PRODRIVE / MOTORSPORT / BRAND DEVELOPMENT
HOW MOTORSPORT BUILDS BRANDS & SALES
WIN ON SUNDAY SELL ON MONDAY
Since car manufacturers started racing each other a century ago, they have used motorsport as the ultimate way to demonstrate the performance of their products. The saying 'win on Sunday, sell on Monday' demonstrated the impact motorsport has on sales of cars. It is a marketing principle that remains true today and why nearly every major vehicle manufacturer in the world uses motorsport to help 'sell' their cars.
THE POWER OF MOTORSPORT
All these leading car manufacturers currently have major motorsport programmes to promote their brand and products, with several competing in multiple international race and rally series.
USING RACE TECHNOLOGY ON THE ROAD
"The story of Audi's motorsport heritage is a story of pioneering innovation. There is a continuous cascade from our racing engineering into the development of the RS and R8 road cars, meaning that the Audi Sport range truly represents Vorsprung durch Technik."
Audi Sport
Audi became synonymous with success at Le Mans winning the title 13 times over 18 years. They used Le Mans to demonstrate the performance and endurance of their diesel technology through extensive television advertising like this.
HOW RALLYING TRANSFORMED SUBARU
“Subaru provides an outstanding example of what can be achieved when a consistent marketing programme combines with sports sponsorship to create a world class brand”
Martin Beck-Burridge Centre for Automotive Studies Henley Management College
Subaru partnered with Prodrive using the World Rally Championship to transform its image from a manufacturer of pick up trucks and city cars to a global performance car brand, increasing sales and profitably.
PERFORMANCE BRANDS CAPITALISING ON MOTORSPORT SUCCESS
In the last two decades many manufacturers have developed dedicated niche performance brands within their vehicle ranges. These 'halo' brands have been directly linked to technology and success in their motorsport programmes, not only enhancing sales of these high-end, high margin products, but having a positive impact on the brand's products across the range.
MERCEDES AMG TRIPLES SALES
“It’s difficult to scientifically develop a correlation between our efforts and success in motor sport and our success on the business side, but I’m totally convinced that it is not by accident that in the last three years our brand has developed a fantastic momentum and coolness factor"
Dieter Zetsche, CEO, Mercedes
Merecedes-AMG has been winning on the race track for 50 years. In 2009 it entered Formula 1 and since then its sales have doubled, while Mercedes-AMG has tripled its sales in the last three years with technology from F1 working its way into the product range.
ASTON MARTIN PROFITS FROM MOTORSPORT
In 2016 Aston Martin launched an all new performance brand - AMR. The brand was derived from the initials of its motorsport team, Aston Martin Racing and was specifically developed to draw a direct link between its range of road cars and its success in motorsport.
The new AMR branding now appears on its Vantage racing cars and is replicated on the limited edition high performance AMR branded road cars.
Aston Martin is experiencing a dramatic growth of sales using the AMR brand to lead the way.