I was recently asked to contribute to an article in the
Financial Times about Harley-Davidson’s advertising outreach to women,
Hispanics and African-Americans. As you
can probably guess, I did not pull any punches.
If you want to see the article, you can click here.
My issue was the way this brand is going about engaging with
the audience. Specifically, my problem
is with their digital outreach. It is
reminiscent of the scene in Animal House where Kent and Larry are ushered
straight through the Omega house party and introduced to Mohammed and Jugdish.
Just
like Omega house, Harley Davidson is a strong brand that has a following, which
includes, Hispanics and women, etc. To make
the decision that you are going to suddenly usher them to their proper sections
of your website, is potentially very insulting. There are far more subtle ways to do this. And, as always, I recommend that H-D turn to
the movie business for guidance.
Specifically, look to the art that is the movie trailer.
The other day I was watching TV with my son and the trailer
for Ice Age: Continental Drift came on.
He actually said to me, “Wow dad, the whole cast of the Ice Age movie is
Black (he meant “multicultural)."
I thought about allowing him this Tooth Fairy/ Santa Claus/
Universal Healthcare moment , but then realized I didn’t want my son growing up
in the same bubble that produced me (more on that in a future post).
So, I explained to him how studios edit trailers for
specific audiences. And I reminded him
that we were watching BET.
It was amazing to see the light go off in his head. That
night he found a whole new respect for what his father does for a living. You are not going to ingratiate your audience by putting “place-cards”
on your website. You gotta be more like
Annie Reid, who just happened to be trying to cross a busy highway as Sam
Baldwin notices her. Really? Okay here’s
the link.
So here’s what! When it comes to any target audience:
Women, Multicultural, LGBT, you will only have success if you can prove that
you know where they are, and that just happens to be where you also want to
be. This is why Visa has over 56%
purchase volume and American Express (the devil) has only 15%. And that is why Harley-Davidson better hope
their female customers have dial-up.
And…fade to black.
