Hello, today we will be discussing the future of the Posse ride and ways to enhance the Harley
brand community.
Let’s take a look at the problem.
Problem
Harley has been sponsoring the Posse ride for the past two years. However, surveys have
shown that the Posse ride is detrimental to the Harley Brand Community. This means that
customers are less loyal and less active in the HOG community which could hurt the profitability
of the brand.
In a post-ride survey, riders expressed discontent in three areas. They said that Harley doesn't
understand them, that Harley is not an integral part of their daily lives, and they are not overly
satisfied with HOG.
[slide 2] Although the, "I am satisfied with HOG" rating went down in the post ride survey, this
question encompasses the other aspects we are attempting to fix. Thus we will not attempt to
directly tackle this point of discord. [slide 3] We will focus on these two main categories while
working to maintain the sense of kinship gained from Harley events.
Foremost we are trying to tackle these areas in order to build a brand community which
facilitates a successful forum for customer input and integrates Harley into everyday life, while
ultimately maximizing the customer experience.
[slide 4] Let’s take a look at the background of HOG.
Background
The purpose of the Harley Owner's Group's is to create and facilitate a lifestyle experience
based on the Harley Davidson brand.
Membership has reached over 500,000 members and about a third of these members are
considered active and attend one or more events per year.
Among the Harley Owner's Group's marketing strategies is destination rallies. Destination rallies
are beneficial for their high levels of interaction between Harley management and customers.
However, these events require great expense which can range into the millions. They are also
very time consuming for Harley staff, who end up dedicating about a week to attending the and
preparing the events. The events also don't focus on riding, which is why most Harley riders
purchase their bikes.
Rolling rallies are cheaper and have been popular among riders. These rides involve themed
routes through regions of the US. They vary in length, but are not nearly as long as the Posse
ride. Rolling rallies are known to be adventurous but lack the level of bonding that occurs on the
Posse ride.
[slide 5]
Objectives
Our main goal is to build a brand community, which allows customers to communicate with
Harley and other riders as well as promote brand loyalty.
One of our means for measuring the success of the Harley Brand Community will be by the rise
in ratings in two main survey categories: making customers feel that Harley understands their
needs and making Harley an integral part of daily life. As mentioned before, these were two
areas that suffered in post-Posse ride surveys and are problems we are directly trying to solve.
These issues are instrumental to the success of the Harley brand community.
Another goal is to increase people's content with HOG to at least 6 on a 7 point scale. In
surveys collected before and after the Posse ride, the mean in this category was between 5 and
6. We believe that an increase in this category will be indicative of our overall success in the
more minute facets of the Harley brand community.
We will also ensure that all Harley events yield higher post-participation survey results than
results received prior to participation.
Another main measurement we will use to gauge our success is an increase in active
participation. Currently about 1/3 of the 500,000 members are active, but we hope to increase
membership by ⅓. Harley has a large incentive to increase active membership because active
members are worth about $850 more than inactive members. If active membership increases as
much as we hope, it could mean over $100 million more in revenue.
Recommendation
In order to accomplish our goals of understanding the customer's needs, making Harley an
integral part of daily life, and increasing overall rider satisfaction, while building the Harley Brand
Community we will follow through with option 2. Option 2 will eliminate the Posse Ride as it
exists in its current form.
Procedural
Instead of direct company sponsorship, Harley will encourage chapters to organize their own
Posse type rides. These Chapter Posse Rides will be posted in the Hog Tails Magazine.
If people like the route then they can sign up. By allowing local chapters to organize their
own rides, it makes certain that Harley riders get what they want in a ride. They can shape
for themselves an experience which embodies what riding is all about to them and they will
associate this with the Harley experience. Location, timing, and theme will all be up to the
chapter. By increasing chapter involvement people will feel that Harley is more ingrained and
integral to their lives as well.
Harley has a poor approach to surveys. Questions from past surveys have been ambiguous
and make it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions. We will change the way questions are
structured to ensure maximal clarity and effectiveness. Additionally, surveys have come from
too small of sample sizes. At this point riders only have indirect better benefits of filling out
surveys which is a better customer experience somewhere down the line. If customers are given
a more direct benefit such as points counting toward hierarchical ranking, then they will be more
inclined to give feedback.
Organizational
To ensure that the essence of Harley is represented in the chapters and thus the rides, we
also propose altering the structure of Harley chapters. The structure will be based largely on a
point system, in which points are gained from participating in chapter sponsored and nationally
sponsored events. As more points are earned, riders progress to higher levels of member
ranking. Members of the chapters will be eligible to run for officer positions after they obtain a
certain level of membership. Thus, by participating in Harley events people are not only striving
for personal accomplishment, but for a chance to be more involved with shaping the Harley
experience.
A sense of accomplishment was important on the Posse Ride. In order to further the idea of
accomplishment, each dealership associated with a chapter will have a unique souvenir. On
their rides, bikers will be able to purchase these souvenirs as a testament to the miles they've
traveled on their bikes.
Overall, this is the best way for Harley Owner’s Group to proceed to build a successful brand
community and promote brand loyalty.