NASCAR is a powerful business and marketing machine. There is a lot you could learn about positioning your own dealership simply by studying the lead-generating, profit exploding strategies of this racing giant.
You've probably heard of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. They're all pretty famous NASCAR stars. But a name you may not know the name Mike Bartelli. Racecar driver? No. But he is a man who knows a lot about speed. Mike is a marketing guy and when it comes to NASCAR and motorsports marketing he is, "the" guy.
Mike is an expert in motorsports marketing, and as president of Millsport Motorsports he's assisted NASCAR see record growth in popularity and sponsorship. Today Mike is chief marketing officer and senior VP of Petty Enterprises.
In a recent interview, Mike divulged some of the tips to NASCAR's Marketing Success. We've from then taken the ideas Mike shared and reshaped them to fit the car business. We're currently serving them to you on a silver platter so you would be able to utilize them in your own dealership this year.
So print this out, grab a highlighter or a pen and put on your thinking cap as you are about to go for wild ride.
NASCAR Understands the Power of a Celebrity Endorsement
In developing their own monster brand, one of NASCAR's main strategies was to make use of celebs and celebrity endorsements to reach new fan bases. The NASCAR approach honed in on target groups of prospective fans who usually will overlook the sport and reached out to them utilizing a popular celebrity from film, television, music, sports, etc.
You see, nothing gets attention like celebs... Certainly NOTHING. Although NASCAR undoubtedly knows this, many dealers in this nation do not.
The purpose of advertising is to get your prospect's attention. So if nothing works better in getting attention than celebs, why not utilize it?
Demographics don't matter either. Rich investors, CEOs, credit challenged, blue-collar, white-collar they all are attracted to celebs. We believe the reason is reach and frequency. Just as effective marketing is about reaching several individuals and more significantly reaching them several times, celebs have a huge amount of reach since their job is to be seen and be heard.
One more reason why celebrities are strong marketing weapons is centered on the power of association. Individuals link you to people they see you with. If you are hanging out with celebrities then you ought to be one yourself. This is reassuring to your clients and places you in a favorable light. And of course potential clientele would like aligning themselves with you too, as they also want a piece of that celebrity pie.
Not to mention, clients are more probable to refer business to the "cool" dealer that hangs out with celebs over the guy they've never heard of. Bear in mind, boring is safe, but it will get you nowhere. Leverage the power of celebrity and your potential customers would be chasing you down for a sale.
Think this does not pertain to you? Think you can't make use of celebs in your marketing because you cannot afford Dan Marino? Well think again.
There is in fact a few low-cost ways you could begin featuring celebs in your marketing right away.
One strategy we like is designing a mail piece with a full color envelope utilizing images of 3 well-known celebs your target audience will resonate with... let us say, Barack Obama, Tiger Woods, Oprah Winfrey and YOU! You can use the headline, "What Do Barack, Tiger, Oprah and Mr. Dealer Have In Common." Next to your picture you'd put your name and "owner of ABC dealership in XYZ town." BANG, instant celebrity tie in. And that's getting opened.
Or you could use your marketing dollars to buy a celeb for direct sponsorship, endorsement or events. Sure most A-listers might be out of your price scale but there is always somebody affordable who resonates with your target market. Older celebs who are no longer in their hay-day or more obscure celebs like popular contestants on reality TV shows can often be employed for surprisingly little.
Also remember that the recession impacts everyone. Even celebs jump at the possibility to make some extra money. More often than not it's our impression of celebrities and our ego, fear of the unknown and apprehension created by star charisma which keep dealers from leveraging this super charger of a marketing resource. You can find contact information on virtually any celebrity in a book by Jordan McAuley called the Celebrity Black Book available on Amazon.com or contact our office directly for celebrity agent suggestions.
Author Resource:-
Jimmy Vee & Travis Miller are the authors of Gravitational Marketing: The Science of Attracting Customers and founders of the Rich Dealers Institute. They help dealers double their profits in as little as 118 days. Receive a free copy of their special report & video presentation, The New Rules of Automotive Marketing by visiting http://www.RichDealers.com/special Get a Unique Version of this ArticleArticle Marketing
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