NASCAR WINSTON CUP SCENE features a special report on
corporate presence and influence in auto racing, titled "The
Selling of NASCAR." The extensive report profiles various
segments of the industry, including how sponsors leverage
their programs at retail, the increasing role sponsors play
in making team racing decisions, Michael Holigan's recently
signed deal with the Rick Hendrick-owned No. 25 Chevrolet to
be driven next season by Jerry Nadeau, the rising costs of
sponsorships and the NASCAR "corporate shuffle."
BOOSTING THE BOTTOM LINE: DuPont Performance Coatings
President Lou Savelli, whose company is the primary sponsor
of Jeff Gordon's Winston Cup car: "The first three or four
years we tracked the amount of new business we could
attribute to NASCAR. We counted the number of dealerships
and the number of body shops that converted to our products
based on our NASCAR program. ... After a while, it became
evident that we had more than paid for our program in new
business, so we stopped counting." WINSTON CUP SCENE's Jeff
Owens writes under the header, "Image Is Everything: In
Choosing A Driver, Image Often Outweighs Driving Ability."
Budweiser-backed Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s image is "expected to
boost the sales" of the brand, "particularly among blue-
collar, middle class race fans," and he is an "immediate
favorite" of fans who "don't relate to Gordon's more
polished, clean-cut image." Cotter Group President Tom
Cotter: "Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a little rough around the
edges and he may not conjugate his verbs quite right, but he
is the anti-Gordon" (NASCAR WINSTON CUP SCENE, 8/5 issue).
DECISIONS, DECISIONS: Owens writes that most "new or
potential sponsors consider" a NASCAR deal "for a year or
more" before making a financial commitment. TN-based
marketing consultant Norm Partin said race teams "have to
have the knowledge of what [sponsors'] objectives are. If
you are going in selling exposure, exposure, exposure, you
are going to lose." One anonymous NASCAR sponsor rep said,
"If there is no business plan in place, sponsors begin to
wonder what they are investing in. We need something more
than, 'We're gonna get out there and win races.'" Cotter
adds the "biggest challenge to sponsors is, how do you put a
dollar value on this investment. In some cases, it's just a
gut feeling" (NASCAR WINSTON CUP SCENE, 8/5 issue).
