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By A Ketley1

 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, 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 may not know the name Mike Bartelli. Racecar driver? No. But he is a guy who knows lots 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 aided NASCAR see record growth in popularity and sponsorship. Now 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’ve since taken the ideas Mike shared and reshaped them to suit the car business. We are currently 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 main strategies was to make use of celebrities and celebrity endorsements to reach new fan bases. The NASCAR approach honed in on target groups of potential fans that 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. Although NASCAR undoubtedly knows this, several dealers in this nation don’t.

The goal of marketing is to get your prospective customer’s attention. So if nothing works better in getting attention than celebrities, why not make use of it?

Demographics don’t matter either. Wealthy investors, CEOs, credit challenged, blue-collar, white-collar they’re all attracted to celebrities. We believe the reason is reach and frequency. Much like efficient marketing is about reaching a lot of individuals and more importantly reaching them many times, celebrities have an enormous amount of reach because their job is to be noticed and be heard.

Another motive why celebrities are strong marketing weapons is centered on the power of association. People connect you to people they see you with. If you are hanging out with celebrities then you must be one yourself. This is reassuring to your consumers and places you in a favorable light. And of course potential clients will enjoy aligning themselves with you too, as they also want a piece of that celebrity pie.

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

Think this does not apply to you? Think you cannot use superstars in your marketing because you cannot pay for Dan Marino? Well think again.

There’s actually some 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 making use of images of 3 renowned celebs your target audience would resonate with… let us 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 image 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 can use your marketing dollars to buy a celeb for direct sponsorship, endorsement or events. Sure most A-listers may be out of your price scale but there is always somebody affordable that resonates with your target market. Older celebs who are no longer in their hay-day or little known celebs such as popular contestants on reality TV shows can usually be employed for surprisingly little.

Also bear in mind that the recession impacts everyone. Even celebs jump at the chance to make some extra cash. More normally than not it is our impression of celebs and our ego, fear of the unknown and apprehension created by star mystique which keep dealers from leveraging this super-charger of a promoting resource.
You could find contact information on almost any celeb in a book by Jordan McAuley called the Celebrity Black Book available on Amazon.com or contact our office directly for celebrity broker recommendations.

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
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