Professor Vollrath
BUS 210
2/17/2019
Blog #2
The NFL is a multi-billion dollar business, yet, they too can improve. When it comes to consumer behavior it is becoming increasingly important for the NFL to recognize that NFL ratings are at an all-time low but at the same time viewership is up (Hartung n.d.). Something has to give. One hypothesis could be that the impact that social justice has had on the league could be decreasing ratings. Given the controversy surrounding players such as Colin Kaepernick and his stance on kneeling, one may assume that He is playing a role in the drive towards lower ratings. Jonathan Barr, a contributor on Forbes, has vehemently denied this hypothesis and instead claims that the poor performance of the major media market teams has contributed towards the lower ratings (Barr 2018).
This is a slippery slope. The NFL has very limited power to simply "make a team better" if they did that, it would be considered cheating. It seems to me that the league is simply at the mercy of major market teams such as the New York franchises performing poorly year after year. This leaves consumers disinterested in what the NFL has to offer. When considering the consumer decision process and the NFL, consumers recognize that they have a need to watch the sport. The consumer then searches for a team that he or she would best identify with, possibly through the elaboration likelihood model. Perhaps the consumer sees messages from a team that prompts high involvement which in turn results in more attention and deeper processing towards the team of interest. Ultimately this elaboration likely ends in the consumer developing a strong attitude towards the consumer and drives their purchase intentions. The consumer likely won't consider alternative evaluations when it comes to purchasing the NFL's product, as it is the only professional football league. This leaves the consumer almost no choice but to purchase the NFL as their "product".
It is not clear cut with how the NFL can improve their marketing through consumer behavior. As mentioned earlier, the NFL cannot simply just "make teams better" that bring in more consumers. Rather, they may just have to continue to pour into lesser media market teams that are successful (New Orleans being an example).
References
Berr, J. (n.d.). The NFL’s Ratings Probably Will Continue To Decline. Retrieved February 17, 2019, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanberr/2018/08/28/the-nfls-ratings-probably-will-continue-to-decline/
Hartung, A. (n.d.). The NFL Has A Bigger Problem Than Kneeling Employees -- Demographics And Trends. Retrieved February 10, 2019, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2017/09/29/the-nfl-has-a-bigger-problem-than-kneeling-employees-demographics-and-trends/
