Woodbine’s Hope Bristow has been part of the Harley-Davidson scene forever. She and her husband both ride beautiful, shiny, loud Harleys. Hope liked the recent blog about Harley’s hard times but questioned why we’d show a broken down bike. So in her honor, and since she provided the photo, here’s a good bike.
I don’t normally steal headlines outright, but I heard a guy say this on the radio on Friday and loved it. Harley-Davidson reported that sales have tanked and that 2010 would be another tough year. Here’s a quick overview from Business Week‘s “Earnings Preview: Harley-Davidson to report 4Q“:
BY THE NUMBERS: On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect a loss of 32 cents per share on $764.4 million in revenue.
ANALYST TAKE: William & Blair analyst Sharon Zackfia estimates that Harley will report a 50 percent decrease in motorcycle shipments during the quarter.
Ouch.
So I headed online to see how the company was reacting. Were they going the value route of Staples (Wow, that’s a bad campaign), or were they more in the Lexus camp (You think that one was expensive? Check this out.)?
I was relieved, albeit not surprised, to see that HD is standing firm. They’re still rolling out cool bikes and showing us that the brand is the brand and it ain’t a changin’. It appears to be as tough as the guys who made it famous in the first place. Not that I had any doubts, but it’s still crazy out there.
Harley obviously assumes business will improve. As they should. But is it safe to say they’d rather go out of business than start slashing prices? How long can they hold out? If they did go low, they’d jeopardize customer loyalty as well as the trust they’ve instilled for so many years. A key brand revitalization principle is the art of sacrifice. For HD, I just hope they sacrifice the right thing.
On Facebook, HD has 417,412 fans. An impressive showing, but considering Coca-Cola has 4.2 million, they have a way to go by way of iconic brand stature in the social space. Partly because while it is an iconic brand, it is cost-prohibitive for the masses. But they need those masses, and they can certainly be doing some things now to get people onto a Harley, instead of just into Harleys.
This is the time to rev it up. Invest in the kinds of programs that get you out in front of new prospects. Start cultivating new relationships. Be the new generation of Harley. Get deeper into the online space and start talking with younger consumers, the echo boomers, the social media fanatics, the ones who’ve always wanted a Harley. They’re predisposed loyalists. They need to be shown the value of a Harley purchase. But they need to start hearing from you now.
Please, Harley. Roll up those greasy sleaves and go to work. This is not your fate:
