What was Harley Davidson's old strategy?

Every once in a while, the History channel runs a show on the history of Harley Davidson. It touches on some of the marketing strategies that they used. I'm sure books have been written on the subject also. Right now, they are trying to sell a 'bad boy' image. I wish they would stop that ****.

1. HD was one of if not the original manufacturer of motorcycles. In the early days they made their reputation based on success with motorcycle racing primarily. Similar to the early days of auto racing, people bought vehicles from manufacturers whose products were successful in racing. The company started in 1903. During WWII all production was dedicated to the war effort, which is when the big bikes first started to become popular. Guys came home from the war and wanted a motorcycle like the one they rode in the war. Additionally Hollywood DID NOT do HD any favors. Hollywood portrait bikers in a negative light (The Wild One) and the Hells Angels didn't do anything for their image either. Then in the late 60s'/70's the Japanese bikes hit the US market, which HD lobbied congress to put a tariff on. Eventually declining sales and a poor product reputation caused the company to sell out to AMF. The AMF days were a disaster and the company was bought back by a group of employees lead by Willie G. Davidson - grandson of the founder. That is roughly the time they introduced the evolution engine, which was much more reliable than older engines like the shovel head, pan head, knuckle head and flat head. At this point HD was the only "American" made motorcycle. To answer your question, their strategy was to sell to anyone who wanted a motorcycle, and for years and years they had no competition. There were no image issues until the 1970s - which compounded with quality issues almost put the company out of business. 2. New strategy. Market the "brand", by every means possible. Encourage customization of their motorcycles and those of a similar ilke (i.e. Orange Country Choppers). First and foremost build a high quality motorcycle. One that doesn't require you to pack a lunch for the downtime on the side of the road, which their "70s/80s" bikes had a reputation for. They marketed the bikes to yuppies who were possers for the whole biker image they remember from their youth. Now that the bikes are so reliable, you don't need to know how to fix it, just ride it. Until recently they were getting ~$4K-$5K over list price for the bikes in the new Harley palaces (dealerships) that have popped up all over the country. they purposely produced fewer bikes than the demand for them, which pushed up prices and only further increased demand. They also created the Harley Owners Group (HOG), which promotes safe riding, group riding, charity involvement, community involvement etc.. and local chapters who put on public events to generate charity funds. Hog also puts on huge events for it's membership - see the 105 year anniversary stuff happening in Milwaukee this summer. 3. Media strategy.........they originally funded shows like the Jesse James West Coast chopper show, the biker build offs, Orange Country Chopper show - when it was on Discovery. This created a renewed interest in biking, which HD cashed in. They also pour lots of funding into the motorcycle rallies that happen all over the country - such as Daytona bike week, Myrtle Beach bike week, Americade, Laconia Bike Week, Sturgis etc.. Additionally the HOG club has HD only rallies all over the world every year. For owners, they send out two quarterly magazines - enthusiast (communication about what's new with company, new bikes, stories about trips, customizing etc..) and the HOG magazine (talks about happenings in the HOG organizations globally) 4. Psychological feeling - freedom. The thing about their bikes is that they appeal to people who aren't comfortable riding all bent over, mostly older people. I disagree about the need to change their bikes to appeal to a younger generation, I see lots and lots of young (early 20s) folks riding traditional Harleys. Their bikes appeal to a lot of people. Not everyone wants to go a zillion miles per hour, some folks want to see what they a riding by. They are very reliable, the dealerships are big, bright, clean and inviting. Sure Honda, Yamaha etc.. make cruiser style bikes - but those are all HD knock-offs (look at them). If your going to buy one of those, you really just want an HD. Similar to the sport bikes, if a sporty is what you want - get one of those, the Japanese make great sport bikes. Sport bikes are a blast to ride, they just don't appeal to a certain segment of the motorcycle buying market. If you want an RV on two wheels, get a Goldwing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harley_Davidson ------edit------ You can spend big $ with other manufacturers too. Want to get bent over a barrel - go into a BMW MC shop. Their motor cloths cost upwards of a grand for a jacket. Trust me, HD has nothing on them. Same with the others, it's not so expensive to get into some of the sport bikes, but modify one - bend over. My daughters boyfriend just put $12K into accessories on a brandy new Yamaha R1. Goes real fast, real shinny, loud....sound familiar?

1)H-D started out just building a bike and selling on it's merits like anyone else. Their bikes made it into alot of movies and got famous and became an American Icon, this is the most important factor in their marketing today. But H-D is a very lazy company, only builds one engine and one class of bike while alot of companies build dozens of radically different engines for bikes with alot of different purposes. By the 70's HD was going downhill with outdated uncompetitive bikes. The Japanese were putting out very fast and cheap water cooled four cylinders of high quality and HD was putting out basically the same v-twin that it put out in 1936. (As a matter of fact the 36 900cc knucklehead had the same puny 40 horsepower as today's 883) 2) They needed a new plan or face extinction like the superior Indian. So rather than building new bikes with competitive performance they put tons of money into capitalizing on their Hollywood fame, very successfully marketing harleys icon status, the HD biker lifestyle, history, and Harley as a status symbol to aging babyboomers who are not bikers but always dreamed of owning a cool bike and are presold by hollywood on HD as #1. What other companies put into research and design Harley puts into advertising and just keeps making the same old bike. 3) As you see when you come to Yahoo, HD is putting money into Internet advertising and selling even more to the middle class. 4) Potential owners....Status symbol, lifestyle, icon (buy a Harley and $10K worth of gear and have instant badass street cred). Existing owners....community, tradition, status symbol. Me?.....I've been riding street bikes since 1976. I'm all about the best performing bike for the task at hand. Store-bought status and the corny hollywood image of a biker mean nothing to me. Harley is a non contender when I go bike shopping, they are a parody of an antique design, they are not competitive in performance even with bikes that have cloned off of them, they are a less than average bike at a premium price. And to buy a Harley means being lumped in with all the poser noobs who are out buying harleys, looking like they buy their clothes at a costume shop,and practicing their mean biker dude scowl. 5) Harley's strategy so far is impeccable. Why try to sell antique motorcycles to a limited pool of hair splitting penny pinching motorcycle enthusiasts when you can sell a fantasy to an huge untapped pool of rich non bikers? But that all ends when the boomers are too old to ride. The next generation will not be buying an 800lb air cooled 1600cc Vtwin with 60hp. Harley will have to change it's bikes, but to change is to lose it's icon. How do you sell a Harley that doesn't look like a Harley? You have to either go back to competing head to head in performance and price or build an icon you can sell the gen X. The Vrod is what you get when you try to build a bike that looks like a Harley but has performance, a non contender to anyone really serious about performance. The Buel has potential if they scrap the air-cooled v-twin and put a serious engine in it. Buel may be the beginning of what harley needs to be if they want to make the transition past the boomers. Duh.....A Goldwing outperforms a full dress Harley by a ridiculous amount, does it in comfort and at a reasonable price.

JoeB is half right, doctors and lawyers etc are just a few of the new Harley riders. Way back they wanted a world market but now a lot of it is the logo. I think they make more money using the HD name than they do from selling motorcycles. For the pscycological feeling check out what clubs you can join. Many are poor imitations of the outlaw gangs using the leather jacket structure and placing of 'Colours' Check out the film Wild Hogs, Ok its a comedy but you will get the idea.

Unlike the japs strategy, HD is in the business to make money. The japs just want to make sure everybody has a bike, out of the kindness of their hearts. ( has something to do with Pearl Harbor). All they want to do is break even, where HD, for some silly reason, want to make a profit. You know how those Americans are. Also, part of their strategy is to remain the number one seller in the USA.

hd has a bike for all age groups.in all honesty buel makes one of the best handling bikes available right now.they make the badest cruiser around in the streetglide.i rode a vrod last week and i gained alot of respect for it too.

old men over 50 with money

They are a big corp so they have one thing on their mind $$MONEY$$ and lots of it, so I'd start with over charging

Its a macho thing, for macho men, by macho men. Oh ! and if you have huge inflated ego, it certainly helps. Technology is moving on and so, the old V-twin was looking kind of dated. So they roped in Porsche to help them with the re-engineering of the V-twin. The result as we all know is the V-Rod and its derivatives. So even though a certain section of people do not want change, market forces compel them to, if they wish to survive. God bless them all.