Building Brand Community Essay

1. wild boar has been phenomen ally self-made at attracting members and chapters. From nonhing in 1983 it has grown to fractional a million members in 1,160 chapters. This is the core of Harley-Davidsons market and it is advantageously reach adequate through Hog Tales magazine. This is deviateicularly important for Harley given that its customers ar so varied making it hard to reach them through conventional marketing methods. HOG overcomes the wide differences in its membership by focalization on their common passion, motorcycle riding. While members get to meet lumberman enthusiasts, Harley gets to keep their at extion on Harley. As it can non compete with Japanese imports on price, and perhaps quality, Harley has to focus on its brand.HOG builds brand community and dispels the centenarian image of Harley owners as Hells Angels gangs. In fact, Harley has been so successful in building its brand that BusinessWeek ranks it as the 44th most valuable in the world. Retaining Harley owners is clearly lucrative Harley estimates that active HOG members spend an tautologic $850 a year with the company. This translated into over $140 million, money that can tardily be spent elsewhere by less loyal customers.2. tending(p) that HOG serves to retain and reach customers by building a brand community, the posse Rides serve to cr beate a brand within the brand. Lisa Laundry describes Harley as a mystique, a disembodied spiritstyle as opposed to a brand.This agreeable of awe is mixed with a cultist sense of community, a dollop of patriotism and Americana, and committedness to riding to create your average Harley rally pilgrim. The posse comitatus Rides focus on the latter part of that physiological make-up, on the hard-core riders. It allows these people to pock themselves from the larger group of Harley owners. The first posse comitatus Ride was a greathearted success, giving participants bragging rights that they promptly exercised on return to their HOG chapters. This intelligence information of mouth raised expectations for the sequel which, uniform many sequels, it failed to live up to.Participants expected their T-shirts stop after stop, and they expected to mingle with management to cope their views. The results of the pre and post-ride surveys ( expose Exhibit 1) show high satisfaction with their bikes and the ride itself, simply oft lower satisfaction with HOG and Harley as a company, particularly afterwards. This is formidable as it undermines brands loyalty. Barbara Hammet is right when she says Harley certainly has enough money that if they set out to eat a shirt or two, it shouldnt matter. Given the importance of T-shirts as souvenirs, or markers, to participants there is no excuse for not having enough on hand. If management had been paying attention on the 1st posse comitatus they should be intimate this.One has to ask why the mangers ride together at all? They can meet at the office, or have their own intra-off ice Posse. They should be seen to be part of the larger group. 400 people over ten days is not many people to meet and greet for say, quartette managers. Mike Keefe defends management by saying What they dont see is the research that occurs unobtrusively The end of his sentence is unimportant because if they do not see it, or more importantly feel it, it is worthless. The old axiom, If its worth doing, its worth doing right, applies here. Harley should spend more prison term and resources doing so.3.That the Posse Rides are worth doing should not be doubted. They are part of the brand image a two-mile long rolling billboard for Harley. comprehend old and young, male and female Posse Riders traveling together projects an open, comprehensive image for Harley. The Posses are advertising for Harley and its dealers and Harley should bug this more. It should encourage, even subsidize, dealers to build on the Posse Rides in ways such(prenominal) as the dealer inDuluth did on the 1st Posse. Coordination with local TV and radio should be employ to raise awareness and crowds. The dealer network should also be utilise by the Posse Rides to solve logistical problems such as the T-shirts fiasco. Given that Posse Rides have different routes, most dealers will be able to participate over time.4. While the visual promotional effect of the Posse Rides should be exploited as much as possible, commercializing them should be avoided. Participants are Harleys best customers and it should take the opportunity to reward them, not exploit them. These people are not stupid and will soon celebrate if Harley tries to squeeze out every last cent from them. The indirect benefits, such as building brand awareness and loyalty, are much more important than short-term sales. If participants want to shop at every dealer, great, but their direct costs should be kept as low as possible. Given their wide differences in income, raising prices will simply postulate off working class parti cipants that blow their annual wad on one rally. This would change the nature of the Posse from an open, inclusive group to a rich, closed one. Over time, as Posse Rides become a experience of Harleys brand, it would depreciate the brand.Posse Rides will also have to keep on their exclusivity if they are to be continually successful. If everyone can get a Posse T-shirt because of merchandizing they will not be worth having to real Posse Riders. Keeping the number of participants small also adds to the feeling of exclusivity, as does not running the Posse Rides more than biannually. This should also help to maintain a feeling of spontaneity that is missing from regularly scheduled, annual events.Exhibit 11.I will definitely sign up for another long duration HOG rally2. If I were to replace my motorcycle I would cloud another Harley3. I would recommend this ride to a friend4. I feel a sense of kinship with other Harley owners5. I have made lifelong friends because of my Harley6. M y Harley says a lot nearly the kind of mortal I am7. I really understand what Harley is all about8. No one but Harley-Davidson could put on an event like this9. Harley-Davidson really understands what riding a bike is all about10. I am satisfied with HOG11. Harley-Davidson really cares about me as a customer12. Harley really understands my needs13. My Harley is an integral part of my daily life