One thing that marketers like about Nascar is the branding opportunities: branding of teams, of tracks, of venues, of drivers, of cars. At least one of the panelists at the 8th annual Motorsports Marketing Forum panel on Nascar branding strategies Wednesday morning put that into perspective, musing about what such branding might look like in other sports. "That's something you can't get in a lot of other sports," said Dean Kessel, director of Nascar Nextel Cup Series marketing at Sprint Nextel. "That's why there are more Fortune 100 companies in this sport than any other. Sure, you'd love to put your brand on an NFL helmet--but you can't." He added that his company's strategy for juggling opportunities in motorsports is "Hub and spoke. We can work with the track, with the driver, teams, and other sponsors. We aren't 'siloed' in one position." Laura Kouns, motorsports marketing manager for UPS, said that her company has gotten a lot of mileage in focusing much of its efforts on one driver, Dale Jarrett, who retires this year. "It was going to be a one-year campaign, introducing the sponsorship of Dale Jarrett. And now it is in its seventh year." She says the last spot will be shot next week. Ben Reiling, director of motorsports marketing for Coca-Cola, said a good deal of the company's efforts this year centered on Nascar sweepstakes activated through the My Coke Rewards program, a loyalty program launched in 2006 to support Coke's NCAA involvement. The program allows consumers to collect on-pack codes across several brands. For Nascar, noted Reiling, fans can collect points online to win anything from real lug nuts from cars and water bottles from races to a weekend fishing trip with Coca-Cola-sponsored racer Greg Biffle. "That was the heart of why we put it together; the sport is such a lifestyle, and consumers want more and more of it." The company has a long-standing relationship with Charlotte, N.C.-based Lowe's Speedway, where the Coca-Cola 600 is raced. Although Sprint Nextel has had a big footprint this year as part of its effort to promote the Nascar Nextel Cup series through advertising and sweepstakes, Kessel said next year may be bigger. The company will focus Nascar brand activity around Sprint, with a large program centering on Sprint handsets as a medium for Nascar activity. "Nextel's reasons for getting into this were pure branding," said Kessel. "We were the fourth- or fifth-place carrier in the market, and didn't have critical mass. So it was an efficient media program. With Sprint we have a lot of awareness, so it is about enhancing experience for fans." Kessel says next year's handset-related activities will offer a motorsports take on its NFL Mobile, launched in 2006, offering Sprint subscribers free football scores, real-time stats, injury reports and other video highlights. He adds that next year's Nascar efforts for Sprint will be "as big, if not bigger than Nextel. We are learning how to give fans a more robust experience that they can't get anywhere else." The company will focus the program to deliver Nascar content and stats to subscribers on a Monday-Thursday basis, says Kessel, "because there are so many outlets during the weekend. We are trying to stay in front and make it unique." Ann Barker, manager of motorsports and licensing for Chevron Corp., said the company, one of the oldest Nascar sponsors, is in its 22nd team-sponsorship season and has been able to expand internationally its Texaco/Havoline brand affiliations through Nascar because of its sponsorship of Chip Ganassi driver Juan Pablo Montoya. "With Juan, we went global. From Bulgaria to Russia, Singapore, Canada, and Mexico. Customers in Singapore and Russia wanted to put him at point of sale; they now want to push Nascar."
The increase in false green marketing and advertising claims has prompted the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to initiate a regulatory review of its environmental marketing guidelines, Green Guides, more than a year ahead of schedule. While the review had been scheduled to begin in 2009, the FTC chose to accelerate the process to ensure that the guides reflect today's marketplace. The guides that detail principles for environmental marketing claims and provide specifics on green claims, such as degradability, compostability, recyclability, recycled content and ozone safety, were last updated in 1998. In a Federal Register Notice, the FTC requests comments on the guides, including standard questions about costs, benefits, effectiveness of the guides, and questions on topics such as sustainable and renewable claims. The workshops will review potential consumer protection issues in marketing claims that have surfaced in the last two years, according to Laura Koss, attorney for the division of enforcement in the bureau of consumer protection of the FTC. "We encourage marketers to make very specific claims and substantiate them," she says. During the very comprehensive review, we will give the public an opportunity to comment throughout the process before making recommendations on the changes to make to the Green Guides." As part of the review, the FTC will hold a series of public workshops through 2008 on green marketing topics. The first, scheduled for Jan. 8, will address marketing of carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates (RECs). Carbon offsets fund projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in one place to counterbalance or "offset" emissions that occur elsewhere. For example, a carbon offset provider might use offset proceeds to pay for landfill methane collection activities or tree planting in an effort to reduce greenhouse gases. RECs are created when renewable power generators sell their electricity as conventional electricity, and then sell the environmental attributes of their power separately through a certificate. For example, consumers may purchase conventional electricity from their utility, and then separately purchase RECs to subsidize renewable energy elsewhere. Google reported Tuesday that it will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to develop renewable energy as part of an ambitious strategy to clean up the environment and reduce the company's power bill. The Mountain View, Calif.-based search engine aims to foster innovation in solar, wind and geothermal technology to make green energy cheaper. The push isn't limited to companies in the United States. The U.K.'s ABTA travel association, along with the Association of Independent Tour Operators (AiTO), have also begun to review carbon offsetting in a campaign operated by Carbon Offsets Ltd. called Reduce My Footprint. The initiative doesn't claim to absolve the guilt of travelers, but encourages them to reduce emissions across every aspect of life--not just air travel--and to offset what can't be reduced. Reduce My Footprint ensures that money raised goes to projects to improve the lives of people who live in vacation destinations to sustain the beautiful environments they visit and contribute to government-approved offsetting schemes. <[> The FTC's announcement came days before Greenpeace released the sixth edition of its "Guide to Greener Electronics" that now includes television and computer games. The guide ranks consumer electronics companies based on the removal of toxic chemicals from their products and company recycling initiatives. Microsoft, Nintendo, Philips and Sharp rank at the list's bottom for environmental performance, with Nintendo becoming the first company to score zero out of a possible 10 points. Philips and Microsoft performed little better--scoring 2 and 2.7, respectively. Firms that improved their ranking this year manufacture entire products, or major components, that are entirely free of hazardous ingredients. Companies that only commit to eliminating harmful chemicals sometime in the future earn a lower score. Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson each received penalty points for not fully honoring their own recycling take-back policies in the Philippines, Thailand, Argentina, Russia and India. As a result, Nokia fell from the top position to ninth, and Motorola dropped from ninth position to 14th. Apple, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba have recently indicated that they now produce personal computers, lighting LCD panels, camcorders and digital cameras--or at least major components of these items--free of PVC and/or BFRs.
Move over, fat and pharmaceuticals--there's a new player on the block that may be getting some further oversight: sodium. The Food and Drug Administration today will hold a public hearing on the amount of sodium in packaged and processed foods. The hearing is a result of continued lobbying by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), and is supported by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). The governmental hearing comes after the FDA and the GMA held a joint conference last month on the issue of dietary sodium. "Sodium has a status of generally being recognized as safe," Julie Greenstein, deputy director of health promotion policy for CSPI, tells Marketing Daily. "[Yet,] in almost every food product, it's higher than it has to be." Sodium has long been recognized as a factor in causing or exacerbating high blood pressure, stroke and heart disease. If Americans reduced their sodium consumption to half of today's levels, about 150,000 lives could be saved, Greenstein says. According to the CSPI, the average American sodium intake is 4,000 milligrams a day--about twice the recommended daily allowance. "We'd like to see foods that are really high in salt to be labeled that way," Greenstein says. "When consumers see 450 milligrams of sodium on a package, they don't know what that means." Food companies have been manufacturing low-sodium food--and labeling it as such--for some time. And as food marketers have come under increased scrutiny over obesity, they have also looked at the sodium content of their foods. Kellogg's, for instance, listed a high-sodium content as a factor in barring some of its food products as suitable to be advertised to children. "Many companies have been working on this issue for years--about how to lower sodium content and maintain taste," says Dan Jaffe, executive vice president/government relations for the Association of National Advertisers--adding that the ANA has no position on the upcoming sodium hearing. While the CSPI expects food manufacturers and the salt industry to oppose any increased labeling measures, a representative from Kraft Foods says the company is not expected to attend the hearings--adding that no regulation has been proposed. She referred calls to the GMA, whose executives were not available for comment prior to the hearings. A ConAgra representative said the company was "committed to lowering" the sodium content in its foods, and pointed to its Healthy Choice product line as an example of such commitment. The company is expected to make a presentation at today's hearing.
The prognosticators at Edmunds.com, an online research and marketing site for auto shoppers, have seen the future, and it's small. The Los Angeles-based firm is predicting 1.2 million units sold in November--flat versus last November--and a 2.5% decrease versus October. Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis at the firm, says Edmunds is predicting that no more than 16 million cars and light trucks will be sold this year. If so, 2007 will end up being the slowest year since 1998, thanks to the sub-prime sinkhole and high gas prices. The latter effect will have helped small cars and compact SUVs, according to Michelle Krebs, who is senior editor at Edmunds. "Our analysis of vehicle segments indicates that compact cars and compact SUVs are achieving the most growth in November, while minivans and large cars are flailing," she said. "Consumers are now looking for maximum functionality in smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles." Per Edmunds, the combined monthly U.S. market share for Chrysler, Ford and General Motors dropped 2% to 51.2%. Ford will hold steady next month, predicts Edmunds, while Chrysler and GM will have slipped slightly in overall sales versus the same month last year. Edmunds sees Chrysler sales dropping 11.2% in November to 146,000 units sold, while Ford will sell 176,000 units this month, down 7.6% from last month. Toprak says that one driver for softer sales among domestics is their production cuts, particularly at Chrysler. "We knew going in that would happen. Because of gas prices, bigger cars and large SUVs are getting hurt," he says. "Also, the impact of housing woes is largely psychological; if you look at people directly impacted by the credit crunch, it's less than 5%. So you have 95% of the country on time with payments. What's happening is the value of houses is stagnant or decreasing. So customers are not in the cheeriest mood to go out and buy a car." Comparing this year to last on a month-by-month basis is also misleading. Ford sales look at least level versus the same month last year, but last year was tough for Ford. Toprak points out that Ford's share of the U.S. market is now under 15%. "They will end with 14.5% or 15% market share. In 2002, they had 21% market share. That year, Toyota had 10% of the market--now it's over 16%." He says the company will see a 1.2% increase of sales this month versus the month last year; Honda will see much larger gains, and Nissan will have posted its biggest year-over-year increase in quite a while this month--up 9.5%--for a reason similar to Ford's. "Because of weak 2006, Nissan looks good this year." Edmunds predicts GM's market share will be 24.3% through November 2007, down from 24.6% in November 2006 and 25.1% in October.
Struggling Gap Inc. is striking a new style note, and says it will introduce a line of women's shoes in select stores this February. Part of an expanded agreement with shoe designer Pierre Hardy, the shoes will range from chunky platforms to delicate sandals, priced from $78 to $98. While the designer is better-known for $700 pumps with killer heels, "this collaboration allows our customers to access Pierre Hardy's signature style in a way that reflects Gap's easy-to-wear aesthetic," the company says. "The shoes will be sold in about 75 stores," says a Gap spokesperson, "primarily in metro markets, as well as online." And while the Gap sells its own branded shoes, this marks its first partnership with a shoe designer, she says. Pierre Hardy's name will not be used in stores, she says, and the shoes will be marketed as part of its Gap Design Editions. Gap, which has been fighting to shake off a persistent decline in sales, clearly thinks shoes might be part of its salvation. A year ago, it launched piperlime.com, a shoe Web site. In a conference call last week to discuss third-quarter earnings, recently tapped chairman/CEO Glenn Murphy described progress at Piper Lime as "so far, so good." (Gap's earnings rose, primarily as a result of slashing $75 million in its third-quarter marketing spending.) "It is a very nice complement to our apparel brands," he says. "Even though it's not a very large opportunity," he believes the right steps are in place "to get us to the sales level we want to get to and ultimately to the profitability level we believe we can get out of Piper Lime." Certainly, it would be tough to overestimate American women's shoe fancy. Total footwear sales in the U.S., reports NPD Group, Inc./Consumer Tracking Service, came in at $44.2 billion in the 12 months ending in October. And a recent poll from Consumer Reports National Research Center found that the average American woman has 19 pairs of shoes. About four pairs are worn regularly, and about 25% of the average woman's shoes have only been worn once. (Shoe-stat fetishists might also enjoy knowing that 13% of women have hidden a purchase from a significant other, 60% have regretted at least one shoe purchase, 33% are troubled by where to keep all their shoes, and 43% have been at least moderately injured by their shoes.) But so far, most women aren't keen on buying shoes online. The poll finds that while women are avid online clothes buyers, only 14% make any online shoe purchases. When asked why, 74% say they prefer to try shoes on before buying them.
Diamond Foods, which enjoyed great success with its "Natural Energy" campaign for its Emerald nuts that featured the actor/singer Robert Goulet, is set to debut the next generation of the effort following the brand ambassador's death on Oct. 30. Also new will be the company's unwillingness to participate in the Super Bowl extravaganza for the first time in three years. The upcoming campaign continues the promotion of nuts as a healthy source of energy, and features new situations that show "the bad things that happen when people don't eat Emerald nuts in the afternoon." It will debut on ESPN during the Emerald Bowl at AT&T Park in San Francisco on Dec. 28. The integrated campaign will consist of broadcast, Internet and out-of-home components and will maintain Emerald's contemporary sense of humor. After the Emerald Bowl, Diamond Foods will continue to unfold the effort up to and then beyond Super Bowl XLII, declining to participate in the big event this time around. "There will be extensive media and retail promotions surrounding it, including an in-store partnership with Anheuser-Busch's Bud Bowl that will generate approximately 15,000 off-shelf displays," the company said. "Given the success of the 'Natural Energy' campaign along with the rising cost of a 30-second ad on the Super Bowl, we made the decision in June not to participate in the telecast," said Andrew Burke, senior vice president/marketing of Diamond Foods. "Over the past two years we were able to negotiate very favorable rates that were 30-40% below reported averages. Given recent reports of high demand and prices approaching $3 million for a 30-second ad, we made the right decision. We will take those funds and both extend and strengthen our media plan throughout the year--including increased investment in the back half of our fiscal year, when we have a number of new initiatives launching." The impact of the campaign so far has "enabled us to attract new, younger snackers," said Burke. According to IRI data, the Emerald brand has grown more than 30% in eight out of the last 11 four-week periods since the campaign debuted. Furthermore, a recently conducted Brand Shifting Study conducted by Nielsen determined that 77% of Emerald's sales dollar growth over the past year was incremental to the category. The Emerald snack line, which has expanded from 14 to 23 products since its national introduction in August 2004, has distribution in approximately 84% of the nation's grocery stores. The brand is quickly gaining additional distribution in drug stores, convenience stores, club stores and mass merchandising outlets.