The entire episode recently concerning the catfight between Danica Patrick and Milka Duno, shows how reliant the IRL is upon the brand of Danica Patrick.
Not only do they embrace the spoiled-brat behavior of Patrick, they more than likely encourage it.
Evidence of this is when the spat between the only two ladies racing in the IRL was video recorded, it didn't take long for the IRL to have it posted on their Web site. (You can see it below.)
Danica Patrick, Milka Duno Catfight
There's no doubt that Patrick has become the face of the IRL, and for better or worse, that's going to continue on, whether Patrick wins or not.
Most people, even racing fans, are finding Patrick and her behavior more interesting than who finishes in the top ten. After all, she's only won a single race in her lifetime, but her name is what most people consider synonymous with the sport.
Anna Kournikova was in a similar situation for tennis, which has also craved more eyeballs; although that was more for the endless photos of her than off-court or on-court behavior. To this day I don't think she's won a single tournament, yet for quite some time when people thought of tennis, they thought Anna Kournikova.
It looks like the IRL has placed all their marketing plans on the Danica Patrick brand. While it would be difficult to prove some of this may be scripted or intentionally encouraged. One thing for sure, they have no interest in holding back Danica from behaving like Danica.
The problem with this type of strategy, is where do yo go from there? There is a temporary interest in Patrick, and by extension the IRL, but you have to have something more long-term in place to take advantage of these marketing moments. So far I haven't seen that in place.
That's the key to any type of personality-driven marketing effort. It doesn't work if all you do is come back to the personality. Something has to take the interest engendered by the personality and build out the business. If not, all that the IRL or any company can expect, is a temporary boost in interest, that nothing else is built on.
There's no future in that. But for Danica, she's building a brand that will probably last for the rest of her life. She can simply apply it to whatever company, product or service she chooses to, within the parameters of who she is.
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