Formula 1 Thesis

NASCAR’s branding strategy depended heavily on sponsorships. The concentrated focus on sponsorships, without providing categorical exclusivity to sponsors, made NASCAR easily expendable. Ferrell and Hartline reported that 50% of NASCAR’s revenue source was from sponsorships alone (2014, p. 437). As a former Account Executive, the goal is to always educate and inform advertisers/sponsors that marketing shares the significance level with that of paying the company’s utility bills; therefore, NASCAR failed to improvise with that notion, coupled with sponsorship saturation, and as a result making them susceptible to economic downfall. Marketing experts Ferrell and Hartline expressed similar interest, saying that one potential weakness of NASCAR’s

Television broadcasts are fought over and highly respected in any community. National networks broadcast the most major sporting events while the localized broadcasts may show the local minor league teams, county fairs, and contests. Now, with Regional Hometown Races sponsored by NASCAR, the regional broadcasts can take advantage of the co-branding techniques of NASCAR to practically promote themselves on the local station. The attraction of races on television paired with the realization that the

The year 2008 was a dreadful year for corporations as it brought profit losses for their business. Corporations would rather forget this dark time in history plus trust past events do not repeat themselves. During 2008 companies were struggling to stay in the industry. NASCAR, Chevrolet, and Chrysler among others firms could not have prevented what was occurring in the USA economy (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). There was nothing that could have altered the 2008 recession. However, the NASCAR’s overall co- branding strategy dealing with the marketing affairs seems to be a sound plan, but they lacked diversification in its sponsorship portfolio.

Formula one (F1) championship was the second most watched sporting event on the planet, which estimated 110 million unique viewers per race. Lotus F1 team is one of the most successful F1 team. It had won respectively 7 constructors’ world titles. And it had won two world title. When they were fighting for third place in the Championship, an awful news that the 2014 season would bring a bunch of disruptive changes came out. What’ s worse, its best driver, Kimi Räikkönen, had announced that he would leave the team at the end of the 2014 season.

NASCAR has seen great success with branding by differentiating the racing events from other racing series, especially with the overall race experience. Whether a fan attends the live venue, watches from the television, or listens through radio they are able to experience the exhilaration of the racing experience. Fans stand 75 million strong, and are the second highest in television ratings second only to the National Football League (Ferrell, Hartline, 2014). The sense of community within the NASCAR sport encourages a bond among fans and drivers. Driver loyalty is unrivaled, and the emotional attachment to the racing series is the foundation of the brand.

Our case analysis looks in depth at IndyCar which is an open-wheel racing sport based in America.With auto racing becoming more popular in the U.S. IndyCar is trying to compete with its top rival NASCAR in hopes of regaining fans and finding new sponsors to help keep IndyCar as a leader in the motorsports market. This analysis will take a deeper look at IndyCar’s internal and external environments as well as their customer environment and a complete SWOT analysis. To help with IndyCar’s issues, a problem statement as well as a few alternatives to help solve their problem will also be discussed in greater detail.

Finally, Shamma (2011) claims that total brand equity consists of product and corporate brand equity which depends on company’s market, social and financial performance. Furthermore, there is a positive relationship between company’s corporate brand and socially responsible marketing and total brand equity (Shamma, 2011). Similarly, Grace and King (2011) talks about employee brand equity, which is the result of positive and productive employee brand-related behaviour and is strongly linked with brand’s strength (Grace and King, 2011). In contrast, Kay (2004) argues that corporate branding differs from product and service branding as it is aimed at different target audiences. For instance, corporate branding usually targets company’s shareholders and employees whereas product and service branding is focused on consumers who are not really interested in corporate brand identity (Kay, 2004). However, it is also claimed that some companies, especially those that started as niche businesses that appealed to small segments of socially conscious customers succeeded in creating strong and distinctive corporate brands. Referring to CC and Jim Beam corporation consumers are not that concerned about company’s overall image, however introduction of corporate social responsibility and socially

According to Holt (2004), a brand can be defined as a term, name or a design that distinguishes product or service of one manufacturer from others. Brands are normally utilized in advertising, business and marketing. In accounting terms, brand is an intangible asset which is present within every organization. It is most valuable asset that is outlined in the balance sheet of a company. Brands owners need to effectively manage their brands in order to enhance shareholder value. Brand valuation is an important technique that associates money with a brand. Effective branding often results into high sales volumes of a particular product. A customer who prefers a brand is more likely to choose other products which are offered by the same brand. Brand can be stated as a personality that facilitates identification of a company, product or service. It even encompasses relation with other constituents like customers, partners, investors, staff, etc. Individuals distinguish psychological aspect of a brand from experimental

NASCAR should create a new racing series while creating a linkage of suppliers, vendors, buyer, and customers through informational, technological, social and structural linkages (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). Intensive distribution should be utilized to offer as many sales opportunities as possible and gain exposure (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). The new series should generate interest in new and existing fans while simultaneously converting other sports fans to watch and attend NASCAR events through the use of social media, advertisements, sponsorships, and endorsements.

Connections with a professional sports team and youth league- Setting their brand for the sports audience which is big and could lead to sponsorships

The split between the Indy Racing League and Champ Car was considered a tough and bittersweet “pill” to swallow. The split seems to revolve around a directional disagreement which strayed away from the original vision of the IndyCar Company. Throughout my research, I have found no true definition if the split was completely unsuccessful, but the evidence would definitely suggest this idea. Additionally, when the split occurred, a rift was created among the many supporting fans and the once committed corporate sponsorships (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). The split did come at a time of strong competition and a declining economy. However, I did discover that during those times of hardship (IRL & CART) focused on specific marketing plans that

NASCAR is successful and has remained successful over its span of years due to effective branding and marketing strategies. In order to brand the NASCAR name they work on co-branding/partnering, television, differentiation, and loyalty. When corporate sponsors want to maximize their exposure, they often focus sponsorship dollars on events, teams and athletes that will prove to be reliable, respectable and, most important, repetitive advertising outlets. (Depken, Groothuis, & Rotthoff, 2014.)

This is evident especially in third world countries where sporting activities has not developed. Most clubs in this countries lack major sponsors and, therefore, this has hindered the development of the clubs. This is the reason sponsorship is encouraged in sports as it leads to improvement of sports activities. Sports activities are a major source of entertainment and should be encouraged in the whole world. (Skildum-Reid, 2015)

The case studies emphasise that all three racing teams focussed on different strategies. Their strategies changed within the environment and circumstances, but what is overwhelmingly evident is that a team needs all the elements to be in synergy and for focus to be on every aspect of the strategy. As the old adage, ‘A team is only as strong as its weakest link.” This means that in order to be successful and to maintain success, you’ve got to get all the elements right, the overall package, the budget, the designer, the engine, the drivers, the organisation and every aspect, from what is deemed most important to the least important, all play an essential part of sustaining a winning

Since IndyCar events are typically less costly than other Motorsports events, they must find a way to broaden the fan base. IndyCar, could try to capitalize on the ardor of their customer base to grow another revenue source — corporate sponsorship's. For example, NASCAR, has more corporate sponsorship than IndyCar, therefore allowing the sport more of a broader range to market to the targeted audience. Furthermore, if IndyCar is to be successful, it needs to increase the solicitation of corporate sponsorship, this will assist at broaden the fan base. Consequently, by increasing the fan base, the business will increase its revenue (Mooney & White,