Harley Davidson Case

Running head: CAUSE RELATED MARKETING 1

Harley Davidson: Lifestyle Brand Marketing

Derek Arguello

Grand Valley State University

CAUSE RELATED MARKETING 2

Problem/Opportunity

Harley Davidson must capture market share in its identified “out reach”

demographic while retaining its current market in an economical downtime.

Critical Factors

Time: The market share for motorcycles is becoming saturated and Harley

Davidson is losing hold of its majority. In the current economy where cheaper is

better, the company must react to its narrowing gap in market shares before it is

surpassed by its competitors. Furthermore, the current chief marketing officer is

approaching the 27 months average in his position where it is likely that he will

be fired if he does not invigorate the brand.

Budget: The economical downturn is beginning to effect motor-vehicle

manufactures and consumers are refraining from purchasing new products. As a

result on decreased sales, the overall advertising budget has been cut by 20%

between the years 2007 and 2012.

Brand Image: The Harley Davidson brand image is one of American heritage

that instills a sense of living on the open road to its consumers. The brand builds

off of this All-American image as rugged and emulates a “can do” mentality.

Harley Davidson doesn’t see itself as a motorcycle manufacturer but as a lifestyle.

By owning a product, consumers feel a sense of community amongst one another

and embody this lifestyle. By creating this lifestyle, consumers felt that they

belonged to the brand’s culture, ultimately creating a more loyal audience base.

With an established image, it is crucial for the Harley Davidson to maintain this

ideal moving forward as to not hinder what the brand represents.


Lifestyle Branding: Harley Davidson riders believe that they are more than just

that; they believe that they are a community that embodies what it represents to

live on the open road. Lifestyle branding poses strong social benefits to the

consumers that are associated with a way of life. This form of branding creates a

sense of belonging and challenges the status quo. To do this, Harley Davidson

must make connections with its market that elicits emotional value. Harley

Davidson allows people to interact with one another within its community and

provides a clear image to its audience with strong values and distinct styles. In

order for the brand to continue making this connection, it must adapt with

changing times but still be an intimate and integrated identity.

Outreach Market: Harley Davidson’s outreach market consist of young adults,

women, African Americans, and Hispanics. In order for the brand to continue

holding its current market share, it must establish itself with this segment of

consumers who feel that they do not embody the Harley community. With its

current market growing older and purchasing less, the company must establish

itself in this new market in order to maintain it’s positioning.

Current Market: The current market for Harley Davidson is primarily composed

of men ages 35 and older. This audience has been loyal to the brand name and has

been established consumers for a majority of their lives. However, with this

audience growing older, Harley Davidson is beginning to experience a decrease in

purchasing from this current market. However, moving forward, the company

must consider the loyalty of this market base and be sure to not lose its hold with

this audience that has helped the brand create its community lifestyle.


Digital Marketing: Digital marketing is the use of online and mobile platforms

that utilizes content for the purpose of communication and entertainment.

America is entering a digital age where vast amounts of people are using websites

for content and social media for networking purposes. Furthermore, cell phones

continue this digital presence allowing consumers to always be in contact with

these platforms. Currently, Harley Davidson has a weak digital media presence in

comparison to other brands as a result of its current market not actively using

these platforms. However the outreach market, especially young adults, have built

digital media into their everyday lives. By not having a strong presence on digital

media, Harley Davidson is missing out on the opportunity to connect with a large

portion of its outreach market. Successful digital marketing campaigns utilize

multiple platforms, express the brand’s values, show personality, offer

professional knowledge, entertain, and incorporate real-world promotions.

Competitors: Major competitors in the large motorcycle market are BMW,

Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha. The Japanese brands in this market offer

American consumers an opportunity to purchase a motorcycle at a more

affordable price, which appeals to the audience due to economic hard times. In

addition, the motorcycles produced by these companies are more appealing to the

young adult due to their sportier style and cheaper cost. Although Harley

Davidson currently leads the market, these foreign manufactures are steadily

catching up and threaten the brand’s market hold.


Branded House: A branded house is where the company represents the whole

brand. All products produced by the brand are subsets to the original name. After

cutting the Buell line, Harley Davidson now represents a branded house.

Alternatives

Open Roads Campaign

This advertising strategy will look to focus on strengthening Harley

Davidson’s inadequate digital media presence while incorporating a real-world

promotional tour. In order to target the outreach market, Harley Davidson will

launch a large digital campaign that will work to engage new consumers. To not

lose hold of its current market, the campaign will incorporate a real-world tour

that riders will be able to attend.

Real-World. The Open Roads Tour will cross the nation with Harley

Davidson representatives traveling by motorcycle to a different city each day.

Riders will be encouraged to participate in the tour and travel together with brand

representatives in segments of the tour between cities. At each city, Harley

Davidson will host their “Learn to Ride” program allowing participants to earn

their own motorcycle endorsement after completion. In addition to the “Learn to

Ride” program, the brand will sponsor maintenance demonstrations at each city

that teach riders basic motorcycle upkeep techniques from a Harley professional.

Digital. To coincide with the real-world promotional strategy, Harley

Davidson will launch a digital marketing campaign to engage with the outreach

market audience. YouTube will serve as the primary platform where the brand

will launch a video campaign on its segmented channel. Videos will be created


through user-generated content where audience members are asked to record their

motorcycle trips through devices such as GoPro. Selected videos will be ones that

showcase the brand’s sense of community, adventure, outdoors, and ruggedness

from a current Harley rider’s perspective. Clips from each submitted video will be

edited together into an individual video that aims to broadcast stories that relate to

the brand’s current values and culture. The hashtag #HarleyOpenRoads will

accompany all media released on digital platforms and appear in videos. Riders

featured in each segment will share their name and occupation to demonstrate that

there is no one stereotypical Harley rider.

Unifying Digital & Real-World. To unify the Open Roads Campaign,

social media will be used to track the progress of where and when the tour is

heading to specific cities to encourage the outreach market to attend. Each new

user generated video will be released for physical viewing at each city and

following the conclusion of the event will be released via the Harley Davidson

YouTube channel. The video will then be distributed across multiple social media

platforms to increase reach and ultimately strengthen the brand’s digital presence.

Due to the brand’s reliance on word-of-mouth advertising for its current market,

the tour will be showcased in the brand’s community magazine, “Hog.” In

addition, official Harley retailers and mechanics will serve to inform consumers

on a personal level.

Pros.

Strengthens the brand’s weak digital media presence by using a multi-

platform campaign to appeal to the outreach market.


Digital media is traceable and allows Harley Davidson to track user

engagement to know if the campaign is proving successful.

Digital media is cost efficient and does not require a large amount of

advertising spending from a brand on a limited budget.

Utilizes consumers’ real stories to reinforce the brand’s sense of

community while encouraging involvement in actual tour.

Address both the outreach market and current market to become involved

in the campaign.

By providing an opportunity to endorse new motorcycle riders, the

campaign is creating a new market whose first impression of riding will

relate to the brand.

A national tour will provide the opportunity for consumers from all

markets to experience the brand.

Cons.

A national motorcycle tour will be expensive to fund both traveling and

set-up cost while working with Harley Davidson’s limited budget.

Planning for a multimedia platform campaign will take a long amount of

time and may allow competitors to narrow market share gap.

May not receive expected participation from intended markets and

ultimately waste an already limited budget while being perceived as a flop.

Utilizing digital platforms for the campaign may imply to some of Harley

Davidson’s current market that they are not welcome or are being left out.


My First Bike Campaign

Harley Davidson will introduce a campaign with a strategy that introduces

value-based marketing to the brand. The company will partner with Save the

Children Federation. The mission of the organization is, “To inspire

breakthroughs in the way the world treats children, and to achieve immediate and

lasting change in their lives.” The campaign will incorporate digital media

platforms as well as television to deliver the message of the campaign to its target

audience.

Value-Based Marketing. Harley Davidson will ask members of its

current target market to share their memories of the first time that they rode a

Harley Davidson motorcycle. The videos will attempt to capture the emotional

experience that each rider has connecting their stories to the brand. Chosen videos

will utilize the person in each video as a brand spokesperson.

Once each video is selected, Harley Davidson, the brand spokesperson,

and representatives from Save the Children Federation will reach out to families

with children who do not have their own bicycles due to their financial situation.

The families will be personally delivered a custom Harley Davidson bicycle that

is given to the child. The families and partnered representatives will spend the day

with the child teaching them how to ride their new bike. The reactions from the

child being able to ride for their first time will be recorded and used in the video

that will be released. Ultimately, the new video will have a 30 second clip of the

Harley Davidson rider sharing their story of riding their motorcycle for the first


time. The video will then switch to the 30 second clip of the child riding their new

bicycle to create a 60 second video commercial.

Distribution. The videos will be released on YouTube and distributed on

social media to Harley’s outreach market. Accordingly, the 60-second video will

also be used to distribute on television to continue reaching out to the company’s

already existing market. The video campaign will be carried out during the

upcoming summer, which is the peak of Harley Davidson’s riding season. By

utilizing the video over digital media platforms, the campaign will be a first

attempt to strengthen the brand’s digital presence. Television will serve as a

platform to continue interacting with current Harley Davidson riders while

attempting to reach to new riders as well. The television version will also provide

a call to action that attempts to get viewers to continue following the series online

to interact with the digital version of the campaign.

Pros.

Uses storytelling to connect with both markets on an emotional level.

Incorporates digital media platforms to connect with audience in the

outreach market.

Contributes to the Save the Children Foundation to partner up with Harley

Davidson for a supportive cause.

Children will spark an emotional attachment with the brand that provided

them with their first bike, ultimately turning them into future Harley

Davidson consumers.


The only cost of the campaign will be for the new custom bicycles that

the brand will provide to the children and spots for television

commercials.

Social media is incorporated to create word-of-mouth advertising for the

brand.

Consumers in the current market are not being left out because their

stories are being shared with younger consumers.

Continues Harley’s lifestyle branding techniques by portraying the brand

as a childhood memory turned into adult.

This campaign will not take a long time to generate user content and

distribute amongst media platforms.

Cons.

Traditionally, Harley Davidson utilizes word-of-mouth forms of

advertisement and this campaign breaks traditional norms by using social

media and television spots.

The brand could possibly be seen as leveraging under-privileged children

in an attempt to sell their products.

Highly viewed television commercial spots may be expensive for Harley

Davidson to use on a limited budget.

Value-based marketing may take time to create enough impact on the

outreach market - turn-around investment time on the campaign may take

time.


Audience members in the current market may not participate in providing

videos of their stories ultimately taking away half of the campaign

strategy.

Custom Harley Davidson

This strategy will utilize integrated marketing techniques that will allow

target markets to interact with the Harley Davidson brand. The three largest

motorcycle rallies will be the events where the interactive portion will take place

and then be incorporated into digital media platforms. The Sturgis Motorcycle

Rally, Laconia Motorcycle Week, and Daytona Beach Bike Week will be the

three rallies used in this campaign strategy.

Integrated Marketing. The integrated marketing section of this campaign

will take place at the afore mentioned motorcycle rallies which serve as the

largest motorcycle events in the United States. At each event, Harley Davidson

will have a large retail place-of-purchase venue set up and incorporate full size

digital touchscreen walls. Consumers will be able to interact with the touchscreen

interface to create their own custom Harley Davidson merchandise, apparel, and

motorcycles. The interface will use a camera to be able to capture the user and

place them on the screen in the custom made material. They will then be provided

the opportunity to purchase the products if they chose to do so. A similar

technique will be introduced on Harley Davidson’s website at the conclusion of

the event. It will use social media platforms in order to direct traffic to the brands

website in order to demonstrate the new interface.

Pros.


Harley Davidson is able to utilize technology to interact with consumers

both online and at real events.

The time it would take to set up this strategy will be short, allowing the

brand to quickly see turn around on its strategy.

This method would be budget friendly and the only cost would be securing

a venue at each motorcycle event.

Engages both current market and outreach market

Cons.

The custom products will be expensive compared to the in-shop

merchandise and consumers may not purchase.

Does not utilize emotion in order to demonstrate the brand’s sense of

community built between the market and Harley Davidson.

Custom products for consumers are a strategy already being used by

several other brands.

This strays from the traditional word-of-mouth advertising that Harley

Davidson typically utilizes and the brand may be seen as trying to change

to drastically.

There is no storytelling utilized in this strategy and storytelling is an effect

way to create emotional connection with market audience.

Decision Criteria

The decision criteria for the Harley Davidson campaign selected will be

selected based on the strategy that most effectively continues the brand image that

Harley Davidson has worked to pride itself. Secondly, the strategy must


demonstrate the lifestyle brand that it is and must share the sense of community

that has been established between Harley Davidson and its market. As a result, the

campaign will need to effectively share this sense of community and belonging

that has been built between the current market to the outreach market.

Accordingly, time and budget is the next most critical factor in the

successfulness of the campaign strategy that will be implemented. In an economic

hardship, Harley Davidson is working with a significantly less of its marketing

budget that is has before in the past. The campaign chosen must be implemented

in a reasonable time period that will have a quick turnaround in results.

Recommendation:

Harley Davidson will partner with the Save the Children Federation in

order to implement a campaign strategy that demonstrates the brand’s values. By

working with the organization Harley Davidson is able to immediately impact

children’s lives. This campaign strategy also offers the brand a good chance for

continuity and if proven effective, may be carried out again and the partnership

between Harley Davidson and the organization can be built even stronger.

Justification

This recommendation most effectively adheres to the key factors in Harley

Davidson’s case. With limited amount of time and budget, the brand can quickly

execute the strategy over the upcoming summer. Furthermore, this strategy builds

the brand image by illustrating its values and sharing them with a younger

generation. Allowing current market members to share their stories with that of

the outreach market incorporates lifestyle branding.


Documents

Harley Davidson Case