How Harley-Davidson Wins the Marketing War

I got to spend some time at the Progressive International Motorcycle Show this weekend in Washington D.C. It’s not the biggest iteration of the show but there were some very cool items from a new three wheeled motorcycle (that’s not called Slingshot) and some very trick new soft luggage.

What I really want to talk about was how one manufacturer won the marketing war for the entire show.

Say what you want about Harley-Davidson but the main stream media get it all wrong on their demographics. While the majority of their buyers are over 50 and white they sell more bikes to minorities and women than all other manufacturers combined in the U.S. Chew on that for a second. Let it marinate and realize that HD sold over 220,000 plus motorcycles in the first nine months of 2014. BMW was roughly half of that in the same time period. Yet HD is considered out of touch and BMW is not.

That picture just above is one of the reasons why HD is winning in those non-traditional categories. At the show this year and for the last several years HD has set up a Fat Boy on a chassis dyno roller that riders with no experience can jump on and learn to shift and work the throttle. In the middle of the show floor inside they are letting people run their motorcycle. The staff is super friendly there are both men and women instructors and they cater to new and non-riders alike. The line and wait was over an hour long the entire time. No one, and I mean no one had anything like it. Giveaways, talking microphone wielding pitch men, and booth girls yes. There was not another running motorcycle in the place. Well, technically there was one other bike. HD had brought the Live Wire to the show and guess what it was doing. Yep, running on a chassis dyno roller and people got a chance to twist the grip on their electric motorcycle.

A year ago my wife took the opportunity to ride the Fat Boy on the roller. She had never ridden a bike as the rider, never shifted, and still talks about it when we meet people. That is winning in the marketing world. The chance to ride the electric motorcycle simply adds to the scenario. People who would not otherwise look at one get on and experience the bike. Simply put HD puts butts in seats and that’s the best way to sell a motorcycle. What do you think of how HD does their marketing?