Harley Davidson makes worse marketing decision ever - tonight !

Milwaukee Journal ^ | 08/31/03 | AP

[MikeAnon222]

HEADLINERS UNVEILED Elton John caps entertainment list Piano legend Elton John capped the list of mystery headliners Sunday night for the Harley-Davidson 100th Anniversary Celebration at Veterans Park. Country star Tim McGraw and rocker Kid Rock were the first two headliners

[Atchafalaya]

Oh yeah!

[Squantos]

Damn RUB's had something to do with the planning I'll bet.........Stay Safe !

[Atchafalaya]

An old fag, lonliness personified.

[RichInOC]

Elton? I very seriously doubt it. Those guys look like heavy metal fans all the way, even the old dude.

[monkeyshine]

But in the end, is it going to stop anyone from buying a Harley tomorrow?

Well, with Harley's image is everything. It's not the best built bike. Not the best performing. Not the best engineered. Not the fastest, not the quickest. Not the smoothest, not the cheapest.

All it really has is the image, and people pay through the nose for it.

[RichInOC]

...oh, yeah....

[Atchafalaya]

Hide the boudin?

[monkeyshine]

You'd be surprised. New Coke?

[Melas]

V-Rod is $18,000 out the door here. $22,000 for the totally hot red one they have on the showroom floor. Must be a $5k paint job at least. Looks like it's a mile deep. I spend way too much time at dealerships. I can't pass one up on the road without saying hi.

Probably customs you saw. Unfortunately the unwashed don't realize that custons aren't Harley's. A West Coast Chopper is titled a West Coast Chopper. Ditto for every other custom outfit out there. Even the customs that use the Harley-Davidson 88b engine aren't titled as HD's.

[July 4th]

Elton will go anywhere there's money. After all, he needs it to support his $300,000/year fresh flower habit. As a Milwaukeean, and one who went to school with some of the younger Davidsons, this seems like an absolutely pitiful decision.

I think your post is pretty close to how a lot of people felt. They don't mind Elton's music, but this was neither the proper time or place for it. The big rumors had been the Stones or Springsteen. If I were truly expecting either of them, this would have really pissed me off.

Starting tomorrow, and going on for a week or so, Harley will catch major hell around here. Rightly so.

[dasboot]

Wow! Young Adams is a hell of a writer!

But I take from that story, and the Elton John 'snafu' , an increased suspicion that this is a carefully engineered snafu: HD has, along with a lot of other consumer-product producers, scientifically determined to exploit the attractiveness of irreverence.

[Atchafalaya]

Go check out the marinas in Florida; compared to the miles of yachts, a 40,000 bike is an anchor. The owners of those ain't all flute players.

[Atchafalaya]

No threat, money!

[jocon307]

"Sloppiness like that just doesn't happen by accident."

Yeah, but stupidity always happens by accident.

[dixiechick2000]

I don't like Elton John, and I'd absolutely love to have a Harley or a BMW.

Unfortunately, it rains a lot in Oregon, and that kinda takes a lot of the fun out of it.

Click on my name, and scroll down, to see what this middle aged suburban woman likes. ;o)

[SkyPilot]

When you assume the worst, then you are rarely disappointed. I would never go anywhere for a concert where I didn't know who was going to play.

Mike, sorry about the concert, but SengirV's words ring very true. The last concert I went to with a "surpirse" band had rumors of (get this): U2, ZZ Top, Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and Blink 182.

It turned out to be Cyndi Lauper.

[dasboot]

New Coke?

An engineered ploy. A bad idea, but still researched and developed. No lark of a bad decision, that.

[Melas]

Not image, character and originality.

For those of us who don't like sport bikes, and I truly hate them, there are only a few options. Buy one of the few Japanese cruisiers that's not a clone. Buy a clone. Last but not least, buy a Harley.

The middle option is clearly inferior. If you buy a clone, you'll always know it's just a copy of a Harley. The Vulcan and the new Shadows for example go to such extremes that you have to take a magnifying glass to things to find Kawasaki or Honda on the bike. It's hidden for a reason, to look even more like a Harley.

The truly original Japanese cruisers like the Valk, the Magna and the V-Max totally rock. Japanese means 4 or more cylindars, and they do it so well.

Harley. What can I say? It's nostaliga redoux. I love stepping out of my techo-world and onto my motorcycle with it's comparatively primative air cooled motor. I'm totally in love with it, and there are oodles of us out here.

Most of us would love it if EPA regs would allow real old school muscle cars with 4 barrel carbs and hemi engines to come off the line, even though we know a high-tech porche engine would be faster. Luckily, for us vehicular troglodytes, we still have Harley-Davidson.

[dasboot]

The owners of those ain't all flute players

Nor are they pretend pirates. This is exactly the crowd HD's after, m'thinks.

[max_rpf]

Sadly, you are probably correct.