The Harley-Davidson Success Story

The Harley-Davidson Success Story

ROUNDUP

THERE MAY BE WEEPING AND gnashing of teeth going on in some motorcycle plants, but observers are hearing only contentment from that certain factory in Milwaukee, where sales and marketing executives are as happy as—well—as happy as hogs in mud.

Harley-Davidson, a concern founded in 1903 to build and sell motorcycles, is selling every motorcycle it can build, with world-wide demand running far ahead of production capacity.

So great is the demand for HarleyDavidsons that for the first four months of 1989, according to motor sales statistics specialists R.L. Polk and Associates, Harley-Davidson sold more streetbikes in the U.S. than did American Honda.

“We should be astounded by this,” muses Don Brown of D.J. Brown Associates, an Irvine, California, motorcycle marketing specialist firm. One reason for Harley’s amazing sales performance, Brown believes, is that, “They don’t just stop at building a motorcycle. They’re very much into the ‘lifestyle,’ and that has nothing whatsoever to do with how fast a motorcycle will go down the street.” Kathleen Demitros, HarleyDavidson’s vice president of marketing, says, “We think we’re getting people to enjoy the sport (of motorcycling) after the sale. We’re increasing their involvement through the Harley Owners’ Group and other things we do to keep in close touch with the customer.” , j

Harley’s strategy V l has been so successful, Demitros said, that as CW went to press in late July, 41.1 percent of all 65 lcc-and-up motorcycles sold in the U.S. so far this year are Harleys, up 13.7 percent from a year ago, while 59.6 percent of all 85 lcc-and-up motorcycles sold here are Milwaukee Twins, up 12.9 percent from a year ago.

“I guess we see the people buying our products as being satisfied with our technology,” said Demitros. “We’ve always had a philosophy that performance can be measured in a number of different ways . . . we think we’re giving today’s customer what he wants in terms of performance.”

Today’s customer would appear to be responding to that strategy. Though Demitros declined to name the company’s annual production figures, she said Harley-Davidson now is assembling more than 225 motorcycles per day on the way to its goal of 260 per day, which if met, still won’t satisfy demand.

Asks Don Brown rhetorically, “How long can Harley’s success go on? It could go on for some time. I think the person who has one likes the feeling he gets. It’s not overly

sophisticated or intimidating, it’s a feeling of strength, like a Magnum pistol. The other motorcycle manufacturers have lost the mystique that Harley has been able to maintain.”

Jon F. Thompson