Motorcross marketing

Recently Tige Boats has been discussing different cross marketing opportunities, and I was able to attend the supercross race this weekend at the MGM (which was sick). This year Tige has been involved with Team Green Kawasaki ( http://www.tigeowners.com/story.php?newsId=78 ) and had a strong response about our 2009 product. From the core fans themselves, is this a effective method of marketing our sport and product?

Supercross has an image of performance and 'edge'. You're marketing to a male young audience interested in extreme style motorized sport.
Hey, that's sounds like wakeboarding.
My guess is it's an effective way to expand awareness of your product to people who may not be involved right now but are likely candidates for the future. It's a much better fit than swamp buggy racing or a scrapbooking competition.

its great. im selling my boat so that i can get the family into riding dirt bikes and quads. im sure that familys that have been riding for years want to find out if boating is the way to go. its just a begining of the road to another thing to do. it sparks up a idea . like a husband seeing a boat at the race and telling his wife and kids" hey guys? do you think that having a boat would be fun'? i think that people who are into extreme sports, wake-boarding, bmx, motocross are fans of the other sports also. i know i am.

It always turned me off, just as Centurion marketing their Nascar stuff. New markets and customers are needed and understandable, but to put marketing dollars (probably a whole lot of $$$$ for Supercross!), I have always felt it would be better to give it back to your "core" customer. There are plenty of grassroots leagues, comps, associations, that could use the support and get the word out for the company. I just think it's some marketer (hey, I'm one) trying to look successful by venturing into other markets. If you want support from the "core" group they need to get support from the company. I'm sure it's a good decision for the bottom line and revenue, but from a loyal customer standpoint I don't think you're investing back like a company should be. This said, there aren't many that do support their broad base customers anyway.

Ben - I agree with A-Dub.

USA Wakeboard needs industry support more than ever. The 2009 USA Wakeboard, Wakesurf, and CablePark National Championship is without a boat sponsor. Tige has not been involved in the NWL/USA Grassroots Wakeboard for as long as I can remember and you have missed hundreds of events. I can assure you my group is a much more qualified group of wakeboard boat buyers. So this is a personal invite from VP of USA Wakeboard, we would love to have you. Please contact me directly if you would like to help or I can answer any questions. 765-744-6310

Gee... Yet another installment in the "Tige playing 'me too, me too!' to MasterCraft"? IIRC, hasn't MC been involved with SuperCross for a few years now?

The dollars involved in Team Green could only be a fraction of what the NASCAR involvement was and the demographics are dramatically different. A-dub does have an interesting point though. The Centurion tie with NASCAR in no way endeared me to their boats, and I run NASCAR sanction at my track.

Chris,

I understand what you are saying, the current sport does need support with money, but I think this is about spending some advertising dollars on bringing in new boat buyers and wakeboarders and I think this is what it's about. This sport will never grow if new buyers are not exposed to it.

I believe Tige does support the industry/sport, dont they sponsor a few events/tours. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but didnt Tige pick up a date this past June 21st that was dropped by another towboat manf?

I saw a Tige add in a magazine, I guess they copied MC on that one also, huh Ronix One

TigeMike - It all depends on what the ad was... Was it original content, or was it "borrowed" from someone else?

Yes, it makes perfect sense for several reasons.
-The demographics are nearly identical.
-The obvious cross-over appeal.
-High visibility
-races are family oriented
-moto heads are "generally" fairly loyal to brands
-national exposure of the products

Most importantly,-MX/SX Sponsorship has a very low cost per impression vs. traditional marketing avenues. Name recognition (from non-boat owners) is critical to establish BEFORE the prospective customer starts shopping. If they recognize the name before they even hit the stores to shop you're a step ahead of the competition! New customers and growth of the market sector comes from new entries. Repeat customers are very important, but if they never even consider you an option before they pusrchase thier 1st boat how do they become repeat buyers?

The down side of MX/SX/AX sponsorhip is the continued involvement in the marketing venture is ESSENTIAL. You can't throw money at a team and then sit back and wait for the cash registers to start ringing--won't happen. There needs to be a significant amount of follow up and utilization of the investment or you wasted your money.
I have personally designed, implemented, and maintained a marketing campaign for a large food manufacturer with special emphasis on MX/SX/AX including 5k+ athletes on SponsorHouse.com, many of whom were riders. Either myself or my business partner attended every single SX/MX/AX race that our team ran in to promote the brand. Team managers and riders have waaayyyy too much to do on race day, don't think they'll be there singing Tige's praises all day. It is not easy and the "customers" can be very, very demanding and thankless. A little more rain on the parade is the fact that you are selling durable goods with a significant price tag--that limits your marketing avenues like the giveaways and marketing material. Furthermore, you can not (by AMA rules) hand out materials or stickers at any SX event unless you are an Event sponsor; teams do from time to time, BUT, they aren't supposed to.

Hope this helps in some way. If you have more specific questions please feel free to PM me on tigeowners.com.

I'll probably get blasted for this but whatever.

Who owns Tige boats? I'm not going to answer that, but just think of what type of rider actually has a Tige boat. Why didn't "core" rider come to mind? (you know it didn't) Probably because the exposure and support has been so low to the actual people using the equipment.

"Repeat customers are very important, but if they never even consider you an option before they purchase their 1st boat how do they become repeat buyers? "

Exposure, support and sponsorship. I own an MC, but I can tell you my next boat could likely be a Malibu because of the support they have given at a local and collegiate level that I have witnessed myself. MC was right there with them, but Malibu was going extra steps, and gained my loyalty. Then MC revived (literally brought back) the Pro Ski Tour, which is important to me. I notice this type of stuff and associate it with the boat company.

Another question I have is what percentage of MX people can even afford or will buy a boat of this level? What, the top 10% of that specific demographic? Why not try growing 10% within the wake community?

Bottom line to me, with the economy the way it is, and the emphasis of supporting those who support you, Tige needs to call Chris up!

(Message edited by behindtheboat on October 14, 2008)

^^^^
There is NO "catch-all" for marketing. Hell, there isn't really any quantifiable results that can be used to ACCURATELY base effective ad campaigns. MX/SX/AX is only ONE portion of a broad marketing program. What you mentioned is completely different. There are many portions to it and you are probably on to something with the tour. Athlete support is a huge part of any sports based business--the issue is, how do you support athletes, who do you support, how do you verify they lived to thier end of the bargain......Then, if you DO support an event you have half the people say "you're a sellout" because you didn't give that money to the athletes, the other half says good job. There is no pleasing everybody. Marketing campaigns are built to maximize the investment of the marketing funds put out towards them and MX typically has very reasonable costs (as I mentioned earlier)

I get you and agree Jason, I just think from a standpoint at where the wakeboarding industry is, the economy as a whole, and specifically Tige (name an event they did other than the Pro-Am), this is not an appropriate move to even maintain sales. But I do get you and you really know your stuff

Anyone see Brian Deegan's episode of Cribs and his black and red MC? He never talked about it but it was clearly positioned.

You should create a series of "Made for TV" events. Perhaps a Tige Tournament of Champions or something. Edit the highlights of your event into a one hour telecast and put it on TV. Perhaps make a series of shows. Show people (athletes) having a lot of fun with your products. Show the cool factor of wakeboarding, skiing, and make sure your boats are visible in the program, etc. You can retain a few :30 second slots within the program to run your Tige ads, as well. Create some content within the program to drive viewers to your website and/or dealers.

Obviously, you need to have clearance on television before you undertake this. I think NBC and Fox sell time on weekends to companies wanting to televise second-tier sporting events. (No offense, but we aren't talking NFL or MLB here and the networks aren't likely to pay you for the rights). Often, when you see second-tier sports on the networks, stuff like a rodeo or the "Jeep King of the Mountain" ski tour, it is actually paid programming bought on a network. ESPN / ESPN2 have lots of time to fill, perhaps they'd be open to such a show. A company called IMG, International Management Group, in Cleveland puts together a lot of these sponsorships (no, I don't work for them). I'm sure there are other companies, as well.

I think you will come out way ahead if you show your product in a nicely produced program that shows people having a lot of fun with your products at events that your company controls. The events could be staged in your strongest markets in the U.S., so you can gain even more hype in areas where you sell the most product.

I know I'd watch a Tige program if I came across it on TV and so would your strongest prospective customers.

It seems like a lot of you guys are missing the point in what companies like Tige,Centurion and even MC are doing. They have already established their names here and want to broaden their horizons and draw new people to the sport. I see most manufactures supporting grass roots type events and I think it is important that they do so, but what Ben is asking is if the motocross crowd is one worth trying to attract. I have to say that I think it is a great crowd to go after and I think it's pretty simple to see why. Just my .02

Ben- i think its a great idea. i knew that Tige was going to be doing this a while back but hadn't heard anymore since then. Glad to hear that it went threw. I've got a few questions on my boat order so i'll be calling you tomorrow. later.

Nate is right on - It's called Non-Endemic Marketing... (wow, i really did take something away from my college marketing classes!) Basically, it's broadening your target market to include individuals that have similar interests, but otherwise would not be exposed to one's product. Aside from the jab above, I do believe it is a great target audience.

"Another question I have is what percentage of MX people can even afford or will buy a boat of this level?" - A-Dub

You would be surprised. I have a friend that races and he owns three bikes total, at about $8,000 a piece that's $24,000 right there, then he has his trailer, motor-home, gear, race-cost, etc. It adds up.

Familys of four or five would most likely amount to the same.