Doug at 40 Years on 2 Wheels has some thoughts on how Harley-Davidson promotes itself:
FOLLOW-UP:
The link to H-D's site doesn't work for me anymore, so here's the video on YouTube:
Harley's "statement" film is on their website and you can click here for a look.Kind of reminds me of the discussion of sneaker maker Airwalk's marketing strategy, as described in The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell: By the time Airwalk got done marketing its super-cool shoes to anyone and everyone under the sun, they weren't cool anymore. Harley-Davidson may be heading in the same direction.
The video is really nicely done from a graphic standpoint; the black and white images are compelling. Compelling only at first glance though because once you stop and look, the real message in the video is as conformist as any three-piece-suit culture of "The Man" against whom the video pretends to rebel. Does it strike anyone else as ironic that a billion dollar, multi-national, Wall Street listed corporation has made a video that talks about being an individualist and "sticking it to The Man"?
...I feel sorry for the hard core H-D riders (you know who you are and so do I). H-D has sold you guys out and you ought to be mad enough about it by now to go ride something else for a while and "stick it to The Man."
FOLLOW-UP:
The link to H-D's site doesn't work for me anymore, so here's the video on YouTube:
Thomas Frank writes about this in ``Commodify Your Dissent.'' The idea of commercializing rebellion grew straight of the 1960s, when people were actually interested in real rebellion against cultural norms. Back then corporate America was actually packed with ``IBM men'' in gray suits who celebrated their conformity.
``Now all the hippies work for IBM'' Joe Jackson sings. GAP sells pants--KHAKI SLACKS!!--with Alan Ginsberg as a model. VW, the car created partly out of a desire for near absolute conformity, sold itself as a flag of rebellion. The American right wing relentlessly markets itself as an oppressed majority of REBELS!?
Faux-rebellion is the mainstream of America and Harley is at or near the forefront of marketing on that theme. As a formula, it's far from expired.
What kind of bike maker wants its brand on a truck?
The marketing end of HD has always made me a little bit sick....which is why I was horrified to discover just how much HD crap I had accumulated.
One of the staff from my office came by the hospital the other day and saw me shuffling along on crutches. He looked at the generic hospital crutches and said, "What? Don't they have Harley-Davidson crutches or walkers?" I wouldn't be surprised if they did.
The local dealer here told me that HD actualy makes very little money off of the bikes and that the vast majority of profits come from accessories and clothing that every "individualist" HD rider just has to have. Basically 1,000,000 people being different in exactly the same way.... ugh.
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