V8Supercars vs. Ford/Holden sales

[spatel]

I was going to put this in the 'Pits' thread but since it's about sales I've put it here.

I found this article on carpoint.com and thought it was quite good.
Roland Dane commenting on vehicle sales of Ford and Holden in regards to V8 Supercars sucess. He's hit the mark with the Ford marketing. If any Ford execs. reading this forum please take note. I'm sure sales would definately lift if Ford sang out from the roof tops about V8S wins.

Roland Dane says V8 Supercar racing vital to road car sales
Commentary here late last week that, based on last year's VFACTS car sales figures, the "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" adage no longer holds true brought some feedback from V8 Supercar racing's championship-winning Triple 8/Team Vodafone principal Roland Dane.

We were surprised -- pleasantly surprised, we must say -- to receive a lengthy email from Dane on the matter.

Here's what he had to say:
"You make a case that the participation of Ford and Holden in V8 Supercars is not helping them in the sale arena in Australia because their sales of Falcons and Commodores continue to fall.

"My view is actually that without their participation in the championship they would have long ceased to be able to sell the premium versions of these models -- the XRs and the SS models as well as the FPV and HSV ranges.

"I believe that Holden realise this and they have continued to sell meaningful quantities of V8-engined cars as a result.

"These models are the ones that earn the companies money -- clearly the rental ones do not.

"The evidence from Europe is that the mass makers have not been able to sell top-end versions of their 'cooking' cars for some years, whereas here both Ford and Holden have managed to do so.

"In Europe the migration to the premium brands has been almost total beyond a certain (pretty low) price point, whereas there has remained a reasonable market here for the more expensive versions of the Falcon and Commodore.

"That, in my view, is entirely due to the kudos that flows from the racing activities.

"Unfortunately, Ford in particular has done so little to activate its sponsorship of race teams and drivers that they have failed to gain as much traction as they could from the successes they have had.

"They cannot expect to get much from the sponsorship if they don't tell people about their success!

"Not once in three years did Ford shout about winning Bathurst, let alone anything else.

"But my point is: how bad would sales be of the premium versions of the Falcon and Commodore without the racing activities?

"Answer: so low that they would cease to be viable, and if those models cease to be viable then the whole range ceases to be viable (faster than otherwise might be the case anyway), as those are the models with the margins.

"Conversely, how much better would sales of the Falcon be if they properly exploited the successes?

"Racing can sell cars if it is done successfully and exploited correctly and effectively -- ask the likes of Audi, who probably do it better than anyone.

"The real shame right now is that Ford Australia has one of the best model ranges in the world at its disposal (from Europe as well as here) and yet the marketing department here has failed to take advantage of this.

"Why are we not seeing Jamie Whincup being used to market the new Fiesta, for instance, let alone the Falcon?

"A final thought ... I believe that Holden sold around 12,000 V8-engined Commodores in 2007.

"They cost very little more to make than an Omega version, but sell for appreciably more. So the extra margin on those cars might easily amount to $10,000 per unit (and I would think it's more) over the 'cooking' versions.

"But let's be very conservative and say it is $5000 per unit. That's $60 million extra gross per year, so it suddenly makes a racing programme look very cheap."

As we wrote pre-Christmas on the Auto Action V8 Supercar Summit (the third item of the commentary here), Dane is a man with plenty of wisdom worth hearing.

Not only has he raised the standards in V8 Supercar racing preparation, presentation and performance in recent times, these latest comments are a valuable perspective in the debate on the merits of racing as a marketing tool for Australian car manufacturers.