NHRA Marketing Strategy, or Lack Thereof..

[Bobby Fazio]

It's no surprise, class racing is headed down the drain as no young people grasp its concept and NHRA doesn’t do a thing to help promote it. I am curious as to what their long term marketing strategy is? Does anyone in their advertising or marketing department have any kind of actual advertising or marketing experience? I have not one single friend from high school or college that knows anything about drag racing aside from what was portrayed in the Fast and the Furious. At least that Pinks show has slightly made them aware of what the term drag racing means. Nevertheless, from what I see now, NHRA's marketing strategy is a simple (and lucrative) short term only strategy, keep raping the sportsman drivers by increasing entry fees, membership fees, competition number fee, raising fan ticket prices, etc. But what is going to happen 15-20 years from now when a lot of the current drivers retire or simply can’t afford to do it anymore? (Let’s not even get into the debate of what is going to happen to stock and super stock down the line as rules continue to diminish and indexes keep getting quicker.) Will NHRA rely solely on selling tickets to people who want to watch top fuel?

How about a little more advertisement? More TV commercials on channels other than speed network. I’m going to drop the D-word but maybe even some student, military, senior citizen, or group discounts? Perhaps some kind of free item with your purchased ticket (Burger, soda, poster, etc)? Most importantly maybe a small program, about one or two pages long, handed to every fan at the gate that explains all the classes they will see, from Top fuel down to Stock eliminator. And don’t tell me that would cost too much, if anything I’m sure you could throw some sponsors on it and make even more money. Explain in one or two paragraphs a summary of each eliminator, what an index is, a few of the rules they have to follow, what a throttle stop is, etc. I mean come on is there any quicker grandstand-clearing magic trick than watching a pair of Super Gas, Super Street, and Super Comp cars go down the track? “Why does that car slow down after it leaves the starting line, then speed up again?” Perhaps an informative program could clear this up for people.

The whole point is to draw fans to the sport, then hey, NHRA makes more money. Fans can potentially become drivers, again NHRA makes more money.

[Joe Pinkston]

Originally Posted by SStock1373

Will NHRA rely solely on selling tickets to people who want to watch top fuel?

I believe this is the ulitimate goal.




Hey Dan Moore, you're #1.

RIP Mark Graham

[Mark Yacavone]

Great post and insight, Bobby.

It appears to me you've answered your own question:

"NHRA's marketing strategy is a simple (and lucrative) short term only strategy, keep raping the sportsman drivers by increasing entry fees, membership fees, competition number fee, raising fan ticket prices, etc."

More on this later.....

[John Kelley]

Originally Posted by SStock1373

Will NHRA rely solely on selling tickets to people who want to watch top fuel?
The whole point is to draw fans to the sport, then hey, NHRA makes more money. Fans can potentially become drivers, again NHRA makes more money.

The "SUITS" AT NHRA are not in it for the SPORT.....they only care about profits !!
Nobody left in Glendora that care about the sportsman side of the show !

[hemidup]

Quote from S Stock 1373. "I have not one single friend from high school or college that knows anything about drag racing aside from what was portrayed in the Fast and the Furious."

Tell me about it....I have 12 grandchildren and the older ones know more about the make and models of ricer's than I'll ever care to think about. One time I brought one of my grandsons down to the shop when we were restoring one of Dick Landy's 68 Dart stick cars. I tried to give him a history lesson of the car and the driver, but afterwards he asked..."Grandpa, that car looks cool. Are you gonna put NOS in it?" I had to shake my head.

Whether it be NHRA or even a grass roots car club, we must get the younger generation involved in drag racing if the sport is to survive.

When I was young, we had Revell 1/32 scale models to build, Rat Fink T shirts, Hot Wheel collectable cars, home town heroe's and a school teacher who volunteered his time on Saturdays to bring a small group of us kids to watch the races at Minnesota Dragways.

[Marvin Robinson]

In the 60's and 70's, it was cool to go to, want to, and participate in Drag Racing, it was being promoted by all the Detroit manufacturers, it was in music, it was in advertising for gasoline, it was in the movies, and ON THE RADIO... (remember the "screamer" commercials that originated here in the Midwest??? Soft drink and bread makers had a big presence Coca Cola Casvalcade, WonderWagon, etc.

My point is that Drag Racing was part of our culture, not just part of a media "entertainment" package. The Scat Pack, Tigers in the tank, "Dr. Oldsmobile building your engine, and all the ads and car monikers that we were steeped in helped drive the desire to go to the tracks. Scrambler, Cobra Jet, Yenko, Rebel Machine, SS***, GT, Thunderbolt, Shelby, Motion, Berger, GTA, Road Runner, Super Bee, Elephant, Mouse, Rat, Super Duty, Z/28, L88..... you remember the lexicon. We are lacking that today (although the big three are trying to tap back into that nostalgia, they are still missing the point of providing staightforward entry into the Sport for young people with less that 40k to spend).

There are now so many other outlets to compete for YOUNG PEOPLE's free time or entertainment $$, it's tough to get their attention. Having said that, NHRA is not doing the best it can to capture the youth market at the involvement level, hence the emphasis on the "show" put on by the pro classes.

Brackets and class racing are participant driven, and the push needs to be to increase the influx of new "participants". That means not chasing today's dollar, but tommorrow's entrant. A change to this mode of thinking will bring the ideas (and probably the right push from sponsors) needed to promote the growth in the Sportsman segment of Drag Racing.

Pinks all out has tapped into the sport at this doorway by promoting the actual competitors and structuring a format that appeals to viewers as well, but the key is how they produce the big turnouts.... I don't claim to have the answers to translating their model into NHRA, but we have a lot of "smart" people that need to pay attention to this type of show and the ricer crowd and drifters, and apply some of these principles to our sport.

A good start would be to ACTUALLY PROMOTE the Sporstman segment at the entry levels (not just the alcohol cars - they are definitely NOT and entry point for the average Joe) - and have explanations of the structure presented to the outside viewer. The suggestion of Sportsman Class info cards is a step in the right direction. What we need from NHRA is REAL coverage of Sportsmen racing (a la Pinks) that would draw more interest from the general public. Growth would be natural outcome of this.....

[63corvette]

Remember what NHRA stands for.
No Happy Racers Allowed !!!!!
Especially Sportman Racers
My 2 Cents

[Charley Downing]

You guys are right STK and SS is going down the tube. The winternationals is full for STK and it took a grade 4 just to enter. There is more factory involvement by the big three now then in 20 years, but yet some still think we are going down the tube. People are talking now more than ever about STK and SS because of these new challengers and mustangs. Other then payout STK and SS are better today than they have been in a long time.

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by Charley Downing

You guys are right STK and SS is going down the tube. The winternationals is full for STK and it took a grade 4 just to enter. There is more factory involvement by the big three now then in 20 years, but yet some still think we are going down the tube. People are talking now more than ever about STK and SS because of these new challengers and mustangs. Other then payout STK and SS are better today than they have been in a long time.

The WinterNationals is just ONE race. Let's see how the rest of it goes. You wanna tell us where all of this coverage Stock and Super Stock are getting is? Where is all of this talk, outside of people already in class racing? Show us all of this involvement by GM, they don't even have any new cars in the guide.

[Tony Janes]

Grade 3