Brokerage Models, Management Principles, REALonomics

Business Principles from NASCAR

Today, I am watching the Daytona 500, for the first time ever! My brother-in-law Joel planted the NASCAR seed within my psyche. Since then, I have been developing a growing “need” to watch, to track and to learn about all things NASCAR.

Admittedly, the idea of watching cars drive in circles unnerved and confused me. Why would anyone want to watch this nonsense, I secretly thought? Like many things, transparency, understanding and knowledge changes one’s perspective and appreciation about a particular subject. This is true with respect to my infantile understanding of NASCAR.

Driving in Circles

NASCAR is not what I thought it was…driving in circles!

Here’s what I now know. NASCAR is a business endeavor predicated on extreme attention to branding, marketing, engineering and operational detail, hyper planning, teamwork and a passion for the experience of winning. The blueprint for victory involves a multiplicity of interrelated elements.

Now that I am “in to it” I can truthfully say there is a lot to be learned from the NASCAR business model specifically and the sport in general. It’s an industry not unlike real estate with market brand names like Jimmy Johnson, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Kurt Busch and others. Sub-branding make the economic engine work with national capitalization from Budweiser, Chevrolet, Lowes, Mountain Dew and even Cheerios!

What makes the NASCAR business model work with the general paying public, numbering in the multi-millions each year? NASCAR is a culture…almost cult-like. Its fans are “die hard” loyalists whose lives, in many respects, revolve around the “season” of races and the driver personalities. But that is not all there is to this NASCAR thing.

watching the Daytona 500, for the first time ever! My brother-in-law Joel planted the NASCAR seed within my psyche. Since then, I have been developing a growing “need” to watch, to track and to learn about all things NASCAR.

Admittedly, the idea of watching cars drive in circles unnerved and confused me. Why would anyone want to watch this nonsense, I secretly thought? Like many things, transparency, understanding and knowledge changes one’s perspective and appreciation about a particular subject. This is true with respect to my infantile understanding of NASCAR.

Delivering Experiences

Most importantly, NASCAR, despite the mega millions invested, remains devoted to the common man. I don’t know exactly what the common man is but it’s decidedly not the elite folks that appear in glossy magazines and whose visages are the fodder for tabloid journalism.

NASCAR’s appeal spins on the delicate axis of its most important person in business…the fan…the spectator, the real people that make up life.

I am only now beginning to see that NASCAR’s true product is the “experience” it delivers to me, you, her, him and them! Almost everyone can find a place in the NASCAR experience, whether in observing the pit crew whip through a complete tire change in seconds, studying the psychological quirks of the drivers or appreciating the last lap heroism that takes the checkered flag.

My point is that NASCAR is an industry predicated on delivering quality experiences to everyone. Although I am not totally hooked, I sense an erosion of my resistance to NASCAR and the initial notion that NASCAR was about people driving in circles.

Thanks to Joel, I’m becoming a fan and I suspect it won’t be long before attend my first race. It’s the experience I want…get it?

Hmmm…I’m wondering if the real estate industry can learn anything from watching the Daytona 500. I’m wondering if the real estate industry is driving in circles in quest of a better way.

Gotta run, the experience starts in eight minutes!

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