NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - For the motorcyclist, riding a Harley is a serious life choice. True-blue fans of the American icon, celebrating its 100th birthday this week, steep themselves in the Harley mystique, including all the trappings.
It goes beyond gloves, leather jackets, and helmets. Getting married to your best biking partner? Accessorize your wedding with cuff links, rings, ring pillow, and motorcycle cake topper, all adorned with the Harley logo.
Want to add spice to that Harley honeymoon? Pack your Harley saddlebags with a Harley bustier, garter belt, and thong.
And when that little biker comes along, pour your pennies into a Harley-Davidson Hog Bank shaped like a fuel tank with ears and snout.
Harley dealerships sell all these products, more than 3,000 items of clothing alone -- plus 1,200 seasonal clothing items -- directly to the public. The stores have transformed from greasy motorcycle shops into upscale emporiums, complete with fitting rooms.
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Then there's Harley licensed merchandise, often a far cry from the company's well-known core competencies. Want to be the bad boy of the country club? A Harley-Davidson golf cart might do the trick. Has that weekly game of Yahtzee lost some zing? Try the Harley version. Got the Monday morning blues? Perk up with a cup of Biker Brew coffee.
You can get a breakaway collar for your cat, a Barbie or Ken doll for your child, and a Bobby, Little Biker Baby porcelain collectible for your mom.
Some of the goods fit the company image of macho risk-taking: shot glasses, cue balls, and Zippo cigarette lighters. But some of the licensed merchandise hardly conjures up a Harley connection; cologne, dolls and cell phones don't scream "motorcycle monomania."
For Harley, there's real dollar value in this merchandising effort. It sold $232 million worth of Harley-badged goodies in 2002, 41 percent more than just a year before. And although $36 million in royalties from licensing, up from $32 million in 2001, represents just a small percentage of Harley's $4 billion in total revenue, it carries extremely high profit margins.
More than anything, however, the goods represent successful brand marketing, something critical to Harley's future. Harley's motorcycle sales have soared; 290,000 this year, compared with 202,000 in 2000, but the median age of Harley owners has reached 46, eight years older than the rest of the industry.
Associating its name with cool clothes, toys, and games enables the company to project and nurture its hard-won, youthful image, which will power its future sales.
Customers can even use a Harley-Davidson Visa card to pay for purchases.
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