| Call it the Craze of Craze's – T20, now DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) and the forthcoming contest with a near build up of a war between teams and licensed merchandise on IPL teams emerging as a tool. Rajesh Metal Industries has entered into a licensing rights agreement with 'Kings XI Punjab' to produce select merchandise and market them through their own network of malls, supermarkets, book stores, cafes, music shops, multi brand outlets, gift and novelty stores under the HotMuggs Brand. Kings XI Punjab is part of the eight competing teams promoted by The Indian Premier League. It is held and promoted by a consortium which includes leading actor, Preity Zinta & Industrialists Ness Wadia (Wadia Group); Karan Paul (Apeejay Surrendra Group);and Mohit Burman (Dabur Industries). The initial range of merchandise would include Lassi Glass; Mugs; Badges; and Special Autographed Merchandise and Collectors' Merchandise. HotMuggs is present in nearly 45 cities through leading malls, multiplexes and bookstores where the merchandise shall also be available. Mr. Rishi Jain, Managing Director – Rajesh Metal Industries, said, "We want to leverage our experience in the field of Licensing & Merchandising and are quite upbeat about the popularity of the DLF Indian Premier League in general and the 'Kings XI Punjab' in particular. Our range of drinkware and allied products is positioned as youthful, energetic and funky and targeted this at everybody who loves the game, and its icons." | Hot Muggs plans to promote the merchandise through a multi-channel promotion campaign with emphasis on Below the Line activities and Contact programmes with the end customer. The company has been involved in merchandising with companies like Yash Raj Films for movie "Fanaa" and Balki's "Cheeni Kum" starring Amitabh Bachchan. Neil Maxwell, CEO, Kings XI Punjab said, "Kings XI Punjab is a people's team. We are looking forward to expanding our team through the sale of our merchandise amongst fans and supporters. We will have various options on sale soon locally and over our website." Kings XI Punjab will be led by Yuvraj Singh, who is also the icon player & captain. At the helm is Coach Tom Moody. The team is a heady mix of leading national and international players like Brett Lee, Irfan Pathan Sree Santh, Piyush Chawla, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardane, Romesh Powar, James Hopes, V R V Singh, Kyle Mills, Luke Pomersvack, Uday Kaul, Yash Gandhi, Tanmay Srivastava, Karan Goel, Ajitesh Agral, Simon Katich, Sunny Sohal, Pankaj Dharmani, Sahil Kukreja, and Wilken Mota. |
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