Chennai Super Kingsit's a brand that has suddenly acquired a whole lot more punch. Evidence: new sponsors, and exciting merchandise. CNBC-TV18's Swathi Narayanan reports.
Chennai is suddenly hot property. Well, at least, the Chennai Super Kings team is. And it's largely thanks to this cool customer.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Captain, Indian cricket team and now Chennai Super Kings' said, "Once you come to Chennai you find its quite hot over here and I am quite well planned ahead of the IPL."
It's not just the hairstyle, or the lack thereof that will energise the team. Despite a four-fold increase in the entry price for sponsors, new sponsors are lining up. Gulf Oil and TI Cycles, to name a few, will join the ranks.
Aircel, which has been a sponsor for three years, has extended its contract for another three years, and Reebok will sponsor the team for another two years.
Ravi Chawla president of Gulf Oil Corp' lubes business said, "At this time, the strategy has been to get into the southern market, after having made our investments in the north and in the south as well we are looking at growth across our segments which are mainly trucks, cars and motorcycles."
Dhoni's presence alone is doing wonders for Chennai Super Kings, making it the fastest growing IPL brand. It's value, which stood at USD 50 million a year ago, and is now estimated at over Rs 100 million.
Rakesh Singh, VP of marketing, Chennai Super Kings, said, "Dhoni is priceless. To give a value to that is impossible. Definitely Dhoni is a super cool captain. And that will come off on any brand."
Merchandising will also receive a fresh thrust. Apart from jerseys and caps, 20 other products will be on offer. "We have player look alike t-shirts from Reebok. We have comic books that will be on sale, notebooks from Bilt for the children. We are basically trying to target the youth and children segment as they are the real supporters," Singh added.
And the team owners are all smiles. Thanks to Chennai Super Kings, the popularity of India Cements has grown in the northern markets that they recently forayed into. Their plant in Rajasthan is running to full capacity and incidentally this plant is located in a place called Mahi!
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