Brand Management and Marketing Strategies of Royal Challengers Bangalore
RS Bhargav
Class -III Trimester MBA
Under the guidance of Prof. Pavan Kulkarni
Abstract
The paper aims at establishing the brand management and marketing strategies of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), a franchise that has also become one of the favorite teams in IPL for fans, has developed a solid brand image while being an inseparable loser in the fight for the IPL title. The study thus analyses brand management and marketing trends which are perceived to have led to the success of RCB. The study will focus on how the team has taken advantage of the famous players such as Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, how it has turned star appeal into a world brand. However, on the field RCB has failed to be a consistent performer but has loyal fans mostly because of its creative digital marketing and communicating through the social media such as Instagram, Twitter, & YouTube.
The study’s main subjects are identifying the brand positioning of RCB, sponsorship partnerships, merchandise, and fan incentive measures. Through analyzing what kinds of strategic decisions are made in selecting the jersey sponsors and lifestyle brands, this paper reveals how RCB has built a comprehensive brand image. Furthermore the paper also evaluates the digital media transformation about the RCB franchise in the contemporary marketing perspective initiated through the RCB mobile application and innovative digital content about the franchise used to enrich the fan experience.
This study also analyses how RCB manages to face organizational hurdles that come with being a celebrity franchise that, to this date, has no title despite fan support. It will be done to explain such aspects of management as crisis management and brand resilience in order to sustain the image. In conclusion, this paper strives to shed lights on the state of affairs where managing a sports franchise brand in contemporary societies proving to be very challenging as shown by a critical evaluation of RCB marketing and the contributions that marketing made for the sustainability of the franchise cultural and economic capital.
