From hot wheels to NASCAR to the Tour de France, racing has captivated audiences everywhere for years. Motorsports have become some of the most highly attended, heavily anticipated sporting events on television. Heck, buy some car parts online now!
Racing cars at NASCAR
When I say “racing,” if the first image that comes to mind is a NASCAR race, you might be a redneck. Only kidding, you’re probably a member of the legion of fans that NASCAR has accumulated over the years. Since the discovery that racing cars on television was entertainment gold, NASCAR has exploded into not only a sport, but also a globally recognized brand.
NASCAR markets everything from apparel to car parts bearing the famous logo and its biggest stars are some of the best known professional athletes in the nation. If you’ve never experienced a NASCAR race for yourself (on television or in person), check out the NASCAR racing schedule and tune in.
If bicycle racing came to mind before NASCAR, you watch the Tour de France every year, and you count Lance Armstrong as one of your personal heroes (who wouldn’t?) then the high performance world of biking is probably more your scene. Riding your bike (without the training wheels) is a rite of passage as a child. Bicycles are a universal means of transportation and exercise, but racing through hills and rocky terrain, surrounded by hundreds of equally talented riders is a thrill that only belongs to the professionals.
Whether you dream of living in a NASCAR car parts warehouse or you want nothing more than to watch the Tour de France from the comfort of your living room, racing will continue to captivate athletes and viewers alike.
Last week the world lost a great man in the passing of Steve Jobs, founder of Apple. Apple Computers, as it was formerly known, created personal computers for the home, something at the time that did not really exist. Steve Jobs certainly did not invent the computer or the MP3 music player for that matter. What he did was create a product and sell it for more money than his competitors by building a unique brand around the products. His world of computing was closed and to some that as OK because to them it did not mean a compromise of any sort. These consumers didn’t know any better. And these are the consumers that buy his products. Case in point the new Iphone 4S. Better product, but since it doesnt look more pretty than the last model people don’t really care. Any way you slice it Steve Jobs did manage to change the way we live, the way we listen to music and the way we look at products. Something in my opinion that very few people have ever done.
Two brands come to mind when I speak of such things. Once is Nascar and the other is Craig Effron. The reason I bring up these two in particular is because they represent things that often perform in the opposite manner. Nascar is the opposite of Steve Jobs. Nascar is dirty, dingy, fast and can give you a mean sunburn if you watch for too long. Craig Effron will most certainly not give you a sunburn, although he is known at time to get one. There are lessons we can learn from all these great brands, but one thing ties them all together: people love them more than they shoud.