NASCAR is a powerful business and marketing machine. There is a lot you could learn about positioning your own dealership just by studying the lead-generating, revenue exploding strategies of this racing giant.
You've probably heard of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. They are all pretty famous NASCAR stars. But a name you might not know the name Mike Bartelli. Racecar driver? No. But he is a man that 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 a professional in motorsports marketing, and as head 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 tricks to NASCAR's Marketing Success. We've since taken the ideas Mike shared and reshaped them to fit the car business. We're now serving them to you on a silver platter so you will be able to use them in your own dealership this year.
So print this out, grab a highlighter or a pen and put on your thinking cap because you're about to go for wild ride.
NASCAR Understands the Power of a Celebrity Endorsement
In developing their own monster brand, one of NASCAR's key strategies was to use celebs and celebrity endorsements to reach new fan bases. The NASCAR approach honed in on target groups of potential fans who normally would overlook the sport and reached out to them using a popular celebrity from film, television, music, sports, etc.
You see, nothing gets attention like celebrities... Definitely NOTHING. While NASCAR undoubtedly knows this, many dealers in this nation don't.
The point of advertising is to get your prospective customer's attention. So if nothing works better in getting attention than celebs, why not use it?
Demographics don't matter either. Wealthy investors, CEOs, credit challenged, blue-collar, white-collar they are all attracted to celebrities. We believe the reason is reach and frequency. Just as efficient marketing is about reaching a lot of individuals and more importantly reaching them numerous times, celebrities have an enormous amount of reach as their job is to be seen and be heard.
Another reason why celebrities are powerful marketing weapons is centered on the power of association. Individuals connect you to people they see you with. If you are hanging out with celebs then you should be one yourself. This is reassuring to your clientele and places you in a favorable light. And obviously prospective clients would like aligning themselves with you also, as they too want a piece of that celebrity pie.
Not to mention, clientele are more likely to refer business to the "cool" dealer that hangs out with celebs over the guy they've never heard of. Keep in mind, boring is safe, but it gets you nowhere. Leverage the power of celebrity and your potential customers will be chasing you down for a sale.
Think this doesn't pertain to you? Think you cannot make use of celebs in your marketing because you cannot afford Dan Marino? Well think again.
There's actually a few low-cost means you can start featuring celebrities in your marketing instantly.
One strategy we like is designing a mail piece with a full color envelope using pictures of 3 well-known celebrities 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 purchase a celeb for direct sponsorship, endorsement or events. Of course many of the A-listers may be out of your price scale but there is always somebody affordable that resonates with your target market. Older celebrities who are no longer in their hay-day or more obscure celebrities such as popular contestants on reality TV shows can often be employed for surprisingly little.
Also keep in mind that the depression impacts everyone. Even celebrities jump at the chance to make some extra money. More often than not it is our impression of celebrities and our ego, fear of the unknown and apprehension created by star mystique that keep dealers from leveraging this super charger of a promoting resource. You could 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 broker recommendations.
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 Submission
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