Harley Davidson

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most efficient way to reach out to Young Adults?

Buell is a separate brand manufactured by Harley-Davidson. The Buell brand and logo is distinct from, and does not share any design elements with, the Harley-Davidson brand. (Roese & Kompella, 2013) This is a strategic weakness; brand loyalty is still very prevalent among Harley-Davidson customers and the targeted Young Adult. According to an internal study, the Harley-Davidson brand image to Young Adults is a transformational journey, in which riders become who they truly want to be; a means of escape from a monotonous, constraining life; and a way to connect to other like-minded souls. In that same study Young Adults, including those who owned sports bikes, characterized sport bikes as constricting and physically uncomfortable, mass produced and lacking in durability, and having and unappealing sound (“like sewing machines”). (Roese & Kompella, 2013) Based on the above study I do not think it would be wise to market the Buell, however Harley Davidson invested $30 million in the most powerful and competitive sport bike Buell ever made, the Buell 1125R and was introduced to the world just two weeks before Richer started his new job. (Roese & Kompella, 2013) Given the investment and performance Richer will get pressure from management to market the Buell 1125R to Young Adults given the impression that Young Adults prefer sport bikes to overweight motorcycles. I believe in the short term this is something that Richer could do considering the product is readily available. In order to be successful he would have to market the product differentiation. The bikes “Trilogy of Technology”, mass centralization, low unsprung weight, and frame rigidity. He would also try to get the Buell name under the Harley-Davidson umbrella and with that the Harley-Davidson logo.

In the meantime, I believe that Richer should put most of its efforts in leveraging the heavyweight motorcycle Iron 883. These bikes are more what Young Adults are looking for. According to Harley-Davidson’s sales history Young Adults do not like chrome. They prefer stripped down, elemental, dark bikes over the chrome cruisers sold to Core customers. By promoting a heavyweight motorcycle Harley-Davidson is bringing back the Harley-Davidson brand and with it hopeful loyalty. The issues related to promoting a heavyweight bike from Harley is the perceived cost issue, dealership aversion, and the brand culture. I believe the best way to reach out to Young Adults is through social media (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter). I would present a twist on the brand loyalty to relate to Young Adults by calling it a transformative journey in which they can get away from their everyday life. I would also emphasize the quality of Harley versus its competitors in both heavyweight motorcycles and sports bikes. Luckily Richer has two quality brands to leverage. It is just a matter of bringing the two quality brands into one umbrella, Harley-Davidson.