EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Lal Bahadur Shastri Cricket Academy (LBSCA) has been in the cricket industry in Delhi for more than 20 years. The academy is located in the western part of the city and provides services in cricket training and club services. Its a semi-public body and economical than its competitors in the city. The academy has its own well developed and managed infrastructure. Presently, the communication strategy adopted by the academy has mainly been newspaper articles. The major issues faced by the academy are not having a strong marketing strategy which is not allowing them to promote themselves fully and they are not gaining any significant market share. Also, the academy has been holding a high end reputation in the city industry. But it has not been able to cash out on that opportunity. It has also not been able to differentiate itself from its competitors in the industry. While some of the competitors on the other hand, have been using some marketing strategies to promote themselves and interact with the target market. LBSCA has been organising Cricket Summer Camp from past few years. Summer camps by other academies and by former players have been giving a tough fight to LBSCA, in terms of getting attractive number of registrations. This year the academy has come up with a new idea of Cricket Fit to be associated with its summer camp and wants to adopt a marketing communication strategy for that. By doing so, the academy wants to identify its key target market and target audiences. The objective of adopting a more professional strategy is to increase the number of registrations as compared to the numbers received last year. Also, increase the number of students in the academy. LSBCA will have to hire expert services from external agencies as it is on a beginning stage of developing a communication strategy for itself. It would be better for it to seek expert advices and services. After carefully framing the marketing as well as communication objectives, 4 key Medias have been selected, which are Print Advertising, Internet Marketing, Public Relations, Sales promotions. A creative brief and media strategy have been discussed after this, which can be considered as an outcome of the discussion between the client, i.e., LBSCA and the agency. After developing thorough execution brief, guidelines have been discussed to measure the effectiveness of each media vehicle adopted. In this part, ways have been suggested to do different kind of post-tests in order to measure the effectiveness of each vehicle once it has been launched in the market. The tests are to be done on field so that to get a real, if not accurate, response which has been sought for. The last section discusses the financials of the communication strategy. It contains the budget allocated to each communication media and some details of each media vehicle to be used. Print advertising has been the majority shareholder among the 4 media types chosen and has 40% weightage in the communication strategy of the academy. It is followed by internet marketing and public relations, which has 20% proportion each and then comes sales promotion with 15% proportion.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF TABLES & FIGURES SITUATIONAL ANALYSES BACKGROUND COMPETITIVE ANALYSES TARGET MARKETING ANALYSES SWOT MARKETING MIX ANALYSES OBJECTIVES MARKETING OBJECTIVES COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES MARKETING COMMUNICATION STRATEGY & ACTION PLAN PRINT ADVERTISING CREATIVE STRATEGY & EXECUTION MEDIA STRATEGY INTERNET MARKETING CREATIVE STRATEGY & EXECUTION MEDIA STRATEGY PUBLIC RELATIONS CREATIVE STRATEGY & EXECUTION MEDIA STRATEGY SALES PROMOTIONS CREATIVE STRATEGY & EXECUTION MEDIA STRATEGY CAMPAIGN EVALUATION BUDGETING 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 7 8 8 8 9 9 9 10 11 11 11 12 12 12 13 13 13 14 16

REFERENCES APPENDICES

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List of abbreviations:
LBSCA- LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI CRICKET ACADEMY BCCI- BOARD OF CONTROL FOR CRICKET IN INDIA ICC- INTERNATIONAL CRICKET COUNCIL DDCA- DELHI & DISTRICT CRICKET ASSOCIATION

List of TABLES:
Table 1.1 Marketing Mix of LBSCA Table 1.2 Communication Objectives
Table 1.3: Budget Allocation and Scheduling

List of FIGURES:
Fig 1.1 Distribution of Budget to Each Communication Strategy

SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS:
1. BACKGROUND:

INDUSTRY: Cricket is the most popular sport in India, more than the national sport of Hockey Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) contributes 70% to the total revenues of the International Cricket Council (ICC), out of the 10 member nations (Economywatch, 2010) Post 2007, when Indian Cricket Team won the first ICC T20 World championship, the fan following has reached to new heights Huge investments have been coming Into the country in this sport An approximate $1.5 billion was invested to launch Indian Premier League, a 20-20 over cricket tournament, introduced by BCCI (EconomyWatch, 2010) Each of the 27 states, who are part of the BCCI, witnesses 10-15 lacs children involved in cricket training in them (BCCI, 2012)

LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI CRICKET ACADEMY (LBSCA): In the industry for more than 20 years now A semi-public body operating in Delhi. Therefore, receives monetary benefits from the government. It makes the academy more economical as compared to the competitors A premier division member in the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) Produced talented players like Gautam Gambhir & Amit Mishra. These both have represented India at the international level Academy has its own infrastructure which helps bringing down the cost to hire externally. Currently handling around 600 students Organising summer camps since past few years Key promotional strategies have been newspaper articles

2. COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS: A total of 110 cricket clubs listed in the DDCA league tally (DDCA, 2010) 15 other clubs presented in the premier division along with LBSCA. It gives LBSCA a distinct position in the state cricket industry(DDCA, 2010) Sonnet Cricket Club, ONGC Cricket Club key competitors. Sonnet Cricket Club has a stronger performance record. Also has more number of players playing at Zonal and National level Along with some academies, some former players also organise cricket summer camps. Camp by Mr. Bishan Singh Bedi, former Indian cricketer, is among the popular ones. Recreational camps for children are also a competition.

3. TARGET MARKETING ANALYSIS TARGET MARKET & TARGET AUDIENCE: The key target market for the academy has been male kids from the age of 8 to 20 years. The socio economic class of these kids is upper and upper middle class. Academys major marketing efforts have been targeted towards different nearby schools and colleges. LBSCA presently do not segregate between its target market & target audience. MARKET SEGMENTATION: LBSCA currently follows an undifferentiated marketing strategy and adopts a similar marketing strategy across the different segments presented in its target market. Still it differentiates its services according to the requirement of its student from different age groups. For example, practice timings, key focus areas and style of practise is different for the students from 8-14 years as compared to those from 15-20 years of age. MARKET POSITIONING: LBSCA as a brand has been perceived as a high quality brand in the market. Due to its consistent performance in various state level tournaments and being able to provide high quality facilities at economical monthly charges, the academy has been able to build a positive reputation over its competitors in the cricket industry across the state.

4. SWOT ANALYSIS 4.1 Strengths: a. Positive image in the industry due to consistent performance, producing players at international level and quality service delivery b. Less expensive as compared to the competitors c. Acquiring its own infrastructure d. Being in regular touch with popular schools and colleges. Thus, got access to fresh as well as nurtured talent e. Produced many national and international level players f. Easy to avail sponsorship for the camp due to high end reputation of the academy 4.2 Weaknesses: a. Not having a strong marketing and communication strategy b. Focussing the reach of registrations during previous camps to its own members c. Not very effectively positioned against key competitors

4.3 Opportunities: a. b. c. d. e. f. Focussing on key benefits provided by the academy Communicating and focussing on the USPs of the upcoming summer camp To cash out on the fact that Cricket Fitness not being a central motive of any other camps Target people interested in learning different aspects of Cricket Using its famous players as celebrities to endorse the campaign Huge market potential. Academy can cash on the strong positive image already created in the target market.

4.4 Threats: a. Various other clubs leaves behind LBSCA in terms of performance, i.e, participating & winning high number of tournaments and publishing more press releases . Thus, are positioned better than LBSCA b. Effective marketing strategies used by other academies c. Recreational camps organised for children interested in arts and such other activities

5. MARKETING MIX ANALYSES PRODUCT/SERVICE - To provide cricket related services like cricket training, cricket club PRICE - Economical as compared to its competitors. Rs.500 per month as compared to Rs. 1500 per month of Sonnet Cricket Club Table 1.1 marketing Mix of LBSCA PLACE Operating in Delhi The facilities located in West Delhi Major customer base is from West Delhi PROMOTION - Key promotion tools used are newspaper articles

OBJECTIVES
For the upcoming summer camp, it is recommended for LBSCA to set separate marketing objectives and communication objectives, so that to be able to communicate to its target audience and target market in a much effective manner.

MARKETING OBJECTIVES:
To successfully launch the campaign for Cricket Summer Camp-2012 To achieve registrations close to 2000 this year for the camp To increase the number of enrolled students in the academy by 40% by the end of the camp. Thereby, increasing the market share To clearly differentiate between the target market & target audiences for the summer camp

COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES:
OBJECTIVE COMMUNICATION TOOL COMMUNICATION EFFECT RELATED BEHAVIOURAL DIMENSIONS COGNITIVE

Create awareness Print Advertising & Awareness about the summer Internet Marketing camp among 90% of target audience Communicating Publicity & Internet Knowledge presence of Marketing developed infrastructure, quality practice facilities and past performances of the academy as promising features of the academy

Cognitive

Communicating Cricket Fit as key benefit of camp Associating celebrities with image of academy Communicating registration

Print Advertising & Liking the PR the Print Advertising & Preference the PR the Sales promotions & Purchase Internet marketing

Affective

Affective

Conative

deadlines and early registrations benefits

Table 1.2 Communication Objectives

MARKETING COMMUNICATION STRATEGY & ACTION PLAN

LBSCA has been using a marketing communication strategy for the first time since its inception. Thus, an external agency would be hired for this, which can provide a package of services to the academy. A thorough discussion on defining the target audience and target market will be done. Also, the key media vehicles to be used will be finalised. Once done, a creative brief along with the media strategy will be discussed so that to set guidelines, by following which, the communication objectives and overall marketing objectives can be achieved. The summer camp is starting from the month of June. The communication campaign will start from January and will continue for 5 months, till May. During these 5 months, the intensity of different media vehicles will keep changing and will be monitored on a continuous basis. The geographical market targeted by the academy is the state of Delhi. It wants to achieve the desired level of awareness at the state level only.

Following is the creative brief, discussed between the academy officials and agency representatives: 1. PRINT ADVERTISING: a. CREATIVE STRATEGY & EXECUTION: The prime objective of using print advertising as a media vehicle in the initial stages of the campaign is to create awareness about the campaign among the target audience. Print Advertising will help in order to reach mass proportion of the target audience with a limited range of messages, which is required at the launch of the campaign. The target audience of this media vehicle would be children interested in learning cricket and want to make career in this field. Thus, male kids between the age of 15-22 years and have interest in cricket, would be the key target audience for this tool. Also, parents and senior players and officials, who are interested in making their kids learn cricket, will be targeted as well. At present, target audience has either of the two attitudes towards a cricket summer camp. One, its a collection of sports activities. Or second, its a place to learn some cricket basics within a span of 1 or 2 months. The prime message to be send to the target audience about the LBSCA Cricket Summer Camp is that it works in a direction to make the participant Cricket Fit and not just making them does a bunch of sport activities. Here, a shift of mind set is required
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from the current perception of children from a summer camp, to creating this new and fresh picture in their minds. It should also create some expectations among the target audience from the Summer Camp. Since the message is aimed at creating awareness about the product, i.e. Summer Camp, it is required to achieve awareness about it among 90% of the target audience within the first 2 weeks of the campaign launch. Also, print advertising would include celebrities, so as to develop preference among the target audience from very beginning. The message provided in the print ads should focus more on the difference between just knowing basics of cricket and being Cricket Fit, which is required to reach to the highest level.

b. MEDIA STRATEGY: Print advertising should aim at different geographical locations of the city where the target audience can be reached. Places like major Sports complexes, State Associations office, major schools and colleges with whom the academy has tie-ups and strong relations, other Cricket grounds and their office premises, etc. Also, major sports clubs in the city can be contacted to promote the campaign. The print-ad campaign should get launched at the beginning of January as this is the key month when all the state league tournaments are being held and maximum players involved in this field are very much active in this part of the country. It should follow a continuity scheduling (Belch & Belch, 2009) for the duration of the campaign. Since a shift in the way of thinking is required from the target audience in a short span of time. It is important to keep reinforcing the message in their minds. As per to selecting the category of the media, premium newspapers in both Hindi and English languages should be considered to print an attractive advertisement about the summer camp. Posters should be designed to be located at different locations discussed above. Also, newspaper articles and regional sports and cricket magazines should be used. The print advertisements should provide clear instructions regarding registrations, fee charges and important dates in it.

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2. INTERNET MARKETING: a. CREATIVE STRATEGY & EXECUTION: Internet marketing has become an integral part of any communication plan in present scenario. Due to the immense reach of this media type, it has become necessary for any organisation to include it in its marketing strategy. The target audience for internet marketing would be school and college going male students, as they interact more with the web world. For LBSCA, internet marketing would serve multiple objectives of providing information about the academy, creating awareness about the summer camp and communicating registration deadlines, early registration benefits and fees regarding information, to the target audience. It should also provide online registration for the summer camp. It will also help the academy in creating a positive image for itself among the target audience as many of its key competitors do not use any internet marketing tools to promote themselves. The internet marketing tool should provide a user friendly interface to the target audience so as to make it easy for them to carry a positive image of the academy from it. The tool must comprise of pictures, testimonials of some popular players of the academy, and records of previous performances. This will make the tool more interactive and may involve the audience for a longer duration.

b. MEDIA STRATEGY: The type of internet marketing tools the academy should use has to be website handling and paid search. The website should get active at least 10 days before the launch of the print advertisement. This will provide ample time to test the proper working of the website and if required, incorporate any changes. The website can be hosted on a domain server which is available at a very low cost with a subscription of 1 year. Thus, the website would be used on a continuity basis. Paid search, on the other hand, would help in receiving more visitors to the website. To get more number of visits on the website, this service can be purchased by popular search engines like Google or msn or may be both. Also, creating community pages on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter will provide an opportunity to extend its reach to the target audience.

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3. PUBLIC RELATIONS: a. CREATIVE STRATEGY & EXECUTION: The key objective of PR activities would be to spread knowledge about the academy, the upcoming summer camp and its unique benefits. Also PR activities will help in developing preference about the academy and the summer camp through celebrity association. The target audiences of PR activities would be the opinion leaders in the target market. These opinion leaders would include people like parents of male children who are currently associated with any cricket academies, parents who are planning to make their children join an academy related to cricket and former cricketers associated with the state cricket association. The message here to be sent to the target audience is that the academy has a different approach in making its students learn cricket basics and develop their capabilities. The message should revolve around the central message of making their children Cricket Fit. This would also allow a better synchronization among the PR activities and the message delivered by other communication tools used. b. MEDIA STRATEGY: PR activities should be conducted during the second and fourth month of the campaign. Since then, some responses to the previous communications would have been received and proper analyses of that would allow determining the intensity of the PR activity message. It would also allow developing the message in a way so as to reinforce or extend the brand image created by previous communications. Media types to be used should be interviews of academy trainers and celebrities like Gautam Gambhir and Amit Mishra, who have been the previous students of the academy. Also press releases can be used to regularly persuade the target audience to develop a purchasing behaviour. A Pulsing strategy (Belch & Belch, 2009) should be used for this media tool as it would provide an enhanced brand image among the target audience. A heavy media spending in some periods during the campaign would result in reinforcing the message in the minds of the audiences after regular intervals.

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4. SALES PROMOTIONS: a. CREATIVE STRATEGY & EXECUTION: Sales Promotions is a communication tool with a prime goal of inducing sales. Here as well, the key objective of the sales promotion tool will be to encourage a purchasing behaviour from the target audience. A consumer oriented sales promotion strategy will be used here. The target audiences for this tool will be school and college students. Those school and colleges within the city will be targeted here with whom the academy has a positive reputation. Sales promotion activities like placing kiosks in carefully selected schools and colleges and placing pop displays, at prime sports related locations like sports clubs and local sports complexes can be done. These kiosks will deliver information about the campaign like key benefits of the camp; celebrities associated with the camp and important dates and will fill out a feedback cum information form. In colleges and sporting locations, these kiosks will be used to provide some price off coupons to interested students which they can use during online registration. Also, discounts will be offered at registration before a set deadline. A loyalty sales promotion strategy can also be used in which a person who has registered for the camp, provides a reference registering candidate, will get an attractive gift. Discounts can also be offered to a certain number of people registering together. b. MEDIA STRATEGY The locations to conduct the sales promotions activities have been mentioned above. Selective schools and colleges can be targeted to use this media tool. Kiosks with effective use of pop merchandising can be placed for a limited period of time which can create awareness as well as induce registration for the camp. A flighting strategy should be used for this tool. This will help in introducing promotional offers only when it is required during the campaign. Being an expensive tool as well, it would not be economical to use it on continuous basis.

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CAMPAIGN EVALUATION
The focus of the campaign evaluation strategy would be to measure the effectiveness of the message, the means by which it has been communicated and the individual media strategies opted for. By doing so, the academy should be able to know two things, first is if there is any improvement in the attitude of the target audiences towards the brand, and second, if there is an upward trend in the registration with the academy. A post-test strategy would be used for this, which means that the media vehicles will be evaluated once they have been launched in the market. Now we will go through studying how we can measure the effectiveness of individual media vehicles used: 1. Print Advertising: Print advertisements can be evaluated by running inquiry tests (Belch & Belch, 2009) once it has been launched in the market. It is a very simple measure of a mediums effectiveness. The same ad can be run through the successive issues of the same newspapers or sports magazines, which can provide a cumulative effect of the campaign. Also, recall tests (Belch & Belch, 2009) can be used so as to analyse the effectiveness of the means used to communicate the message, which will be helpful in future decision making. 2. Internet Marketing There are many tools that can be used to measure the effectiveness of internet marketing. The major two media vehicles used under internet marketing can be measured by following ways: a. For measuring Websites effectiveness: i. Number of unique and total visitors to the website ii. Time spent on the website iii. Number of pages viewed iv. Cost per lead method, which can provide information about percentage of visitors who completed the desired action, i.e., registering for the summer camp. b. For measuring Paid Searchs effectiveness: i. Average cost per click on ad purchases ii. Click through rate iii. Conversion rate iv. Time spent on website

3. Public Relations: The key objective of PR activities was to bring a change in the attitude of the target audience towards the brand. Thus it would only be effective if it has been able to do so. Now this can be studied in many ways. The change in the web traffic cab studied after the launch of these
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activities. The change in the number of inquiries which comes for the campaign can by analysed once celebrity players have been associated in those activities. Also, a change in the number of registrations can be a mean to measure its effectiveness.

4. Sales Promotions: Number of ways can be used to measure the effectiveness of a sales promotion strategy. The effectiveness of the kiosk placed can be measured by analysing the figures of coupons used online, distributed by them. The fluctuations in the registration and enquiry numbers, during the sales promotions and no sales promotions period, will also depict the effect of these promotions. The effect of introducing discounts on early registrations will be depicted by the number of registrations done before the communicated deadline. Loyalty strategy can be measured by the number of gifts distributed to such students.

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BUDGETING
Among the four media used by the academy, print advertising has got the maximum weightage. It makes sense as well because that is the media which was previously been used by the academy. Hence, it is more familiar with it and that target audiences are also aware about this. Internet marketing, although a new media vehicle for the academy, but due to it being low cost and mass coverage medium, it has got significant proportion of the budget. Public relation is a key communication media for the academy as it would lead to an image creation for it among the target audiences and opinion leaders. It would help in reinforcing the message provided by the earlier communication vehicles. Therefore, it affords to capture a significant part of the budget. Sales promotions has also got a good portion of the budget which will lead to an effective implementation of the activities like placing and managing kiosks and collecting valuable feedback about the academy.

Marketing Budget Plan

Dec MEDIA CONTRI BUTION 45% Print Advertising VEHICLES COST/UNIT (in Rs.) 3455/sqr meter 750/full page ad 10/colored pop Jan Feb Mar Apr May Total

Newspapers Magazines POP Displays Website Hosting Paid Search Press releases Interview Broadcasting Events OrganisationKiosks placement & personnel handling

13,820 13,820 13,820 1,500 60,000 1,500 60,000 1,500 60,000

13,820 1,500 60,000

13,820 1,500 60,000

69,10 0 7,500 300,0 00

Internet marketing

20%

5500/year 10/click 1200/sqr meter 25000/intervi ew

5,500 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000

5,500 50,00 0 40,00 0 100,0 00

Public Relations

20%

20,000 50,000

20,000 50,000

Sales Promotions 15% Marketing Communicati ons Total

5000/event 5,500. 00 85,320. 00

20,000 175,32 0.00

85,320. 00

10,000 165,32 0.00

20,000 105,32 0.00

50,00 0 622,1 00.00

Table 1.3: Budget Allocation and Scheduling

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Sales

PRINT ADVERTISING INTERNET MARKETING PUBLIC RELATION SALES PROMOTIONS

Fig 1.1 Distribution of Budget to Each Communication Strategy

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REFERENCES
1. BCCI. (2012). Associations. Available: http://www.bccicricket.org/cims/web/jsp/AssociationDetails.jsp. Last accessed 12 Jan 2012 2. DDCA. (2010). POINTS POSITION OF DDCA LEAGUE 2010-2011. Available: http://www.ddca.in/fixtures/PointsPosition_Leag2010-11.pdf. Last accessed 10 jan 2012. 3. EconomyWatch. (2010). Indian cricket Industry. Available: http://www.economywatch.com/worldindustries/indian-cricket/. Last accessed 06 Jan 2012 4. George Belch, Michael Belch (2009). Advertising & Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communication Perspective. 8th ed. New York: McGraw Hill International

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appendices:
APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE GIVEN TO ACADEMY OFFICIALS 1. 2. 3. 4. Since when is this academy has been operating? Currently how many students are there in the academy? What are the key services provided by the academy? What are those few things about this academy which makes it better that the other academies operating in Delhi? 5. Does being economical as compared to your competitors, proves to be a good or bad point for you? 6. How many players from this academy have played at state, national & international level? 7. Who are your key competitors and why? 8. What has been your key marketing strategy? 9. How you have been communicating about the summer camps previously organised by you? 10. Apart from cricket academies, who has been your key competitor in this field? Thank you for your time!!!!!!!!!

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