FIFA World Cup - Brand Battle Ground

Contributed By AMAN OBEROI

Football is no child’s play, its serious business.  The global football market is valued at $10.9 billion, with the U.S. siphoning off $900 million. Top dog, however, is the U.K., with $1.4 billion being spent on soccer. In 2006, Brits spent almost $245 million on replica football merchandise.

Last year the biggest football fiesta took place in South Africa – the 19^th FIFA World Cup. It is the most widely viewed spectacle across the globe with an estimated viewership of around 700 million for the finals alone.

This is a golden opportunity for anyone who can shell out the money to garner the maximum eyeballs they can. When it comes to sports apparel, this event is what all their efforts boil down. With billions of dollars riding on their world cup campaigns no one can afford to make a mistake.

Nike and Adidas are the leading players in the Sports Apparel Industry. They have a strong presence throughout the world and together they account for about two-thirds of this market, with Puma coming in a distant third.

Adidas has long been associated with the World Cup and has been the official Ball manufacturer for FIFA since 1970 and it was also the official sponsor of the World Cup. Apart from this , 12 teams kits were sponsored by Adidas as compared to Nike’s  nine.

But as the world cup kicked off both the companies had only one thing on their mind, whose brand generates the maximum buzz.

Nike countered Adidas’s official sponsor strategy by launching a massive campaign “ Write the Future” which went viral on the internet, it also bought the top banner ad on Youtube (which readapted its logo for the football frenzy). Nike also leveraged the success of its 2010 World Cup Write the Future ambush marketing effort with a campaign extension that promotes HIV/AIDS awareness in partnership with (RED). The pro-social message, which stars soccer icon Didier Drogba, is particularly apt in Africa as "ground zero" for the global AIDS crisis.

It  also let fans "Write Your Headline, Write the Future" in an interactive extension of its World Cup campaign. Johannesburg's 30-story Life Center is served as a digital billboard that projected a mix of soccer stars with social networkers' personal messages sent via #NikeFuture on Twitter, Facebook, QQ in China and Mxit in South Africa.

The Write the Future ad was a 3 minute video featuring the top footballers with whom Nike has a contract, even though these footballers such were wearing Adidas kits during the World cup (example Cristiano Ronaldo who plays for Portugal , sponsored by Adidas). The video was aired on primetime sports channels before and after the world cup matches and garnered about 20 million views till date . Adidas tried to make a comeback with a video based on star wars featuring Daft Punk, Snoop Dogg and David Beckham but couldn't match upto the buzz created by Nike.

But even as Nike took the lead in this respect Adidas had crossed $2 billion in sales before the World Cup had begun.

This pattern was seen throughout the World Cup before the matches started. Non-sponsors outperformed sponsors in terms of online marketing around the event. There's Nike over Adidas; Pepsi over Coke; Carlsberg over Budweiser. FIFA organizers got a lot of cooperation from South African officials to stop ambush marketing during the matches. 36 Dutch fans in orange mini dresses were removed from a game, for planning a stunt for non-sponsor Bavaria Beer.

But as the world cup progressed the buzz around Nike died down and Adidas took the lead again , partly due to the controversy over the Official Jabulani ball and partly due to the success of the teams that it sponsored mainly Spain and Germany which were tipped as the favourites for the Cup.

But FIFA, which earns 30% of its income from sponsorships, can't do much about marketers capitalizing on World Cup excitement on the web (or TV, for that matter). This raises the question of what the future holds for big-money sponsorships around events. Non-sponsors are showing they can do as well or better without paying up for "official" status, especially if they have existing marketing relationships with the athletes themselves, as Nike and Pepsi do .This becomes all the more important in the Indian context, as we are on the threshold of witnessing another sporting phenomenon, The 2011 cricket World Cup. In the past, companies have not shied away from launching an offense on the official sponsors (ala Pepsi versus Coke, Nothing official about it campaign in 1996). So it still is a tough call whether to go Official or not , but with stricter laws and stronger enforcement in order to protect official sponsors by the governing bodies such as FIFA and ICC, the ambush marketing campaigns are set to get better and more innovative than ever before.

Bajaj Pulsar - Growing Older and Meaner

Tracked By ABHISHEK GUDIMETLA

Bajaj auto initially known throughout the decades for its scooters and a few commuter motorcycles in the late 90s gave the Indian biking scene a new boost, a performance motorcycle revolution after the turn of the century in 2001 with the launch of the Pulsar.

Originally launched with two engine options 150cc and 180cc the bikes grew to cult status in India. They joined the Hero Honda CBZ in the 150+ cc performance bike segment in the domestic market which was still largely an Economy-Commuter two wheeler dominated market till then, except for a few models of 2-stroke performance bikes from Yamaha and Suzuki. The 180 was the fastest bike on sale then. From the strategy point of view, this was the time when Bajajs mainstay, the Chetak scooter sales were dropping rapidly in the competition from the competitions  100-125cc 4-stroke bikes  which provided far better fuel efficiency figures, ergonomics, and other modern advancements. Customers looking for performance bikes had very few options.

The Pulsar range was to change this all and it far exceeded expectations. Both the 150 and 180cc versions of the bike were highly successful. The bikes offered in your face macho styling (and hence the caption ‘Definitely Male’) and very sharp handling and high power for the Indian biking enthusiast of the day. People loved it. There was nothing people could complain about. The bike was cheaper than the competition, faster than it and also more fuel efficient. The market did not have much on offer for the starving Indian motorcycle audience and the Pulsar flew in so rapidly with yearly and even half yearly updates of the bike!  The liking to Pulsars taken by the enthusiasts and commuters alike can be clearly seen from the sales figures achieved by the Pulsar bikes over the years. Many have turned Pulsar loyalists! The Pulsar is one of the main reasons for the sudden bloom of performance motorcycle scene in India as they offered class leading performance, fuel efficiency at a price cheaper than competition. The bikes since then have gone through a number of facelifts, modifications, iterations and developments, Bajaj never failing to innovate their product in the wake of competition and customer needs. Pulsar 200dtsi and 220dst-fi were subsequently launched in 2006 for the ever power hungry Pulsar aficionados. Both the bikes had higher power and performance figures than ever. The Pulsar 220cc flagship bike has the distinction of being ‘The Fastest Indian manufactured bike ever’ and the title still holds again today.

The advertisement campaigns themselves were perfectly suited to the Pulsar. Bajaj launched a string of ‘Pulsar Mania’ ads which very a huge rage and ground breaking. The after effects of the campaign was the number of informal Pulsar stunting/racing/owner groups spawning across the country!

Models launched till date - 

2001: 150cc and 180cc single spark

2003:  150cc and 180cc Digital Twin Spark Ignition (dtsi) and 2005: Upgrades to Suspension, Wheels, Electricals etc

2007: Launch of 200cc dtsi(discontinued in 2009) and 220 dts-fi  

2009: Pulsar 135 dtsi, smallest and lightest Pulsar yet

2010: Launch of Pulsar 220 DTSi , the current Fastest India Production bike

2011: Expected anytime the KTM-Bajaj Duke 200

Present and the Future 

The market dynamics have seen a major shift since the days of the Pulsar launch in 2001 and how! Number of bike manufacturers in the country has seen a huge increase with the top names on the globe making a beeline for the ever growing Indian 2-wheeler market and the number of models and variants available are again impressive. The Indian customer is now spoilt for choice in the bike market with everything from a simple 100cc commuter HH CD dawn to a 1800cc Suzuki Intruder. Everything your heart desires is right here with manufacturers and models flowing in numbers every year, provided, you have the big deep pockets to afford these super powerful and super expensive bikes especially the Ducatis, Harley Davidsons and super bikes from Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Hyosung.

This is one of the biggest reasons the Bajaj pulsar still makes sense today and will for some time to come. It’s still a very good handler combined with the powerful and efficient 220/180/150/135 engines, is much cheaper than the competition in terms of ‘performance per rupee’, and is easier and cheap to maintain. But with the ever toughening competition in the same segment from Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki, TVS and Mahindra, Bajaj has plans to step up its Pulsar brand for better performance, looks, technology and quality. Its also being said that Bajaj is going to remove Bajaj from the Pulsar, ie give Pulsars a completely different brand identity!

Bajaj and KTM Alliance:

Gauging from facts such as Bajaj’s recent 38% stake buy in KTM, the Austrian Super/Adventure bike maker, Bajaj is going all out for the new Pulsar range. The alliance together with Kawasaki and KTM, enhance the company’s capabilities multi-fold to deliver the next lineup of fiercer and faster Pulsars. Currently Bajaj has developed a Duke 200cc sport bike with KTM, which in undergoing testing currently and the next Pulsar is speculated to sport a 250cc engine which will go head on with the Honda CBR250, Kawasaki Ninja 250 and other upcoming Yamaha and Suzuki.  

Engineering and Design dna of both the manufacturers will be fused or combined to bring out very exciting performance models in the future. KTM is known for its super sport bikes such as Duke 690, Super Duke and RC8. Adventure bike line up of KTM is even more impressive with Adventure 690, Adventure 990, Supermoto 690,990 and other motocross motorcycles. KTM also has impressive track records at Motorsport such as the Dakar rally which it won many a times. One can only imagine what world class bikes will roll out in future from the Pulsar stable! Very exciting times indeed for the Pulsar loyalists and the biking enthusiast!

   Adventure 990 Dakar Rally Special >>>>>>>

<<<<<<Super Moto 990

Super Duke 990

RC 8

Bajaj has also launched the Pulsar family Internationally together with certain models in Sri-lanka, Bangladesh, Philippines, Colombia, Central America, Iran, Nigeria, Uganda and Angola. With 6,33,463 2-wheelers sold Internationally during 2008-2009, the Pulsar brand is poised to make further inroads across the globe.