🇺🇸Harley-Davidson: The marketing of the American maverick

The Harley-Davidson motorcycle embodies rugged individualism, an outlaw spirit, and noisy machismo. To hear its signature snarl before catching its blinding chrome in the rearview mirror is to be reminded of America’s odd fondness for causeless rebels and brutish anti-heroes. These are qualities, probably not coincidentally, that a plurality of Americans celebrated when they voted for Donald Trump as their president—so it’s no surprise that the European Union is considering [retaliating against Harley-Davidson]( in response to Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs. If you want to hit the US with a highly symbolic trade war threat, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better target. But Harley-Davidson is important for reasons that go beyond its status as an icon of American exceptionalism. [Its history offers a lens]( to understand the vicissitudes of manufacturing and social change—the forces that once made America great, and have now brought it to the brink of a trade war. 🌐 [View this email on the web]( [Quartz Obsession] Harley-Davidson April 10, 2018 Hog riled --------------------------------------------------------------- The Harley-Davidson motorcycle embodies rugged individualism, an outlaw spirit, and noisy machismo. To hear its signature snarl before catching its blinding chrome in the rearview mirror is to be reminded of America’s odd fondness for causeless rebels and brutish anti-heroes. These are qualities, probably not coincidentally, that a plurality of Americans celebrated when they voted for Donald Trump as their president—so it’s no surprise that the European Union is considering [retaliating against Harley-Davidson]( in response to Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs. If you want to hit the US with a highly symbolic trade war threat, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better target. But Harley-Davidson is important for reasons that go beyond its status as an icon of American exceptionalism. [Its history offers a lens]( to understand the vicissitudes of manufacturing and social change—the forces that once made America great, and have now brought it to the brink of a trade war. 🌐 [View this email on the web]( By the digits [1,400:]( Number of Harley-Davidson-sponsored HOG clubs around the world, seen as one of the corporate industry’s best-ever marketing programs. [40%:]( Proportion of Harley-Davidsons sold overseas in 2017 [$6,899:]( retail price of the 2018 Harley-Davidson Street 500 [50%:]( Percent of Harley buyers under the age of 35 in 1987 [47:]( Average age of the Harley-Davidson buyer in 2013 🐦 [Tweet this card]( Gravelle/Library of Congress Origin story Harley-Davidson in America’s Machine Age --------------------------------------------------------------- William S. Harley and Arthur Davidson were born on the crest of the Machine Age wave in the late 1800s. The two sons of immigrants grew up next door to each other in the industrial hub of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While in their early 20s, the childhood chums began tinkering with an engine for a motorized bicycle in a shed in the Harley family’s backyard—with the words “Harley-Davidson Motor Company” scrawled on its door. By 1903, they had completed their first racer model. Within three years, they opened their first factory and issued their first motorcycle catalogue. Outside of East Coast metropolises, people couldn’t rely on trains and streetcars for transport. Horses were expensive, inconvenient, and took up a lot of space. Cars were out of reach for all but the richest Americans, and they worked better on paved roads, which, as economist Robert Gordon explains in The Rise and Fall of American Growth, much of America still lacked. Harley-Davidson motorcycles offered a solution for backroads America. The toughness of their engines and frames made the bikes well-suited to an era in which people needed to travel long distances over rough roads. Aesthetically, the heavy-duty design set it apart from comparatively svelte and speedy European motorcycles. The brand soon gained a reputation for endurance: They could climb steep hills with ease and cruise for hundreds of miles. And orders surged. Giphy Pop quiz Harley and Davidson's early nickname for their motorcycle was what? The Big Road HogThe Mechanical MuleThe Fine Chrome HorseThe Silent Grey Fellow Correct. Targeting rural customers, early ads boasted the machines were favored by Indiana farmers in part because the quietness of their engine wouldn’t disturb horses. Incorrect. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. James F. Hughes Company Baltimore, MD./National Archives Catalog Brief history From utility to leisure --------------------------------------------------------------- 1908: The company delivers its first orders to a police force—a customer base that’s still loyal today. But facing competition from the newly launched Model T, Harley builds fan clubs for owners, promoting group joyrides. 1912: Harley-Davidson begins exporting motorcycles to Japan’s military. It will also sell vehicles to the US Army for its incursion into Mexico in pursuit of revolutionary leader Pancho Villa a few years later. 1900s: A large share of Harley-Davidson’s motorcycles are sold to entrepreneurs, the bikes kitted out with hutches on the back for ferrying everything from bread and milk to dye or candy. 1930s: When the Depression hits, the company is forced to lay off workers. But it’s able to weather the downturn in large part thanks to sales in Japan—including its military. In the end, the Great Depression proves oddly good for motorcycling as a social institution. The cratered economy makes gas cheap, and leaves people with nothing to do: Motorcycle clubs fill the void. 1942: By the time the US enters World War II, Harley is one of only two US motorcycle companies still standing (the other is Harley’s archrival, Indian Motorcycle). Both bounce back fast during the war, working overtime to fill orders for America and its allies. 1947: The widespread use of Harleys among the US Armed Forces has the additional benefit of converting thousands of customers, who will buy their own bikes at the war’s end. With war-scarred vets struggling to hold down regular jobs, a few groups of Harley fans also became involved in criminal activity. After media coverage of a motorcycle-themed bacchanal that turned violent in Hollister, California, the image of the antisocial, miscreant Harley rider takes root in America’s popular imagination. 1950s: This burgeoning reputation isn’t great for Harley-Davidson, but the company supplements its core business with subcontract work for General Motors. As the swinging sixties dawned, demand for zippy European-style bikes picked up. With its reputation woes, Harley couldn’t seize that opportunity. But another competitor across the Pacific did. 1953: The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando as a [violent motorcycle gang leader]( hits movie theaters. Based on the Hollister “riots,” the film pumps more dramatic life into the mythos of an emerging Harley culture supposedly menacing America. It’s followed by Hunter S. Thompson’s 1966 book Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, and then by the 1969 film Easy Rider, starring Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda in search of an alternative American dream. Fun fact! In the 1990s, the company tried in vain to [trademark its engine’s piercing growl](. Giphy Here comes Honda --------------------------------------------------------------- Honda made its first motorcycle in 1949. By 1955, it had quietly become the planet’s top producer and, by the end of that decade, was plotting a US invasion that would inspire business school case studies for decades to come. To understand how Honda differentiated itself from its American competitor, one need look no further than a [two-page ad]( in the June 14, 1963 issue of Life magazine. Zipping across the spread were 10 people on motorcycles, including a Ken doll-clone surfer and a pair of society ladies in pearls, updos, and lots of pink. Nary a scrap of black leather in sight. The ad, conceived by Grey Advertising, deliberately portrayed Honda as a foil to Harley-Davidson’s anti-social image. Honda stuck with the campaign for more than a decade. Honda sales exploded, blowing past 500,000 in 1970, up from 40,000 in 1962—and just 1,700 in 1959. As the 1960s wore on, the Japanese invasion intensified. On the heels of its Honda 50, Honda rolled out new lines of small-but-speedy bikes for more serious motorcyclists. Yamaha and Kawasaki soon followed. Watch this! In 1964, the Beach Boys put out “Little Honda,” their paean to the Honda 50 (known outside the US as the Super Cub). “It’s not a big motorcycle / Just a groovy little motorcycle / It’s more fun than a barrel of monkeys,” sang Mike Love over a chipper guitar line. A version of the song covered by the surf-rock band The Hondells reached #9 on the Billboard 100 chart. AP Photo/Rick Wilking The rise of the antihero --------------------------------------------------------------- Ironically, Honda’s campaign actually helped Harley by increasing the American public’s overall interest in motorcycles, Margie Siegal notes in [Harley Davidson: A History of the World’s Most Famous Motorcycle.]( High gas prices caused by the oil crisis of the early 1970s boosted demand for energy-efficient transport even more. It was during the 1970s that Willie G. Davidson—a grandson of the founder, and the company’s chief motorcycle designer—had a crucial epiphany. Willie G, as he’s known, realized that the company’s accidental antihero image actually worked in its favor. The vast majority of Harley-Davidson owners weren’t outlaws at all. But they sure got a kick out of feeling like they were. People who might be dentists or accountants by weekday donned leather, polished their chrome, and found community at hog rallies on the weekends. Individuality was also a key part of this subculture. Members of motorcycle clubs poured time and expertise into souping up their bikes and turning them into “choppers”—a motorcycle modified to have its own distinctive look and feel. The company began experimenting with themes dear to Harley riders, like patriotism. For America’s bicentennial in 1976, the company released its “Liberty Edition,” with the Statue of Liberty emblazoned in black on the tank over the words “Born Free.” The company could also take its rebel image too far—as with its release of a [Confederate-themed motorcycle]( in 1977. National Archives/Ronald Reagan Library Protecting Harley, protecting America --------------------------------------------------------------- As the Liberty Edition suggested, nationalism was becoming a growing part of Harley’s brand. This intensified as Harley-Davidson’s business struggled against the Japanese competition. Since the early 1970s, John Davidson, grandson of the founder and president of the company, had been [accusing Japanese motorcycle makers]( of dumping their goods in the US at prices below their own manufacturing costs. In 1982, the company finally took action—winning an anti-dumping judgment that led then-US president Ronald Reagan to slap tariffs on Harley’s Japanese competitors. The tariffs helped boost market share and profit, until, after a [Harley-riding financier swooped in]( and a second IPO, the company asked Reagan to lift the tariffs. “Harley-Davidson has shown… American workers don’t need to hide from anyone,” [said Reagan]( drawing wild cheers from Harley workers in York, Pennsylvania. A moment later, the president warned that broader, more systematic protectionist policy “invites, even encourages, trade wars.” The [crowd stayed mum.]( By the late 1980s, the company was thriving again, thanks in no small part to its focus on iconic old-school designs like its 1990 Silver Fatboy. This massive, low-slung bike swiftly became the epitome of cool in the popular imagination, summed up by its cameo as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ride in [Terminator 2: Judgment Day]( in 1991. (The popular lore surrounding the Fatboy also spoke to the undercurrent of nationalism—and specifically anti-Japanese bias—in Harley’s evolving reputation. [Rumor has it]( that the moniker combines the names of “Fatman” and “Little Boy,” the two atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima during World War II, though the company denies the connection.) Though it has traded in some of the uglier tropes of American patriotism, the company has, since its earliest days, understood the gains to be made in winning global customers. Sales in Japan and Australia helped it emerge as one of the few survivors of the rough early decades of the 20th century. Even as Japanese motorcycles were gobbling up Harley’s US market share in the mid-1980s, [booming hog sales in Japan]( helped power the company’s comeback. It now has factories in Brazil, India, and Australia. Reuters/Antonio Bronic poll Favorite form of two-wheeled transport? 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