Kevin Pietersen: A failed case of product marketing?

Is there a team in the world that doesn’t have people who can’t stand one another?

I don’t know any. And I have worked with, seen and read about many successful and unsuccessful teams in the world.

Kevin Pietersen has been one of the most charismatic and sensational faces of English cricket in the recent past.

He is like the Salman Khan of English cricket. Salman has however managed to survive many bad phases and is still going strong, while KP is down and out.

At least it seems KP is down and out, unless he wins the IPL and starts hitting centuries while England are thrashed by the Aussies in the Ashes, or maybe until PM David Cameron comes to his rescue – but that’s too much to wish for in one sentence!

With more than 10 years of international cricket and with highest number of runs in all forms of the game for any English batsman, this South Africa-born English lad’s story is no less than a Bollywood movie or that of an exceptional product who failed because he could not keep up to expectations.

KP was such an outstanding prospect. All it required was a sensible product marketing strategy, coupled with tweaks in product management to refine KP the batsman – one of the finest product of English cricket.

Too much gyan? Let’s try and simplify this.

Simply put, product marketing, as opposed to product management, deals with more outbound marketing or customer-facing tasks (in the older sense of the phrase).

For example, product management deals with the basics of product development within a firm, whereas product marketing deals with marketing the product to prospects, customers, and others.

Product management is about developing the product, keeping it in sync with the objective of the organisation, in sync with what your target group wants and what are its latent needs.

Product marketing, on the other hand essentially answers four most important questions for any marketer. Let’s try and identify where ECB and KP have gone wrong?

1. What products will be offered?
The product was one of the finest batsmen in English cricket across all forms of the game. The batsman was supposed to help his team win, win and only win. And obviously help England rise as a cricketing nation.

The batsman would with time, grow into a mentor or a leader and render his services to England cricket’s future as well. KP was a success for first of the requirements. But it required a more mature stance from both him and the ECB (product management team) to chisel him into a fine leader and mentor.

Forget about giving anything back to the game, KP was not utilised to 100 per cent of his capabilities. Many feel and know that he still has a lot to give to cricket and the fans.

2. Who will be the target customers?
The target group was also very clear – cricket fans all across the world. The target for ECB should have been England fans at least, if not more. But it seemed that they were more interested in the personal ego wars and clashes.

We here it all the time from writers, commentators, journalists, experts and anyone who knows a bit about the game that it is a team game and not about individual.

Well, KP is also to be blamed here for having many disputes with team mates in the past. His Twitter tirades have also been a big contributor in the ‘trust issues’ that have come to the knowledge of fans and administrators.

Although KP has apologised and expressed desire to play the game again but there has been no mutual agreement. Perhaps, ECB has been targeting a wrong target group – i.e. individuals in the ECB and not the larger audience of fans and the spirit of any team game.

Also, sometimes the product needs to be sold internally first. All that happens with more interactions and understanding of demands from within the system.

Here, I would say KP should have understood this and tried to work together with ECB. This could have made things easier, long back in 2009 when he was the captain of the side and Peter Moores was the coach.

But we know how that finished.

3. Who will the products reach?
Like any other product, cricketers also need to be exposed to all the possibilities. The fact that KP was made to choose between national and IPL commitments back in 2012 eventually led to his retirement from these two forms of the game.

One must realise that the more exposure that cricketers get the better cricketers they become. I am not favouring IPL or BBL or any other domestic T20 or one day leagues.

All I am saying is like any distribution channel the game of cricket should have a distribution strategy so that it reaches its target group across the world and the entertainment is consumed rightfully.

There is a little doubt on England’s T20 future and there are questions whether standards are high enough.

If not, there is no harm in allowing its players to play across the globe, get exposed, and get better. If it does not work, well, change is inevitable.

4. At what price should the products be offered?
I am not talking about the heavy pay cheques but actually about many such cases which have been there in the past and have paid the price by unexpected ends to their careers.

A player of the stature of KP, should be allowed to choose when he wants to hang the boots.

Although MS Dhnoi’s exit from Test cricket was also very eventful and there are still theories around his retirement – forced or not? Well we will leave that for some other write up.

The fact that KP will not wear an England shirt again is a loss for English cricket and his fans all over the world.

Although, he might continue playing for leagues here and there, but the real joy and pride of playing for your country, being a part of world cups, or the Ashes is beyond comparison.

The price of England cricket’s most stylish and mesmerising batsman is a bigger loss for the game of cricket more than it is for the ECB.

As a cricket fan, I will miss a fierce competitor, an x-factor in the game.

And I will miss those coloured hairstyles.