Harley adventure bike

[kmoney_imp]

Gossman wrote: As much as some people may claim different, Harley's still the bike to own.

I won't try to decipher what Gossman means by this but I agree with him and here's why. The people have voted. By sheer numbers of new unit sales per year combined with the raw number of Harley rolling stock on the road 'it appears' that Harleys are still the bike to own. They win the popularity contest hands down for WHATEVER reason.

Some good points were made related to why Harley sales have dropped off recently but for those who appear to be writing Harley off as being headed for some imminent Chapter 11 court date in the not-to-distant future, you may be a bit premature. A month ago I was in San Francisco standing in front of a Harley store (no bikes, only clothing and some accessories) while my wife bought a t-shirt and some gloves for our youngest daughter (who owns an Iron 883). A tour bus pulled up and let off about 40 people on the other side of the street. If I remember right 3 young Asian women literally sprinted across the street to the store to beat the rush. They were followed by about 5-6 more. All women. When everyone was in the store I went back in to see how my wife was getting along. Some of the gals already had shirts hanging off their forearms and were excited to be shopping. Here's my point. These women were from Asia, and spoke no English in the store and were stoked to be buying Harley branded clothing. I wonder when the last time was a bus load of American tourists pulled up in front of a Honda shop in Japan and rushed the dealer for whatever they could get.

Harley does indeed sell a 'lifestyle', and it sells it well beyond our shores. If that little incident is any indication they will do just fine. It may require product line revision and possibly a refocus of it's primary shrinking demographic (aging white male, which we seem to be somewhat fixated with here) to possibly the ever increasing Asian market and beyond. Don't underestimate the apparently deeply rooted psychological need of some (maybe many) of us (regardless of our background) to belong to a group of 30-40 air cooled V-Twin riders dressed to look like the crew of the Black Pearl.

I think this is the key. They are probably miles and away the world's best experiential marketers. Their bikes don't really trade on technical or quality merits, but rather on allowing buyers to channel the brand's ethos and essentially buy membership, both figuratively and literally, into a club. Their merchandise further extends this, allowing others to essentially do the same thing. It's about buying an image as much, or if not more, than anything. Building bikes then almost becomes just a necessity, in order to keep the marketing machine going and sell more shirts, jackets, helmets, branded single-use navigation screen wipes (really), etc...

Ferrari has basically done the same thing in the car world -- and I belive if you look at their financial statements they actually make more from trademark licensing and apparel/accessories than from vehicle sales. I wouldn't be surprised if Harley was close, or even there already.

Not meant as a burn, as I've met tons of Harley owners who were awesome people and just loved to ride, without any regard to image, but looking at general trends...

Ps. LOL at your Black Pearl comment.