WITH the recent launch of its most significant ad campaign ever in the Australian market American motor-cycle icon Harley-Davidson is reporting continuing strong growth this year off the back of a record sales year for 2003.
In its 100th anniversary year last year Harley-Davidson sales in Australian jumped by 25% to 3400 motorcycles as a result of extra activity around the event.
The new outdoor campaign that launched in January around the tagline “Harley-Davidson—It’s Time to Ride” represents a major move by the company to target a wider audience with its advertising as part of its strategy to broaden its consumer base.
The campaign is on 49 supersites across Australia and New Zealand with three different executions of Harley riders travelling long, trouble free roads in the great outdoors.
Headlines on each of the executions include “Ever heard of someone riding themselves crazy?”, “Hear the engine? That’s the sound of shackles being broken”, and “Pick one. Exist or live”.
Harley-Davidson marketing manager Adrian O’Donoughue said the high profile campaign was a change from the traditional advertising strategy for the brand which had largely focused on more targeted media such as specialist motor cycle and men’s magazines.
It is part of an ongoing strategy to cast the Harley-Davidson net wider that has also including launching new products at the more affordable end of the market and at the top end.
In September last year Harley Davidson launched is new version of its entry level priced Sportster and the previous year unveiled its new V-Rod high performance product that was aimed at appealing to consumers who would have otherwise been looking at top level sports bike brands such as Ducati.
