Racing embarked on its latest attempt to broaden its appeal to the British public yesterday with the launch of a five-year marketing plan that hopes to rebrand the sport as a "new British classic", in the style of the Mini or Dr Who.
The scheme is the result of many months of interviews and workshops with racing professionals, racegoers and punters. Devised with the help of Harrison Fraser, a branding consultancy, it has cost £250,000 to develop to this point. As yet, though, there are no estimates of how much it will cost to implement, or where that money will come from.
At present, according to Harrison Fraser's research, roughly 10% of the British population goes to the races at least once a year. Roughly a third of these attend on a regular basis, while the other two-thirds are once-a-year racegoers. The aim of the rebranding project is to convert irregular racegoers into more regular ones, while also reaching out to at least some of the remaining 90% for whom, according to Harrison Fraser's research, the sport is effectively invisible.
In particular, there is a concern that unless at least a proportion of the internet generation is recruited to racing to some degree, the sport's popularity and prosperity will inevitably decline. The 18-30 age group, and young women in particular, is seen as a key target group, along with over-55s.
The process of developing a "brand vision" for racing has already generated dozen of ideas and possibilities, which will now be refined and moved forward by no fewer than seven sub-committees of the brand steering group, which is itself a joint venture between Racing Enterprises Limited and the British Horseracing Authority.
Racing's current image problems, according to Harrison Fraser, are that it is seen as old-fashioned, insular and complicated. The challenge is to make the sport more approachable, aspirational and engaging.
"If racing came to life as a person," John Harrison, one of the firm's senior partners, said yesterday, "we think it would be a bit of a Brian. Brian is traditional and British and thinks in quite an old-minded way. He's got a group of friends that are very loyal, and when they get together they have a fantastic time, but then talk in a language that no one else can understand.
"Five years in the future, if you have created the ideal racing experience for everybody, the picture is of a Ben industry. Ben is younger-minded than Brian, more worldly, in touch with a new generation but the nice bit about him is that he can talk to your grandmother but equally he can talk to your teenage kid."
The sub-committees of the brand steering group are expected to make initial progress reports in July. "The opportunity racing has is to be famous for creating a new British classic brand," Harrison said yesterday.
"For example, take the journey that the Mini has been on since the 1960s. It is a quintessential new British classic brand.
"BMW took something that was absolutely the zeitgeist of 1960s British life, but had lost relevance to consumers. They bought it and took all its assets, gave it a twist and made it relevant to consumers' lives today."
(Source: Guardian.co.uk)
