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Harley Davidson Case Study – How A Cult Brand Was Made – A Case Study for Entrepreneurs

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In Case Study #21 Tom Ellsworth, aka: The Biz Doc, shares the story of Harley Davidson and how they don’t just sell motorcycles, they sell admission to the badass club.

Harley Davidson- A Cult Brand

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46 Comments on “Harley Davidson Case Study – How A Cult Brand Was Made – A Case Study for Entrepreneurs”

  9. Been a fan of Valuetainment for a few months now. This is the 1st case study I've watched. Man… love this! The history channel needs to hire you!!!

    I'd love to see one of the on FedEx!

    I've worked there for almost 20 years. It used to be my main job & I was able to step down to pursue my passions. My side hustle is now my main thing & my ol "j.o.b." Is now my side-hustle!

  14. What makes a cult brand? A cult brand is a brand with an extreme loyal customer-base in which the consumers visualise the brand as something more than just a product, but also as a life style where the brand becomes a piece of their everyday lives. Better stated, cult-brands sell an image as opposed to a product. People with a loyal following to these brands are drawn to
    such an idea through the desire of wanting to belong.

  16. do a case study on microsoft , google , yahoo , whatsaap , snapchat , atari , alexander graham bell and at and t , nescafe , bournville

  17. Thank you Tom! It's like they say if you don't have a passion for it you will fail (AMF) people with a passion for the product took over and they succeeded!

  24. These videos make me ridiculously excited. Thank you Tom for making me realise what my passion is. Also, I'm a big BMW Motorrad fan, but this made me want to own a Harley one day.

  25. I have a question: how come there are not many teachers like Tom in universities and schools? If every business school would have at least one or two case studies such as this one let say each week, those four damn years spent in the amphiteatres would be worth a whole lot more!

  26. The cult was IN SPITE of the company I believe. It was a made up image based on fantasy. Harley management is STUPID if you ask me…they long ago should have bought a european mfg like Ducati and made an American brand line motorcycle for the riders that love quality in DESIGN … I and MANY other riders WOULD have purchased a Harley even if was less of a bike at a premium price if ONLY it was a platform on an engine we could work with…DUMB ASS company….yes they made a ton of money on one thing but they COULD have been just so much MORE

  29. The one threat that HD may not be able to overcome is: demographics. Year to year sales are suffering as older bikers age out of the hobby, flooding the market with used bikes for middle age customers and US millenials showing a total lack of interest in HD (and a general lack of interest in motorcycles).

  31. This guy claims harley built the first v twin motorcycle, sorry Hercules powered by the Curtis v twin in 1903 was the first patented v twin motorcycle followed by indian in 1906 harley designed their v twin in 1907 and released it in 1909. I love my road king but history is history the info is all on line.

  33. I'm a Harley rider, and I love the bikes. Well, some of them. You left out a couple of important issues. First of all, the '90s. Harley Davidson and their crooked dealers were ripping off customers big time. You couldn't get a new Harley for anywhere near MSRP. You had to get on a waiting list, and dealers made it clear that the more you were willing to pay, the faster you would get your bike. That went on for many years, and I have not forgotten it. I will never forget how Harley Davidson treated their customers during that time. It was shameful. It was, IMO, the darkest period in Harley's history. I have never bought a new Harley, and because of the way they treated their customers back then, I never will. Then around 2000, Harley Davidson started making serious mistakes with their bikes. They came out with the Twin Cam, which was not nearly as reliable as the old EVO engine, and for the first time, a Harley engine was not really rebuildable either. The EVO was basically a Shovelhead with a new top end, and it was designed to be rebuilt. The Twin Cam adopted Japanese manufacturing techniques. It was built to be disposable. It cost more to rebuild it than it did to buy a new one. Then there was the cam design itself. The cam chain tensioner was defective, and even after a redesign, it was still defective. If you didn't replace it every 30,000 miles or so, it would fail and destroy the engine. Then Harley came out with EFI, computer controlled fuel injection. Together with the Twin Cam, it spelled doom for Harley. They were no longer the simple, primitive bikes that gave them their cult status in the first place. Now, we have the latest engine, the Milwaukee 8. I test rode a bike with this engine, and almost felt like I was on a Goldwing. Very little vibration or sound. They actually put a counterbalance in it (yes I know the Twin Cam B had a counterbalance in it too) People who buy Harleys want vibration and they want sound. They also want something they can work on. Harley went too far in refining their bikes. Now you might as well buy a Japanese bike. What made a Harley a Harley is mostly gone. The new M8 engine may be the engine that kills Harley.

    Oh, and just to add insult to injury, Harley has now started building ghetto styled bikes. They look like something a pimp, drug dealer, or gang member would own. I almost threw up when I saw the CVO Breakout a couple years ago. Harley Davidson has always been a blue collar motorcycle. That was one of the main parts of their appeal. Japanese bike riders complained that Harleys were built like tractors. And they were. They were not overstyled like many Japanese bikes. They still had rough edges, and that is one of the things I love about them. I won't even get started on the "street" series, hopefully it goes away soon.

    So what do I ride? A 1997 EVO powered Superglide and a 2003 Sportster 1200. I refuse to buy anything newer. It's just not what I want. If Harley wants to stay in business, they need to get back to their roots instead of copying the Japanese companies. That "difference" is getting smaller and smaller.

  35. Tell a guy he's a tough guy and sell him an inferior product for twice the price of the competition and walah, you've got an idiot American consumer. Apple does the same thing.

  37. Absolutely great presentation. Fell in love with your channel – so interesting, amazingly presented and perfect form: no annoying ads, stupid intro music, not funny jokes or other "cool" features. It is cool the way it is now. Thank you for your effort in providing this content – this very video is maybe 11th in a row that I just watched. And I'm going to see all of them. Have a good day! 🙂

  43. You can't take a monopoly brand of American motorcycles and use it as a business case study. Harley Davidson does whatever it wants with it's only competitor Indian fading into the sunset.

  45. I’m sorry but it was English motorcycle manufacturers, specifically Triumph motorcycles that created the tariff issue in the mid 50’s — not the Japanese. The Japanese imports started in the mid to late 60,s and really impacted in the 70,s. Also WWII ended in 1945. .

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