3 Nascar Marketing Secrets That Will Turbo Charge Your Success This Year – Part 1

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, profit exploding techniques 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 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 an expert in motorsports marketing, and as head of Millsport Motorsports he has 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 secrets to NASCAR's Marketing Success. We have since taken the ideas Mike shared and reshaped them to suit the car business. We’re now serving them to you on a silver platter so you can make use of 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’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 techniques was to use celebrities and celebrity endorsements to reach new fan bases. The NASCAR approach honed in on target groups of prospective fans that usually 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. Although NASCAR undoubtedly knows this, several dealers in this nation do not.

The point of marketing is to get your prospective client's attention. So if nothing works better in getting attention than celebs, why not make use of it?

Demographics do not matter either. Wealthy investors, CEOs, credit challenged, blue-collar, white-collar they're all attracted to celebs. We believe the reason is reach and frequency. The same as efficient marketing is about reaching several individuals and more significantly reaching them several times, celebs have an incredible amount of reach since their job is to be seen and be heard.

One more reason why celebrities are influential marketing weapons is based on the power of association. Individuals connect you to people they see you with. If you are hanging out with celebs then you ought to be one yourself. This is reassuring to your customers and puts you in a favorable light. And obviously prospective clientele will enjoy aligning themselves with you as well, as they too want a piece of that celebrity pie.

Not to mention, customers are more probable to refer business to the “cool” dealer that hangs out with celebrities over the guy they’ve never heard of. Bear in mind, boring is safe, but it gets you nowhere. Leverage the power of celebrity and your prospective buyers will be chasing you down for a sale.

Think this does not pertain to you? Think you can't use superstars in your marketing because you can't afford Dan Marino? Well think again.

There is in fact a few low-cost means you can start featuring celebs in your marketing immediately.

One strategy we like is designing a mail piece with a full color envelope using pictures of 3 famous celebs your target audience would resonate with… let's say, Barack Obama, Tiger Woods, Oprah Winfrey and YOU! You could use the headline, "What Do Barack, Tiger, Oprah and Mr. Dealer Have In Common." Next to your picture you would 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 someone affordable that resonates with your target market. Older celebs who are no longer in their hay-day or little known celebrities such as popular contestants on reality TV shows could normally be hired for surprisingly little.

Also bear in mind that the recession affects everybody. Even celebrities jump at the possibility to make some extra cash. More normally than not it's our impression of celebs 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 could find contact info on nearly 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.

By: Jimmy Vee

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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 www.RichDealers.com/special