Sports marketing
(Motor)SPORTS marketing Goodyear’s 59-year relationship with NASCAR increases brand loyalty and technology transfer By Bob Bissler
A
ny NASCAR fan knows. What’s the official tire of NASCAR? Goodyear. And it will remain that way at least for the next five years. In October 2011, Goodyear and NASCAR signed an extended agreement for Goodyear to continue as the exclusive tire used in NASCAR’s top three racing series for the next five years. That’s good news for the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. But it’s also good news for any dealer who sells Goodyear’s G3 tires — Goodyear, Dunlop and Kelly. “If we compare your average consumer versus somebody that identifies himself as a NASCAR fan, we get a lift in market share,” says Kris Kienzl, Goodyear’s NASCAR marketing manager. “NASCAR fans come in to buy Goodyear Goodyear delivers all the tires used at tires, versus the avereach NASCAR race to tracks every week age consumer.” during the race season. The specially deAs the official tire of signed Goodyear “Support Our Troops” NASCAR, the Goodyear tires shown above were used at the Daytona International Speedway at the tire brand is exclusive for July 3, 2010, Coke Zero 400 race. NASCAR’s top three series — the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the NASCAR Camping World Cup Series. “We have a lot of operational commitment as the official tire,” says Kienzl. “We have a large group of racing engineers. They’re not only in Akron, Ohio, working on developing tires for NASCAR; they follow them to the track. They work with the teams and get a lot of data. They get a lot of feedback so they can continuously use that information in future development.” Goodyear doesn’t release specific numbers on how much the company spends to be the official tire of NASCAR. However, it is a significant investment. Kienzl says the company’s market share data and sales volume figures do support the investment. It looks like the relationship is paying off. According to the 2011 Modern Tire Dealer Facts Issue, the top brand in the U.S. consumer tire market in 2010 was Goodyear,
28 MTD_28-37.indd 28
with 17.6% of an industry total of 226.3 million units (Bridgestone was second at 17.3%, followed by Michelin at 16.8%). Goodyear also has the highest percentages of the U.S. replacement consumer tire brand shares. Goodyear has 15% of passenger tires (based on 198.7 million units) and 12.5% of light truck tires (based on 27.6 million units).
Track to street
Better sales are only part of Goodyear’s motorsports marketing strategy. Consumers benefit as well. How? Track to street technology transfer. Kienzl explains that being involved in motorsports helps the company design better tires for consumers. “Our tires are endemic and are used in the sport versus being a sponsor in the NFL, where we would just be a name,” says Kienzl. “The development that our engineers do with NASCAR tires really trickles through all of our company. There’s a lot of learning week-in and week-out as far as thinking about new technologies, bringing new technologies to market and taking some of those technologies from racing tires and transferring them over to consumer tires.” According to Jim Davis, Goodyear’s public relations manager, many of the technologies that Goodyear uses in consumer products were first developed for racing. This includes various tires reinforced with carbon fiber (the ultra-high performance Eagle ResponsEdge, for example) and DuPont Kevlar (the off-road Wrangler MT/R, for example). In addition, a Goodyear innovation that crossed over from racing to street tires is run-flat technology. In 1966, Goodyear developed an inner-liner for race tires to prevent race cars from decreased control after a sudden loss in tire pressure. The offspring of that was Goodyear’s RunOnFlat Technology used in some consumer tires. Track to street technology transfer isn’t the only advantage for Goodyear. The tech transfer also goes from street to track. “Goodyear developed a new rain tire for possible use in the NASCAR Nationwide Series,” explains Davis. “The tire could be used in wet track conditions at some road courses on the NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule. The race tire’s tread pattern is similar to that featured on the Goodyear Eagle F1 all-season high-performance tire for consumer use.”
MTD November 2011 10/14/11 10:39:08 AM