Harley Davidson: Ride Hard Live Free

For any company’s product to succeed it is essential to have customers engaging with the product through its communications. This engagement can be tracked through the number of impressions it receives, retweets, shares, comments, likes on social media or google analytics.

That being said the consumer behavior plays an important role for a marketer to understand the behavior pattern of its audience. In consumer behavior Motivation, Ability and Opportunity Theory plays helps in understanding the target audience.  A marketer needs to understand what affects the consumer’s motivation to make a decision.  Motivation may not be useful unless the consumer has the Ability to process the information and then make a decision. The last factor affecting whether the consumers’ motivation will result in an action is the Opportunity to engage in the behavior.

The Harley Davidson Community

In 1983 the company faced extinction and twenty years ahead it is in the Top 50 global brand valued at $7.8 billion. Harley recognized the brand need a community that gave the customers a sense of belongingness. It was a group of ardent riders that loved riding motorcycles and formed a lifestyle that resonated with the brand as well.

A short video on what the owners feel being a part of the Harley Owners Group.

There is Motivation for the customers to purchase the product. Ability to process information through the brand’s communications and community that gives consumers sense belongingness. And Opportunity to be a part of an exclusive group of Harley Davidson owners.

A short clip on the Brand community at Harley Davidson.

The video talks about Brand communities being a pool model that makes the values of the brand explicit and people affiliated with those values. Customers love to have an affiliation towards a brand they admire and social communities promote customer engagement. The fact that the group is an exclusive one only for Harley Owners, the customers have an emotional connection with the brand and likeminded people.

The Harley Davidson Owner’s Group has been credited from saving the company from bankruptcy and regarded as the most successful community engagement effort by a company. The community group initiative has become an example for other companies to learn about engaging the customers to a brand that they feel good to be a part of.

An emotional connection to the Harley Davidson brand is a very important reason for customers to have motivation towards making a purchase decision.  However, the company hasn’t been able to build on its success with slow growth in sales and other competitors in the same segment like Triumph bikes, Ducati and Royal Enfield.

Problems

Currently, Harley Davidson has been growing at a very slow rate. The key problems identified after research suggests the brand has few problems.

a) Lack of Digital presence

The company has yet to immerse itself in the digital age. The key attribute of the brand is the customers prefer the personalized experience they get when they visit a Harley Davidson Store. Harley has yet to improve its presence on social media and having a lack of visibility has been a reason for not growing at a rate which was wanted by their executives.

b) Aging customer base

Most of the owners of the motorcycle are people who are married or who earn higher than average. Most of the communications for the brand have been targeting consumers towards the older generation. Hence most millennials have yet to become a part of this worldwide communities. The younger generation earns less and hence having motorcycles that are less expensive and lighter are key to tapping into that new segment for the brand.

c) Integrating both online and offline experience

Currently, there is a gap between the online and offline experience that potential customers have. It is essential to have an omnichannel retail strategy for the brand to flourish again. Having a better retail strategy will ensure the community that saved the company once will be the reason it grows if these issues are resolved by the brand.

A good marketer will always know what its consumers expect from the brand. And today’s consumers are far more difficult to please hence it is important to have good attributes for a brand. After-sales service is good but having consumers become emotionally attached to a brand is a great asset for a company like Harley Davidson.

What do you think Harley Davidson should do apart from the ideas mentioned above to improve its overall company presence in the market?

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Other sources

https://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/can-harley-davidsons-community-revitalize-the-brand-yet-again/

https://hbr.org/2009/04/getting-brand-communities-right

https://www.harley-davidson.com/au/en/index.html