NASCAR Business on Fast Track
Fortune magazine has published an interesting article that will appear in it’s Sept. 5 dead tree issue. Those of us that have followed NASCAR for some time recognize the growth the France family has brought to the sport. A great many heated debates have been mediated over beers and pizza on whether the changes or for the better, or the worse, but that’s a story for another time.
At one time the biggest corporate sponsors were the auto manufacturers themselves who spent millions on factory teams. For a short while those teams raced purpose built cars. There were street versions of the [avatar:http://cranialcavity.net/files/bird-street.jpg]Plymouth Superbird[/avatar] and [avatar:http://cranialcavity.net/files/talladega-street.jpg]Ford Torino Talladega[/avatar] but they were in very limited production (and worth tens of thousands of dollars today). Today NASCAR approved body styles are produced in the millions. The cars then were designed and built for the NASCAR factory teams like [avatar:http://cranialcavity.net/files/petty-bird.jpg]Richard Petty[/avatar] and [avatar:http://cranialcavity.net/files/talladega-17.jpg]David Pearson[/avatar], among others, to further the industry mantra of “win on Sunday, sell on Monday.”
As Fortune points out the mantra remains the same, it’s those that do the Monday selling that have changed. Recall Tony Stewart’s winning effort in the Pepsi 400 and his fence climbing routine? Home Depot rushed out a print ad featuring a picture of Stewart’s ascent with text that read, “Hey Tony, we have ladders,” and offered a 10% discount to customers who brought a copy of the ad in. Sales of ladders jumped double digits.
The article contains many astounding numbers related to the power of NASCAR marketing in what Fortune calls, “the fastest-growing, best-run sports business in America
Have you noticed Tony “Smoke” Stewarts latest marketing effort? He is selling his own brand of barbecue sauce. Need I say the name of the product?? It kind of reminds me of the Warren Zevon song, “Even the dog can shake hands”. If not familiar to you, download the tune, the Parallels to NASCAR are right on the mark, even tho Warren was writing about the music industry.
Yea I remember the “Smoke” sauce, if I recall correctly it was around the time of his Indy win but I might be off base.
Not an entirely unusual occurrence.
I was going to add it to the story but figured I had enough little pop-up do-dads already!
BTW you shirked your “duty” while you were here. You forgot to take part in my new poll feature located in the sidebar. Tsk, tsk, tsk!