EPISODE THREE: Harley Davison Part One

12.30.2018 - Transcription by Kristina Hooper

Z: Hello everybody, welcome to another addition of Straight Shot: the podcast where we discuss how marketing impacts everyday life. Hello Jennifer, how are you?

 

J: I am doing well Zachary. How are you?

 

Z: It’s been a while since we’ve been in here. We’ve been waiting for our app to get finished. We didn’t want to put too many episodes up before we could fully promote it. I hear it is almost done. We are going to do the promised third episode which starts the series on Harley Davidson. Do you like Harley Davidson?

 

J: Yeah, I do. Some girls want diamonds, others want chrome.

 

Z: This came about because we were watching on the Discovery Channel a biopic on Harley Davidson. It was a movie that was made by the Discovery Channel and whoever else they had partnered with. We were watching it because I myself am a fan of motorcycles. We were watching the film on T.V. I think it was a three part series. It was over three nights. It was a mini-series on the Discovery Channel. I thought to myself after the first night, there is a lot of really good business knowledge and tidbits that are in this film. I decided I’m going to write a blog series on it. Since that time, we have moved over to the podcast format here. We wanted to bring that topic and those learnings out of that onto the podcast. We are going to talk about that today. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, you’ll be perfectly fine. We are going to go through and play clips of it today, so you can really start to see what it is we are talking about as we pull different things out of the movie. I’m sure it is on demand. If you go to the Discovery Channel’s website, I’m sure they have it on there. Maybe even on EBay now, I’m not sure.

 

J: It is called Harley and the Davidsons.

 

Z: It is. That is the technical name of it.

 

J: Harley and the Davidsons on the Discovery Channel.

 

Z: That’s right because there were two Davidsons and one –

 

J: - partridge in a pear tree.

 

Z: They decided to put this movie on the Discovery Channel because the Discovery Channel has several different shows that they put on. They are for car enthusiasts or motorcycle enthusiasts as the case may be. I have been riding motorcycles for several years. But as a marketing professional, I view this film a little differently than most people might see the movie. I can’t just look at things for their entertainment value. There are several things that I pulled out of it that I wanted to talk about. I’ll tell you. It is one of the best, if not the best and yet one of the most obvious propaganda films that I have seen in a long time. Harley Davidson has obviously been involved in the making of this film. Because of that there were a lot of things that I saw that we can pull from their history from a business perspective. It’s not just a fan film that’s just all filled with chrome. It gets into how they started as a company and the business workings of the three partners.

 

J: At the end of the day, Harley Davidson is a small business. It was a small business that started from nothing. With some perseverance, luck, a fair amount of marketing they’ve grown into one of the most recognizable brands in history. That’s one of the things that makes this a universally interesting idea and movie to study because whether you are familiar with the film or not you can appreciate the idea that everything had to start from somewhere. We’ve spoken in the past about Nike and how Nike came to be the swoosh, the wing if you will. I know that you will probably get into brand loyalty and everything, but Harley Davidson is one of the most recognizable brands without ever having to see the logo. It started from nothing. I think that’s what is interesting as well to see how that empire was built.

 

5:23: Introduction to Harley Davidson Part I

 

Z: The film actually starts off at the very beginning before any one of the three partners are involved in motorcycles. We watched the first night. By the end of the first night, they had already positioned themselves against their biggest competitor. They brought up several different aspects of their current brand and the differentiators: what sets them out in the marketplace. They fully showcase how they’ve embodied that brand image. They lay claim to the beginning of several aspects of the motorcycle industry. Both past and present motorcyclists have fallen in love with. It’s still done in a way that is very pleasant to watch as a movie. If you’re not a business person and you just like motorcycles or you like Harley Davidson, you can watch it and get the entertainment value out of it.

 

J: You’ll just geek out at seeing all the models of motorcycles that they build that failed. Those are always fun to see or the ones that they’ve improved upon as the story goes on.

 

Z: This series is filled with lots of different marketing techniques that Harley Davidson has used to break away from their competition. It shows how they position themselves. How they firmly and loyally developed their brand all those years ago. How they continue to invest in that same brand today. You’ll see the seeds of H.O.G.: the Harley Owners Group. You’ll see how they’ve started to embrace female riders as an additional demographic to their original target audience, the developing of their legendary merchandising efforts, how they embraced and built up sections of the industry in places where they excelled and a lot more. We’ll talk about all of it during this series that we’re doing here on the podcast on the Straight Shot.

 

J: The Straight Shot.

 

Z: Today, we’re going to talk about showcasing the brand, the first little nugget of things that I wanted to pull out of the show.

 

J: We are all about the nuggets. Not surprisingly, the man orders nuggets when he goes to McDonalds.

 

Z:  The series starts off with Walter Davidson. He’s riding in on a black stallion. He arrives at his house to find two men in a horseless carriage. They are waiting for him with three rougher looking men posting signs onto his front porch. Davidson immediately starts a fist fight with the people that have come to buy his property out from under him. Losing at gun point, he is told he must sell his property or go to jail. After he signs the contract, he spits blood from the fight onto the paper and says, “Robbery by fountain pen.”

 

10:23: First Scene Explained

 

Z: This scene helps support the rough and tough nature of Harley Davidson’s brand, showcasing here as coming from one of their founding members: Walter Davidson. It also establishes the “us versus them” mentality that falls in line with the nature of the brand. The final words of the scene, Harley Davidson is establishing their own righteousness above corruption. You can see from a psychological perspective that one scene has already set up so many things about the brand. Everything that is done from a company perspective is all about supporting the brand. The brand is so important to communicating selling your business.

 

J: Biting your thumb at authority.

 

Z: Harley Davidson has what we call a cult following. They have a very devoted following. Being loyal to that brand and what that brand stands for is a huge part of that. They have established a lot of that in the first scene. The next scene opens up with Bill Harley looking down at a clock that he’s made from spare parts in a factory he works in. This starts to showcase his creativity and ingenuity as an engineer. Later, this is also reinforced by his sketching out the drawing of an engine very passionately while at a burlesque show. His mind, instead of being on the girls, is on engineering and design. Beauty is another part of motorcycles that is part of Harley Davidson’s brand.

 

J: It makes sense because curves, the lines, sleek. It’s no wonder some of the – I’m going to leave out the pornographic things that are about to come out of our mouths right now. Some of the best brands are shaped after women: rounded edges and curved. I think Harley is no different than that possibly because Bill Harley being where he’s at and being influenced by his surroundings.

 

13:53: Second Scene Explained

 

Z: The other person that we saw in that scene is Arthur Davidson. He is Walter Davidson’s younger brother. There we see the three partners of Harley Davidson in the first couple of scenes of the movies. He is introduced in that scene. It goes forward and we find out that Art Davidson is a player that makes his money outside of the normal societal traditions. He’s an outsider. He actually steals the parts to make the first Harley Davidson engine.

 

J: In the same burlesque scene that he’s in with Bill, he’s actually punched by a bouncer for sneaking in. Not only is he punched by a bouncer, he sucker punched by a bouncer. Over and over again throughout the entire mini-series, you see a showcasing of the rough and tumble outlaw nature of the company’s brand, deep seated in its founders. You see over and over again this bucking of authority and the tenacity to get things done in whatever manner they can.

 

Z: It’s like I tell our clients, whatever you’re building your brand on has to be real. What they’re showing us in this movie is that rough and tumble outlaw nature was native to the people who started the company. They just carried it out into their brand and found a way to popularize it.

 

J: We’re not seeing a couple of highly educated, corporate-bred individuals. These are regular blue collar hardworking guys that end up creating a brand built on their blood, sweat, and tears, possibly more importantly, their need to go around the establishment if you will.

 

Z: Their attitude.

 

J: I think one of the things that our business owners come to us with is they want to create a brand separate of themselves. Although that is entirely possible to do, sometimes capitalizing on who you are as a business owner helps bleed those principles into your brand. I think that capitalizing on who the Davidson’s brothers are and where they come from only helps with the brand instead of trying to fight it.

 

Z:  It makes it where it’s a natural process where people don’t look at you and see that’s something that you made up. It’s really easy, particularly in the beginning, for people to see what’s not authentic. Maybe, making sure that it’s authentic to the nature of who you are makes it where you don’t have to pretend all the time.

 

J: If you’ve got one percent are outlawed biker gangs riding around on Harley Davidsons, you don’t want to all of the sudden find out that it was made by some little squirrely, corporate dude.

 

Z: Made by Bill Gates.

 

J: No offense Bill, you’re wonderful and everything, but that’s not who the brand pictures when you think of a Harley. When you see these young guys who are just trying to scrap by and they had this dream and they’re going to do whatever it takes to make the dream happen, even if it means going around the authorities that sets the foundation up for the brand. We keep seeing that over and over again in the series. In this little mini-series, these guys who are just trying to get their dream accomplished and doing whatever it takes to get there. I think that perseverance is also with the brand.

 

Z: Let’s keep watching.

 

20:48: Third Scene Explained: Brand Foundation

 

Z: If we’re engineering backwards at the company’s brand, you can see that outlaw nature that rough and tumble nature that’s in the brand. It comes from the founders of the company. You can see the lineage of how this came to be this way because of this. If you look at other brands and motorcycle manufacturers, Kawasaki does not have that same brand foundation because they were made by different people. Norton, BSA, or any of the other motorcycles, they don’t have the same. That’s one of the ways to develop your brand differentiators out of who you are at your core to begin with. One of the things we try to lead people through when we’re doing brand develop is figuring out who are you and what are you about that’s going to matter to your public. They did that exact same thing by taking the attitude and the very nature of their core founders and making that part of the brand.

 

J: Bill Harley is a little different. He’s a squirrelly, little guy.

 

Z: He’s the smart one.

 

J: He’s the small, smart one. Everybody needs a small, smart one.

 

Z: Now, you can see in that last scene the very first spark of the first product that is being made for Harley Davidson on that table.

 

J: He’s very excited. If you guys aren’t watching at home and just listening, he’s glistening right now. He’s very excited looking at the pieces at the first Harley.

 

Z: I am a fan of Harley Davidson motorcycle for multiple reasons. Today, we are talking about the marketing reasons. In this next scene, you can see that Walter, the one that was bought out from his ranch property, is going to muscle in on Art and Bill’s venture. He comes in and sees the prototype. He takes it out for a spin. He comes back really impassioned about how much fun this new product, this new motorcycle is. He starts discussing about the freedom of the experience, having the wind in his face and all of those. This embodies the company’s brand. The wind in your face and the freedom of the road that is all straight lined into the brand of Harley Davidson and motorcycles in general. The Harley Davidson’s brand: outlaw, rough, creative, design, style oriented, the “us versus them,” antiauthority mentality and now fun and freedom. It’s all right there within the first several minutes of the series. It all continues to be supported and reinforced throughout the entire series. Before we go on, let’s take a moment to hear from our sponsors because sponsors are important.

 

J: Sponsors matter.

 

Z: We’ll be right back with the first episode of Straight Shot about Harley Davidson in just a minute.

 

J: Welcome back to Straight Shot Podcast here in the fabulous studios that you can’t tell where we are. That doesn’t matter.

 

Z: They can if they’re watching on YouTube.

 

J: This is our fabulous studio. Welcome back where we are talking about –

 

Z: We’ve had some improvements since our last episode.

 

J: We do. We’ve got fancy things to look at now that have our name on it.

 

Z: We’re growing and learning as we do this.

 

J: Yes, we are figuring out how to do a podcast as we go. We are also in the middle of talking about Harley and the Davidsons a mini-series that is available on the Discovery Channel. We’ve watched this mini-series. We’re talking about it today and talking about the Harley Davidson brand.

 

Z: Let’s continue talking about how the Harley Davidson built, what it was built on, and how it was showcased throughout this series.

 

J: This is how cult brands are made. You find out who you are and then you build a true representation personality into your brand by showcasing it over and over again in everything that you do. Consistency is the key to that in making sure that seeps into every part of the marketing plan that you do. With that being said, there’s probably enough to chew on for this first part of the podcast on the Harley and the Davidsons on the Discovery Channel. If you’re ready to give us your straight shot, I’d love to hear what you have. What’s your rap-up? What’s the straight shot for this one?

 

26:42: The Straight Shot for the Harley Davidsons Mini-series

 

Z: We help companies to build and develop their brands. It’s a huge part of what we do as a marketing agency. The reason why is because branding is so important. It’s so paramount to the success of any marketing communications that we do moving forward. If you can remember from the first episode when we talked about branding, your brand is not your logo. Your brand is not your slogan that you have. Your brand is knowing who you are and then knowing how to showcase who you are to your audience for the purposes of growing your business and becoming preferred in the marketplace. The straight shot or the big take-away –

 

J: - the nugget.

 

Z: The nugget to what we’ve discussed here today which is how well they’ve showcased their brand is the importance of a brand. You can see if you look at the personality of Harley Davidson. That’s who they are besides what they do. You can see where all of that came from and how it’s been developed over the years. That’s the biggest take-away for this one.

 

J: It’s all about personality.

 

Z: That is all we’re going to talk about today for this episode.

 

J: That’s the straight shot.

 

Z: Next time we will come back and talk more about Harley Davidson. I believe we’re going talk about positioning. In the next episode, we are going to talk about how Harley Davidson has positioned themselves against their competition. Come back and watch the next episode if you’re already in the app.

 

J: Join us for some more shenanigans. I’ll make sure the shenanigans happen always.

 

Z: Thanks guys.

 

J:  Bye.

 

 

 

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Category :  Straight Shot Marketing Podcast