American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 244 November 2019 | Page 4

File under "Blindingly Obvious" Michael Caine: "Now, listen up lads, well, the thing is, we here at Harley-Davidson have got this great brand, right?" Lads: "Yeah, what of it?" Michael Caine: "Well, how would it be if we, like, really, really tried hard to, you know, 'work it'"? Wow! Genius!! t isn't that the 'Amplify Brand' initiative and whatever else Neil Grimmer can bring to Harley-Davidson's table is a "bad thing" as such. What is a "bad thing" though is that a full year into its 'More Roads' strategic plan to 'Accelerated Growth', a plan which itself was at least two years in the making, Harley has only just started to look under the heading of "blindingly obvious" for solutions to the non-engineering 'soft issues' and demographic deficits that have been as important in driving its malaise as any of the other factors (internal and external). For those who haven't been paying attention, a Mr. Neil Grimmer was hired by Harley earlier this year as the new "President, Harley-Davidson Brand, responsible for Communications, Marketing and Brand, Product Planning and Portfolio, Consumer Retail Experience and the Harley-Davidson Museum." At the time of his appointment Harley proudly shouted about how this is the first time ever it had hired someone to fulfil this senior management role. In other words, the first time (at least in the recent decades of its 116 year history) that it had figured out that putting one single, qualified and experienced person in charge to create consistent, holistic, joined-up management of all matters related to selling the 'company story' would be a pretty sharp idea. Potato, potato! In a year that has seen at least half of its competitors aggressively increase its promotional activity in the first six months of 2019, Harley are clearly going to make sure that Mr. Grimmer's style isn't cramped by lack of budget, with the company reducing its investments into sales incentives at the same time - and by at least -50% in the third quarter with an increase in overall marketing spend of +30% in order to clear his path. The money saved by that cut-back in incentive spending (at a time of considerable need) is being re-channelled into 'Brand Amplification' - to you and I that means driving brand equity in different ways for differing demographic and age related sectors, leveraging what Matt Levatich referred to recently as an incredible amount of data and understanding of what gets people riding, and how to keep them riding - and that is primarily Grimmer's job. To engage kids with the Bar and Shield at the earliest possible age (hence the StaCyc acquisition and IRONe launch) and to keep them engaged until the last possible stage in life - Harley mobility scooters anyone? Nobody in such a role can do the job if the products aren't there of course, but we are now only another year out from the debut of the 'Middleweights' which, in turn, will be followed by the 'Pan American' ADV - so it seems to me to be only now addressing just how they are going to be selling the metal, and to whom, may be just as late in the business cycle as 'More Roads' itself was. On the occasion of the release of its (actually not as bad as touted) Q3 results (October 22nd), CEO and President Matt Levatich drew investors' attention to how, in September, we were going to "sharpen the focus of our objectives to build riders in the United States, I and made clear how we plan to invoke the power of our brand in new ways to deepen the commitment of riders now and into the future." Fair enough. Everybody should always be looking to do better. "Guiding all our efforts are deeper analysis and insights on why people engage, participate and disengage from riding. Our advanced analytics capabilities and rider-migration database have evolved into a powerful asset and a wealth of information and inspiration for us. We know more than ever about how to attract people to riding and keep them engaged to build committed riders, and we know how this applies, no matter what their experience level, age or life stage." Well, yes, again, fair enough - but does this imply that the company has knowingly been flying blind for the past decade? "We have two primary focus areas: attracting more people to riding and keeping riders riding." Yes, of course, good. "Our execution might be different for a young adult versus a returning rider, but the essence of our work is the same across the customer spectrum. We're bringing precise focus to how we influence each customer at their decision points to build the total number of committed Harley-Davidson riders." Okay, so now we've introduced the variable pattern into the equation - how to market different products, in different ways, to different people. Marketing 101 - a quick read of Marshall McLuhan's 1964 magnum opus "Understanding Media" would have given Harley that much. "Where we previously had an objective to build two million new riders in the U.S., we now know why, where, how and what we can do to work both sides of the equation, attracting and retaining to increase the total number of riders. We've done the math considering demographics in used bikes, and we've set targets for new riders we need to attract and retention rates that we need to achieve four million total U.S. Harley- Davidson riders by 2027. Reframing these objectives helps us sharpen our focus on both increasing the pools of incoming riders and better activating passions of new and existing riders. This is an important refinement that underscores what we've said for several years now." Important? Err, yes, I'd say so! Okay, okay, I'll 'play nice. Let us just agree that the CEO's intention to direct investment into "building capabilities and structuring the organization to activate the Harley- Davidson brand more powerfully" is to be welcomed and that the intention to intensify "our rider-centric approach to spark passion that deepens rider commitment" and that "in line with this focus" Harley is to add "Amplify Brand as a growth catalyst in the More Roads to Harley-Davidson plan" is entirely appropriate. Ha. I've just managed to write an entire piece about Harley without mentioning the LiveWire. Ooops, that's blown it! Potato, Potato Robin Bradley Co-owner/Editor-in-Chief [email protected]