Sehwag or Gayle etc.

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