Motorcross marketing

[SPBFAN]

It is definitely an open door approach. I would consider also looking into the Skate Boarding and X-Game events. I have converted three kids from skate boarding to Wake Boarding. They still skate board, but when ever my boys and I are going to the lake there friends will do what ever they have to in order for there parents to let them go sake board on a wake board. Those two sports cross over very well.

I think it would be really cool if the Olympics had Wake Boarding as a sport. I would be up for trying to track down and put together a committee to present the sport to the International Olympic committee. If they can make snow boarding a sport wake boarding should be part of the summer games.

[Jason B]

I guess the question is how many boats do you have to sell to justify the cost of having a Kawasaki boat sitting at the marina/supercross race/biker's back yard? I would suspect that it depends on how eager they are to have a boat. If you give them a boat for free, I think you would not be able to recoup that loss, IMHO. If you take the boat back after 2 years, and sell it, then that might be some pretty cheap advertising to a niche in your market for sure.

Typically, this is what is done with all EXCEPT the biggest riders (Bubba or RC). Even Bubba's Bentley was a lease he had to turn back to Fox.

The problem with saying "how many boats do you have to sell to justify the cost of having a Kawasaki boat sitting at the marina/supercross race/biker's back yard?" is that how do you quantify who bought a boat because they saw it at SX? You can't. You really have absolutely NO WAY of knowing who bought for a specific reason. This is the exact reason marketing must be done on soooo many different fronts simultaneously. It becomes a matter of being everywhere possible that a potential new customer may be. The more they see of you the more they identify with you (or the brand in this instance).

[Jason B]

<copied from my ww post>

Yes, it makes perfect sense for several reasons.
-The demographics are nearly identical.
-The obvious cross-over appeal.
-High visibility
-races are family oriented
-moto heads are "generally" fairly loyal to brands
-national exposure of the products

Most importantly,-MX/SX Sponsorship has a very low cost per impression vs. traditional marketing avenues. Name recognition (from non-boat owners) is critical to establish BEFORE the prospective customer starts shopping. If they recognize the name before they even hit the stores to shop you're a step ahead of the competition! New customers and growth of the market sector comes from new entries. Repeat customers are very important, but if they never even consider you an option before they pusrchase thier 1st boat how do they become repeat buyers?

The down side of MX/SX/AX sponsorhip is the continued involvement in the marketing venture is ESSENTIAL. You can't throw money at a team and then sit back and wait for the cash registers to start ringing--won't happen. There needs to be a significant amount of follow up and utilization of the investment or you wasted your money.
I have personally designed, implemented, and maintained a marketing campaign for a large food manufacturer with special emphasis on MX/SX/AX including 5k+ athletes on SponsorHouse.com, many of whom were riders. Either myself or my business partner attended every single SX/MX/AX race that our team ran in to promote the brand. Team managers and riders have waaayyyy too much to do on race day, don't think they'll be there singing Tige's praises all day. It is not easy and the "customers" can be very, very demanding and thankless. A little more rain on the parade is the fact that you are selling durable goods with a significant price tag--that limits your marketing avenues like the giveaways and marketing material. Furthermore, you can not (by AMA rules) hand out materials or stickers at any SX event unless you are an Event sponsor; teams do from time to time, BUT, they aren't supposed to.

Hope this helps in some way. If you have more specific questions please feel free to PM me

[ragboy]

I think cross marketing is great, but I also think there are opportunities without cross marketing. For instance, wakesurfing. I think it is still a very untapped opportunity that only Centurion has really jumped on, and now sanger. Tige makes a great wake on both sides, and if you are reading ww lately, you can see a lot of frustration with centurion owners over this issue. Tige with a few mods to ballast, and maybe a specially designed surfing swimstep option, could be very marketable as a great wakesurf boat. It would seem at less expense than maybe cross marketing. Just a thought.

[dtown]

I have a good idea. Sponsor a snowcross team and/or the Jackson Hole Snowmobile Hill Climb. Motorcycles and boats are used in the same season (summer). Snowmobilers need something to do during the off season. A snowmobile trailer and 2 sleds cost more than $25K, and most snowmobilers get a new sled every two years... so you know they have the $$ for a boat.


Mr. Pigeon - PM me when you are ready to hire a winter Tige marketing rep!

[mneal]

I have a good friend that is team owner/manager of a AMA pro team and they had a MC as part of their team sponsorship a while back. I think there is decent over lap between the sports, I used to MX back a LONG time ago and when I got too old, fat and slow I started to get into mountain biking and eventually wake boarding. Now I am old, fat and slow behind a boat. :-) I know of lots of people that either MX now or in the past that wakeboard.

[da.bell]

^^^ Skating would be a great place to do some advertising. There are tons of kids that skate and it definitely worked out for Tony Hawk.

[dogbert]

Recently Tige Boats has been discussing different cross marketing opportunities, and I was able to attend the supercross race this weekend at the MGM (which was sick). This year Tige has been involved with Team Green Kawasaki ( http://www.tigeowners.com/story.php?newsId=78 ) and had a strong response. From the core fans themselves, is this a effective method of marketing our sport?

There's obviously great potential. Just take a look at the TSR complex here in Texas. It's got a cable lake, ski boat lake, motocross course, go cart track, skate park, etc. Most extreme sports enthusiasts are into more than one sport. My son does wakeboarding, wake surfing, skateboarding and BMX.

Maybe that should be a Tigeowner's poll? It would need to allow you to make multiple choices.

[majestic]

Mastercraft is a sponsor of AMA supercross. If you could push them aside that would be awesome. I would much rather look at a Tige sitting in the arena tham a MC.

[yllw20]

Texas Mastercraft had a boat at the Dallas motorcross event this year.
I know they had the boat parked inside the event and also I think they had a railjam in the parking lot....(didnt get there till racetime).

[jwanck11]

I will be attending the event in Utah next spring... I would love to supply some sweet lookin Tige's. I know Mastercraft has done this in the past. I think its time to unleash the Tige's!

At the dealer level, this makes more sense to me (although that isn't worth much I know )

[jwanck11]

What data do you have to work from?

Are riders in the age demographic that Tige's sell to? Are you hoping to get the push sale where the kids influence the parents?

Traxxas built a monster truck - no brainer

Not sure i see tige's mix specifically with riding per sey, but I can see a connection to the X-Games. A X-Games boat would be multi purpose and attract a whole bredth of thrill junkies.

[chpthril]

Like many boaters, being on the water is not the only activity/sport/hobby that we do in the out-of-doors. So I'd say yes, there would be a good connection between people who motocross and an interest in boating.........I haven't seen too many "chess" threads on here or other boat forums .

I think any kind of active marketing, like boat shows, charitable events, the motocross, etc, that gets you, your company involved with potential buyers with similar interests, is far better then any passive advertising such a printed adds, etc.

[talltigeguy]

I guess the question is how many boats do you have to sell to justify the cost of having a Kawasaki boat sitting at the marina/supercross race/biker's back yard? I would suspect that it depends on how eager they are to have a boat. If you give them a boat for free, I think you would not be able to recoup that loss, IMHO. If you take the boat back after 2 years, and sell it, then that might be some pretty cheap advertising to a niche in your market for sure.

[Paublo]

There probably are some cross marketing benifits and what a company does with it's money is their business. But I would guess that most owners are most interested in the bottom line when it comes to buying. So if these cross marketing efforts don't really pay back on your bottom line, those of us who would like to buy another Tige in the future would rather not be paying for that marketing. Or put that marketing money in useful upgrades to the boats, like a fuel flow meter/gage as has been discussed in another thread.