Good Marketing + Bad Quality =Lousy Combination
Last week I described my frustration with American cars that I’ve owned, especially when compared to the Japanese cars that have also been part of our family’s auto stable over the past decade. Basically, I noted that nothing ever went wrong with the latter, and something frequently went wrong with the former.
I thought about this as I went with a buddy to the NASCAR Save Mart 350 Race last week. All the big boys were there: Tony Stewart, Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson, the Busch brothers, the ultimate winner Jeff Gordon, and the like. Here’s what I thought:
NASCAR is the fastest growing sport in the U.S. Its fans are legendary in their fanatic loyalty. The data show that the brands whose logos are plastered on the cars--products like Post-It, Viagra, Cheerios, and Tide, and organizations like Home Depot, FedEx, Harrah’s, and Jack Daniel’s—gain substantial exposure, customer interest and uptick in sales from their investment. NASCAR fans clearly respond to the marketing.
With one exception: The ripple impact of NASCAR doesn’t extend to the very cars that are doing the racing. Every single car in the race is a Dodge, Chevy, or Ford. Yet all three companies are in serious financial trouble and steadily losing market share to foreign competitors. (Technically, Dodge is a “foreign” competitor since it’s now part of Daimler, but it’s still basically an American-produced product).
How weird! Think about it. NASCAR exposure seems to effectively generate a great Return On Investment for every product except the cars themselves. It used to be simple in Detroit: “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.” That’s clearly not the case any more.
Moral of story: Good marketing will definitely help a high-quality product and a high-performing organization, the kinds whose logos cover the racing cars. But even the best marketing won’t prop up a product or company that doesn’t have those qualities, at least not on any sustained basis. Putting lipstick on the pig doesn’t change its fundamental attributes. If the product or organization isn’t state of the art, you’re ultimately throwing away marketing dollars.
Oh, one more thing. I understand that next year Toyota will sponsor a car in the NASCAR races, thus ending the Americans' marketing monopoly. If I was Detroit, I’d be worried.
I thought about this as I went with a buddy to the NASCAR Save Mart 350 Race last week. All the big boys were there: Tony Stewart, Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson, the Busch brothers, the ultimate winner Jeff Gordon, and the like. Here’s what I thought:
NASCAR is the fastest growing sport in the U.S. Its fans are legendary in their fanatic loyalty. The data show that the brands whose logos are plastered on the cars--products like Post-It, Viagra, Cheerios, and Tide, and organizations like Home Depot, FedEx, Harrah’s, and Jack Daniel’s—gain substantial exposure, customer interest and uptick in sales from their investment. NASCAR fans clearly respond to the marketing.
With one exception: The ripple impact of NASCAR doesn’t extend to the very cars that are doing the racing. Every single car in the race is a Dodge, Chevy, or Ford. Yet all three companies are in serious financial trouble and steadily losing market share to foreign competitors. (Technically, Dodge is a “foreign” competitor since it’s now part of Daimler, but it’s still basically an American-produced product).
How weird! Think about it. NASCAR exposure seems to effectively generate a great Return On Investment for every product except the cars themselves. It used to be simple in Detroit: “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.” That’s clearly not the case any more.
Moral of story: Good marketing will definitely help a high-quality product and a high-performing organization, the kinds whose logos cover the racing cars. But even the best marketing won’t prop up a product or company that doesn’t have those qualities, at least not on any sustained basis. Putting lipstick on the pig doesn’t change its fundamental attributes. If the product or organization isn’t state of the art, you’re ultimately throwing away marketing dollars.
Oh, one more thing. I understand that next year Toyota will sponsor a car in the NASCAR races, thus ending the Americans' marketing monopoly. If I was Detroit, I’d be worried.
posted by Oren Harari at 6:14 AM
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