Marketing Essays on National Football League (NFL)
The National Football League (NFL) was established 1n 1920 and its current name was adopted in 1922. Most fans feel that the national football league is the best product because of the marketing strategies that have been put in place. The national football league has become one of the most popular sports. The national football league has very many fans who attend the matches of the league both within and outside America. The league enjoys a fun base of over per game by the 2006 season. This essay analyzes the National football league by looking at the product classification, its brand image, how customers feel about the product or service, how the brand can be protected from a counterfeiter, how the product can be used in co-branding and some information about its growth, mature, decline and how I want to market the National Football League as a whole to fans and kids.
The National Football League consists of 32 teams from various regions in the USA which compete throughout the year. The organization has its own rules and regulations that govern how the competitions are carried out. Those teams that go against the rules of the national football league are sanctioned so as to keep sanity in the competitions that take place every year. Each team receives some facilitation from the organization and in return they are also supposed to make some contribution and commitment towards the organization. The teams that form the league are divided into different groups and further divided into division depending with the regions in which they come from. At the end season, six teams that have performed well play in plays offs, this is then followed by a twelve-team single-elimination tournament that culminates with the national football league championship, the Super Bowl. The organization is structured in such a way that promotion of a team is based on its performance in the league. Those teams that fail to meet some set standards are relegated each year whereas others are promoted to the league. Other teams that play in the lower league are promoted to the national football league after good performance at the end of each year.
The package of the national football league is just awesome in the way in which it has been organized. The mangers of the association have put in place several initiatives to ensure that the games are appealing to all the fans and spectators who watch them. The strategies that have been put in place attract many people who form a large customer base of the league. By watching the games of the league, spectators give the club some money which is used in the effective running of the league. Some other products like t-shirts and caps are also manufactured and the brand of the league is used in marketing them. The sales of the products generate income for organization that is used in the improvement of the sporting activities.
In, 2013, the national football league selected twitter as one of its partners to provide a live stream of some matches to its millions fans across the world. It was agreed that twitter was to provide live streaming of matches to the over eight hundred millions registered and non registered fans of the league. This initiative was aimed at ensuring that the fans of the league can easily access live matches using their simple communication tools, for instance, tablets. The agreement also included the provision of highlights about the national football league and broadcast from different teams which were aimed at giving fans an awesome experience of the league. The league has extended its presence to digital platforms like twitter so as ro reach as many fans as possible both within and outside USA. Those who are tasked with the running of the league have also embraced the use of other social media tools like facebook so as to reach a wider audience. The social media tools that have been embraced by the managers of the league have enabled many people to be able to watch live matches from the comfort of their homes without necessarily going to the pitch. This has also given those who have a stake in the league an avenue to generate more income that is used to improve the league and make it more appealing to different people across the globe. Fans can catch live matches of the league regardless of the region in which they are staying in the whole world.
The national football league has expanded into new markets and ventures in the recent past and has continued to increase its fun base beyond the borders of the USA. The national football league has moved beyond US borders and it is now being experienced in several other countries across the globe. In 1986, the league commenced holding a series of pre-season exhibition to popularize it to people from other countries who had not heard of it. In the early 1990s, the league formed NFL Europe, a developmental league that had teams in Germany. In the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the national football league solidified its dominance as a top spectator sport in the USA by putting in place several marketing strategies. The national football league has played a crucial role to the American culture by bringing several people together regardless of their social and economic groupings. The Super Bowl has become an unofficial national holiday and the top-rated television program most years because of its large fan base. Monday Night Football which is a program that is aired on television has help to popularize the league to many people both within USA and outside. The national football league has even attracting the most casual fans because of the marketing strategies that have been put in place by the managers of the product. Those who have a stake in managing the league have put in place several strategies to ensure that the product of the company appeals to as many people as possible across the globe.
As part of its marketing strategy, the national football league has launched many things, for instance, its own cable television channel that fans can watch matches and other things that are related to the national football league. Audiences who watch the league are drawn from diverse social groups within and outside the US. The National Football League is known for their strict guidelines when it comes to the use of their brand, for instance, it is very selective when it comes to the vendors that market their brands. Many strategies have been put in place by the managers of the league to ensure that the brand remains the best both within and outside USA.
In 2010, the national football league came upon with several initiatives that were aimed at attracting female fans who have not been so interested in football. The initiatives bore fruits because afterwards women became more obsessed with football and some even cried when their favorite teams lost some matches. As part of its social responsibility, the national football league becomes a major player in fighting cancer. The organization has put in place strategies that are aimed at raising money for the American cancer society to treat victims of cancer.
While it may seem extreme to some, this policing of their brand name is important to keeping its integrity. In the recent past, some unscrupulous business people have tried to use dubious means to benefit from the brand of the league and thus the managers of the league must put in place strategies that are aimed at sealing all loopholes for those who want to take advantage of their brand. The National Football League in the recent past started a partnership with app developer Experience, to create an app that will improve the in-stadium experience by allowing fans to upgrade seats. This application is also designed to help the fans to get special access to the teams, get on the field before games, or even get in-seat visits from cheerleaders of the teams that are supposed to play. These initiatives that have been put in place by the management of the organization have ensured that the package of the organization is appealing to as many fans as possible.
The Brand of the National Football League
A brand can encompass how the company treats its workers, how it innovates; how it treats its customers; the charities it supports in the society in which it operates. The values of any organization are just as important as the logo of the Company because values are very vital in portraying the position of any organization. The National Football League is one of the best brands in the United States of America and has racked in billions of US dollars in the past few years that it has been in existence. Many fans across the globe like to catch live matches of the national football league on different channels and thus the management of the league have come up with different strategies of marketing the organization to fans who like watching football. The Super Bowl which is one of the initiatives of the national football league, in fact, the Super Bowl is such a popular event the commercials are starting to have their own trailers which has come in existence as a result of the national football league. The national football league takes advantage of on events like the national football league Draft and Free Agency to increase its fans both within and outside the USA. The national football league has taken several initiatives to make the league to be engaging and appealing to fans as compared to other sports. The investment that the managers of the brand put in the product is clearly manifested with the returns that are realized after every financial year.
The organization has been making profits at the need of each financial year for decades now which is a clear indication that it is a profitable venture. Super Bowl Branding one of the ways in which the league is using to brand its products is a supervised a team of in-house designers and art directors as well as the seasoned environmental graphics firm. They use the Scale Design Group, in developing the identity and look for Super Bowl that has become a very popular brand in the USA. The goal of the managers is to elevate the Super Bowl brand experience to a level befitting the nation’s premiere sports entertainment event. This will make the league to be very popular all over the world and compete with other world leagues that have taken over the market.
NFL Playoffs Identity System is guided by the design development of a cohesive national football league calendar event identity system, designed for maximum impact and visibility on field and in network broadcast applications, with the ability for seamless co-branding across all 32 team markets. All the 32 teams are brought together to compete throughout the year by the national football league. The system is central to the NFL’s ongoing efforts to increase the value of existing League assets, while creating greater marketing opportunities for League sponsors and partners. In 2004, the national football league partnered with Landor Associates in an effort to define and strengthen the NFL’s brand positioning and values, and develop the tools and guidelines needed to assist the League and its partners in creating relevant, on-brand communications. The national football league has built a strong brand that has been able to withstand the market forces for a long period of time. Competition is one of the market forces that threatened the brand of the company but the company was able to withstand pressure and strike an agreement with the association that posed challenges to the national football league.
The National football league has made itself recession-proof and they set good examples how other businesses can follow suit. The league has spent years developing its brand and expanding its influence in the whole world by using diverse strategies to market their products and services. The teams in tandem with the league have spent hundreds of millions of dollars promoting themselves, becoming fixtures of the community, and assimilating into their home region. National Football League is as powerful and stalwart a brand that has ever existed in sports. It controls nearly all aspects of licensing and execution of the games that take place.
The National Football League has experienced many challenges in building its brand, for instance competition from another organization that was offering the same products in the 1960s. The organization was able to withstand the market forces and merge with the rival organization to form one force in the market. This is as a result if the strategies that have been put in place to ensure that the league is appealing to many people thus increasing the fan base. The league also has experienced some challenges, for instance, competition that was posed by the American Football League in the early 1960s. The merger of the national football league that occurred in 1970, created a 26-team circuit under the name of the older national football league. Since then the league has expanded four times, adding six new franchises and increase its fans within and outside the USA.
The national football league should employ various strategies in the fight against counterfeit products. In the recent past, counterfeit products have taken over to the market at the expense of the national football league. Many business people employ various means to sell counterfeit products in disguise of the national football league thus having negative consequences to the products of the national football league. The National Football League has multiple motivations for shutting down counterfeiters so as to increase the market base of its products. By doing so, it protects the leagues and its brand partners’ revenue stream from fakes who form a big threat to the national football league. Sometimes the quality of products is shoddy; sometimes products ordered online never arrive at all as a result of counterfeit products that have flooded the market. The national football league has two federal court cases that shut down thousands of websites selling counterfeit merchandise.
Mangers of the league should continue with the efforts that are aimed at fighting counterfeit products. The managers of the league should work towards the prosecution of those who are caught with counterfeit products so as to deter other potential criminals who tamper with the brand of the products. All those who have a stake in the league should also ensure that all those websites that sell counterfeit products are shut down or traffic is reduced in such websites. This can be achieved by warning members of the public who are likely to fall prey to the machinations of people who operate such websites. By naming the websites, members of the public will avoid them and they will just die a natural death.
Managers of the league should also work with organizations that are tasked with safety on the internet to ensure that those who use the brand of the company to market counterfeit products are arrested and prosecuted. The prosecution of such people will act as a general deterrence to members of the public who may want to engage in such illegal activities. In the recent past, the National Football League has launched a preemptive strike against vendors of unlicensed Super Bowl merchandise by receiving permission to seize the property. Some courts have granted temporary restraining and seizure orders to the NFL, after they requested injunctions. The company has so far impounded some counterfeit products that are sold by unscrupulous business people who disguise themselves as actors of the national football league. Those who are concerned with managing the league can also come up with an initiative where they can address the complaints of the fans so as to make the league and its products to be attractive. Many fans have been duped into buying counterfeit products but they have nowhere to report because of the bureaucracies that are involved in raising complaints.
Customers feel that the product is one of the best in the US and outside because of the strategies that have been put in place. The customers feel the value of the brand because of the way it has been packaged and fans feel the value of the brand as a result of the technologies that have been put in place to market the brand. Those who have been tasked with managing the league have put in place various measures that are aimed at ensuring that fans are comfortable. The organization has built a brand that is easy to market and in which some people want to hang on in producing counterfeit products. The organizations should ensure that all the products that are sold on the market with its brand are legit so that they do not reduce the customer and fan base that has taken them many decades to build.