Its championship game is watched by the entire country. It has the highest revenue of any sporting league in the US. It’s collegiate draft is watched by millions. It has it’s own full-time news channel.
How has the NFL managed to become so strong? Among countless other things, it has a huge, focused marketing scheme.

Probably the most important thing to a professional sporting league’s marketing scheme is simply its image. The following are a few ways the NFL has presented itself to consumers.
1. The NBA fought drug issues for years, the MLB is facing a steroid crisis, but the NFL has had no such problem. It has had a strict drug testing and punishment system in place for years.
2. The NFL is heavily tied with charities such as the United Way. Not only that, but it encourages and aids its players in setting up local charities. These vary from inner city reading programs to charities helping disabled children. There are now hundreds of these charities headed up by individual NFL players.
3. The NFL head office and individual teams have consistently fined players for poor character decisions off the field. Due to their consistency in this teams have been forced to pick and sign players while keeping their characters in mind.
4. The NFL has also been visibly patriotic through the years. It’s pre-game ceremonies often involve military fly-overs and huge American flags at centerfield. The NFL has also given and raised money for many national disasters through the years.
The NFL has been strategic and consistent in presenting its image as a league that gives heavily to charities, is drug free, patriotic, and is made up of high character players.

The NFL also is strategic in its marketing strategy by creating parity. Through hard salary cap, revenue sharing, free agency, and lowest-first drafting the NFL has ensured that any team can win. This parity creates the opportunity for every team to have high and low years, and does not make lower revenue teams consistently bottom feeders.

The NFL also has great deal of direct marketing. Its games are well advertised and it has a strong presence on sports news channels. The NFL also has its own channel and a quality web site. It also sells a massive quantity of merchandise that acts as a marketing tool a fan supports his/her favorite team.

Through image, parity, and direct marketing the NFL has managed to create a marketing scheme unrivalled by any other professional sporting league. The NFL knows that nearly everything it does is a marketing opportunity, and it takes advantage of them all.