Brand Rohit Sharma: 'Hitman' on field, an 'Everyman' in the mad ad world

Rohit Sharma, whom advertisers count on for reliability, faces stern test to grow brand equity as India captain

The moniker “hitman” sits well with Rohit Sharma, as only his batting tends to be explosive. His recent elevation as the all-format captain of the Indian men’s cricket team is set to lift his brand equity, say experts, his laid-back and quiet-yet-efficient persona notwithstanding. But for his brand to evolve further and compare with his high-profile predecessors — M S Dhoni and Virat Kohli — the match has only just begun.

The 34-year-old has barely broken a sweat in his new role, as India swept aside two low-ranking teams — West Indies and Sri Lanka — without losing a single game of the handful of one-day and Test matches at home over the past month.

Aviral Jain, managing director at Duff & Phelps, a Kroll business, points out that Sharma’s brand has grown steadily over the last few years and that a key driver of this has been his strong on-field performances across formats.

The Celebrity Brand Valuation Report, which Duff & Phelps publishes annually, has seen the Mumbai batsman’s position climb up from 20 (2019) to 17 (2020) in the celebrity rankings. With his growing stature, his brand value is expected to go up further in the 2021 report that is slated to be released soon.

According to the Celebrity Brand Valuation Report 2020, the top-ranked was Kohli whose brand value was worth $237.7 million. Sharma was valued at $25.7 million. Becoming the leader of the Indian team takes his brand to the next level, says Jain.

Sharma’s portfolio so far includes associations with brands across industries, including BharatPe, Ceat and Dr Trust. He currently endorses 24 brands.

“He also has a strong positioning of being cool and reliable, though not exactly on the lines of Kohli or Dhoni,” Jain says, adding that he can also claim higher endorsement fees post-captaincy. Although his fees are significantly lower than Kohli’s, the gap could reduce over a period of time with likely stagnation or decrease in case of the latter. For brand analysts and image gurus, Sharma’s understated or even “uninteresting” personality has been able to communicate reliable performance as well as lend himself to a range of products.

N Chandramouli, chief executive officer, TRA Research, a brand intelligence and data insights company, points out that he’s already endorsing a good range — from sports apparel, consumer goods, fitness and tech to finance

Sharma is viewed as a cricketer focused on the game, while Dhoni and Kohli have cool and flashy personalities in addition. “Rohit’s personality is very common man-oriented, with the boy-next-door looks. And his mother tongue is Telugu, which puts him in the southern space as well,” Chandramouli observes.

Sharma’s focus on the game is the right approach to building his brand, he adds. “The brand value will increase and it will lead to longevity even after cricketing years. He has got a unique dual opportunity to lead the national side as well as Mumbai Indians (the Indian Premier League franchise that he captains). He may be charging less money than others before him, but this is only the start of his captaincy. Trust in his brand will come because of cricket.”

The fact that he has been handed the captaincy at a much later age than Kohli or Dhoni, who led the side when in their twenties, also brings in a certain maturity as a trait. To build trust in his brand, Rohit’s captaincy has to be seen in complex situations and in the public glare, Chandramouli adds.

For now, the everyman image has meant an ability to embrace a range of brands and also convey a promise that is common to all advertisers — of performance delivery.

Sandeep Goyal, brand expert and MD of ad agency Rediffusion, points out that it is too early to form an opinion on Sharma. As for any captain, the real test for him would begin when he leads the Indian team overseas against tough opposition such as England, Australia or South Africa. According to Goyal, Sharma could be described as uninteresting, non-controversial, low-profile or non-combative. “It may not be equal to cool, but you never know, brands evolve,” he says.

Some of the obvious comparisons for Sharma, given his skill and personality, would be the likes of Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble, both legends of Indian cricket but who captained the side only briefly.

Dravid was never an interesting cricketer, Goyal says, but he was known as “the wall” because of his defence. “A lot of brands finally interpreted him as being solid, dependable or reliable. This is how you pull some of those attributes from a personality. From being dull and boring, one can become solid and reliable once the brand has evolved.”

Just over a decade ago, Dhoni hit a six to crown India’s second World Cup hurrah and cement his status as an iconic brand that is still going strong. With another edition of the World Cup approaching a year-and-a-half later, the stage is set for Sharma to ensure his brand takes off from the cricketing pitch.