The Harley-Davidson brand was made famous in movies like “Easy Rider,” and by appealing to boomers’ desire to recapture their youth. Now, their customers are getting a little long in the tooth. Harley’s core customers are graying baby boomers, whose savings, in many cases, have gone up in smoke in the market downturn.
Uh-oh.
The cost of a Harley can easily be $20,000+ The average household income of today’s rider is about $87,000. The average age of a Harley rider is 49, up from 42 five years ago.
This means that their customers have grayed, and they are buying new bikes less often. Harley’s longtime strategy of marketing to the boomers, which was a blazing success, is now backfiring
The target was generational--Baby Boomers, not life staged-focused. The New York Times reports that company executives don’t seem outwardly worried by the lacklustergrowth among those 35 and younger, even as it takes steps to turn theminto Harley owners.
Harley needs to reinvent its brand, and make it relevant to a different generation.
They've done it before. The 106 year old company withstood the Great Depression, a near bankruptcy in 1985 and major competition from Japanese brands like Honda an Kawasaki in the 1970's.
Now it faces the challenge of identifying the brand connection between Harley an Gen X and Y (and all the variations around them).
