HARLEY-DAVIDSON:

CHASING A NEW
GENERATION OF
CUSTOMERS

Group 6
Aaditya Goel
Abhimanyu Sharma
Aditi Sirkek
Aman Pathak
Divya Sharma
Esha Soni
 HARLEY DAVIDSON’S FIRST CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
Harley Davidson’s core customers are aging.
Therefore, HD needs to find new demographic segment while maintaining its core demographic.

Core Market
Segment
Offer new promotions to
White Male Baby
Boomers
own Harley Davidson that
Sustainable growth will respond to new target
groups such as “young
Average Age:
adults and women”
1999 – 43.4yrs
2004 – 46.1yrs
2008 – 49.5yrs

Sustainable Growth
Introduce a new line of
products that will attract Keep entering developing
the “younger adults” target markets with a new
group and ensure that units product line
are available
Harley Davidson’s Competitive Landscape
Performance  Harley-Davidson offered
products in both heavyweight
and sport bike categories
 Its primary focus was the
Lifestyle
heavyweight category, in
which it was the North
Function American market leader with
44% share
 BMW (Germany) and Ducati
(Italy) positioned themselves
Touring on engineering precision and
racing performance and
produced both heavyweight
and sport bikes
 Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki,
and Yamaha competed in the
sport bike category, but they
all offered copycat designs
of Harley’s styles in the
cruiser space.
 Harley Davidson’s Growth Opportunity
PRODUCT EXTENSION: BRAND EXTENSION:
ANSOFF MATRIX 1. Motor Cycles 1. Merchandise
2. Bike Accessories 2. Helmets
3. Buell Motorcycles 3. Jackets
4. Mugs
Market Market 5. Collectibles
EXISTING

Penetration Development  MARKET DEVELOPMENT

• New Geographic Markets (emerging
markets)
PRODUCTS

• New Segment
o Demographic – Gen Y, Females,
Hispanics
Product  PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
NEW

Development Diversification • Buell Motorcycles

 DIVERSIFICATION
• MV Agusta for European Market
• All-black versions of existing bikes straight
EXISTING NEW out of Batman or graphic novels for younger
MARKET riders
• Low, lighter, lower-to-the ground model for
women
 Insights From Market Research & Internal Company Knowledge And Marketing
Decisions Taken
The tactics the company has employed to penetrate new markets have ranged from programs at rallies popular with minority
riders, to garage parties for women, to redesigns that made the company’s bikes appear more “sinister”.

• Major Marketing Decision: RECOMMENDATIONS TO CMO

• focused on the core customer of the brand Harley
Davidson
• Caucasian Males ( 35+ Age group)
• Smaller dealer initiated promotional strategy
• Garage Parties were also kept to bring in new
Customer Segment like Caucasian Females
• The focus was more on retaining the core customers
of the brand
• With 2007 and 2008 the investment in outreach
program was reduced as it was considered that major
profit share was being brought by the existing core
customers
• Creating a brand awareness about our product :
• lifestyle and image surrounding the brand was
quite acceptable to young adults
• Perception of not finding the right HD
• Focus on lower than perceived price of HDs
• Focus on making the brand more approachable
• Different Positioning
• HD as High End, Expensive Tourer
• Buell as Cheaper, Functional Sports Bike
• MV Agusta for European Market
 BRAND HIERARCHY

Harley
Family Davidson
• A modifier is a means to
designate a specific item or
model type or a particular
version or configuration of
Harley MV the product
Individual Davidson Buell Agusta • Signal refinements or
differences between brands
• Product Descriptor:
• introducing it with a
Harley Dark
Modifier Davidson Custom
familiar product name
may facilitate basic
familiarity and
comprehension

Modifiers help make products more understandable and relevant to consumers or even to the trade. They can even
become strong trademarks if they are able to develop a unique association with the parent brand – Harley Davidson
Dark Custom
Thank you