Harley Issues Statement About Low Sales!
Tourer
Joined: May 2018
Posts: 423
Likes: 324
From: PA
I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid.
G.K. Chesterton
Nothing new under the sun. Go for a ride.
G.K. Chesterton
Nothing new under the sun. Go for a ride.
Club Member
Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 11,606
Likes: 8,439
From: Inland NW
He does love cars/trucks. Like any (rare) Millennial motor head, he is building an LS beast, has it in a short/wide Chevy pickup
I do wish he would get back on a damn bike, though! We can hold out hope, brother, maybe they will come around
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 10,946
Likes: 822
From: Nevada
The best thing Harley can do is hire a high power brand manager, one who knows how to connect with young buyers. Harleys brand image doesnt resonate with young buyers. Many consider Harleys overpriced bikes for old men with bellies, beards, and pirate costumes.
BMW had a branding problem in the 70s. Many consumers didnt like the staid image associated with the brand. BMW changed their image associated with their bikes with and advertising and lower priced bikes targeted to young buyers. Another example is Honda. The company changed the bad boy image of motorcycles with its You meet the nicest people on a Honda campaign.
BMW had a branding problem in the 70s. Many consumers didnt like the staid image associated with the brand. BMW changed their image associated with their bikes with and advertising and lower priced bikes targeted to young buyers. Another example is Honda. The company changed the bad boy image of motorcycles with its You meet the nicest people on a Honda campaign.
Tourer
Joined: Jan 2020
Posts: 293
Likes: 179
From: Paducah
The best thing Harley can do is hire a high power brand manager, one who knows how to connect with young buyers. Harleys brand image doesnt resonate with young buyers. Many consider Harleys overpriced bikes for old men with bellies, beards, and pirate costumes.
BMW had a branding problem in the 70s. Many consumers didnt like the staid image associated with the brand. BMW changed their image associated with their bikes with and advertising and lower priced bikes targeted to young buyers. Another example is Honda. The company changed the bad boy image of motorcycles with its You meet the nicest people on a Honda campaign.
BMW had a branding problem in the 70s. Many consumers didnt like the staid image associated with the brand. BMW changed their image associated with their bikes with and advertising and lower priced bikes targeted to young buyers. Another example is Honda. The company changed the bad boy image of motorcycles with its You meet the nicest people on a Honda campaign.
Stellar HDF Member
Joined: Jul 2018
Posts: 3,338
Likes: 1,823
From: VA
[QUOTE=GOV5;18907322]
OR, maybe the younger generation has a good excuse. They have spent more of their money and time on education than we had to. Many had to go to school longer. Things are changing quickly so adapt or get run over and left behind. So now they have less disposable income and less time to play. The key is to make sure that they know how great riding is, advertising, advertising, advertising, and all that comes with it and that they are welcome to the group. Also give them not just a competitively priced product but one that is inexpensively priced IMHO. Remember money for a bike competes with money for everything else. Full coverage insurance in some states is ridiculous. It's required on a new bike. For the three bikes I have full coverage in VA. With a $1,000 deduct it was $2,500. That's no accidents, no tickets, no DWI's and an 800+ score and used less than 10K miles per year each and multi vehicle discount. I have since brought that insurance price down. If I was starting over my first bike would not be a new bike. This way no comp and collision insurance and I would have it checked by a pro before purchase.
The only reason I bought the Harley was because it fell in my lap. Already had a ZX14 Kawi, that I tour on and a Ducati Diavel that I just play on and will also tour on. The steep drop in Harley pricing and seeing the Springer foot clutch Knuck in MO piqued my interest.
I had been on a trip to WY when a chunk of hail cracked my face shield on the trip. I then rode into Ferguson MO with the cracked shield just as the riots broke out. That's why I went to the Harley dealer, to get a face shield and that's where I saw the Knuck.
Only rode a Harley 883 and that was just once.
Happy with my decision. Love my Heritage Softail Classic.
Always be an advocate for the industry!!!. Tell everyone how great it is to ride and that includes the ladies.
Fair enough, however they also don`t seem to buying the other brands either.
The industry as a whole is rather stagnant
And it would seem that many younger people today view cars as only an appliance or necessity .
The world changes and that's O.K.[/QUOTE]
That's the correct way to look at it too. Thanks for posting this.
But before all of us start blaming the younger folks for all the declining sales, let's heap some blame, or reasoning, on our own age group too. Blaming all of the declines on the upcoming generations is just a little too easy and convenient to suit me. Maybe some of the reasons are OUR OWN age group has a lot to do with it.
Personally, I think the Big Sales years were big because a lot of rich people wanted to BE COOL, look like a badass(that they really weren't), and join in some groups, like HOG, and have an instant membership into the "CLUB". I know this for a fact. I've seen it. Dentists and Lawyers who bought and quit riding..but they rode a Harley! So the FAD has been over for a while now, and it showed up in lower sales.
But there is another group that hasn't been mentioned, and I'm surprised that it hasn't. It's the riders that "dropped out" because they just got fed up with the whole Motorcycle Experience. They got tired of being "USED". They didn't make their money by being stupid with it. Let's face it. Owning a Motorcycle is WAY more involved than just buying it and putting gas in the tank. It's an EXPENSIVE HOBBY. And it's gotten more expensive over the last 20 years. Expensive to buy, and way too expensive to maintain and REPAIR. It's not just the repair expense either. It's the TIME expense to the owner..thew time it takes to get the bike to the shop and then pick it back up again. People are busy working, and when the get free time, they want to ride, not have a bike in and out of a shop all the time. And they get pissed because their bike HAS TO GO TO THE SHOP!!!!!!!!!! Why can't this motorcycle stay on the road and not require this kind of repair so often?(they ask).
Let's talk about the experience....like going to Bikeweek for instance. I used to love going to that each year and Octoberfest too. Well, folks got tired of jacked up hotel rates for 60 year old hotels and rooms, and having a week long commitment to stay there too. The Vendors got tired of being ripped off on Vendor fees too, so now the Bikeweek vendor areas are pathetic.
Participation at the events is lousy and in decline, by vendors and riders.
Finally, "smart money" customers got tired of being used by Harley as guinea pigs on new products that weren't ready for release with all the bugs worked out. Their attitude was "screw you Harley, we deserve better than this" . And they got pissed too at the Harley Fanboys that told them to shut up and quit whining. In my opinion, that was the last straw for them. They understood that with nobody holding Harley's "feet to the fire" for shoddy design, there would never be any reason for improvements.
So, we as a "Mainstay" group of loyalists have reasons to see why sales have fallen. And WE are as much to blame as anyone else, or any of the other social forces working against US.
The industry as a whole is rather stagnant
And it would seem that many younger people today view cars as only an appliance or necessity .
The world changes and that's O.K.[/QUOTE]
That's the correct way to look at it too. Thanks for posting this.
But before all of us start blaming the younger folks for all the declining sales, let's heap some blame, or reasoning, on our own age group too. Blaming all of the declines on the upcoming generations is just a little too easy and convenient to suit me. Maybe some of the reasons are OUR OWN age group has a lot to do with it.
Personally, I think the Big Sales years were big because a lot of rich people wanted to BE COOL, look like a badass(that they really weren't), and join in some groups, like HOG, and have an instant membership into the "CLUB". I know this for a fact. I've seen it. Dentists and Lawyers who bought and quit riding..but they rode a Harley! So the FAD has been over for a while now, and it showed up in lower sales.
But there is another group that hasn't been mentioned, and I'm surprised that it hasn't. It's the riders that "dropped out" because they just got fed up with the whole Motorcycle Experience. They got tired of being "USED". They didn't make their money by being stupid with it. Let's face it. Owning a Motorcycle is WAY more involved than just buying it and putting gas in the tank. It's an EXPENSIVE HOBBY. And it's gotten more expensive over the last 20 years. Expensive to buy, and way too expensive to maintain and REPAIR. It's not just the repair expense either. It's the TIME expense to the owner..thew time it takes to get the bike to the shop and then pick it back up again. People are busy working, and when the get free time, they want to ride, not have a bike in and out of a shop all the time. And they get pissed because their bike HAS TO GO TO THE SHOP!!!!!!!!!! Why can't this motorcycle stay on the road and not require this kind of repair so often?(they ask).
Let's talk about the experience....like going to Bikeweek for instance. I used to love going to that each year and Octoberfest too. Well, folks got tired of jacked up hotel rates for 60 year old hotels and rooms, and having a week long commitment to stay there too. The Vendors got tired of being ripped off on Vendor fees too, so now the Bikeweek vendor areas are pathetic.
Participation at the events is lousy and in decline, by vendors and riders.
Finally, "smart money" customers got tired of being used by Harley as guinea pigs on new products that weren't ready for release with all the bugs worked out. Their attitude was "screw you Harley, we deserve better than this" . And they got pissed too at the Harley Fanboys that told them to shut up and quit whining. In my opinion, that was the last straw for them. They understood that with nobody holding Harley's "feet to the fire" for shoddy design, there would never be any reason for improvements.
So, we as a "Mainstay" group of loyalists have reasons to see why sales have fallen. And WE are as much to blame as anyone else, or any of the other social forces working against US.
The only reason I bought the Harley was because it fell in my lap. Already had a ZX14 Kawi, that I tour on and a Ducati Diavel that I just play on and will also tour on. The steep drop in Harley pricing and seeing the Springer foot clutch Knuck in MO piqued my interest.
I had been on a trip to WY when a chunk of hail cracked my face shield on the trip. I then rode into Ferguson MO with the cracked shield just as the riots broke out. That's why I went to the Harley dealer, to get a face shield and that's where I saw the Knuck.
Only rode a Harley 883 and that was just once.
Happy with my decision. Love my Heritage Softail Classic.
Always be an advocate for the industry!!!. Tell everyone how great it is to ride and that includes the ladies.
Last edited by Oakers3; Feb 29, 2020 at 12:52 PM.
Banned
Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 23,816
Likes: 57,355
From: Tampa, FL
[QUOTE=Oakers3;18912380]
OR, maybe the younger generation has a good excuse. They have spent more of their money and time on education than we had to. Many had to go to school longer. Things are changing quickly so adapt or get run over and left behind. So now they have less disposable income and less time to play. The key is to make sure that they know how great riding is, advertising, advertising, advertising, and all that comes with it and that they are welcome to the group. IMHO.
I'd say the disposable income is spent on the newest $1,000 phone every year, headphones, ipad, laptops, gaming consoles and games, internet connection, multiple entertainment subscriptions (netflix, hulu, etc), cloud storage so they won't lose their latest selfie, paying others to drive them, paying other to pick up their McDonalds, daily trips to Star bucks, etc. Lots of disposable money being flushed.
When they choose to spend $200,000 on their "diversity" degree and can't find work, they should quit the whining and blaming others.
It does affect other entertainment like motorcycles but I'm not going to pay off their debts for bad decisions or allow this as a good excuse.
OR, maybe the younger generation has a good excuse. They have spent more of their money and time on education than we had to. Many had to go to school longer. Things are changing quickly so adapt or get run over and left behind. So now they have less disposable income and less time to play. The key is to make sure that they know how great riding is, advertising, advertising, advertising, and all that comes with it and that they are welcome to the group. IMHO.
When they choose to spend $200,000 on their "diversity" degree and can't find work, they should quit the whining and blaming others.
It does affect other entertainment like motorcycles but I'm not going to pay off their debts for bad decisions or allow this as a good excuse.
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 6,194
Likes: 4,126
From: Michigan
Poor girl in the picture can't even afford a decent pair of jeans.
Grand HDF Member
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 3,814
Likes: 1,968
From: Lake of the Ozarks
If she'd only had a man card she could have traded it in on some khaki slacks like the sap beside her did.
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Advanced
Joined: Dec 2019
Posts: 54
Likes: 38
From: NW Arkansas
The image of the brand is closely related to the current customer base, and that image is just not cool anymore, certainly to young people. I don't blame them either especially with the criticisms leveled at their age group by the same base. I know enough millenials and younger who are buying bikes, but they are opting for different brands and types of bikes. They also are ready for electric to take off. Small displacement bikes that don't ride like or look like mini-geezer cruisers will sell well. Also adventure bikes. Either way, the badboy, all black clothed, skull-eagle-barely clothed pin up model thing is just a turnoff.
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Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 16,023
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From: Sandy Eggo's North County
Sad, but true.