Simone Elkeles in her book, Perfect Chemistry asked, What's
the use of having a reputation if you can't ruin it every now and then?” One of
the strongest believers of this statement seem to be the people leading the
largest, most popular sports platforms in the country.
The recent
spot fixing scandal is a testimony to IPL’s wholehearted belief in this. It has
resulted in grave damage not only to IPL’s brand repute but also that of Indian cricket. While it’s
easy to dismiss this scandal as yet another controversy that IPL has famously
come to be associated with, I think it’s about time we took a pause. For a
sport that has millions of fans and countless amount of passion, love, zeal and
energy invested in it, it’s a betrayal of the highest order. It started with the
sacking of Lalit Modi due to misappropriation of funds, then came the resignation
of Shashi Tharoor for his alleged involvement in the Kochi franchise bid and
now this.
Take
another case of reputation mismanagement. The Commonwealth Games. Remember how
ill prepared the organizing committee was in the run up to the event? How
pathetic was the condition of the Olympics Village when the global federation
came to review progress? And how inflated were the contracts that took place
under the leadership of the then Chairman, Mr. Suresh Kalmadi?
IPL and
Commonwealth Games – 2 massive brands that put India in the global spotlight. 2
mega opportunities to showcase India’s sports management skills to the world.
Look what we did to the former and look what are we are doing to the latter.
IIPL infact
is one brand that has grabbed the world’s attention. It’s an opportunity that
many international cricketers want to latch onto and a business model that companies and sports associations around the
world wish to emulate. And then when incidents like spot fixing happen, they
question the very core of the game, and cause severe dent to brand image. A
recent study by Brand Finance Plc has estimated that IPL’s long-term brand
value has eroded by $1billion since 2008, due to such scams and the resulting
descent in trust. And this doesn’t include the erosion of brand trust among the
true followers of the game. That explains why so many viewers watching the
finals were wondering all through, whether that match too was fixed.
Perhaps IPL and BCCI could take lessons from brands
who have also suffered crises that resulted in large-scale threats to their
image. Do you recall the fiasco at one of the American outlets of a famous
international pizza delivery brand? Two
employees uploaded a sick prank video of them contaminating food with human
mucus, putting cheese up their nose and violating other health code standards.
The video went viral and resulted in more than a million disgusted viewers and
massive danger to a brand built over decades. The company’s reaction to the
crisis has 2 key lessons. First, gracefully acknowledge that you did wrong. The
brand didn’t go in denial mode but publicly admitted that what had happened was
terrible. Second, speed of response is key. In today’s times when social media
ensures that bad news travels fast and achieves monstrous proportions, you
can’t afford to wait. The company
quickly issued an apology on its website and then posted a more elaborate video
on YouTube from its President.
Another lesson to pick up is from a professional
networking site that got hacked last year. This resulted in several passwords
getting compromised. The company responded not only by apologizing but also by
continuously informing customers of the measures being taken to correct the
problem via its twitter and blog pages. That’s lesson three. Keep the channels
of communication open, continuously reassure your customers of the corrective
steps being taken.
A final example is from Volkswagen. Several years
ago, one of their car brands had to be recalled in massive numbers owing to a
fault in the machinery. This had a severe impact on the brand’s image and
sales. The brand decided to do something it or perhaps any other brand had
never done before. It’s next campaign began with a teaser that showed consumers
actually running away from VW salespeople. This bold depiction of truth was
then followed by communicating how the cars were now fault-free and completely
safe. The lesson: Big disasters call for bold actions to be taken.
Now, let’s look at the state of the custodians of
Indian cricket. Be it BCCI or IPL, did they gracefully acknowledge the
wrongdoing? Did they or are they even now responding speedily? With the
Chairman having spent most of his time unsuccessfully fighting to keep his
position, do we have any hope of quick resolution on the matter? Instead of
keeping communication channels open or seeing innovative corrective actions
being thought through, all we see is lack of transparency.
It would help if the cricket bodies learnt from
some of these brands who managed to restore faith after disaster struck.
Because it is imperative to earn back the trust . They owe to all innocent
cricketers who’s been shamed by virtue of being a part of cricket. They owe it
to every Indian who has ever bunked a class/office or prayed for his /her team
to win.
