Want to Sell Stuff? Make It a Licensed NASCAR Product
BY DRU SEFTON

Louise Rooney is a fairly typical NASCAR fan. She and her family watch races every weekend, cheer for favorite drivers, make summer pilgrimages to the track at Daytona and have plenty _ plenty! _ of NASCAR stuff.

That includes but is not limited to what she calls "the usual." More than two dozen miniature diecast cars. Banners. Hats and jackets. Blankets ("great for tailgating"), sheets and pajamas. Coffee mugs, cups and glasses.

"Oh, I could go on," said Rooney, who lives with her husband Mark and three daughters in Mahopac, N.Y.

According to NASCAR, stock-car racing fans including Rooney purchase about $2 billion of NASCAR items annually. That's billion with a "b."

"The products are ubiquitous in retail aisles and in fans' homes," said Andrew Giangola, a NASCAR spokesman.

That incredible brand loyalty coupled with the sport's growth and fan demand for ever-more things NASCAR has created some intriguing objects.

NASCAR-themed and licensed items now include:
• A line of meats (motto: "Taste the excitement!")
• Chain saws
• Harlequin romance novels
• Personal computers
• Coffee makers
• Produce (NASCAR potatoes, tomatoes, onions)
• Furniture, such as racing recliners
• Wallpaper
• Crock-Pots
• Scrapbooks
• Toothbrushes
• Pet accessories
And, coming later this month, "Daytona 500, the new eau de toilette and aftershave for men."

While some of those may seem a tad silly to non-racing fans -- NASCAR meats? -- they make perfect sense from a marketing standpoint.

"In general, people buy sports-related merchandise to represent who they are to others," said Kirk Wakefield, chairman of the marketing department at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and an expert in the sports realm.

That's why that NASCAR scent might just be a big hit: "If someone says to the person wearing it, hey, you smell good today, they can come back with, yeah, that's my NASCAR cologne," Wakefield said.

It wasn't always this way. Ernie Saxton has been attending racing events since 1955. Back then the only products NASCAR pitched were advertised on the cars, "and they were from oil companies or something to do with the auto industry," Saxton said.

He's been writing about racing issues for decades and is publisher of Motorsports Sponsorship Marketing News, from Langhorne, Pa.

Over the years he's witnessed the impressive NASCAR merchandise juggernaut. "One time there was even Dale Earnhardt toilet tissue with a big number 3 on it," he said. "Really."

In addition to all the officially licensed NASCAR products, each driver also cuts his own deals to create merchandise lines with each sponsor, Saxton said. That adds exponentially to the number of racing items out there.

Giangola said the confluence of NASCAR's spread -- from its beginnings as a "mainly Southeastern phenomenon" to tracks across the nation -- and a big television deal in 2000 sparked massive growth in the popularity of the already-hot sport.

"There's a whole new fan base, so there's more of an incentive for companies to become involved in manufacturing products," he said.

Add growth in female interest (now 40 percent of some 30 million fans are women) and that means lots more stuff just for them -- hence the romance novels, Crock-Pots and scrapbooks.

NASCAR has a staff of about 60 at its office in Charlotte, N.C., working full time just on licensing, Giangola added.

One recent licensee is 2 Brothers Barbecue Sauce of West Point, Miss. Since mid-2005 it's the "Officially Licensed Barbecue Sauce of NASCAR."

Also since then, "I'd be conservatively projecting a 10-fold increase in business," said Mike Reilly, 2 Brothers president.

Because as amazing as NASCAR fan loyalty is, the marketing power that NASCAR brings to its licensees is just as impressive.

"NASCAR is a powerful partner to sit at the table with," especially for a small, family-owned business like 2 Brothers, Reilly said. The multi-billion corporation provides tiny firms with marketing savvy, distribution assistance and, of course, that uber-valuable NASCAR logo.

"It understands sponsors are very important in this sport, and it works very hard to make good things happen for the sponsors," Reilly said, adding, "If there's a limit to this, I don't see it yet."

This all-around enthusiasm sort of baffles Eric Tatro of Howell, Mich., who blogs about all things sporting at www.speakingsports.com.

Take Tatro; he's a big Detroit Lions fan. "So I'd buy a team-related item, but not necessarily an NFL item," he said. For instance, a Lions clock as opposed to a clock with the National Football League logo on it.

Another example: "It's easy for me to see a specific baseball team teaming up with, say, Ball Park Franks for a cross-promotion _ but I can't see `Major League Baseball Ball Park Franks.'

"So it's interesting the way NASCAR has been able to market its `league' to the fans so well," Tatro said.

As for Rooney, she has more plans for her husband Mark's NASCAR-themed garage. He already has it decked out with banners and even a used tire off a racing car in Daytona.

Next up, he needs that NASCAR Crock-Pot.

"That sounds great," she said. "For NASCAR meat!"

April 18, 2006

(Dru Sefton can be contacted at dru.sefton@newhouse.com)