3M sponsors Todd Kluever's Busch Series car. Credit: Autostock

When sponsorship gets to be a sticky issue

3M's automotive products get a boost from NASCAR deal

Here's an interesting little game to play next time you're with your NASCAR buddies: name three products invented or manufactured by 3M.

OK, we'll give you Scotch tape and the Post-It Note, so it's down to one.

Give up?

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Try these: no-adhesive fasteners for disposable diapers, sandpaper and other abrasives, Thinsulate (that stuff that keeps you warm at places like Pocono), electronics, worker safety equipment, the list goes on and on.

3M, based in Minnesota, is one of the world's most diverse companies, and this weekend, it is branching into the race sponsorship arena for the first time at Michigan International Speedway.

"We've been building our involvement in NASCAR over the last 10 years or so, and so we view this as another logical next step in ramping up our involvement," said Ron Wassen, communications director for 3M Racing. "We started out in 1994-95 as a contingency sponsor, and as the business case grew, so did our involvement.

	Stats at a Glance Todd Kluever's 2006 results Race Start Finish Daytona 19 7 California 8 12 Mexico City 34 32 Las Vegas 18 21 Atlanta 16 18 Bristol 17 34 Texas 38 21 Nashville 6 32 Phoenix 22 42 Talladega 15 27 Richmond 11 22 Darlington 19 32 Charlotte 23 9 Dover 24 18 Nashville 1 17 Free VideoA day's worth of news in 90 seconds

"We're now primary sponsor for Todd Kluever in the Busch Series, and several of our businesses wanted to take a shot at a major title sponsorship opportunity. Michigan became a good choice for us because we are a big part of the automotive industry."

The company has been involved in the automotive industry since 1916, when it sent a bunch of sandpaper and other abrasives down to Dearborn for Henry Ford to use in sculpting Model As.

"We are very involved in the manufacture of abrasives, which provides a lot of our business," Wassen said. "We have a large electronics division that provides optical displays. We were one of the first companies involved in making it so that you don't have all the little lightbulbs in the display. People don't think of us as an electronics company, but we've been involved in that for years, as well as electrical, worker safety (respirators, ear and eye protection, welding hoods).

"We have in excess of 1,000 products that are involved in manufacture and repair in the automotive industry. We don't even count our customers who also utilize our office products, like tape and Post-It Notes. There are a dozen businesses at the division level that are involved in automotive.

"We are a much bigger part of the automotive industry than people realize, and that's why we got into racing. It's a good way to expose those things to a bigger audience, especially when they are fanatical about it and they listen to what you tell them."

For such a large company, 3M is fairly meticulous in its investment in marketing campaigns outside normal channels. When several of the divisions began to show interest in getting to NASCAR, management listened and 3M Racing was born.

Credit: Autostock

"It's been a growing involvement for us and we had businesses interested in stronger involvement," Wassen commented. "It's really important for us to be strongly connected with the fans at the track. When you're the title sponsor, you have access to that connection right there, and we have a large display center, called the 3M Activation Center, which is for all the fans to visit and find out about 3M. It's also a good opportunity for us to host important automotive industry customers, both OEM and on the repair side."

This weekend's 3M Performance 400 at MIS will be the rollout of the Activation Center, and it will be at the dozen or so races where 3M has its hospitality program operating.

"We have a significant hospitality program and we are really focused on getting the leaders of our key customers involved in it," Wassen said. "They get the value, they see the marketing potential of NASCAR."

Credit: Autostock

Wassen said that 3M is interested in moving up to the Cup Series as a team sponsor, too, provided the metrics make sense.

"You have to look at the investment," he said. "You really have to look at the whole package. You can't just say 'we invested $20 million and we need to make sure we get $20 million in sales.' We do a lot of customer feedback, surveys, and we use those to measure what our involvement means to our customers on a gut level.

"The whole idea of activation is how you involve your customers in what you're doing," he continued. "We're making some of our major distributors part of the program. We are asking them to increase the exposure of 3M products to their customers, and the reward is, both the customers and their reps will get to go to one of these (Cup) races as our guest.

"You do measure how much you made in return, but you have to balance it with what it means to that whole customer relationship. It's tangible and measurable. That's where we are with the Nextel Cup sponsorship."