If you think cable TV has gone a long way toward sorting and segmenting America into respective target markets, take a deeper look into just one channel that has shown how specific you need to get when talking to your markets: Speed TV. Yes, sometimes they have NASCAR, but there is a whole lot more to this network and their viewers.
See, here's the trick about talking to car guys: this is a brand loyal group and very clique-ish. Big time. You can't talk to domestic car guys about imports. You can't talk to Ford guys about Chevys. You can't talk to Mopar guys about Fords. Show car guys wouldn't dream of strapping slicks on their trailer queen and throwing rubber all over the quarter panels in a big, smokey burnout. Drag racers don't want to sit in the stands and watch the roundy-round races: they want to do it themselves. Then there are the motorcycle guys...which is a whole other article! The point is, in the car-guy world, you can't generalize. The only way to break through the noise is to make them feel like you are specifically talking to them. Like you understand them. Look in the newstands: you'll find sport-specific and brand-specific magazines out the wahzoo.
Now, on the other hand, car-guys are a pretty good target market. They will eat beans for a week to afford a new carburetor when a car show or a race is at stake. In other words, they will actually forego a "necessity" to purchase what most would consider a "luxury" item. While this is not to imply that the car hobby is recession-proof (the wives do step in at some point) there are plenty of enthusiasts who are able to keep the category going even when times are tough. So, smart marketers know that this is a group worth pursuing.
What makes Speed unique among cable networks is how it appeals to so many different specific areas of interest within the motorsports category. You can find shows that address many different subject areas:
- Modification: Pimp My Ride, Chop Cut Rebuild, Unique Whips
- Gear-heads: Gears, Two Guys Garage,
- Trucks: Truck U, Livin' the Low Life
- Drag Racing: Pinks, Pinks All Out, Pass Time, Drag Race High and IHRA Drag Races
- Collecting - Barrett-Jackson Auto Auctions
- Auto Racing: NASCAR, Formula 1, road-course races, World of Outlaws and many commentary shows
- General interest: Wrecked - a show about towing (I cannot make this stuff up); Jacked - stories about stolen cars
Another brilliant move: aside from the national sporting events, many of their shows are reality-based, which means that regular guys get on the shows and get all their friends to watch them on t.v., which naturally leads to more guys getting hooked, and so on, and so on... So when a show like Pinks All Out holds tryouts, 500 racers show up to race at around $50 a pop and as many as 35,000 spectators come just be part of the action at $25 per ticket. That's a cool million in revenue for a single episode of a weekly t.v. show before it even airs and we haven't gotten to t-shirt sales and concession stands yet! And out of the people who attended, how many do you think told their friends to watch, Tivoed the event, even held viewing parties? That's just one show, folks, yet most of the people reading this have never even heard of Pinks or Pinks All Out. Because it's targeted to a very specific audience. Just because it's not mainstream doesn't mean it can't be wildly successful.
My point? That is one smart network, my friends, and if you are a marketer, you can learn a whole lot from Speed TV about target marketing.
