WHEN one thinks of the branding of athletes in India, all roads go through cricket with the superstar cricketers all boasting multi-brand endorsements. The sports industry is growing with regard to branding and leveraging of a person’s on-field success toward building his or her ‘Brand’ so to speak. This is a relatively new development in the Indian sports context, and for all intents and purposes, the exponentially larger scale and broader scope of this multi-branding can all be traced to one man. The human batting juggernaut we know as Sachin, has created Brand Tendulkar in a manner that defines him: professionally, classily, quietly, methodically, precisely, in a well-paced manner, and over time, modified and metamorphosed for the greater good of all the stakeholders.
In what is the latest milestone on the road that Sachin built, the greatest cricketer that India has produced recently crossed two decades in international cricketer.
Sachin Tendulkar – Best in the business.
Purely as an athletic achievement, this is nothing short of spectacular, with virtually no other athlete in any other sport ever having displayed this kind of longevity, and more importantly, consistency and drive. Some can argue the case that he is the greatest athlete of all time across sports, and there will be numerous articles and books written about him that would try and prove this hypothesis. As a person he is above reproach, and he has handled himself with class and dignity. Ironically but somewhat fittingly, he has hit the pinnacle of his career with a mind-blowing innings against Australia, and also at a time when Agassi has sparked a debate for the ages, and Robert Enke succumbed to the depression and pressures that come with being a celebrity athlete. To deal with the adulation, pressure, expectation, and invasion of privacy that Tendulkar has had to face from the time he was a tenth grade student, and to do it with grace, humility, dignity, and unparalleled commitment and discipline make him an uber role model par compare. Above and beyond that however, Tendulkar the Brand is what makes this once in a lifetime person and athlete border on the ethereal.
Brand Tendulkar has changed the way Sports Marketing and Management were perceived in India. Sports Management as an industry was born on the golf course when Mark McCormack of IMG finalised a handshake deal with Arnold Palmer, the beloved and successful U.S. Professional Golfer. It was a Midas handshake, and made Palmer a bankable commodity. A parallel could be drawn for Tendulkar and the late Mark Mascarenhas who started World-Tel with Tendulkar as the keystone client, except that where Palmer was one of the best, but not the clear cut top-ranked golfer in the age of Jack Nicklaus, Tendulkar was and is, It. He was the best the world had to offer, and unlike some other clear-cut top-ranked athletes, such as Sampras or Federer, or David Duval, the Tim Duncans or the Klitschkos, or even the Kumbles and Muralitharans, Tendulkar was and is of a different mould. He isn’t a colorful personality like a Michael Phelps, or a LeBron James, or a Shane Warne. He is quiet, calm, humble, and wholesome. This is why in a country that lives by societal norms, a blend of fierce competitiveness, excellence in the face of failure, yet a family man who blunted sledges with cover drives, and reeked at times of goodness, is the man who forever will define what a Brand is.
A consummate professional who has never faced a real slump in performance to the point of anxiety, his one criticism is almost laughable: that he scores big runs in losing causes. As a sponsor, or an advertiser, or as a team owner, where one has the budget to afford Tendulkar, one usually does. Beyond the aura, there are sound business reasons. Purely from a numbers standpoint, more often than not, Tendulkar delivers big in terms of ratings, exposure, and media coverage. From a wholesomeness standpoint, again Tendulkar has few competitors, and the entire Diaspora of products and services he can endorse is vast. His professionalism is a part of the industry folklore, and every stakeholder swears by him. That the audiences haven’t bored of him, but in fact revere him more with each passing year speaks volumes for his bankability. If he was in a sport that was truly global, his name would be uttered in the same breath as Tiger Woods and David Beckham. As it is, a rabid fan-base of over a billion people and change, in a single-sport nation is a strong calling card for the man simply known as Sachin, but referred to more often in superlatives.
It is his brand that has made millionaires of his peers, with the Dhonis, Dravids, Gangulys and Yuvrajs now seen as much on television and on print donning their personal mantles, as opposed to simply on the cricket field. The corporatisation of cricket for all intents and purposes started with the Rs 30 million World-Tel deal that Sachin signed, and it changed the face of cricket. Endorsable, bankable athletes are now the norm in India, especially in cricket, and soon in other sports. While the natural evolution of Sports Management and the corporatising of sports can’t be ignored, Tendulkar was the perfect brand ambassador and catalyst for this evolution that is now a revolution.
As he has adapted and modified his stroke-play and overall approach to cricket, he has also evolved with respect to the brands he endorses, and this is of course astute thinking on his part. He not only has evaded any question marks as to his bankability, he has also quickly caught on to obvious synergies that would ideally give him recognition, and the elusive respect that comes with multi-brand endorsements, and the much-feared dilution of one’s brand. Today, he endorses nine brands, and they are not only a heady mix, but also reflect his broad appeal across ages and industries. The brands are Canon, Boost, Sunfeast, adidas, GM Pens (Reynolds), Aviva, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Jaypee Group, Audemars Piguet (Swiss watch brand), and he has dropped out of numerous other endorsement deals, probably to ensure the fullest brand value for his current commitments. Pepsi is a notable drop from his list, probably synched with their foray into tapping the ‘youth generation’.
The combination of professionalism, prescient observation and assessment, and a consistently upward mobile career path have made this man a brander’s dream, and as compared to some of his other gloried peers across sports, he is unlikely to possess too many skeletons in his cupboard that can cause his star to wane, or his Brand to fade. 
Twenty years is a long shelf-life, but Tendulkar is nowhere close to calling it a day, and in fact, his post-cricket branding will once again reflect the adaptive qualities of his game, as he endorses brands that suit his personality and stature. For the time being however, he is nowhere close to calling it a career, so one should just sit back and speculate on what superlative would best describe the man, as well as the Brand.
