Posted by Hogryder on April 13, 2000 at 22:55:11:
In Reply to: How did they do it? posted by john gerrard on April 13, 2000 at 16:55:16:
How did they do it? It wasn't easy.
First, Harley was purchased from AMF by a group of investors, mostly HD executives, which included Malcolm Forbes. AMF's business philosophy was, "Make it cheap, sell as much as you can, take the money and run". After almost putting Harley out of business forever, this is exactly what they did.
Second, they had to produce a product that was not just superior to their existing product line but had to be superior to anything else on the market at the time. Enter the Evolution engine, belt drive, and state of the art frame design. The Japanese have spent the last 15 years trying to copy virtually every design aspect of the Harleys from the mid 1980's.
Third, they had to create a new customer base without losing the small existing one. This took the advertising and marketing genius of Malcolm Forbes. He made Harleys the ride of choice for Wall Street yuppies who wanted to project a macho image. The new bikes retained enough of the old Harleys to keep the die hard bikers and were flashy and trendy enough to attract the guys who put 200 miles a year on their bike. The flashy chrome "add-ons" gave these new customers the ability to have a "custom" bike without requiring the mechanical ability to build one. They could walk into a dealership, plunk down a pile of money, and ride out (weaving all over the road) on a "one-of-a-kind" bike with matching T-shirt, leather jacket, cap, goggles, boots, bandana, gloves, coffee mug, Christmas tree ornament, watch, ring, key chain, paperweight, etc, etc, etc. Supermodels, atheletes, and actors sporting tattoos were part of the campaign to make the "biker" image trendy.
A big part of Harleys success was recognizing a market opportunity and taking advantage of it. The 20-30 year olds in the 1980's were trying hard to rebel against their Volvo driving parents and reject the attitudes of the 60's and 70's. Remember, this was the decade of "Greed is Good". A big, powerful, loud motorcycle with a "bad boy" reputation was the perfect product. Forbes also had the clout to get Congress to put an import tariff put on motorcycles with engines larger than 750 cc's that make the new Harleys competitive with the big Japanese bikes. In 1987 a full dress Harley cost about the same as a Gold Wing and was a much better bike.
Harley is now aiming their products at the aging "Baby Boomers" (like me) who want to hang onto some aspect of their youth. As prices have skyrocketed, they are no longer targeting the 20-30 year old crowd who can't afford a Harley and have gone to the 40-60 year olds who can. A 1987 Sportster 883 sold for $3995. This was Harley's "entry level" bike and it got a lot of people hooked. Harley also guarenteed to give their customers the full $3995 as the trade in value of their 883's if they traded it in on a larger Harley within 3 years. This was a great marketing gimmick.
Harley has lost some of the market in recent years, mostly because their bikes are too expensive and their customer base is getting too damn old but they are now once again established as the "big boy" in the market like they were in the 1950's. It's up to the other manufacturers to carve out their own customer base like the Japanese did with their cheap little bikes in the 1960's.
That's your history lesson for today. Comments, questions, cat calls, and heckling welcome.
Ride free.