What Are The Barriers to Entry? The Simple Truth: Exposure.

[CSR4C]

Exposure or Promotion? Yep, both the same; were on the same page


Darrell, what is the NorCal project??? I just Googled it and here is the hit I got. http://www.boatracingr11.com/areas/N...00%20Hydro.htm Looks like a great project. Is this still an active program? Do you have a more current web link? An east coast version of the NorCal project? Yes, I agree; like I am saying, we need exposure.

Raymond

Yes this the Nor Cal project. In fact we are having a work party at my shop next Saturday 2/27, sanding & painting decks on all 4 boats.
Darrell

[Raymond]

Yes, I know I am the go-fast enthusiastic new guy but I got to tell you I cannot get the topic of reducing barriers to entry out of my head. After much more consideration, the theorem that exposure, however you define it holds as the single most effective way in my mind that we as individuals and clubs can do to reduce those barriers. I know this post looks long but please stay with me for a minute.

Trying to stay on top of all the happenings here on hydroracer I stumbled upon Teresa’s Hydroracer T-Shirt thread and got to thinking; are we as a community of racers supporting the sport in every way we can? Are we exploiting the resources we have amongst ourselves to make us stronger as a community at large? Do we know what those resources are?

Who of us owns or runs a:
-Sign shop?
-Print shop?
-Hat shop?
-T-shirt shop?
-Custom embroidery shop?
-Newspaper?
-Boat themed periodical?
-TV or radio station?
-Do we have any racers out there that are Graphic Artist / Designers or studying to be?

What if we created a list of those members that had access to resources that could be mutually exploited to expose the sport? The list is only limited by how far outside the box we care to think.

If you owned a sign shop would you let a club leverage their racer affiliation to obtain signage at cost to help that club gain event sponsor money? Sponsor money could mean more exposure. And, oh yea, put one of your own banners up at the clubs events and voila, you are supporting and advertising, (aka…sponsoring). Would that club have to be local or could it be……four states away?

If someone walked into your print shop looking to print off a ream load of club schedule announcements, would you let them run it at cost? Would you offer a deeper discount to put your name on the flyer as a sponsor? Guess who is coming back for all their official and unofficial printing needs?

What if a club wanted to purchase club hats: would the exposure those hats provide to the sport be worth the difference you passed up in profit for that racer? In exchange I bet the club would let you put your business sign up at club events which = cheap advertisement for you and, oh yea, another sponsorship!

Does anybody work in the magazine industry or possibly at a mainstream boating publication? Does any body have family members in one of these fields that could help us get our foot in the door that could lead to publishing exposure articles, season schedules and event press releases? I like propeller as much as everyone else and it has its angles covered but it is not on the mainstream media newsstands: someplace we should want to be to maximize exposure.

At the risk of stepping up on a soap box, we all know racing is a privilege that comes with a responsibility beyond just showing up at races and paying race fees. As has been said before; Promotion = Exposure and vice versa. We can all positively impact this aspect of the barrier problem if we think creatively and share our resources in support of our common interests.

Starting this list is as easy as starting a thread in the Powerboat Marketing 101 area where those with resource offers can post their offerings. I don’t think we would want to clutter it up with normal chatter traffic; networking contacts could be made via PM’s. The threads title could be something like ‘Our Internal Resource List’. If I had such a resource, I would start the thread myself but I don’t; all I have at this point is this idea, however I will tap into those resources once I know where they are.

Yea, I know this ran long but I hope it provides some value to our common cause of promoting our sport! The theme here is; ways for us to reduce the cost of exposing the sport in support of reducing the barrier to entry/participation. Thanks for listening.

Raymond

[sam]

Marketing 101 ... know your target market

Who is our target market?

The shotgun approach is not efficient

[Raymond]

Looks like the National Meeting got some press exposure out in the Washington State area.

http://www.kndo.com/Global/story.asp?S=11933437

Raymond

[Mrs blueskyracer]

New thread started in this forum to act as a business directory on a trial basis. Let's see how it goes, if it stays a directory and does not become a discussion thread it can stay. I hppe that Raymond's idea pans out. So if you are a graphics shop, sign shop, printery, etc. list away.

[mdaspit]

Marketing 101 ... know your target market

Who is our target market?

The shotgun approach is not efficient

Not sure if this target can be expressed in a clasical marketing sense.
Demographic doesn't work, even Psychographic is too broad.

You are spot on about the shotgun approach.

[sam]

No, I'm pretty sure a target or targets can be identified. There always is a "most likely" and "least likely" ... even if there is no "all"

[mdaspit]

No, I'm pretty sure a target or targets can be identified. There always is a "most likely" and "least likely" ... even if there is no "all"

Well ok, that's exactly what I mean, I wouldn't call that a "clasical marketing" definition of an advertising or marketing target.

[Dave M]

Some Truth

The problem is, we already exploit our members to the exten of extinction. Jeff Thompson works for or owns a shirt shop and does a ton of shirts for races, events, Hydroracer, I thought I saw a post on there that he told Theresa to let him know how he can help.

We rely on volunteers for just about EVERYTHING at the races, both on and off the course. People get burned out. Lets face it, you buy a cool Hydroracer Tshirt. We as a group prolly know who made the shirts. We thank them. But does it really help their business in any way ? I truly and seriously doubt it. We are selling these t-shirts to ourselves......

Now then, you want porfessional, how about each club have a banner made up that is not Mod or Stock or Pro specific. Just a boat racing banner. Hang it at every race site in several areas. On it list and thank the sponsors. Make it large enough to read from a distance. Maybe that will add to the effect. NBRA already does this at most of their races. But remeber, they have a decnt amount of fans coming out to watch at certain races. Maybe tha tis a key, race where you are welcomed with open arms and forget the traditional spots everyone loves. In APBA perhaps Lockhaven in the east is a great example. That is a fun race, lots of spectators, the town loves it. I am not familiar with a lot of the west coast races so I can't comment on race sites there. In the Midwest Constantine and Huntington IN are good examples of decent amount of spectators. Lets give them something to look at between patrol boat changes and the numerous delays between heats that always seem to occur.

One thing is for sure, I would not count on your sanctioning organization to provide you with much in the way of marketing. Each club should take this on. Perhaps at the races with little to no sponsorship go out and sell a spot on the banner for like 50 bucks each. You could most likley get a bunch of names at that price. Don't think of it as sponsorship dollars, think of it as promoting the race. A step perhaps, don't think you are going to make money on the banners, accept it as a loss on the balance sheet.

See what I mean, it takes a lot of volunteers and to be honest, most get burned out after 10 years of doing it all.......

[Hutch06]

Sanctioning Body

One thing is for sure, I would not count on your sanctioning organization to provide you with much in the way of marketing. Each club should take this on. Perhaps at the races with little to no sponsorship go out and sell a spot on the banner for like 50 bucks each. You could most likley get a bunch of names at that price. Don't think of it as sponsorship dollars, think of it as promoting the race. A step perhaps, don't think you are going to make money on the banners, accept it as a loss on the balance sheet.

See what I mean, it takes a lot of volunteers and to be honest, most get burned out after 10 years of doing it all.......

Although I agree that each club should take on a way to market their race sites, our Sanctioning Body should provide help in ways of marketing each and every race site by an organization under that Sanctioning Body... especially NEW/FRESH race sites.

I mean this not to cut down anybody in the APBA B.O.D., region officers, category officers, etc. as I know you do a lot for the sport we all love. But when I read in the March Propeller magazine that APBA has lost just about half of their race sites from the past ten years, isn't that saying something about it? That it is not promoted enough. I agree that membership is a very big problem as well... I think driver's schools will help that problem (at least from an Outboard basis).

So here are two big items with the current APBA, membership numbers, and the amount of race sites. I believe if APBA spent more resources on promotion and marketing we may see membership go up because more people will have been... exposed to the sport!

I know after a while this turns into talking in circles, but I would like to see more of the money I give to APBA to be put into promotion. It should be a service APBA helps local race clubs with.

[Raymond]

Shotgun or castnet? Who is our target market?

Yep, you are right, but the question remains, who is our target market?

While the shotgun approach may not be the most efficient when your hunting a stationary target, it can be more efficient than a longgun when you’re hunting a moving target. The reality is that because we lack marketing detail born out of published empirical data to provide a bulls-eye target, I would suggest, metaphorically speaking, that a net and trap technique (promotion and exposure) is the single most effective approach.

References to degrees of efficiency assume there is an alternative method or approach that can be used and at this point in our endeavor I don’t see those resources readily available to us as individuals.

Again, I agree, our sanctioning bodies probably could do better in marketing support but I also agree that we can’t wait to be rescued. Actually they may have the raw data already buried in our membership records: they just need to data mine them and share it. If their records don’t have the depth needed to build a model from, they could gather the rest rather cheaply in the next 12 months come membership renewal time. Heck, they could contract Hydroracer to do a survey and send out letters pointing all members to this very important endeavor.

Dave, how can I argue against your T-shirt discussion? I can’t; It’s not the point that the t-shirt and hat sales could be considered self supporting to that member’s business, it’s the goodwill the exposure of wearing those articles in public provides to the sport; IE…exposure. One might argue that point based on the value of the exposure but I would respond with the MPH analogy; every little bit helps.

You might get to thinking, Ray is all talk and no action; what is he doing besides all this jabbering? I don’t purport to be smart or wise or that my ideas are ‘all solving’ but I do have a propensity to funnel passion into that which I enjoy. I do believe as you, that people do and will get burned out but what can we do but grow numerically so we can hopefully spread the burden for more to share? Yea, I am an optimist most of the time

Truth be told, I started this thread with an agenda in mind: A Rally Call to Action to get a grassroots ‘reducing the barriers’ campaign started where we as individual race teams and clubs work towards finding the solutions to reducing the barriers to entry while bring my ‘new-guy perspective’ to the table. I have my own support action plan and this thread/agenda is just one element of it. While our sanctioning bodies are great resources for us they are not the end all answer to our problems. As we hear in the buzz words of business today, we are not going to get better results doing the same old things. The environment around us is changing and we must change with it or fade away.

I pray I have not offended anyone: I do hope I am stirring thought on the topic that could spawn ideas that could lead to actions and solutions for our common challenges beyond our own racing programs.

Raymond
PS: Dave; good idea on the sponsor recognition banner. All, keep the chatter coming; one thought sparks another.

[Dave M]

It was Tried

Not long ago APBA tried to invest into marketing. The attempt failed. They actually hired a person full time for I think each category and tried to market the sport and grow it. I know the Mod/Stock guy tried, but in the end it just never panned out. So I doubt you will get APBA to delve into the realm of marketing like it did previously.

Since you have passion and drive, use yourself as a resource. Get invovled and take some of the burden off of the already used volunteers. I suspect you already intend to do that, and that is a good thing. Try your ideas with your club and see if it works. if it does, share you plan. Never be afraid of trying to grow the sport. To often we have become complacent in our own growth. it takes a collective approach and right now it is difficult to grow anything except corn.

The first thing that needs changed, in my opinion, is the length of the program at any outboard kneel down race in APBA. Except for PRO. Mod and Stock are usually combined at a lot of races today. And if the stocks can support a race site themselves, it is usually a high profile race and the day is long. The pure number of classes is mind boggling. This needs reduced down to no more than 14 classes a day, both hydro and runabout Mod and Stock. Do this and you have a package you can sell. A length of time that can be planned out and the public will understand racing starts at 1:00 PM and concludes at 5:00 PM. Gives them time to plan activities, work it into their day without wondering what is going on. Run the same schedule all the time so the racers know when they race. You can then have the announcer building it up as they know what is coming. Some simple changes can make a serious impact on the sport. Make it appealing and marketable and you will grow the sport. Just my opinion.

[YankeeRacing]

The country song: A little less talk and a lot more action.

That should be the first step. Everyone talks and has ideas. That is as far as it goes.

Last year Carl Staron, Freddie Hebert, and John Snell decided racing needed to return to Pineville, LA.
So, they got together, and had a race. Granted, it wasn't a really successful race. It was AOF, so done on the cheap. No one lost money, and no one made money, but at least it was a race. Carl brought the equipment, the Hebert team added in and so did the Snells.
The racers in attendance had a good time. They planted the seed. Told their freinds about it.
So now, this coming week end, there is a bigger race planned in Pineville. NBRA short course. And probably a few more trailers.
My hats off to Carl, Feddie and John who ARE NOT on Hydroracer talking about how to build the sport, but out there building it.
Too many of us want start on top. You cannot build a house without a good foundation. Even NASCAR has foundations: go carts locally, dirt tracks, all the way up to the bigtime.
Get that foundation built on the grass roots level THEN YOU WILL HAVE SOMETHING TO MARKET!
And, all of you attending the Pineville race this week end should send a sound out to Carl, Freddie, and John for last years' race. Chances are, without that building race, you would not be racing there this week end.

[reed28n]

The Key to successful promotion

All great ideas.....the key is to continue with sustained efforts on these fronts to bridge the times when members are forced to back away that have key roles. Many of the ideas that have been shared here have been done at single sites, clubs or regions and the efforts have faded in some areas.

To truly be natonal and sustain a national effort we need APBA to act as a clearing house for promotional efforts. Here is one simple idea that could be an automatic to get people to our races.

Create a database of local press contacts throughout the country or at least in the areas that APBA sanctions races. When APBA processes your sanction and mails your paper work complete with your insurance documents. APBA sends a press release uniformly prepared and professionally written for each press outlet in every town near the sanctioned event. It is free and we increase the likelihood that someone picks up the event. This simple activity insures that people in your area have heard of your club and APBA when you are putting up your local posters/banners and gives you a little credibility when selling ads or sponsorship at the local level.

If we require our Sanctioning organization to perform a service like this one then we protect ourselves from life changes locally or loss of the volunteer locally that performs such a task.

Each McDonalds resturant does not prepare its own commercials. Commercials are aired as part of their franchising agreements.

I agree with Dave M the individual category promotion may not be the best bang for our buck. People new to the sport do know the difference between pro, stock or mod. They just know it is a cool looking boat. Sell boat racing period. In the end if a new body is in any kind of boat it benefits us all.

[mdaspit]

Most people would be surprised to learn how much of traditional promotion and marketing is a waste. A waste of time and money.
Its hard enough to show results in areas of mass market...
Food Promotions and the grocery, Price Promotions at your local car dealer...
Areas where Promotion doesn't stand alone.

Typically, in addition to Price Promotion, there is also a Branding effort, called "Air Support" Take cars as an example. You will find communications at that level dealing with Brand issues, like Quality, Safety, Desirability, Personal Fullfillment... While at the local market level, Price or financing is promoted, in hopes that when you walk into a Dealership (because you may be attracted to a price deal), you are bringing with you a positive feeling, a belief, and understanding of how you already perceive that brand... and this is the important part, otherwise you will most likely not be interested.

You need both, Air Support and Ground Cover. Brand Development is a long term investment. It doesn't happen over night, and takes a long consistant effort for it to be succesful. You can't just hit it a couple of times and think you've done it.

That's why brands like Coca-Cola are still pouring Millions into it every year. After all, who doesn't already know about Coke? That helps to explain why "Awareness" or "Exposure" alone doesn't do it. Even with a mass market consumer product.

There is also a thing called "Recentcy" meaning your message has to be there
close to when there has been a recent need, or will be.

Boat Racing (in most places) doesn't have a Brand. I say "most places" because look at Region 10... There is a place where Boat Racing has an already well developed brand. Why? Because it is a Cultural thing...
Region 10 has a "Hydro Rat Culture" because as kids, they grew up with it.
Seafair races, the Gold Cup races, Miss Bardhal, Bill Muncie... Kids grew up there building little "Hydros" out of wood, tying a piece of string to it, and pulling it behind their bikes thru mud puddles.

Call it a head start program.

Of course they also work very hard at keeping the Culture alive and well, by making sure kids stay pluged into it...Push Boats, lots of J racers, will guarantee that the Culture keeps producing. It's an investment, in "Hydro Rat Incorporated."

So, what?... There are ways to develop Brand, but not easy, and takes time and consistentcy. There is a whole lot of BS in the world of Marketing and Promotion, and just because you do something, doesn't mean you will accomplish anything.

Go race, and tell as many people you can about it, and when you find someone who expresses an interest, (low hanging fruit)...jump on it.