New-Product Process for NASCAR

With all forms of entertainment, it is clear that there needs to be change in order to be successful in business. In the sports industry, there has been declining numbers in attendance at live sporting events as well as viewership on television. The sports are always trying new ways to get more fans and to keep their fanbase. In this post, I will look at the new-product process for NASCAR. This process includes 7 steps which include; new-product strategy development, idea generation, screening and evaluation, business analysis, development, market testing, and commercialization. (Marketing the Core, Kerin & Hartley)

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The first step in the new-product process is a new-product strategy development. For NASCAR, over the past 10 years, there has been a decline in both the fanbase and the viewership. They needed to find a better way to be innovative, but not too innovative that they lose their fans. Since they are mostly a service industry, it is hard to tell what will work and what will not.

The second step is idea generation. NASCAR uses two groups for most of their ideas which are the Driver’s Council and the NASCAR Fan Council. Over the past couple of years, these groups have allowed for a lot of change in NASCAR. The Driver’s Council has made the biggest impact in the past 2 years as they have introduced stage racing and the new points system. To go along with this, NASCAR has decided to change to digital dashboards and allow fans to access the data from the cars. This makes the sport a lot more fan friendly and allows fans to be more invested in the sport.

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The third step is screening and evaluation. NASCAR mostly uses internal screening because fans do not necessarily know what they want. Internally, the drivers usually know what to do in order to make the racing better. For stage racing, it definitely helps with the racing throughout the race as drivers would just ride around until the end because there was no incentive to race throughout. Now, they get bonus points and stage points throughout the race. The fans also have a say externally. They can use surveys to tell NASCAR what they want and this also led to the new points system and stage racing.

The fourth step is business analysis and what market strategy is needed to make their ideas successful. Within this process, they have to try to get the fans to understand what they are trying to get across. They were able to do this through news conferences where reporters could ask questions about what they were trying to do. This was important because the reporters could put NASCAR’s words into easier language to understand.

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The fifth step is development. An example of a product in the development phase in NASCAR would be the digital dashboard. Last year, they were testing the abilities of the dash to see what it could do. They were able to work out the bugs in the system and offer the fans the best product possible to the fans. NASCAR was able to monitor all the digital dashboards and they figured that it would be beneficial to have the fans have access to it.

The sixth test is market testing. An example of this would be in last year’s All Star Race. During the All Star Race, they tried new things. The biggest experiment was the tires. They had a softer tire compound which meant that the tire would be faster during a short run and very slow on the long run versus a harder tire which would do the opposite. They tried this and found out that it did not really create much difference in the racing and the fans did not really enjoy it, so it was an unsuccessful prototype.

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The final step is commercialization. This can be seen when NASCAR released its new points system and stage racing. Not many fans were very excited about it to start, but it has grown on many of them. The stages have definitely made for better racing throughout the race and has led to more action on the track. The points system has definitely made a huge impact as there has been a lot of drama with it. The drama leads to a lot of fans choosing sides with drivers and makes them come back for the next race to see if anything will happen.

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