Football is a dynamic game. The situation is always changing. It takes two minutes and a handful of plays to determine the triumph of a team—or its defeat. The pace and drama inherent in the game contribute directly to the NFL’s success—for even when the league’s finances are complicated, to say the least, there is no viable competition for the hardcore football audience, which is sizable.
That celebration of change fades away when you get off the gridiron and start talking about how the game is played. Over the past few years, the NFL has introduced some controversial rules in order to make the sport safer for the athletes who play it. These changes include a ban on helmet-to-helmet hits and requiring a player to leave the game entirely after they’ve suffered a concussion.
Those rules aren’t enough to prevent every injury. During the play-off games, Seattle Seahawks player John Carlson suffered a terrifying injury—an injury that resulted from perfectly legal game play.
What should the NFL do? Is it the right decision to adjust the way the league plays football to further protect the safety of their players? Or is the risk and eventual realization of injury not only part of the game, but a bloody bonus that makes the experience better for the football fans?
Brand Modeling provides the tools business leaders need when faced with complex decisions such as these. Making changes to an established, storied business such as the NFL is not something to undertake lightly.
On the other hand, failing to make changes can have expensive ramifications for the league and the players. Either way, the fans will be impacted. There’s no doubt that the NFL would like to know, ahead of time, what that impact will be.
Knowing What Your Best Customers Value Most
Part of the challenge the NFL is facing is determining, with a high degree of specificity, what aspects of the football game matter the most to their best customers.
Every change will impact the fan’s experience, and the situation is complex enough that there are no black and white answers. Eliminate the aspect of the game that “makes football football” and run the risk of alienating your fans, perhaps forever. The trick is in identifying what that aspect is.
Some fans have argued for a version of the game with less rules and more brutality. On the other hand, that model has been tried, by Vince McMahon, who has significant experience building a dominant brand (WWE) in the sports world. He started the XFL as a rougher, tougher alternate to the NFL. The overt focus on brutal, physically risky play drew a lot of media attention—but few fans. The league never gained traction and lasted only a single season.
What went wrong? McMahon had tapped into an element of the game that surely resonates with football’s fan base. The question to ask is is that element compelling enough for the NFL’s best customers that a change in the level of aggression and physical injury experienced by the players would fundamentally alter their experience of the game?
Doing research with the NFL’s best fans could reveal a host of other reasons that fans commit every weekend to watching their favorite team—not to mention shelling out hundreds, even thousands, of dollars for season tickets and team gear. A love of the game’s tradition, an appreciation of a quarterback’s strategic decisions, the feeling of community that comes from being a fan, and dozens of other reasons to love the NFL can all impact fan behavior. All of these criteria must be taken into account as the NFL makes their decisions regarding new rules.
It’s a lesson for those of us who have nuanced, complex decisions to make regarding our own businesses to watch carefully. Maintaining a dominant position in the marketplace is no less challenging than achieving that spot in the first place.
It takes more than a lucky field goal to make it to the Super Bowl, and it takes more than one decision to grow a great business. Brand Modeling provides us with the tools and insights to consistently make great decisions—through pre-season right through the Super Bowl and beyond.