The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing: A Branding Success

But most of the time, drivers stick to the same paint scheme. For example, Austin Dillon, driver of the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) owned number three, sticks to his Dow sponsored paint scheme. Sometimes, NASCAR would make a new model of car, with the same manufacturer. In early 2013, NASCAR stopped racing Dodge Chargers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and sticked to racing Chevrolet SS’, Toyota Camrys, and Ford Fusions. In late 2015, before four time NASCAR champ Jeff Gordon retired, Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports, replaced the sponsor and paint scheme of the number 24 from the Drive to End Hunger red scheme, to the Napa Auto Parts blue paint scheme that the current driver for 2016 Chase Elliott drove in his NASCAR Xfinity Series career. And early before this current NASCAR season, Danica Patrick, driver of the Stewart Haas Racing owned number 10, announced that her sponsor would be changed from Go Daddy, to Natures Bakery. So, basically, even if the cars evolve, the tech is still the same in

"A 1999 survey of sports sponsors by Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal ranked NASCAR No. 1 in licensing, promotional opportunities, retail tie-ins, client endorsements and media coverage--ahead of the NFL, NBA and Professional Golf Association" (Advertising Age, Sc 1).

The year 2008 was a dreadful year for corporations as it brought profit losses for their business. Corporations would rather forget this dark time in history plus trust past events do not repeat themselves. During 2008 companies were struggling to stay in the industry. NASCAR, Chevrolet, and Chrysler among others firms could not have prevented what was occurring in the USA economy (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). There was nothing that could have altered the 2008 recession. However, the NASCAR’s overall co- branding strategy dealing with the marketing affairs seems to be a sound plan, but they lacked diversification in its sponsorship portfolio.

NASCAR’s branding strategy depended heavily on sponsorships. The concentrated focus on sponsorships, without providing categorical exclusivity to sponsors, made NASCAR easily expendable. Ferrell and Hartline reported that 50% of NASCAR’s revenue source was from sponsorships alone (2014, p. 437). As a former Account Executive, the goal is to always educate and inform advertisers/sponsors that marketing shares the significance level with that of paying the company’s utility bills; therefore, NASCAR failed to improvise with that notion, coupled with sponsorship saturation, and as a result making them susceptible to economic downfall. Marketing experts Ferrell and Hartline expressed similar interest, saying that one potential weakness of NASCAR’s

Television broadcasts are fought over and highly respected in any community. National networks broadcast the most major sporting events while the localized broadcasts may show the local minor league teams, county fairs, and contests. Now, with Regional Hometown Races sponsored by NASCAR, the regional broadcasts can take advantage of the co-branding techniques of NASCAR to practically promote themselves on the local station. The attraction of races on television paired with the realization that the

NASCAR should create a new racing series while creating a linkage of suppliers, vendors, buyer, and customers through informational, technological, social and structural linkages (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). Intensive distribution should be utilized to offer as many sales opportunities as possible and gain exposure (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). The new series should generate interest in new and existing fans while simultaneously converting other sports fans to watch and attend NASCAR events through the use of social media, advertisements, sponsorships, and endorsements.

Our case analysis looks in depth at IndyCar which is an open-wheel racing sport based in America.With auto racing becoming more popular in the U.S. IndyCar is trying to compete with its top rival NASCAR in hopes of regaining fans and finding new sponsors to help keep IndyCar as a leader in the motorsports market. This analysis will take a deeper look at IndyCar’s internal and external environments as well as their customer environment and a complete SWOT analysis. To help with IndyCar’s issues, a problem statement as well as a few alternatives to help solve their problem will also be discussed in greater detail.

I chose Kyle Busch as my NASCAR driver. He is sponsored by Skittles, M&M’s, Pedigree, and NOS. These sponsors feel that it is important to sponsor him because he is a talented racer so he gives them good publicity. With the sponsors on his car and uniform, they are getting advertisement from all of the viewers of the race. His talents are key to this because if people look up to how he is a good driver they will think that using his brands they will be like him. He has won a good amount of races and has proved to be an elite racer. His sponsors don’t match his racing, however, they make people think that if they eat snickers they’ll be like him.

NASCAR has been in existence for nearly 60 years and it a widely recognized sport, which is only second to the National Football League (NFL) (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014 p. 429). The drivers ability to interact with fans and, also fans having the opportunity to get up close and personal to view the cars, makes it a very unique brand in the Motorsports arena. In my opinion, this is one of few sports where athletes are treated as "traditional" human beings, rather than celebrities that require scores of security officials, monitoring their every move. The economic downturn of NASCAR was due to several issues, in which, NASCAR could have addressed, had they reviewed the marketing strategy. First, the lack of diversity of drivers were a concern amongst

Beginning in 1948, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) organized the sport in almost all of the Southeastern part of the United States. North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama were among some of the first tracks on which NASCAR competed. With little change in its relatively small fan base, fifty years later NASCAR began to search for ways to gain mass appeal.

Since Mars entered NASCAR as a team sponsor more than 25 years ago, the chocolate company has increased its level of participation in racing. NASCAR fans are 3 times as likely to try and purchase NASCAR sponsors’ products and services. The mission statement of Mars and NASCAR has the common point of making their targeted customers happy providing the best snacks and to enjoy the leisure time watching a sport. Both of them are doing their best to make their customers happy and to reach their targeted

In order to strive for success in the automotive industry innovation and advertising is the name of the game, Ford Motor Company, sets the standard for innovation in the automotive industry with the new Ford F-150. A crucial component in the automotive industry is advertising of the company’s vehicles. The companies must ensure that their message is clearly and effectively conveyed to potential consumers. It is vital for

Even though it is such a popular sport, NASCAR faces the challenge of losing TV viewers and their main goal is to search for ways to increase their audience size and increase their sponsorship. Since NASCAR’s main

Because NASCAR’s branding strategy in the early years was so successful, it has created a very loyal fan base which has risen to an astronomical – 75 million fans. What has impacted NASCAR during the economic downturn was the fact that they were heavily relying on major automobile companies, such as, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Chrysler; therefore, when the auto industry was affected by the recession, it had an impact on NASCAR’s sponsorship funding. For NASCAR to insulate itself from further economic issues, the industry will need to remain faithful to their roots. This is a spectator sport, not a sponsorship sport. This motorsport must maintain a fan-base by ensuring there are opportunities in which they can afford to participate. The branding and co-branding of NASCAR have proven to be a bit commercialized; therefore, placing drivers at risk for losing business endorsements if they do not win. I do believe it has placed undue hardship for the driver. As with any other sport, such as Football, Baseball, and Basketball, it has become more about the

The NASCAR branding strategy is similar to its overall marketing strategy which entails appealing to the fans using web and digital print. NASCAR has adopted an exclusive and useful way to market its brand towards the public. The strategy has included NASCAR believing that the fans are extremely important and they focus on attracting new fans and by utilizing various marketing techniques they hope to gain new fans in the future. They use to publish a different advertisement, reviews, contents, promotion, sponsorships and various other ways to appeal to their fans; to help ensure they remain loyal to NASCAR.