Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog

Brand loyalty in NASCAR can be fierce, especially when it comes to kids.

I had an interesting conversation the other day with a co-worker. She was talking to me about her daughter’s new favourite driver; Kyle Busch. Why is he her favourite? M&Ms baby.

Her favourite driver used to be Elliott Sadler, then David Gilliland (she could never really remember his last name) and now Kyle Busch.

She is excited about the racing season this year because the M&M car is racing up front more now and she can see it on the TV.

She has already started asking for Kyle Busch shirts and hats because the stuff she has now has a different number on it.

Yep, don’t come between a kid and their favourite sponsor, you might just get knocked out of the way.

Although, there is an opposite effect to brand loyalty that I call ‘brand disloyalty’.

My first experience to ‘brand disloyalty’ happened when Cal Wells replaced Scott Pruett in the number 32 Tide Ride with Ricky Craven and then Craven with Bobby Hamilton Jr.

I haven’t bought or used Tide since Pruett was replaced. No offence to Craven, my beef is with Cal Wells and Tide over this. For a sponsor to allow a car owner to screw over his drivers like Cal did with both Pruett and Craven and expect the fans to stand by and support their brand is arrogant and I will never use Tide again because of that.

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