Start your engines with fresh NASCAR produce

Wander through the supermarket and you will be inundated with trademarks and logos. They're on everything ... from cereal boxes to laundry detergent to canned cling peaches and the stuff you use to clean countertops -- and you're used to seeing them. But one logo you'll likely see in your produce aisle these days might surprise you.

It's NASCAR.

That's right, NASCAR-branded produce is now in stores. Distributed by Castellini Group, one of the largest produce distributors in the U.S., the items include potatoes, tomatoes, onions, lemons, limes and oranges. Of course, NASCAR doesn't actually grow the produce. It merely licensed its name and mark to Castellini for use on the packaging, both polybags [the official term for those plastic bags produce is sold in] and cardboard containers. It would be hard to brand individual tomatoes, so the packaging will have to do.

According to Andrew Giangola, director of business and consumer communications for NASCAR, the April 2004 agreement with Castellini is the first licensed produce line from any sports league.

"At first, we were slightly skeptical, but it was just such a unique, different idea," Giangola said. "Castellini was quite well up to speed on the power of the NASCAR mark, and when NASCAR fans have the opportunity to purchase products bearing that mark, they are three times more likely to buy the product. For a commodity product like produce -- there might not be a product that is more of a commodity product than produce -- to have the NASCAR mark is a real differentiation for a company like Castellini."

Castellini Group, based in Wilder, Ky., just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, had taken a look at sports licensing before, but never met with the right property until NASCAR. "We've done some licensing before, with the Cincinnati Reds, the University of Notre Dame, the Cincinnati Bengals and the University of Tennessee, but every time we did that it was more of a regional type of thing," said Jack Bertagna of sales and marketing at Castellini. "When I saw NASCAR, I thought, 'Wow, this was something else.'

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Castellini clients include Kroger, Wal-Mart, Kmart, Meijer and Winn-Dixie stores. Bertagna said the company would expand the NASCAR Fresh Vegetables lineup for next season to include Washington apples and California carrots.

The reasons Castellini Group became involved with NASCAR are legion, but chief among them is what drives most other companies to become involved in the sport: demographics, reach and staying power.

"Our grower-shipper base sees this as a great opportunity to help themselves, help us and help NASCAR," Bertagna said. "The PR that we've gotten from this has been phenomenal. We've placed ads on this in our industry newspapers and the response has been tremendous. NASCAR has national scope and strength. I'm a big fan, and it was easy for me to relate to it.

"The passion that people have for NASCAR is what got us really excited. People like the NFL, people like baseball, but the passion that NASCAR fans have for their sport is just phenomenal. The numbers are just unbelievable."

In addition, Bertagna said professionalism played a big part in Castellini's desire to hook up with NASCAR.

"The drivers, the fact that you don't have these hotshots who do some of the crazy things that other professional players do in the NFL and baseball, you're looking at squeaky-clean, professional athletes with the NASCAR drivers," he said. "It's just amazing the difference between the professionalism of NASCAR drivers as opposed to any other professional sport. We won't offend anyone by putting NASCAR on any of our fresh produce."

As licensed products go, the produce line is not expected to pull down the kind of revenues associated with die-cast or apparel, but it is a niche that NASCAR can use to expand its overall reach in the consumer market as a whole. The margins on produce are razor-thin, and royalties will contribute something toward the bottom line on annual licensing revenue, but NASCAR isn't in this for the money. So why are they doing it?

"It's good to be in the produce aisle," Giangola said. "It's great visibility. It's great exposure for NASCAR. We're basically now in every other aisle in the supermarket."

From Tide detergent to Coke and Pepsi to meat products, NASCAR's reach in the commercial supermarket is impressive, especially when you consider that 15 years ago, NASCAR wasn't much outside the Southeast in terms of influence. Programs like this one with Castellini increase overall awareness of the sport, especially in areas where it isn't quite so visible.

"We have a sport that has different levels of penetration all over the U.S.," Giangola said. "It's in grocery stores in places like Greenwich, Conn., and in some of the tonier parts of New Jersey. Wal-Mart is also one of the key vendors in this program. We're constantly challenged with making NASCAR visible and relevant to casual fans and non-fans who might not be exposed to the sport on a regular basis. This is another way to get that NASCAR logo out there in front of the casual and non-fans, while also giving the avid fan something that might brighten their day and make them more excited about NASCAR. If the NASCAR logo makes the potatoes taste a little bit better, then that's a good thing for everybody."

One interesting aspect of this licensing agreement is the fact that produce is perishable. Having your name on a bag of rotten tomatoes is not good for the brand, and that was one of NASCAR's concerns when approached by Castellini.

"Certainly, with produce, you have the concern that some of the items do spoil," Giangola said. "It's not like die-cast or motor oil, doesn't have that shelf life. But we got to talking to Castellini, and they assured us they do have a pretty good turn and the produce is competitively priced and the items do move off the shelves."

While NASCAR's main business is racing, it's good to remember that businesses grow by increasing brand awareness. Marketing produce is one way of doing that, especially in light of today's low-carb diets that use fresh vegetables as a staple.

Bertagna is already focused on the future, developing new products to license. "Somewhere in the near future, I'm working with some salad companies that we deal with out in California to come up with a NASCAR salad blend," he said. "That's down the road a bit."

NASCAR.COM's business feature appears each Wednesday afternoon. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.