NASCAR is a powerful business and marketing machine. There’s a lot you will be able to learn about positioning your own dealership just by studying the lead-generating, profit exploding strategies of this racing giant.

You have 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 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 helped 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 techniques 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 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 because you are about to go for wild ride.

NASCAR Understands the Power of a Celebrity Endorsement

In building 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 prospective fans that usually will overlook the sport and reached out to them making use of a popular celebrity from film, television, music, sports, etc.

You see, nothing gets attention like celebs… Certainly NOTHING. While NASCAR undoubtedly knows this, many dealers in this nation do not.

The purpose of advertising 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 are all attracted to celebrities. We believe the reason is reach and frequency. Just as efficient marketing is about reaching many individuals and more significantly reaching them several times, celebs have an enormous amount of reach since their job is to be noticed and be heard.

Another motive why celebrities are powerful marketing weapons is based on the power of association. People relate you to those they see you with. If you are hanging out with celebs then you have to be one yourself. This is reassuring to your clients and places you in a good light. And of course prospective clients will like aligning themselves with you also, as they too want a piece of that celebrity pie.

Not to mention, consumers are more likely to refer business to the “cool” dealer who 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 potential buyers 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 can’t pay for Dan Marino? Well think again.

There’s in fact some low-cost ways you could start featuring celebs in your marketing immediately.

One strategy we like is designing a mail piece with a full color envelope making use of pictures of three famous celebrities 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 is getting opened.

Or you could make use of your marketing dollars to purchase a celebrity for direct sponsorship, endorsement or events. Sure many of the A-listers might 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 more obscure celebrities like popular contestants on reality TV shows could normally be employed for surprisingly little.

Also remember that the depression affects everybody. Even celebrities jump at the chance to make some extra money. More usually than not it’s our impression of celebs and our ego, fear of the unknown and apprehension created by star mystique that keep dealers from leveraging this super charger of a marketing 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