I’m a football fan and my favorite football day of the year is quickly approaching, the NFL Draft.  What does this have to do with your brand? I was watching some draft coverage this weekend and the draft analysts (what a job!) kept referring to “the Patriot way”, even when they were talking about other teams.  When the analysts said “the Patriot way” football fans, coaches, players, etc. all know what they mean because of the way the Patriots organization has built the Patriot brand.  In this 5 part series we will look at what Robert Kraft, owner of the Patriots, did to build the Patriots brand and how you can apply those strategies to your business.

If you do not know about the history of the Patriots, here is a quick synopsis.  Robert Kraft bought the Patriots in 1994 for $175 million, at the time the most ever paid for an NFL franchise.  When Kraft bought the Patriots, the Patriots were not only the worst team in the NFL, but they were an embarrassment off the field, with drug troubles and allegations of sexual misconduct towards female reporters.  All of these contributed to the Patriots being the least valuable franchise in the NFL.  So why did Kraft purchase the team for a record sum?

As an outsider looking in I would argue that Kraft had a passion and a vision for the Patriots and he was extremely confident in his abilities to turn his passion and vision into reality.

At the core of the Patriots success has been the Patriots brand and what that brand means.  Let’s look at 5 ways that Kraft built the Patriots brand to align with his vision and passion and how these can be applied to YOUR business.

Part 1 on 4/21/11

Tim Kaelin - ProfitDriver