Turbocharge Your Business Marketing Utilizing NASCAR Marketing Secrets

By Edward DuCoin

Corporate sponsors spend huge amounts of money for NASCAR related advertising.  Mars, Inc. has been paying large sums of money to have their products advertised in various ways with NASCAR.  Mars Inc. reports that they get back $4 for every $1 spent on NASCAR sponsorships.  No wonder they keep on doing it year after year!

How does NASCAR consistently attract large crowds, television broadcast fees, and corporate sponsors who pay six figure sponsorship fees?  The short answer is that they attract and include celebrities in their events, treat people well, and maximize the return on investment for their sponsors.

Why?  Celebrities are celebrities in part due to achievement.  As strange as it seems, sometimes celebrities are famous because they are well known for some association they share with other celebrities.  Don't fail to understand that people pay attention to celebrities, and it doesn't seem to matter much whether they even like the celebrity.  Famous people attract the attention of the poor and the wealthy; of the 'Larry Lunch-bucket' crowd and the Wall Street insiders; of people from Red States and Blue States; and of blue collar, white collar, and no collar people. 

Association with celebrities seems to lend a celebrity status to ordinary people who are seen spending time with those people, even when it may be manufactured, scripted event. For example, Kevin Harvick fans are more likely to drink Pepsi since their favorite NASCAR driver is associated with the brand.

The power of association is much greater than we may realize.

NASCAR started in 1948 as an association for dirt-track racing in the southern United States. The family-owned company has grown to more than 200 employees, and annual revenues have risen to over $1.3 Billion.  Marketing research indicates NASCAR has 75 million fans, with over 40% earning $50 thousand per year. Research also indicates that 40 million of those fans spend an average of $700 per year on NASCAR merchandise.  Web sites, viewing of races on television, and reading magazines that report on NASCAR activity are quite popular among this sizable group of fans.

Because of the mix of celebrities in attendance, the drivers, sponsors, cars, television exposure, and wide fan demographics, and sponsor loyalty of 75% plus NASCAR has real staying power.  Primary race-team sponsors get to choose the color of the car, and get preferred placement and size of their advertising images on the car. For those privileges, primary sponsors pay somewhere between $5 million to $7 million per year.   With significant revenues, NASCAR gives excellent service focused to maximizing the return on investment for their sponsors.

So What Can Your Business Learn From NASCAR Marketing?

First, NASCAR keeps a clean, family image.  Second, they make sure they appeal to people from all walks of life.  Third, NASCAR provides excellent service to sponsors and fans alike.  Fourth, NASCAR involves celebrities in promoting the sport, and ensures that the celebrity sightings are shared among sponsors, who gain credibility with their own customers.

If your marketing helps your clients and customers to feel valued, you are emulating NASCAR. If you understand the power of association with one or more celebrities, and also know that the appearance fees of some celebrities can be affordable, you are on track to grow your business. If you make sure that no one needs to blush when seeing your product or your advertising, the same goes.

When you make sure that those who contribute significantly to your bottom line receive excellent Return On Investment, and want to continue doing business with you year after year, you may be learning from the great example set by the marketing strategies employed by NASCAR.

Top NASCAR Sponsors

After some research, we came up with the top three sponsors known for their placement on NASCAR vehicles and merchandise.

#1 – Jimmie Johnson, number 48: Lowe’s Home Improvement

#2 – Kevin Harvick, number 8: Budweiser

#3 – Jeff Gordon, number 24: PepsiCo

4 Crucial Things to Know about Crowdfunding: What You Don’t Know Could Hurt You

By Edward DuCoin

Crowdfunding is a way to allow people without much money to 'get in on the ground floor' and to provide funding to a new business venture. In exchange, the small investor hopes for a good return on the money invested. For investors with less than $100,000 annual income (or net worth), current rules allow no more than 5%, up to $2,000 invested in this way. If the income (or net worth) is over $100,000, the limit is 10%, unless the investor is an accredited investor.

In the past year or two, firms offering crowdfunding have grown exponentially.

Recently relaxed disclosure rules allow for information to be offered through forums as casual as Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and other social media sites.

The Good

In the past, well-heeled, well-funded venture capitalists, many if not all of whom were registered investors, would choose which risky ventures to fund. The chance of losing part or all of the investment is quite real in the world of venture capitalists; this is part of the reason most people never get involved in such investments to any serious degree.

The next door neighbor's kid selling stock in Junior Achievement comes to mind, and the amount has traditionally been low enough that nobody really cared if the money went up in smoke. It was to provide an educational experience for the kids, anyway, and the investment was less than a steak dinner for two at the neighborhood dining establishment.

The amount of regulation, research, oversight, and policing authority for most securities is pretty substantial. For small business ventures with no track record, the cost of starting operations can be overwhelming.

Obtaining bank financing often requires the entrepreneur to pledge his home as collateral, and getting the loans can still be quite difficult. An Initial Public Offering (IPO) can require more expense, time and delay than many hopeful business owners can afford.

The vast majority of small business startups do not succeed. One of the biggest reasons is the lack of sufficient operating capital, closely followed by lack of expertise in managing what cash flow is available, along with marketing, competition, putting together a team of employees, dealing with regulations, taxes, and all the rest.

The Bad

·         Crowdfunding shares may be sold through a 'funding portal' or a registered broker-dealer, but both are prohibited from rendering investment advice to the purchaser, or offering sales-based compensation to those who conduct the transaction.

·         Total funds raised via crowdfunding are restricted to $1 million or less. Regulations are not yet fully decided, so no one really knows what future regulations may be. Regulations are loose, but the lack of policing power is practically non-existent, so the possibility of someone simply spending all the money or using it in and unskilled or inappropriate way, with little or no recourse for the investor, is quite real.

·         The non-accredited investor is prohibited against selling his or her shares for one year.

·         A million dollars sounds like a lot of money, and it is. However, the amount of money required to launch a successful business is frequently underestimated. Many expenses both large and small must be met. Investment precedes revenue nearly 100% of the time so a million dollars can be used up before the business gets off the ground. The hidden danger is that the crowdfunding might raise several hundred thousand dollars, and that could make the apparent net worth vs. cash flow of the new business too high for a real IPO to be mounted.

So, the new company is in imminent danger of failing due to lack of funding before the investors can sell their shares. Remember, many of these shares are promoted in rather casual ways, and current regulation allows the promoter to escape the scrutiny other investment providers would face, if the information isn't correct.

Does this sound like a prudent investment for an investor who probably doesn't really know what he or she is doing when the investment is made? Unless I'm investing in my brother in law, count me out.

Top Crowdfunding Sites

If you're looking to acquire money through crowdfunding, or want to invest in a small start up, there are three top sites that have been proven not only trustworthy, but successful as well.

1. Kickstarter (focused on creative projects and steers away from businesses and personal finance goals)

2. indiegogo (more tightly focused, with everything needing approval, covering mostly anything except investing)

3. Crowdfunder (more targeted at businesses, start ups, and social enterprises)

Social Media: Sharing Without Borders

It might be a given that when you post something online, it goes across the world. What doesn’t seem to be such a given is what that means and what sort of impact it carries. When we share something, what borders are we really crossing and what sort of boundaries are we penetrating?

A border doesn’t have to be so straight forward. While it’s true that we’re crossing state and international borders when we send out a tweet, there might be more to it than we think. There are other borders, such as religious separation or cultural changes that we’re jumping over. In the age where even social causes have seen more support than every from websites such as Tumblr, what other borders are we pushing when we hit the share button?

Check out the whole article here on ORPICAL.com.

By Edward DuCoin

Edward DuCoin - racing and crash Mid-Ohio

Beginner’s Guide to Using Social Media as Inspiration

By Edward DuCoin
Whether you’re in a creative field or are more focused on a business related aspect of the industry, everyone needs inspiration. But where do we get inspiration? Is it something that hits us out of nowhere, like many cinematic recreations would lead you to believe, or do you need a muse? Or perhaps there is a scientific explanation for inspiration we could harness in order to get more creative energy.

The truth is, it’s much more simple than any of that. Sometimes it’s seeing something that sparks a new idea while other times, it takes seeing someone else creating something to get us motivated to create. In either case, social media is one of the best sources to get your creative juices flowing.

Check out the Beginner’s Guide to Using Social Media from ORPICAL.com for ways to use your social media platforms for creative ideas.