Quote:
Originally Posted by dkmura
Mazda is the only company I'm aware of that has a marketing campaign built around motorsports. Nissan's program is pretty much in line with what Toyota, Honda, BMW and VW offer. Ford, Chevy, Hyundai/Kia and Dodge have even less (or nothing). Most of those marketing decisions are based on return-on-investment (ROI) data. Mazda's program, while admirable, has been far from the norm for many years now and there's little to no ROI data to support copying it.
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Although maybe there isn't a direct number attributable to it, their support get's its ROI in different ways imo. Namely things like Spec Miata and all its awesome glory, a zillion people that will buy the new Miata, goodwill etc. Let's face it, no one buys American muscle as a track car.
Nissan's biggest problem is name brand recognition. They have started to step it up with pushing the Nismo brand, but they have a lot of make up work to do. For example, this year at Mazfest in CA, there were over 5,000 people attending in California. Subi fest had probably 15,000- they completely packed AAA speedway. That's probably as many as they get at nascar races. In comparison, I bet 1000 people would not show up for a Nissan/Nismo event.
Don't get me wrong I love my Z, and I think nismo is moving in the right direction, but they need to put their mouth where their money is so to say-it's guys like you and me that are out doing track day events, amateur competitions, time trial events, and car shows.
They are missing out on a lot of free press.