He is one of the highest paid athletes in the world, one of the most famous athletes in the world and one of the 100 most influential person in the world. You guessed it right, it’s none other than the modern time great and the current captain of the Indian Cricket Team Mr. Virat Kohli. He is popularly known as the best batsmen in the world and his records speaks for itself. Famous for his consistent form, Virat is also known as a rock star for his style of partying and speak as a professional spokesperson.
In earlier times the legends of Indian team used to answer their critics with the bat and their performance. Virat has taken this to the next level and he doesn’t shy answering his critics on flied as well as during press conferences. He has portrayed himself as a person who doesn’t know how to give up and will always be in your face if you trouble him.
What makes Virat Kohli the brand he is?
Cricketers are paid less as compared to other sports such as Football and Basketball since most of the year the cricketers represent their country and they are paid a fixed salary and the domestic season runs for not more than a couple of months whereas the other sports domestic season runs all year long and the athletes salaries are paid by the club. Therefore you won’t find any cricketer in the Forbes list of “Top 100 highest paid athletes” except “Virat Kohli”. According to Forbes Virat’s annual earning is $26 Million (approximately 190 Corer Rupees).
Virat got this popularity after he was drafted in to play Indian Premier League for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2008. Currently he is the highest paid cricketer in IPL with $2.6 M. Interestingly only 9% of his annual income comes from his salary and 91% comes from sponsorships and endorsements he does for various brands.
One might wonder as to what makes Kohli so marketable?
1. His accessibility:
Kohli is more accessible than any of the other crickets in and around in the world. This is majorly possible with the emergence of Jio. In 2016 Reliance Jio provided free data to people for six months and coincidently this was the time when Kohli was on peak of his form. People started streaming the matches to watching him play live and this increased his popularity among fans.
2. Social media presence:
As a fan the first and the foremost thing you do is follow your idol on different social media platforms. Well Kohli made a great use of social media and began posting his after match interviews, practice clips and his personal habits. Soon people knew everything from his favorite food to his bathroom schedules. According to UC News, Kohli was named as the “Hottest Keyword” in the year 2016. Kohli is now the most followed Indian on Instagram and earns $350,000 for a single sponsored Tweet and post.
3. The target Market:
Virat is associated with more than 17 brands at the moment and some of these are Puma, Audi, Philips, Google Duo, Uber, Tissot, etc and these brands target the urban Indian Population and this is the market the brand Kohli is after.
4. The primary focus:
The primary focus of brand Kohli can be divided inti three segments namely Fashion, Heat & Fitness and Sports.
i) Fashion:
Kohli used to endorse Adidas but in 2017 he signed with Puma and it was the largest endorsement deal for an Indian sports person with a single brand. This is where Virat came up with his own brand “One 8” which resembles his jersey no. 18 in association with Puma. This was a win-win situation for both since Virat got a whopping $150M from this deal and Puma’s association with him resulted in a 10% increase in sales in India in 2019 along with an overall 23% revenue growth. He is also the brand ambassador and co-creator of the fashion brand Wrogn, which also sponsors the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s team kit in the IPL. Men's ethnic-wear brand Manyavar appointed Virat Kohli as its official ambassador in 2016. Manyavar became the most-preferred brand during weddings and festivals soon after Kohli's wedding with actress Anushka Sharma in 2017.
ii) Health & Fitness:
Kohli changed the nature of the Indian cricket team’s approach to fitness with his own transformation. He went on a Vegan diet and completely changed his workout routine to suit the brand of cricket he plays and all the strain his body goes through. His teams makes sure he is always associated with fitness. Kohli caused a lot of chaos when he dropped his long-standing association with PepsiCo because of increasing health concerns over sugary drinks which was not in line with his new healthy lifestyle. He is now the face of India’s most popular energy drink “Boost” and endorses it by stating “Boost is the secret to his energy”.
iii) Sports:
In 2015, Virat invested close to $12M in setting up a new line of Gyms in tier 1 Indian cities in association with Franchise India called ”Chisel”. After seeing the success of IPl in India, many other sports leagues emerged in India and Kohli was quick to invest in this leagues by buying teams. Kohli now owns teams in “Indian Super League, Pro Wrestling League and International Premier Tennis League”.
The teams he owns follow a very similar strategy and pattern which is to focus on the young audience. We can notice the same pattern in everything he does, something sporty, healthy and fashionable for the young Indian Audience. He carefully screens the offers which only suits his brand image and doesn’t accept every offer he is given. This has built his credibility as a global sports person and young people in India look up to him and try to imitate him. Thus fulfilling his ultimate goal of targeting this segment of the audience.
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