Harley Davidson’s Latest Ad Blitz

Since this is my first blog, let me start by saying I am not a blogger. At one time I had a website of my own and I posted some rants, but never in a real blog format and not with any real regularity. This blog will be my baptism by fire and I hope you will bear with me as I learn the ropes.

Now that the disclaimers are out of the way, let me continue my inaugural post by thanking my host, Scott Stein. I have always been interested in writing, in sharing ideas with others and, as I mentioned earlier, had made a couple of attempts to share my rambling with the world. Scott came along and scooped me out of obscurity, giving me a place to post in a forum that is actually seen! The inclusion of several of my articles in his WFTC book was a real high point for me.

Thanks, Scott.

Harley Davidson’s Latest Ad Blitz

The Harley Davidson Motor Company recently launched a new ad campaign ^[1] that is generating buzz around the country, both positive and negative.

One advertising blog ^[2] touts Harley’s efforts to “build genuine relationships with their customers” while another ad blog ^[2] derides the company, calling it “massively out of touch”. Yet another blog ^[3] even says the new campaign “Challenges Prophets of Economic Doom”

The campaign is targeted at the young crowd and encourages the 20-somethings to ignore the current economic situation and purchase an often outrageously overpriced motorcycle, outfit it with the latest, definitely overpriced, chrome do-dads, and “Screw it, just ride.”

The Harley Davidson Motor Company was outed by insiders who shared intradepartmental memos with the public. These memos, sent to dealers across the nation, spell out how to make this campaign work. They detailed how to target young buyers, to offer them ‘secret’ information, pamphlets, free swag and likened the experience to “a secret handshake” ^[4] in a very exclusive club.

I am not against a company doing what is best for the shareholders. In fact, I am fully behind the Motor Company (hereafter referred to as MoCo) extracting every last dime it can out of those who buy their products as status symbols and fashion statements. This fleecing of the willfully gullible fad adopters is what kept the MoCo afloat after the disastrous AMF years and has turned a failing company into a real powerhouse. The money from these consumers means that I can still go down to a dealership and buy a new Harley Davidson, long after market pundits predicted her demise.

Despite the new, squeaky-clean image, Harley Davidson helped to create the traditional, ‘Rebel without a cause’ biker. They marketed to, supported, and encouraged the biker scene, proudly proclaiming that bikers were the life-blood of the company. Their ads in every bike and car magazine in the nation touted their long-running commitment to the biker and the life they had adopted.

Then, in what many tout as a marketing master stroke, Harley Davidson changed its image and started directing their sales at the more affluent crowd. The official MoCo clothing lines, the cutesy little dog leashes, the can cozies, the flowered and sequined mini-skirts and an official Harley Davidson decal on every truck in America. They started marketing and selling more chrome doo-dads and dress-up pieces than they did motorcycle parts, discontinued their vaunted lifetime support and started turning away the very people who kept the company afloat long after management had run it into the ground. They just didn’t want to be associated with the denim- and grease-clad crowd who rode year round on 30-year-old bikes not because it was a fashion statement, but because it was a true love affair.

Before we go further, let’s get this out there in case you were curious. The traditional leather and denim, bearded, tattooed, hard-partying, close-knit community of bikers is alive and well in America. They are your garage mechanic, gardener, patrol cop, fireman, VA hospital nurse and more tech geeks than you can imagine. Even though you might not see them around, they still exist and are still out there, year round, in all weather and in every state. They are not the ‘lifestyle’ crowd you see at StarBucks™ or at your local Grange; they are the guys who congregate at the little hole-in-the-wall on the edge of town and hold poker-runs to raise money for people you will never hear about. They still believe in looking out for each other and the sense of brotherhood shared by these men has to be experienced to be believed. They are the guys that will stop if you are broken down and will ride hundreds of miles in a hurricane if it will help a friend. The military still supplies more than its share of bikers and even those who aren’t Vets are still 100% American patriots who do things like protect the families of fallen soldiers when Fred Phelps ^[5] comes to call.

Now that the boutique-bike bubble has burst and companies like Big Dog ^[6] and American Iron Horse ^[7] are failing left and right, now that the yuppie craze for shiny, fat-tired, unwieldy excuses for bragging rights have gone by the wayside and the MoCo’s sales slumped 13% in the first quarter, the MoCo has once again used its marketing judo to try and recapture some of its lost revenue. It is attempting to create a new generation in the very same image it shied away from for so long.

The problem here is that the MoCo is encouraging these youngsters, these new riders, to adopt a ‘lifestyle’ that they really don’t know anything about. They are trying to tell these youngsters that they too can be part of that elusive ‘biker’ crowd. Yes, the age of the hard-core biker gang mentality has passed, but the riders are still around. There are still clubs out there that you just do not mess with and a heck of a lot more whose members aren’t shooting at rivals anymore but still would not take kindly to some 20-year-old college student with a store-built ‘custom’ calling them ‘brothers,’ a term that holds special meaning in the biker community.

Bikers, like every other segment of our society, are as caste and class conscious as the next bunch. Sure, most of us will deny it, but the reality is that the everyday riders, the guys who build and work on their own bikes and may not even own a car, look down on those weekend, buff and fluff new adopters who ride only as far as the next bar or coffee shop. For the most part, it is good-natured and, if pressed, the biker will admit that these weekend, fair-weather riders are helping to keep the sport alive. But that is as far as it goes. The weekend rider, the guys clad head to toe in MoCo logo emblazoned gear, who wear their brand new chaps in 90 degree weather as though it were a uniform and “live the life” a couple of days a month, are tolerated, not welcomed. Think of it as introducing a Dobermann puppy into a pack of Rottweilers. They may grow up and be able to hold their own, but the fact that the outside coloring may be similar is not enough to protect that puppy if it steps out of line or pushes too hard.

As long as these new guys keep to the café late circuit and the show-and-shine circus, they will never know the difference, but a few of them will cross over that line, buying the MoCo slogans hook, line and sinker. For those that do, and manage to survive the conversion, will they find themselves abandoned in another 10 years when Harley reinvents itself again?