Before you start thinking about ad design, placement, and budgets you really need to address the basics:

1. What am I selling?
2. Who is my target audience?
3. Is my sales message clear?
4. Is my sales message motivating?
5. What media best isolates my targets? (eg. TV [cable/free-to-air], radio, magazines, online, event sponsorship etc)

Unless you've got those five things sorted your efforts will be in vain.

It's also worth remembering that the key point is 'who is my audience' and whilst there are still some very good deals to be had in online advertising compared to other media, for access to highly targeted groups who frequent very specialist sites or portals that command huge audiences then you should be prepared to pay (and sometimes a lot) for the privilege of putting your message in front of them.

The Australian Bloodhorse Review ("ABR") has readily adapted to the online world despite being historically positioned as a publisher of Australia's leading thoroughbred breeding & racing magazine.

In recent years the ABR has introduced new product lines, re-branded others, and appears committed to a strategy that zeroes in on their differentiators thereby allowing them to maximize their main profit sources. Thus, whilst the monthly magazine continues to be published (and reinforces the ABR brand as a publisher of solidly researched and well written content), the original ABR website has recently been subsumed by the Stallions site which originated (like most websites of years past) as a technological extension of their well-known Sires Annual.

Is the online strategy working?

Stallions is reportedly second only to the Australian Stud Book as the most visited thoroughbred-related website in Australia. The site is content rich (and free; the expense borne by those who list their stallions with the site), well supported by the majority of thoroughbred studs, it is regularly updated, and with page hits exceeding the million mark each month the site has also become a magnet for advertisers who pay the minimum of $500 a week for the privilege of having their company name appear on the site.

"But it's the INTERNET! How on earth can they justify those sorts of advertising prices?" I hear some people ask.

"Easily" would be my response. "It's all to do with self-selection and targeting."

Let me explain what I mean by that. If I click onto the AAP site, for example, I have a choice - racing, breeding, or sports information. If I click on the breeding section I am, in effect, self-selecting the information that I then want to read. Similarly with the Stallions site. There are a number of sub-categories within the site that allow me to choose what I look at. What we are seeing then is an ability for a website to target and develop a relationship with niche audiences who seek very specific information. This offers advertisers targeting and selling opportunities that ten years ago were still the stuff of dreams.

Some of you may think that $500 a week is expensive. Well, there is always the saying my Father was fond of which was "You get what you pay for." At another level think about this: We are constantly bombarded with advertising messages. There are ads on the side of our coffee mugs, alongside the roads that we drive on, in newspapers and magazines, covering bridges we drive under or across, interspersed with music we listen to, they pop up in movies, they're in our email in-trays, the shops ... they're even in the elevator. There are in fact so many sales messages that research shows that general advertising is fast assuming the status of white noise - most of us ignore it (scary isn't it when you consider how much money it costs to advertise?).

It is therefore of singular importance that if you are going to spend money promoting a product/service you need to specifically target your advertising message to a niche audience. If you can achieve that then consumers are far more likely to notice your ad and spend money on products as the product will directly relate to their category of interest.

Niche websites allows you to tap into that category of interest. But equally you have to pay for the privilege of interacting with such valuable consumer groups.

I'd recommend you now go back and have a look at AAP and also Stallions. Click into the sub-sections of each site and see who's advertising in which section. Does each ad make sense? Does it 'fit'? If not, why not?

You may be thinking at this point that the Stud Book and Stallions are the only sites that can boast seven figure monthly 'page hits'. They're not. There are many others who boast high 'hit rates' - AAP, RaceNet, Cyberhorse's Virtual FormGuide, Thoroughbred Village, MM SalesRing, OzHorse, Thoroughbred Internet, the Bloodhorse, Let it Ride, the various Race Clubs ... (amongst others). All these sites carry up to the minute content, a number of them have good writers working for them, most offer a raft of products/services that allow you to further target your advertising to meet very specific needs of consumers - and as they are content rich portals they serve as magnets for people seeking information (whether it's a link to a site or general information).

Stay tuned - tomorrow I'll look at the questions you need to ask yourself before you consider online advertising. Later in the week we will also look at how advertising agencies have responded to the Internet, and what challenges technology is presenting to a number of companies.

CoasterAds is, quite simply, a company that produces and manages advertising on drinks coasters. It's become a rather unique form of direct marketing in a number of upmarket bars, restaurants and clubs. In Hong Kong, companies now compete to get the monthly 'coaster rights' to select local bars.

The thinking behind the idea's success is that an advertiser's message is in front of a potential client for at least 30 minutes in a sitting.

I've also recently received a coaster in the mail (their product didn't really synch with the night life scene) and whilst it struck me as bizarre at the time I have to say that I look at it at least 6 times a day when I put my mug of coffee back on my desk ... And I have since given the company that sent it to me quite a lucrative contract.

I'm not sure if anyone has ever thought to enquire of the Australian auction companies what their policy is on buying advertising rights for the coasters on the bar at the yearling sales (or indeed the stud managers who host marquees if you are selling a complimentary product e.g. feed suppliers, vet products, racing silks etc) but you might want to consider it (first mover advantage and all that ...).

Coaster advertising is also EXTREMELY cheap (about 10c a coaster to print excluding artwork).

If anyone needs Australian supplier details just send me an email (katrina@AthloneAssociates.com) and I'd be happy to try and source a local contact for you (or you can always buy them cheaply in Hong Kong courtesy of our close proximity to the China market and have them shipped down).

If part of your job involves benchmarking then you may be interested in a column written by Sean Michael Kerner of ClickZNetwork earlier this month. Kerner reports that in 2004 online advertising represented 8.35 percent of average media plan spending, a figure projected to hit 17 percent by 2007.

The full text of the article can be sourced at: http://www.clickz.com/stats/markets/advertising/article.php/3432571

For those of you scratching your heads for a PR angle, you could do worse than look at the excellent example produced by Pencarrow Stud earlier this week (which was released via the NZ Thoroughbred Marketing site).

Pencarrow used the news of their last foal born for 2004 (a No Excuse Needed colt from the Secretariat mare Department) to highlight a rather longer list - that of their best foals born this season (which included a Fasliyev-Chimeara colt; a Van Nistelrooy-Ethereal filly and a Johannesburg-Devil's Lair colt).

It was a good example of savvy PR.

If you follow the US markets there were some interesting statistics mentioned in Wednesday's edition of Breeding & Racing's Daily News:

Quoting thoroughbredinternet.com, it was reported that almost 12,250 horses were catalogued at yearling auctions in the Northern Hemisphere this year. These included the major yearling sales by Agence Francaise, Baden-Baden, Doncaster Bloodstock, Fasig Tipton, Goffs, Keeneland, SGA & Tattersalls.

Of the horses offered more than 75% of the yearlings were sold, a percentage reported as "remarkable ... considering vendor buy-backs/purchases are not included in [the] statistics.”

The 8,328 yearlings who were sold represent a market worth in excess of €521 million (US$682 million) “reinforcing how valuable to the various economies the breeding & selling of yearling thoroughbreds has become”.

The average price of a yearling stood at almost €62,600 (US$82,000): with colts averaging just under €71,000 (US$93,000) & fillies €52,835 (US$69,000). Storm Cat was the leading sire by average - his 16 yearlings averaging US$2M (colts just under US$2.5 million & fillies US$917,000).

Companies attract people to their websites by (amongst other thing) supplying regularly updated and newsworthy content. It can also be refreshing if webmasters surprise you with information that is slightly out of left field. A case in point: the flight schedules for the horses arriving for the Hong Kong Internationals appears on the Hong Kong Jockey Club website this week (appearing to coincide with the arrival of the first horse, RAKTI, who arrived yesterday). Click here if you plan on meeting any of the flights (!).

If you're looking for the fields for the HK$56 million (approx. US$7.2 million) International Race Meet then the following link is what you'll be after.

Deep within the Victorian Racing website there is an option termed 'publications'. If you're not careful you'll miss the reference to a book on the list called The Australian Thoroughbred Record.

I had utterly no idea what it was but figured I'd buy it anyway ... and now I have (risking an excess baggage claim in doing so - it's no lightweight matter) everyone else I know wants a copy as well.

The Record is 1500 pages, hard cover, and you'd better have good eyesight (as it's small print and doesn't lack for detail). It includes:

- the result of every runner in every official race conducted in Australia including their finish position, jockey, weights, beaten margin, starting price, prize money etc.

- Breeding results tables including sires of winners, sires of dams of winners, Stallion fertility stats etc.

- Summary tables including top prize money earners, stakes races, age and sex of starters, overseas bred horses, sires by earnings and wins etc.

If you breed, race, buy, sell, train, conduct research or write about horses then I'm not sure how you'll manage without it. Given its breadth of coverage it also has the potential to fast become THE book every Thoroughbred Trivia Master covets (as a manager of a leading thoroughbred stud was heard to comment last week when he saw it in the back of my car).

The volume (you can't really call it a 'book') is $198 (GST inc).

TO ORDER CONTACT: KATHY WHITE
RSB, 400 Epsom Road, Flemington Vic. 3031
Telephone: 61 (03) 9258 4721
Fax: 61 (03) 9258 4273
Email: k.white@risa.com.au
Internet: www.risa.com.au

And is it just me or has this not been widely advertised? It should have been ...

Our editor, John Baxter, authors today's post.

Ask the average American racing fan who s/he picks as Horse of the Year ("HOTY"), and it's pennies to pounds they'll tell you "Smarty Jones", arguably the best known horse in the world this year. Ask the American racing literati and glitterati, who actually do the voting, and you'll get a very different answer. According to a straw poll conducted by Bill Finley of espn.com, an overwhelming majority of HOTY voters will be siding with the BC Classic winner, Ghostzapper, ahead of America's Horse.

Why so ? How can it be that the most talked about horse in the USA since Secretariat and Seattle Slew won't be the HOTY ?

Well, it seems that, unlike the racing proletariat, the industry's intelligentsia want to demonstrate that they haven't been taken in by the fanfare which attended Smarty Jones' every move in his run at the Triple Crown. They will tell you it's a vote for substance over style, for the real thing over the pretender. They will tell you that Smarty beat up on a weak bunch of 3yos and never took on the big boys. They will tell you that Ghostzapper, on the other hand, went for 4 for 4 throughout the year, made a stellar BC Classic field look pedestrian, and ran Beyers the like of which we haven't seen for years.

They may be right.

But I know which one I'd rather have the job of promoting at stud...

JRB

With the major yearling sales fast approaching the auction houses have their work cut out for them with the AUD continuing to make ground against the USD.

In terms of attracting buyers to Australia - particularly those in countries that have their currency pegged to the USD - then the currency trends of late are certainly giving the marketing teams at the various Houses some added pressure I'd imagine.

Speaking of marketing, for an auction house that has worked hard to develop its HK profile (and is spending a fair bit of money advertising North of the equator as well as relying on the PR machine to promote the race results of the HK winners bought at Australian auction), the news that Magic Millions have been granted the right to run the HK auction for the second year running will no doubt be a significant blow to Inglis.

Meanwhile, capitalizing on the strong Keeneland results, the list of Bluegrass stallions with 2005 fees of US$100,000 or more has increased from the 2004 total of 11 to 14.

The Bloodhorse reports the six-figure list as follows:

US$500,000 Storm Cat (Overbrook)
US$300,000 A.P.Indy (Lane’s End)
US$300,000 Kingmambo (Lane’s End)
US$150,000 Gone West (Mill Ridge)
US$135,000 Giant’s Causeway (Ashford)
US$125,000 Seeking The Gold (Claiborne)
US$125,000 Unbridled’s Song (Taylor Made)
US$125,000 Awesome Again (Adena Springs)
US$100,000 El Prado (Adena Springs)
US$100,000 Elusive Quality (Gainsborough)
US$100,000 Empire Maker (Juddmonte)
US$100,000 Fusaichi Pegasus (Ashford)
US$100,000 Mineshaft (Lane’s End)
US$100,000 Smarty Jones (Three Chimneys)

For a full list of all stallions at stud in the USA one of the best sites (if not THE best) is the Bloodhorse's Stallion Register.

That dreaded word has graced a few media articles again in recent days. ThoroughbredInternet.com reports that "3,651 yearlings were offered at the major European yearling sales in 2002; in 2004 it was 4,273 ... If there is to be a culprit, it may be that there are too many yearlings being bred, aimed at the top-end of the market, & in Europe there are only the Maktoum family & Coolmore who can play at the top-end in numbers. The European buying bench does not have the same depth of North America & an unhealthy emphasis on top-end production simply exacerbates the problem."

So what you may say? Last we checked we didn't live in Europe. True, but Australia has greater similarities to Europe than America in terms of its buying bench. Exacerbating the situation is the increased number of large commercial studs jostling for position at the top end of the local market and a number of stallions on offer at the AUD$60K+ level which, whilst significantly less expensive than America, still require significant buyer purchasing power if breeders are to get adequate return on their investment.

This year's Magic Millions Premier and Inglis Easter Sale showed that the records are there to be broken but if anything, Vinery's news last week that it was pursuing a new strategy in Australia said a whole lot more about the future than the neatly typed press release's words that changes were being adopted as a result of 'personal and family reasons'. A rigorous analysis of the Vinery business plan given its strong US ties will no doubt have demonstrated that the US market is a far more profitable alternative. Some will argue that that's a simplistic conclusion but a Stud the size of Vinery with the level of sunk costs and ongoing annual investment it absorbs in Australia has probably faced the daunting question of how it positions itself alongside the likes of Coolmore, Darley and Arrowfield to ensure adequate return on investment. Coolmore and Darley appear to have taken on a quasi Coke/Pepsi battle for market share and the flood of horses the two will strike the 2006 yearling market with will be interesting in regards to yearling prices, (a potential number of) over-bred mares, what horses qualify for what sales and a glut of yearlings by the same sire which should, if anything, drive down average prices as the power shifts to the buyer rather than the vendor.

As Might & Power, Octagonal and Lohnro have helped to promote racing in Australia so too is Silent Witness ably assisting the Hong Kong Jockey Club's current marketing efforts. When the unbeaten bay gelding (with a bank account of HK$25,181,900) turns out to race the public also turn out en masse to watch him.

For a town of people who, on the whole, are not prone to outpourings of emotion, there is something about this particular horse that makes fans paint their faces in the green and black of his owner's silks, line the fence 20 deep when he drags his strapper into the parade ring, and when he charges to the lead down the Shatin straight the roar from the crowd is beyond supportive - it hinges on raw emotion. No matter how you choose to describe it, it never ceases to send a shiver down my spine.

The champion is back this weekend. For those who do want to watch the race you can do so live on the HKJC website. Equally if you want to see how he has been progressing in track work you can review his daily form at the following URL.

I know, I know - all horses have to eventually be beaten. And there is certainly a wealth of talent being sent to challenge him for this year's International Sprint.

In terms of the loyalty this horse has generated amongst his legion of fans and the flow-on effects for the Sport as a whole however, forgive me for hoping that his time to relinquish his crown is not December 12 this year.

Your best business ideas will come not from your own reservoir of grey matter - or indeed others you work with.

It will come from your customers.

So many businesses would do so much better if they learned to actively listen - and on more than just the rare occasion.

If you're not constantly talking to your customers then you will never be truly successful.

"Wave laurels; don't rest on them. When you're on top of the mountain, it's natural to want to relax. Take a minute and enjoy the view. But hang on. Its windy up there. You won't have privacy for long. Your competitors - benchmarks in hand - are within hailing distance".

Charles Wang (co-founder and chairman of world's third largest independent software maker, Computer Associates International).

Does everyone in your company have a business card? A business card may mean nothing to you (as you've probably had one for so long you've forgotten what it is like not to have one) but if you want your staff to be generating positive PR for your company whilst also making them feel like a valued member of the team - give them their own business card. Its an incredibly inexpensive way to boost morale, and let me tell you - they WILL talk about it to other people.

Part of having a good company brand is not just about offering good terms of employment and the biggest salary (many of the biggest and most prestigious global companies actually pay LOWER salaries but because of their name and the fact that they are so well known they have everyone knocking down the door to work there). It's actually irrelevant whether we are discussing 29 stable hands or 1 track work rider, 2 office staff or a hierarchy that includes middle management. Give them all business cards.

You may be astonished at how such a tiny thing can make such a huge difference.

If you don't subscribe to the value of marketing its perhaps because you haven't considered the following: "Thirty-two thousand foals mean thirty-two thousand stories, because a Thoroughbred never goes unnoticed or undiscussed. And most of the stories are the stuff of drama." Jane Smiley, Horse Heaven.

You don't need the world's most expensive horse/stud/owners to create a story. Everyone has a story. You just need to know how to capture it to sell it to an audience.

It's not just your company that needs to respond to the changing times - it's also your marketing. Are you using the Internet and associated web-based tools as an integral part of promoting and selling your goods/services and generating new clients?

From the marketing perspective the Internet is invaluable. It provides the ability to:

- give increased exposure to your brand name (local/regional/global)
- manage how/when and where the message is distributed
- target information to specific audiences
- measure how an audience interacts with information about your company
- collect (and analyse) market intelligence
- benchmark your company against your competition
- add value to your offerings
- customise your goods/services to the needs of your clients (for not a lot of additional expense).

Why is this important?

Today's customers are increasingly demanding that a company works to what THEY want (and not vice versa). I know, I know - it can be irritating (!) but if you want to be successful you have to adjust.

Let's take a non-thoroughbred example. The world's largest search engine - Yahoo! By shifting their business to a competitor customers basically told Yahoo! that they didn't want to be told what to look at on a search page. These educated web users [18 - 40 years old] (many of the same people who buy your services by the way - or who will buy in the future) demanded an increased sense of autonomy. It was no different to someone learning to drive a car. We all get the run-down family vehicle when we start out (in case we accidentally swipe the garage door or decimate the front garden). After a number of years we can drive (well, in an ideal world ...) and we want a car that we feel matches our personality and preferences. Customers are no different. The Internet is not new. Most people in the mid-late 30's have been using it for at least 10 years. They're sick of the 'family car' approach to the technology and companies who treat them like they're learning to drive. They want tailored offerings.

Yahoo listened (clever company). You can now customise your home page to show whatever content you choose. You'd probably be surprised if you saw my Yahoo search page - not a weather forecast, stock exchange message, fashion or travel bargain in sight - rather syndicated news feeds from all major thoroughbred sites around the world, content feeds from seven weblogs I track in the States, local news, currency fluctuations, 3 photos of my horses (and for something light I even get to choose my favourite comics - I just choose for them to appear at the bottom of the page).

That's autonomy.

In future years I have absolutely no doubt that I will also be able to customise what advertisements I see on the web pages I view - something the large scale channel marketing companies such as Overture and Google have already made massive inroads into. In fact, I may even be able to pay a premium for not seeing ads at all if that is what I prefer.

The message in all of this is that too many clients are not keeping abreast of changes in the business world and, as a result, continue to rely solely on traditional marketing methods. The traditional approach (magazine ads, the occasional event sponsorship, uniforms for staff at yearling sales, one or two press releases, a brochure and sales letter certainly have their value and I'm not in any way suggesting you cease using them but, in isolation, they won't maximise your returns.) There are quite simply too many people competing for market share. A savvy web campaign in addition to your traditional marketing tools will allow you to explore and promote your differentiators.

Your marketing has to come of age if you are serious about competing. A marketing approach that does not correctly harness the Internet (and I'm talking about more than just a web site) is synonymous to someone standing in a huge marketplace and whispering what their offering is. You'd probably laugh if you saw someone doing it - but in reality - is what you're doing with your current marketing efforts really any different?

How do you find news to make your product/service stand out from the crowd?

In the case of stallion promotion - how about a trifecta in one race - and a race double 2 weeks previously?

Collingrove's magnificently bred stallion Bianconi (Danzig/Fall Aspen) achieved exactly that at Moonee Valley last Saturday when his 3YO son, the aptly named 'Surprise Impact', led two other Bianconi 3YO's - Blazing Icon and Kipconi - across the line. It was a race result well worth celebrating but it apparently wasn't as unique as I at first thought. A quick check of the Collingrove website revealed the news that on the 27 October at the Sunshine Coast meeting (Qld) two full brothers (Cook's Voyage and Katastrophic) won their individual races as well.

It's worth keeping in mind that unlike many stallions Bianconi doesn't have huge numbers of progeny on the track either. It makes the results even more noteworthy.

Do the Chinese do things by halves? No. Especially not when 'racing' and the 'Jockey Club' combine in the same sentence. The world's first fully retractable parade ring roof, renovated racing centre, Owners' Pavilion, saddling area and expanded public viewing balconies (across the second to fifth floors of the Grandstand) opened at Shatin race track on Sunday. Capacity at the paddock has doubled to 4,700 which for a town of avid race fans is a fabulous marketing initiative. The price for the development? A cool HK$400 million.

Shatin already has a 'world first' in its diamond vision screen (I dare anyone who has seen it to look me in the eye and say they watched the horses rather than the screen to about the 200 metre mark ... even then I sometimes forget to switch as the screen is just so BIG).

Not to be outdone the parade ring has followed suit. It's quite simply gigantic.
Photos are available from the Hong Kong Jockey Club website. The best photos are as follows: Image A and Image B

A change too for those who visit Hong Kong for the Internationals in December each year and who also take the opportunity to attend the International Sale (a rather unique black tie affair). This year the new paddock at Shatin will host the Sale on the Saturday (December 11) rather than the traditional venue - the Hong Kong Exhibition Centre on the Friday.

I'm not quite sure how the black tie/evening dress attire will fit with the new location (and given most of us go racing at Macau on the Saturday [you need your passport - it's a different country] the logistics will prove interesting) but I'm sure the HKJC have thought of something ... they usually do.


Photo: Diamond Vision Screen at Shatin race track, International Race Day
(c) Athlone & Assoc. 2003

Chris Scholtz has the story on AAP so I'll refer you straight there

Whilst the Vinery media statement claims the Hunter Valley stud will maintain its Australian stallion roster, the decision to curtail breeding interests casts a question mark over competition as Vinery is certainly one of the larger players in the market.

It will, no doubt, also cause a rush on the stud by the auction houses in order to secure what will be an immensely lucrative dispersal sale.

Stay tuned for that news.

It would seem that a stallion can be judged as a 'super sire' when his progeny performances are no longer marked as a percentage (stakes winners: champions for example) but rather by a word. A case in point - when writing about the sire of Gone West, author Nan Mooney writes: "Mr Prospector [has] fathered so many champions that any list of them just ends with the word etcetera". (N Mooney 'My Racing Heart' p.107)

If you're looking for the story behind Fusaichi Pegasus (not just the 'PR angle' that I took last week) then there is no better person to tell it than Joe Drape.

Drape's book titled "The Race for The Triple Crown: Horses, High Stakes and Eternal Hope" is a great read. Whilst I would strongly suggest starting at p.1 and working your way through it - if you're the impatient type then head straight for Chapter 5 which starts: "They met for lunch at the Peninsula Hotel in Los Angeles to discuss an extraordinary colt, one that had cost $4 million at the 1998 Keeneland July Sale; a colt that had seduced some of the sharpest minds in horse racing with its almost human curiosity ..." (p.75)

Drape's writing will no doubt seduce you too.

Of interest, Drape's book is as much about More than Ready (Vinery's young freshman star) as it is about Fusaichi Pegasus. But even on the book jacket the horse who would go on to win the Kentucky Derby and call Coolmore home is referred to as 'the mythical horse from Japan' (note he never actually placed a hoof on Japanese soil - he left that to his owner).

It seems the story around this stallion is destined for quite a few chapters yet.

Marketing a diamond is an artform all of its own. The current Keeneland sale and indeed the Fasig-Tipton sale where the dam of Smarty Jones' fetched US$5M demonstrate that when you are dealing with horses of such value then no money is spared ensuring they are well advertised to the right audience to maximise the horse's exposure and build maximum public interest.

The pin-up mare for Tattersalls November sale is Ipi Tombe. The champion mare has her own website for marketing purposes - you can visit it here and ads are now appearing in various high profile publications (the following is from the Thoroughbred Daily News) to spread the word of her sale.

Her appeal goes without saying: a breathtaking race record, in foal to a champion sire, and a true rarity in the market. The ad very much targets those differentiators.

4,460 horses, including 2,260 broodmares, 1,950 weanlings, 244 horses of racing age and six stallion prospects will pass through the Keeneland ring over an 11 day period which commenced Monday (8/11). It seemed appropriate therefore that the quote of the week came from the home of the world's largest (and most famous) auction.

Whilst she wasn't the most expensive horse to be sold this week, Helsinki (by Machiavellian) is a full sister to G1 Dubai World Cup winner Street Cry (Ire) and dam of G1 Dewhurst S. winner Shamardal (Giant’s Causeway). She certainly got the press' attention with her US$3.9m price tag however. And the quote from John Magnier (speaking on behalf of the winning bidders) was priceless in terms of nonchalant understatement: “I guess she was expensive, wasn’t she?"

It would appear that Giant's Causeway has secured himself a repeat date with a now famous mare for next season.

Fusaichi Pegasus is, by all accounts, one hell of a horse.

He's got the looks, the story (birthplace, yearling price, and race
record), and the best marketing engine in town spurring breeders and buyers to even greater throes of enthusiasm.

So, is it the horse's pedigree/performance that's generating the hype? Is it his first crop performance in the US? Is it the name of the stud that backs him? Or is it just the power of the advertising spend?

I'd suggest that there is another factor at play and that's PR.

Consider this: if I am standing on the street corner selling lemonade and tell you that it's the 'best lemonade you'll ever drink' you'll probably think "you're just trying to sell me something" and there's a good chance you won't buy my drink as you won't believe my claim. If the MEDIA reports that the lemonade is the best lemonade you will ever drink however you are more likely to want to buy it as the media's opinion carries far more weight and credibility than mine ever will (as let's face it - there are lots of people trying to sell us things every day and they all say that their product/service is the best).

What people don't realise is that a lot of advertisers work hand-in-hand with the media and a lot of stories run by the press are actually media releases generated by various companies. This isn't a bad thing - far from it. From the marketing perspective I am a much stronger proponent of PR than advertising when it comes to building brands. The lesson though is to realise that developing relationships with the press and being able to get the press to write about you is integral to building the profile of whatever it is that you are selling. Once PR has established your product/service in the audience's mind then the hard-core advertising campaign can kick in behind it and continue to support the image you have created.

Let's have a look to see how Coolmore have used PR to promote Fusaichi Pegasus.

The horse's main differentiators are as follows:

- His looks. His breeder Arthur Hancock reportedly said "He was the best looking foal I've ever seen" and he was known around the farm as Superman. Is he the most beautiful horse to ever stand at stud? Probably not. Are there others out there who are equally kind on the eye? No doubt there are. But his looks have been extensively relied on in stories about the horse. It builds a perception in the reader's mind - THIS HORSE is the most beautiful horse. And it's an image that has stuck.

- His yearling price - he was purchased as a yearling at Keeneland for $4,000,000, by flamboyant Japanese owner Fusao Sekiguchi who is quoted as saying ``When I saw that horse, he was an inspiration to me. He looked so powerful. I would have spent five million, or whatever it took, to acquire him." Have there been other muscular and dream-inspiring yearlings to pass through a sales ring? I'm not sure about you - but I assume every horse I buy will be a champion and most owners interviewed at the yearling sales will pretty much say the same thing. Again though this is all part of the image that the stud wants to create.

- His purchase price. Coolmore purchased him for a reported US$60,000,000 which makes him, well, pretty well the most expensive stallion in history. (And yet another reason why the Stud has worked overtime to ensure that the promotion of this horse is so close to 'perfect' it will end us as a textbook study in marketing)

- He is the only son of Mr Prospector at stud who won the Kentucky Derby. Other horses have won more Group 1s than this horse. In fact a lot of other stallions have won more G1 races full stop. And on turf rather than dirt too. But that isn't the point. The point is he has a unique differentiator - the Kentucky Derby. And there's that great photo of him winning by what looks like all number of lengths. People like that stuff.

Right. So next the horse had to be positioned in the buyer's mind as unique in the market. You'll need one of the world's leading studs as an address. Tick. You'll need a service fee to match. (2001 & 2002: AUD$110,000; 2003: AUD$93,500; 2004: fee on application but reported on Stallions site as AUD$77,000). Tick. You'll want to appeal only to owners of the most elite broodmares to ensure the mares names/performances (and not just the stallion) will ensure media comment and also guarantee prize positioning in the most prestigious yearlings sales (roll up Imposera, Burst, Dane Ripper, Danelagh, Danglissa, Dantelah, Dashing Eagle, French Braids, Joie Denise, Let's Elope, La Volta, Lady Solvil, Stella Cadente, Tennessee Moon, Triscay - amongst others). Tick.

Next you'll need the 'best looking foals'. Enter Peter O'Brien, Coolmore's Australian farm manager. Peter's not the global head of the corporation so the 'everyday person' more readily connects with him as he waxes lyrical about this year's foals. If you believe Peter you'll believe every Coolmore stallion fathers the most 'muscular/well grown/scopey/beautifully put together foals that will win the Slipper/Oaks/Derby'. But do you know something? You can't help but forgive him because he tells you this in such a friendly and personable way!

Next you need the right buyers looking at the horses. So again, the PR machine is out there doing its work. And now the auction houses join in to promote the stud courtesy of the top class mares that were sent to the stallion. Open days are glamorous (and social) affairs. You'll want to be there as 'everyone' wants to be there.

Meanwhile the Master of Spin James Bester will send you a weekly newsletter extolling the merits of any win - maiden or otherwise. The ever present press feed continues (which is such an important part of PR - you've got to be constantly feeding the news) and the relationships that the stud has with key media (coupled with, in some circumstances, the link between a magazine and the stud's combined advertising spend) means that those stories are going to be front page news.

So, it's yearling sale time. The stallion has a median of $200,000 from 47 sold. Not bad. In terms of ROI, I could probably have done a lot better from sending a mare to Encosta de Lago (or indeed Mossman) but hey, let's not get too picky. From the promotion angle the stallion does win the award for being leading first season stallion at the Inglis Easter Sale (where his 26 yearlings averaged $242,692).

Now we need performance. The carefully crafted image may crumble completely if he doesn't perform.

Thank god for the US and all those well bred mares. Early (and much needed) runs on the board. Stakes winners Roman Ruler, Killenaule, and South Bay Cove lead the charge.

The language of the press releases becomes more emotive to ensure that the readers are as excited about this horse as the stud assumes they should be. We start to see words such as "exciting young sire", "will revolutionize the breeding game", "classy bunch of juveniles", "annihilated the opposition", "awesome", "the 'big horse'", "he is 'the one'".

But too many dirt results can make the turf observers anxious. Global results essential. The press release that followed was hardly surprising - "Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus has eight winners, a second and a third place getter from his first 10 starters in Europe" read that headline. Following it up some European black type: nothing to write home about in the overall scheme of the European scene, but when you're promoting something it's good nevertheless: KILLENAULE won the Delaware Park Dover Stakes (listed race), WITTEN also won the (listed) Bordeaux le Bouscat Grand Criterium de Bordeaux and Scandinavia ran second in the G2 Ascot Hackney Empire Royal Lodge Stakes.

Now, let's lay it on the line. This horse has been pitched as the second coming of Christ in terms of stallions. He has everything lined up behind him in terms of the mares he has served to the trainers who are training them and the ever present hum of Coolmore and media stories to ensure he is the first stallion people think of when they think of "2004 freshmen". Marketing students take note -from 'positioning' a stallion, Coolmore have done an utterly faultless job.

One slight problem. We want local results. And we want them RIGHT THIS MINUTE! as early 2 year olds do seem to be a curious obsession in Australia.

Last Saturday - 6 November - Flying Pegasus gave his sire his first winner in Australia, having already produced the stakes placed Flying Dansino (ex Dansino by Danehill) and Moon Fever (ex Stella Cadente by Centaine) and the NZ stakes winner Dr Green (ex Palia by Last Tycoon) who won the listed Wellesley Stakes at Wellington on October 23.

Now this is where it gets interesting as out of interest - a horse with a lot less hype (and a much lower price tag)- Testa Rossa has recorded two stakes-winners and one stakes placed performer from just 6 starters: Jiang (winner $200,000 Gr2 Maribyrnong Plate (1000m) at Flemington); Listed Maribyrnong Trial Stakes winner (Rossa Glory); Listed Debutante Stakes runner-up (Tevella); metropolitan-placed Sportivo.

But fear not. Ask any thoroughbred breeder who they think 'the stallion' is this year and a lot of them will mention the one starting with 'F'.

If you break it down the reason for that is PR and advertising.

It's on again this week by the way. Ashford Stud in Kentucky announced Fusaichi Pegasus' fee for the 2005 northern hemisphere season - a raise of 18% from US$85,000 to US$100,000. Breeding & Racing then reported that "The Fusaichi Pegasus draft for Inglis Easter 2005 will number around 40 & reads like a who's who of turf luminaries: including 10 siblings to Gr1 winners(including the half-brother to Gr1 Victoria Derby & Gr1 Caulfield Cup winner Elvstroem) & 7 yearlings from Gr1-winning mares (including a prized filly from Bonanova)". Just to ensure that the media were well covered we see in today's Daily Telegraph that "connections have rejected a million dollar bid for boom colt Flying Pegasus only days after he posted a stunning debut win at Warwick Farm. The juvenile is seen as a genuine Golden Slipper contender by trainer David Payne & connections remain eager to see the bay live up to his potential before assessing his true worth."

It's very clever marketing.

For those learning the ropes - don't despair that you can't do something similar. You may never be able to compete with the larger studs in terms of promotional budgets and even stallions with these credentials but you can define the differentiators of your horse and you can generate the PR to promote him. PR costs nothing. And it is far more persuasive than me telling you my lemonade is the best - or just running an ad about it. Your advertising will ideally come AFTER your PR efforts. They will then work alongside one another.

We can all learn a lot from Coolmore.

Stay tuned - later this evening I will post a case study I've prepared on how Coolmore has effectively used public relations ('PR') in their promotion of freshman sire FUSAICHI PEGASUS.

In the interim I thought it might be helpful to provide you with a basic definition of PR as a lot of people confuse it with advertising.

Advertising and PR both communicate messages to the public. But they do so in different ways. An advertisement buys space (think of an ad in a magazine or on television) and it will contain an overt sales message ("10 shares in exciting Catbird filly for sale" - for example). PR does not buy space and the company whose product the media are reporting on cannot control the message which is given to the public (therefore demonstrating the importance of developing good relationships with the media).

PR is not directly about selling - rather (if well used) it is about increasing the profile of a company and its products [so the 'brand name' if you like] which then DOES help to sell more products (as the consumers will then actively seek them out). PR can also be used to minimize negative public perceptions about a company. For example - some people may feel that large global companies take money offshore, do not adequately invest in local staff and minimize their tax. PR campaigns can be used to shift these perceptions (or at least manage them) by showing evidence of the company being a good corporate citizen (ie. the company may spend $100,000 on staff education every year, contribute $50,000 to charity, develop a young Australian leadership programme and lead the way in environmental standards).

PR can be very authoritative as it takes the form of official news broadcasts from the media which are relied on as facts that the public can trust.

A couple of things you need to be aware of:

- PR is heavily reliant on the goodwill of the media

- PR should never be used to deceive the public into believing a bad product is good (it is highly unlikely this will occur anyway as the reputation of the press will also be on the line if credibility comes into play)

PR is one of the marketing tools companies use to communicate with their target audience.

PR is part of the 'promotional' side of marketing (along with advertising, direct marketing, customer relationship marketing, merchandising and sales promotion). The other sides to the marketing square (if we consider 'promotion' one side) are product, pricing and place.

A great result today for deceased sire END SWEEP (Forty Niner - Broom Dance by Dance Spell)when his 3 year old daughter CLEAN SWEEP won the G1 $300,000 Coupland's Bakeries Two Thousand Guineas (1600m) in New Zealand. Purchased by Paul Moroney (as agent) at the 2003 New Zealand Premier Sale for just NZ$20,000 Clean Sweep has had 11 starts for 4 wins and a second and more than $400,000 in prize money.

I should disclose at this point that I also own an End Sweep filly so I am perhaps more interested than most in how the stallion's progeny perform each week. Beyond mere interest however, today's result is pleasing from the perspective of 'trends'. In the US, End Sweep set a few trends - champion first crop sire in 1998 and all sorts of records for number of stakes winners in his freshman year etc etc. In Australia the trend has been (unfortunately) the exact opposite - far from gracing the top of the charts his progeny have been largely disappointing. In fact, had End Sweep not met an untimely death in 2003, one wonders how long it would have been before his $30,000 service fee took a significant dip or (worse) he was quietly hidden in the back paddock of a less commercial stud farm. One positive trend for the stallion is apparent however - his best progeny in Australia/NZ have all (except for Sunset Run) been fillies: Clean Sweep, Only Words, Sarah Vee and Light Sweeper.

Given statistics to date it's perhaps unlikely that End Sweep will set any records on the Australasian general sires list but he did cover some beautifully bred and performed mares in the three years he was at stud. I therefore wouldn't be surprised to see this stallion really come into his own in future years when his daughters retire to stud and broodmare sire stats come into play.

In the meantime I'll enjoy the fact that he had his first G1 winner 'Down Under' today. Congratulations to trainer Mike Moroney and owners M P Brown, G J Duff & L Petagna as well.

Flicking through some of the historical statute books can be quite amusing in terms of comparing laws of yesteryear with today's standards.

Some UK examples for you:

- A Member of Parliament must not enter the House of Commons wearing a full suit of armour

- committing suicide is classified as a capital crime – punishable by death

- in Chester you are allowed to shoot a Welsh person with a bow and arrow provided it is done inside the city walls and after midnight

The USA don't escape notice:

- Anyone caught causing "unseemly laughter" by wearing a false moustache in church will be arrested.

- It's against the law to whistle in an attempt to find your lost canary before 7am in Berkeley.

- In Atlanta, you are not permitted to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street lamp.

- The Little Rock parliament once passed a law forbidding the Arkansas River to rise higher than the level of the Main Street Bridge

Globally there are also a few laws that involve our equine friends (of greater concern perhaps - a number of these laws are still in force today!)

- Fountain Inn (South Carolina) law once required horses to wear pants at all times. But carriage horses in Charleston (also South Carolina) were required to wear diapers.

- In Calgary (Canada) a by-law requires businesses within the city to provide rails for tying up horses.

- In Winona (MS) it is illegal to drive a car on Main Street because it frightens horses.

- In Wilbur (Washington) it is against the law for a person to "ride an ugly horse" - the fine is $300! (one can't help but think of the fines Australia's 2 year old Triple Crown winner, Dance Hero, might have incurred as he trotted onto the track each morning had he lived in Wilbur ... as his strapper readily admitted, the gelding had a head "only a mother could love" when he was younger!)

- Horses in Marshalltown (Iowa) are forbidden to eat fire hydrants.

- In San Francisco tripping horses for entertainment has now been made illegal.

- In Milwaukee, parking a car for over two hours is not allowed unless a horse is tied to it.

- In Berea (Kentucky) and also in Willamantic (Connecticut) horses are not allowed out on the streets and highways at night unless the animal has a "bright" red tail light securely attached to its rump.

- Horses may not wear cowbells inside the city limits of Tahoe City (California).

- In Burns (Oregon) horses are allowed in the town's taverns, if an admission fee is paid before they enter.

You can't blow your nose in public places in Leahy (Washington) because it might scare a horse and cause it to panic.

I only found one that relates to Australia: taxi cabs are required to carry a bale of hay in the trunk and bars are required to stable, water and feed the horses of their patrons.

If you're interested in a wider selection of quirky equine-related laws then I'd recommend the light-hearted article penned by Jayne Pedigo. Jayne also makes reference to the DumbLaws.com site which, if you have 5 minutes and need a laugh, is also worth the visit.

Just how impatient Australian clients are remains to be seen (as to the best of my knowledge no-one has conducted a study on the topic). If we assume, however, that Australian clients have some similarities to clients in other parts of the world then some UK findings may be well worth taking note of.

A recent survey by Cable & Wireless (UK) showed that nearly 2 in 5 people (38%) admitted they had become more impatient in the last five years. Of interest, the findings suggest that new technologies are driving consumers' expectation of service delivery.

Men were found to be more impatient than women.

In fact, the Cable & Wirless survey found that:

- men are twice as likely as women to stop queuing: 1 in 5 (19%) men would give up waiting in a shop after three minutes, compared to 1 in 10 (9%) women
- almost half (46%) of men would give up waiting online after three minutes, compared to a quarter (27%) of women
- 2 in 5 (40%) men would give up waiting on the phone after three minutes, compared to 1 in 3 (33%) women.

Rising impatience also effects customer defection rates. If you manage a company you may be horrified to discover that 50% of consumers claim to have given up waiting on the phone to a retailer and have permanently avoided the brand and organisation thereafter.

The survey also showed that while young people appear to be more forgiving - with 65% prepared to give companies another chance - 59% of 45-64 year olds are unwilling to give repeat custom to an organisation with which they've lost patience in the past.

The results are important reading for all businesses who invest significant sums in building and promoting their company name.

The results also show how technology is impacting buyer expectation. The advent of broadband means that a lot of people can - and expect to - get information NOW.

Whilst technology provides endless benefits in terms of meeting consumer needs, the survey results also show how easily technology can exacerbate matters if a website is down for prolonged periods, phonecalls aren't answered and emails aren't responded to. At a commonsense level it also means you should know if the majority of your clients have access to broadband or dial-up (as this will impact how 'flashy' your website is - nothing will drive people away faster than a website that won't load because of heavy graphics or a 3 minute flash introduction that can't be skipped). It also means staying in touch with your customers so as to identify problems when they arise and solve them as rapidly as possible.

Smarty Jones' Dam may have sold for US$5m and multiple Gr1 winner & stallion prospect Toccet(winner of the 2002 Gr1 Champagne Stakes & Gr1 Hollywood Futurity) may have fetched US$3.35 million but the headlines "Fasig-Tipton Nov: Average Up 17.7%" which splashed their way across this morning's media are somewhat deceptive. If you put aside the hype over Smarty's dam then the small print is actually quite sobering: 201 horses sold (84% of 239 offered) for US$20,685,800 (an increase of 300.9% from last year’s US$5.16m ... hardly surprising given last year only 59 horses were sold).

The all important barometer is however the MEDIAN. It was only US$27,000 (down 40% from US$45,000 last year).

Do you have a website? Do you know:

- how many people view it?
- what they are looking for when they are online (eg your phone number/address, latest news, monthly specials etc)?
- how long they are online?
- how often they visit?

If you are going to invest in a website it's essential to track who's visiting it. Otherwise the website is not forming an integral part of your branding and communications policy.

Speaking of the Internet, have you ever wondered how many people are accessing the Web in Australia? Nielsen//NetRatings produces a regular raft of statistics.

Web usage statistics for Australia in August 2004 are as follows:

[Home and Work Combined]

- Number of Sessions/Visits Per Person 38
- Number of Domains Visited Per Person 54
- PC Time Per Person 35:27:16
- Duration of a Web Page Viewed 00:00:58

The Active Internet Users by Country for September 2004 shows that Australia has a total of 8,817,815 users (an increase of 32,664 users from the previous month).

As an aside - Australia, which has a smaller Internet population than the UK, logged more time online, but surfed fewer domains than our UK counterparts.

This morning's Daily News Update from Breeding & Racing reports that Monashee Mountain is indeed on the move, re-locating from his Coolmore base in Ireland (when he isn't shuttling to Willowbend in Qld) to the Stud's North American headquarters - Ashford Stud in Kentucky.

It will be interesting to watch and see how his Australian progeny perform.

More than 18 months ago (16 May 2003 to be exact) AAP reported that Willowbend Stud (Qld) would retain Clang (Bellotto/Sudden Impulse) with shareholders rejecting Darley's $5 million offer for the stallion.

It was reassuring news for Queensland (and also Willowbend), and in retrospect the offer for the colonial stallion was peanuts compared to some of the dollars changing hands in recent months (for sires who have done less than Clang [who now has three G1 winners to his credit including Golden Slipper winner Calaway Gal and AJC Derby winner Clangalang]).

The impeccably bred Monashee Mountain (Danzig ex Prospectors Delite) is another Willowbend incumbent, the Coolmore stallion spending his Southern shuttle months in temperate Beaudesert rather than the Hunter Valley.

So what you may ask?

Well, don't forget that Encosta de Lago was also a Coolmore horse ... who just happened to have a Victorian address.

You may have noticed that in Europe, Monashee Mountain forms part of a Coolmore triumvirate that currently head the leading first-crop sires list.

Of course, Monashee Mountain's first crop will need to perform in Australia to elicit any discussion re a change in address. But, without being privy to the ownership arrangement I have to say the European developments are interesting in relation to whether Monashee Mountain will continue to call Qld home.

LEADING FIRST-CROP SIRES IN EUROPE IN 2004
(In Order of Prize Money Won)

1 GIANT'S CAUSEWAY (1997) Storm Cat
2 MONASHEE MOUNTAIN (1997) Danzig
3 MONTJEU (1996) Sadler's Wells
4 DANSILI (1996) Danehill
5 XAAR (1995) Zafonic
6 ROSSINI (1997) Miswaki
7 DIKTAT (1995) Warning
8 NAMID (1996) Indian Ridge
9 DUBAI MILLENNIUM (1996) Seeking the Gold
10 KING'S BEST (1997) Kingmambo

1. What are three things that set you apart from your competitors? If you can't think of the answer to this question and you have an existing advertising campaign in place then I can save you money right now. Pull the plug on the campaign UNTIL you know what your differentiators are. Otherwise your ads won't be selling. They'll just be wasting your money. Seriously.

2. Do you advertise in certain publications just because your competitors do? If yes, ask yourself what you achieve by doing so.

3. Do you obtain and use testimonials from your best customers? It's some of the cheapest and most convincing marketing material around.

I love this time of year. The Hong Kong Jockey Club reacquaints us with their popular "Horses Across Hong Kong" advertising campaign which form part of a unique promotional exercise for the International Race Series which kicks off next month.

Now in its third year, "Horses Across Hong Kong" involves a series of life-size eye-catching horse statues that are located across the city. Students from HK Polytechnic University and The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts have been involved in the 2004 designs. All statues feature international flag designs (representing the countries who send horses to compete in the race series).

One imagines that in any other city the statues would be quickly covered in graffiti, stolen, mutilated or used as a Friday night prank by a horde of inebriated youngsters.

Fortunately there has never been that problem in Hong Kong and as a result the world also benefits from this unique advertising campaign.

You have to love it.

On 29 October Darley released its 2005 stud fees, John Ferguson taking the opportunity to accompany the press release with a reflection on the state of the current European bloodstock market. (For the full text of John Ferguson's analysis please visit the Darley website.)

Ferguson's stats boil down (not unsurprisingly) to disagreeing with recent press that have suggested that the market is down approximately 15%. Not so says Mr Ferguson running his eye across his heavily dissected set of figures. He argues that the top 30 percent of the market has seen decreases while the rest of the market has remained “largely static” versus 2003. A few of the elite Darley stallions will therefore take a minor hit in fees for 2005 but the majority will remain the same (Cape Cross the exception with an increase from i20,000 to i50,000.)

Well, you have to hand it to Bill Oppenheim. Rather than leave Ferguson's 'statistical spin' unchallenged, Oppenheim's article on p.6 of the Thoroughbred Daily News on 3/11/04 included the following:

"The Vocabulary Lesson...

Now it's time for the vocabulary lesson. This has to do with the word "accurate", as in, when John Ferguson released the Darley stud fees last week, his accompanying document began with the following assertion: "Common perception is that the market is around 15% down on last year. This is not accurate." Whoa, Nelly. This IS accurate. What John meant to say is "This isn't the whole story," or "But, if we break the overall figures down into deciles, they tell a somewhat different story," something like that. But the figures he was referring to WERE accurate: the gross for the 2,168 yearlings sold at Goffs and Tattersalls was down 15% from the corresponding sales in 2003. That is a fact, and it is accurate. By all means, break the figures down further, qualify them, whatever: but, please, as Mark Twain put it in his great essay, "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences"--"Use the right word, not its second cousin."

A stallion's success is dependent on many things (performance, pedigree, the stud that stands and markets him, number and quality of mares covered, number of live foals, trainers who buy yearlings ... and on it goes).

What all stud masters have fingers crossed for is early results on the track as this provides reassurance to investors who are looking for return on investment and also secures some positive news for future advertising initiatives and client retention/attraction.

Woodlands Stud would therefore have been delighted with the news that their G1 winning freshman sire OVER (Dr Grace-Tromper, by Lunchtime) recorded his first winner with his very first starter. Note that the 2YO gelding (The Jonker [Over-Rosita's Gem, by Zephyr Zip]) had his debut over 1000m at Canberra rather than down the Flemington straight but you know something - who cares? The Stud can now run as many press releases as they like with those all important words "FIRST STARTER A WINNER".

You can't argue with that.

In the racing game, the best marketing is usually race-track performance.

With this in mind, breeders Alistair and Patricia McFarlane from Tori Park Stud in the Adelaide Hills have a winning lottery ticket in their back paddock. The ticket's name - a South Australian mare called Beat the Bullet. The mare achieved an enviable result today when two of her daughters won separate stakes events at Flemington: 2 year old Red Hot Mama (by General Nediym) winning the listed Myers Stakes over 1000m and a few hours later her 3 year old sister Hollow Bullet (by Tayasu Tsuyoshi) winning the prestigious $750,000 Gr1 Victoria Oaks over 2500m.

The 2 fillies cost $65,000 (Magic Millions Adelaide Sale) and a modest $10,000 (Inglis Melbourne Premier) respectively.

One imagines that future progeny of the mare will not be purchased at quite the same prices! (One also suspects that there will be considerable interest from a number of studs in securing the mare!)

It's fantastic marketing for a smaller stud as many breeders often do not have the horses or the money to generate significant PR.

Let's stick with the 'brand' theme. I'm going to toss a few 'brand names' into the ring here. What are the words/feelings the names evoke? The words/emotions are the perception you have about that brand.

I'll choose some easy ones to start with and please note - the comments are entirely my own (your perceptions may be quite different).

A company needs to first understand the way it is viewed by its clients and then tap into the differences/similarities and market accordingly. And a word of warning - you can't fight perception. If the public think you're dishonest or cheap or a copycat or a rank failure ... then no amount of advertising is going to change that. You may as well start thinking of another business to be involved in or seriously consider a long term plan of change management and a well structured public relations plan to sort things out. But let's face it - when we hear 'Enron' we think 'fraud'. 'The World Trade Centre' will always mean '9/11'. A 'used car salesman' will always mean 'untrustworthiness'. Similarly, moving the Opera House to Spain isn't going to make us think Spain is Sydney. Once perceptions are in the public mind they are very, very hard to change.

Ok - here are a few brand names:

Melbourne Cup: race that stops the nation; excitement; fashion; horses; crowds; international coverage; huge prize money; Australia's race; anyone can win it; office sweeps; public holiday in Melbourne; hype; great stories.

Inghams: Chicken Kings, brothers, Woodlands, cerise, Octagonal, Lohnro.

Coolmore: Danehill

Arrowfield: John Messara

Inglis: Easter sale

Magic Millions: Queensland; competitive; innovative

Golden Slipper: Two Year Olds

Nick Moratis: Might & Power

Bart Cummings: the Cup King

Peter Moody: trains good fillies

Lee Freedman: The Freedman brothers

Gai Waterhouse: Sydney; frenetic, Tommy's daughter, workaholic, hats, media savvy.

Glen Boss: Group One

Mick Dittman: The Enforcer

The Oaks: fillies and fashion

Note that perceptions are not always the absolute truth. Yes, Peter Moody does train good fillies. He ALSO trains a number of good colts/geldings. But if the public PERCEPTION is that he trains more good fillies than colts then that is the marketing edge that he needs to capitalize on. Equally if John Messara is synonymous with the Arrowfield brand then this needs to be incorporated in the stud's marketing (which it is - Messara is very much at the forefront of the stud's PR campaign).

Now, think about your own company. What are the words you want your clients to associate with your name? Is what you supposedly stand for (your business differentiators i.e. what makes you different from your competitors) the same as what people think of when they hear your name?

... now you need to go and find out whether the words YOU want people to think actually match the truth. That takes a fair bit of time and research (and some of the answers won't make all of you feel overly comfortable). What the answers will do however is force you to be much more strategic in your future marketing efforts. I expect it will pay some healthy financial dividends as well.

I received two emails last night from people seeking further information about branding (as it relates to marketing - not as it relates to the Stud Book!). It's a topic worthy of a thesis in its own right but let's start with some basics.

The gurus in the marketing world are, for me, the triumvirate of Trout, Reis and Kotler (having said that - everyone has their own favourites so please don't feel those three are the only three worth noting).

Kotler defines a brand, paradoxically, by what it shouldn't be. In his book Kotler on Marketing (p 63) he states: "When something is not a brand, it will probably be viewed as a commodity. Then price is what counts. When price is the only thing that counts, the only winner is the low-cost producer"

Think of Coke and Pepsi. Studies have repeatedly shown that if people are blindfolded they can't tell the difference between the two colas. Show the people the cans however and they'll choose Coke every time. This is despite the fact that Coke costs more than Pepsi.

That's the power of perception in the consumer's mind. That's the power of the brand. McDonalds vs Burger King. Same story.

Evian charges a significant price for a bottle of spring water. Is it REALLY any better than other bottled spring water on the market? Consumers are willing to pay more for it whether or not it IS better because they BELIEVE it is better.

It's the power of perception yet again. It inspires loyalty. Customers will choose it every time and will resent the fact that the product/service is suddenly no longer available to them.

Owning a brand name is not, however, enough. There are loads of car companies for example. But there's only one Holden. The name has to evoke feelings/associations/expectation/action/degree of preference from a consumer.

Now, just because you WANT your company to be all number of things to your target consumer it does not mean that your consumer necessarily sees you in the same light. A brand is the perception that exists in people's minds. You can hire the best ad agencies in the world to promote your product, spend millions of dollars telling everyone that you're the biggest and the best. But if the consumer doesn't believe that you are the best - then you're in trouble because what YOU think about your company is actually irrelevant. It's what THEY think that matters - yep, those people who ring you up, come to your open days, meet your staff, have business dealings with you over time, chat to you at the races/sales/functions, read your brochures, speak to other people, read what the media say about you, analyse how you handle crises, determine whether you are/aren't a 'decent corporate citizen' (think Enron) ... it's THOSE PEOPLE (your clients) whose perception is the ONLY thing that matters. In simplest terms - You want your clients believing that you are the Coke (not the Pepsi) of the thoroughbred industry.

Interbrand sums up the value of a strong brand as "[something that] bestows value far beyond the performance of the products themselves. Brands that do this possess an idea worthy of consumer loyalty ... The more inspiring the idea, the more intense and profound the commitment. And the more the consumer believes in the brand, the more value the brand returns to its owner."

I agree with Al and Laura Reis' view that branding will play an ever increasing role in the successful marketing of companies. They summarise it beautifully: "Companies that built brands like Budweiser, McDonald's, Rolex, BMW, Volvo and many others are very successful while companies that failed to build powerful brands often went bankrupt. Hence the emphasis on 'branding' which has become a much more discussed topic in the business community today than 'marketing.'"

It's a fascinating topic and one that has received little attention as it relates to the thoroughbred industry.

We're hoping to change all that. If you've visited this site before you'll know that we're very focused on providing you with increased information - information that will allow you to make better use of your strategic planning time and marketing budgets. We're really interested in seeing how a range of players in the thoroughbred industry develop increasingly successful brand names over time - and how this benefits their bottom line. We're equally interested in tracking the companies that don't succeed - their stories won't be ones THEY want to hear repeated but for others looking to avoid the same mistakes - they're pretty much 'required reading'.

Thanks for your emails (and I hope everyone had a successful Cup day yesterday).

You may be interested to know that according to one of the world's leading advertising companies Saatchi & Saatchi (I have a sneaking suspicion they sell themselves as an 'ideas' company these days?!), the "the race that stops a nation" has recently reached the hallowed status of a 'lovemark' ie. it's shifted beyond a brand name and now inspires loyalty beyond reason.

The Melbourne Cup is no longer just a race (for those who might have thought it was) with research demonstrating that it reaches hearts as well as minds and provides an emotional connection that people can't live without. The theory goes that an everyday brand can be replaced. The removal of a lovemark on the other hand would cause massive protests and well, all hell to break loose.

So what makes the Melbourne Cup such a unique (and powerful) brand?

Some would say it's the horses, the egalitarian nature of the race (handicap event), the fashions, the social events or the fact that 80-90% of the Australian public will have a bet.

But in isolation that's not enough.

Master author - Les Carlyon - in his book True Grit sums it up best:

"It's hard to explain the Cup to a outsider ... The Epsom and Kentucky Derbies are about the supremacy of genes and the buying power of the ruling classes. The public is allowed to join in for the crowd scenes. The best colt of the year usually wins and is hustled off to the breeding shed. Sheikh What's-His-Name doesn't get too excited about the stakes money because he's worth a couple of billion anyway. Besides, he's spent $20 million on yearlings that year so he's still behind, but who's counting?

"Our Cup is quirky. Got up for people it is: a cross between a horse race and a folk festival. And it mocks good order because it's a handicap ... Just about any runner can win... The Cup is a saga of about horses and the human condition, about lowbrows and highbrows, toffs and villains, irony and rough humour. And the improbable."

David Hayes, when interviewed for the book "The Track - The Story of Good Breeding and Bad Behaviour" said: "If you're a leading trainer in your country and you haven't won one [a Cup], it's one of the first questions people ask you."

Guy Walter said "Professionally it means everything".

Andrew Lemmon said "[The Cup has] self-defined itself as the pinnacle - the race that everybody really wants to win. People focus their will, energy, and their desires onto that particular holy grail ... The two miles [of the race] is long enough for a bit of drama to unfold."

Mike Hayes writes "win or lose, it doesn't matter with the Melbourne Cup. While one half of the crowds might be dressed to the nines flouncing about in the highest of fashion, the rest will be hooning about dressed as gorillas or wearing flippers."

From a marketing angle, the 'status' of the Cup is no small matter - a fact not overlooked by Emirates who have just sponsored the race to the tune of a cool $4 million. They'll be looking at some of the spill-over marketing benefits of being associated with Australia's best racing brand name. And why not? A company's brand is worth big dollars. In the August 16 edition of Business Week for example, the 'who's who' of cult brands for 2004 were unveiled. The leading brand? Coca Cola - possessing a brand value of US$67.39 billion.

Co-author of the Business Week study, Interbrand, sums up the importance of brands as "having a profound impact on our quality of life and the way we see our world. They color our lives. They reflect the values of our societies. Megabrands, such as McDonald's and BMW, can even embody the spirit of many nations, if not the spirit of an age. Most importantly, strong brands bestow value far beyond the performance of the products themselves. Brands that do this possess an idea worthy of consumer loyalty. The more inspiring the idea, the more intense and profound the commitment. And the more the consumer believes in the brand, the more value the brand returns to its owner."