Kolkata Knight Riders, a Successful Sports Franchise

Twenty-one year-old Parna Mitra and her 73 year-old grandfather Ashim Mitra bond over cricket. The duo from Alipore Road have never missed a night out at the Eden Gardens ever since the Kolkata Knight Riders made a fairytale start on 18th April 2008.(All the Latest Updates From the IPL)

Says Parna, "Dadu and I look forward to this time of the year. We were very disappointed when the tournament moved to South Africa in 2009. My mum was happy because I could concentrate on my board exams but I was still distracted. There have been times, we have walked back through the Kolkata Maidan with an excited bunch of KKR supporters after a good win and then there were days when the Maidan wore a dark cloak and it was just Dadu and me, making the long walk home."

"I have played football and hockey for the Mohun Bagan Athletic Club. And I have been a regular at Bagan for 58 years. When I heard of yet another club (Kolkata Knight Riders) that would represent the city, it caught my fancy. The year KKR was born, Mohun Bagan won the Federation Cup for a 13th time. I thought that this would be a good year for the Bengal boys. And it was indeed. With Dada as the skipper, KKR had a fantastic start. There have been lots of highs and lows in the last eight seasons but we know that like Bagan, KKR will continue to shine," says Ashim Mitra.

And it has! KKR already boasts of one million fans in the city and twelve million on the virtual platform.

They may be placed at No.4 on the league table, behind Royal Challengers Bangalore, but in terms of brand value, the franchise tops the list in the eight season of the IPL.

KKR have won two IPL titles. They have some very attractive players. A bevy of passionate fans . And a charismatic owner in Shah Rukh Khan.

No wonder then, they are at the top of the IPL table so far as the brand value is concerned, currently valued at 86 million US dollars. According to consulting firm American Appraisal, Kolkata's valuation has shot up by 25 per cent this year. Mumbai Indians retain their No.2 spot at the valuation of 72 million USD, whereas Chennai, which was valued at 72 million last season has slipped to 67. So apart from winning the title last year, what else has KKR done to boost their value?

Says CEO Venky Mysore, "We have always maintained that the two key pillars on which the sports franchises are built are brand and the fan based. Like any other organization, if you think about it, yes we are sports. But it's like focusing on your customers and basically saying that what do you customers want, understanding them better, giving them a better experience, better value. So, that is what we try to do with fans. And really we have tried to engage with them at a level that they can relate to and that they enjoy by making sure that we understand what they want. So, there is a lot of work we do which is not the normal cricket stuff that you see on T.V. A fan is really interested in knowing many other things about the team. Our team members, who are legends, have a personal side to them, a human side to them, an emotional side to them. So, our team tries to bring out a lot of these things which the fans are really are able to appreciate. Not only they appreciate but they start relating at a different level. And when they start relating at a different level, the emotional attachment starts growing. To me it's a key thing. When the emotional attachment grows, a spectator or a supporter becomes a fan.

KKR's understanding of their fans and their connect have also made them a sought after brand for the sponsors.

"We work with something like close to 22 brands. 10 of them are visible because you have 6 sponsors on the jersey, 2 on the helmet and 2 on the trousers. These are the visible sponsors. But we have created properties for associations with brands and sponsors who do not care much about the visibility, but they want to create some kind of packaging around experience. In absolute value terms, based on something that I have heard, we command the biggest premium in the market place. There are 8 IPL teams and each one has various things to offer. But we are very fortunate that the brands that we associate with, see value. At the end of the day we try to put ourselves in the shoes of the brand and say what is the return on my investment? If I am associating and if I'm paying a hundred and I can get maybe the same type of space for say a 40 or a 50, the question is why would I pay a hundred? So, when you analytically look at it and say what am I getting for a hundred? What is my return on investment? So, a brand looks at it and basically says, what is the kind of visibility I am getting? Based on what we are hearing from the broadcasters, KKR games are rated amongst the highest in terms of viewership. When we play in a ground like Eden Gardens, which has the largest capacity, you would understand the kind of following and passion. When you have 80,000 plus people at the ground, even from a television viewership's stand point it presents a very different type of energy and excitement. Through that there is a delta the brand not only perceives but sees in real value that they get."

And it is not just the sponsors who see real value in investing in Kolkata Knight Riders, but the online world seems to be in awe of them too.

Aneesh Madani, the head of Sports of Twitter says, "What KKR has managed to do really well is, have majority of their voices on the platform. So, right from the team's handle at @KKRiders to Shahrukh Khan tweeting from @iamSRK to even young Indian players like Suryakumar Yadav who tweets from @Surya_14kumar, they have done a really good job of creating a personal connection with fans. And it is no coincidence that they are the team with the highest percentage of players on Twitter, as a result, KKR was the most mentioned team in the first week of the IPL8 on Twitter.

The Kolkata Knight Riders may be way behind LA Lakers whose brand value is $536 million or Manchester City at $132 million. But in Indian context, it has certainly shown the way for a successful sports franchise.