Nascar

Here's a platitude to begin today's ramblings--you can't judge a book by its cover.  Marketing students will tell you this is false because that is what sells a book in marketingland (as opposed to the reality the rest of us occupy).  That is not true about books, soap, shoes, jewelry, or people. You indeed do not know anything by the cover.

I am a 54 year old white woman with a Master's degree in English.  I have all the classroom hours toward a Ph.D. in 19th Century English literature.  My politics are liberal.  I like gardening and organic food.  I make my own granola, for heaven's sake.  And I'm a huge Nascar fan.  Put that in your demographics.

I've known about Nascar from birth.  My father's favorite story from being stationed in Atlanta, GA was that he got see Fireball Roberts race at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1952.  So any three minutes of racing ABC's Wide World of Sports was willing to throw our way--we watched.  We listened to the Indianapolis 500 on the radio.  In fact, Memorial Day weekend was the weekend for taking down the storm windows.  My dad and I set up a radio on the patio and washed windows and listened to the race.  We were race fans.

My first child was born the year CBS finally aired the Daytona 5oo live.  Wow.  I'd married a race fan (you don't marry outside your own kind), so we watched the race.  Fisticuffs broke out in the infield.  Omigod, it's not the fans--it's the drivers.  America started liking this edgy stuff.

I was so happy when the rest of the world caught up to my predilection for auto racing.  Pretty soon Speed started running Formula One races live, and I could see open wheel racing.  ESPN was running NHRA (drag racing).  It's heaven for a race fan now.  A race track even opened close enough to me for me to have season tickets.  This is even more fun than watching it on tv and loads more fun than the radio.  Real cars going around right in front of me!   Wow

So as you are marketing this sport to men who drink crappy beer (my son falls into this category, not much of a race fan), ask yourself if you might be missing someone in this overall demographic.  Someone with disposable income and a granddaughter to convert.  Hmmm.

Go Kevin Harvick.  Let's get 'em at Vegas.