Sunny

I recently came across an insightful article on how HD positions itself and the interest in it is weaning world over (relatively, the cult is still super huge!).

Personally I have never been able to relate with Harleys due to some reasons given the article and some more.

I will leave quoting the final thoughts of the author in the article and leave the rest of the article for you to read on the source itself:

Source: How to Save Harley-Davidson – Step 1: Redefine and Reposition The Way You Market Your Brand

For someone who has ridden both a Harley and a Jap bike will know what is best. The HD brand and aura is so big that people tend to forget a lot of practical things.

I am especially curious to see how it fares in the Indian market and conditions. The HD aura of the American flag flying high, a big burly bearded man clad in leathers cruising down the highway with sparse traffic, cool winds and the brotherhood riding along, with spares and service readily availaible (and very necessary) might be in for a surpise here in India! Not to mention the cost!

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RanjithMN

I dont know what it is but even though ive liked Harley's ive always had something against their approach and brand image.

something too American and only targeting a specific crowd

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LoneWolf

excellent article brother you found

although my perception is that hd like the re's have their own charm and own cult following and its not aiming for the young guns at all and i do agree as majority of them would like a jap bike with new age designs and r&d worth millions......

my guess was due to recession and everything which had hit usa pretty bad bikes wernt sellin as they used too....esp these expensive ones

if hd tries to change its image now they are going to be in serious trouble no matter what happens......

i think they should keep their bad ass image and roll out more vrod-- type models and lil bit cheaper....


i have seen so many guys.... changing their gears from sportsbike to tourers when they start hitting 40 lets see if the trend continues

but brother.... this article really tells something aint it....

as for india yup spare parts are really going to be an issue wht they have to take care of is a.s.s and mobile vans which can be dispatched out on any highway....

although im not planning a hd now one bike is enough hehe but way down the lane say around 50 i would definately look for a tourer. and hd will be my first choice

pads

cool winds in India....... brotherhood riding along.......... difficult........

personally for me, my next bike will be Enfield and not HD........ tooo American, with no spares and service available........ maybe I'm too young for HD....... will wait for another 15years........

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ashtorque

I cannot really suggest what different should they do but but this brand is more bark than bite

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nitrosatya

Making the world believe that a cruiser frame and engine will make a good streetbike is foolish.Eg: XR1200 sportster. Let's hope they don't make a sportsbike with their cruiser engines.

It is like Enfield trying to fit a full fairing on the bullet 350.

The Bavarians learnt it the hard way with their new S1000RR.After testing S1000RR, Cycle world said. "This is what a proper sportsbike should be, no duolever and paralever s**t". Still the asymmetry remains a big question.

Similarly Harley must change it's ways to impress the new generation. It has shut off Buell already. The way ahead is hard unless it diversifies into other forms of biking.

rachitkdogra

Wow!! A very nice find Sunny!! I very nicely written article.

Although some of the marketing stuff was a bit hard for me to understand but the essence of the article was very evident.

What I feel for HD is:

It is true that probably it is the largest cult in motorcycling.
And as a third person if I think it can be a very strong thing for a business.

I think HD has brands or products that our not typical tourers but their approach for this products is not as agressive as it should have been.
For example the Buell, MV Augusta and their own XR1200 sportster.

Harley has recently decided to close MV Augusta also. I read it somewhere I am not 100% sure though. I was dissappointed. MV is I would say even as exotic as a Ducati.

Harley's image also has typically become synonym with the 'Bad Boy' image. It is good but it will not be sufficient for them to survive in future.

They should start concentrating more on the middle class average young professionals, who might not be very big tourers but would love to own a HD because of the cult.

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AnuragAshok

As someone who owns a Jap Cruiser (M1800R) and has ridden another Jap Tourer par excellence (the Goldwing) and being someone who has also been on a Softtail (In the USA), Night Rod (In India), Sportster 1200 (In India) and an Electra Glide (In USA) for sufficient number of miles to qualify as having an opinion, strictly personal though and here it is:

"I would never buy a Harley"

Why: They are crude, way over the top in terms of the price (In India), way too inelegant in terms of handling and inconvenient at times (ask someone who tries to do a simple task of lowering the stand of the bike, he will tell you that it is poorly designed).

The bikes do have some good things like the only thing I liked in the NightRod was the gear shift!

There are guys in India waiting to buy this bike.. Most of them are in the targetted bracket of 40++ but the only thing I do not know is how much of a rider they are in terms of the experience of riding such bikes - most in my opinion will buy only based on the marketing and the strong brand identity (hopefully not just to be counted as hip!!)..

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Puneet1

@^^^^ yup true ! im sure even non -bike enthusiasts will not hesitate to buy the harleys for their brand value and identity .

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bluevolt

At least one good thing which Harley might end up achieving is lowering the Indian import tariffs for motorbikes. They do have a very strong lobby, more than all the Japs combined.

When they realize that sales are not going anywhere after the initial hoopla, they will engage their government to get things moving to lower duties, and hence reduce the retail prices. When that happens, the high end motorcycle market in India will be a very, very different place.

But duty talk aside, I agree with the essence of the article. HD aren't getting any new young consumers, just their old faithfuls. None of their products 'look' young. The XR1200 and the V-Rod to some extent, but only relatively speaking.