Harley-Davidson's Retail Traffic Builers (1,171 words)

Harley-Davidson dealers customize retail traffic-builders

It's summer, and while most people troop around in shorts and tees, motorcyclists take to the roads in perforated leather and nylon mesh.

In the motorcycling market, Harley-Davidson stands out with its Motorclothes line. Customer brand loyalty is strong, as the Web site (www.harley-davidson.com) reminds us: "It's one thing to have people buy your products. It's another for them to tattoo your name on their body."

Harley-Davidson, headquartered in Milwaukee, WI, was incorporated in 1903 but started mailing catalogs only 10 years ago. This year Harley will mail an annual core book of over 100 pages, and three smaller catalogs of seasonal products.

Rather than soliciting mail orders directly, these catalogs refer buyers to an 800 number or the company's Web site to find dealers near them where they can purchase the apparel, accessories, gifts and collectibles featured in the catalogs.

WHERE'S THE NEAREST HARLEY DEALER?

In 1997 Harley-Davidson and its agency of record, Carmichael-Lynch of Minneapolis, had the idea of producing customized retail traffic-builders to help dealers generate business.

Banta Corp. was hired to print the 12-page, four-color traffic-builders. Banta also manages the database and drives participation in the customizing program by signing dealers up at Harley trade shows.

Julie Telesz, innovation production analyst at Banta, explains, "Carmichael-Lynch wanted to put more variable information into the seasonal books and make them more dealer-based to drive traffic into the stores."

Banta's director of innovation, Andy Bear, adds that the creative agency "was looking for someone to handle the customization from start to finish."

Of approximately 650 U.S. dealerships, more than 85 percent now participate in this marketing program. The dealers sign up for the direct-mail program, then provide Banta with the custom information required for the retail-building catalogs.

COME IN, SUIT UP

Banta prints two customizable retail-builders per year: the summer Motorclothes catalog and the winter Holiday Gift Guide.

They run 8 1⁄4˝ X 10 7⁄8˝. The cover is printed on 100-lb. Citation paper, and the inside and insert are 60-lb. #3 enamel.

The eight inside, four-color pages (produced exclusively for these traffic-builders) of the summer mailer feature the basic wearable riding gear and accessories most popular with Harley owners.

The catalogs can be customized with the dealership name inkjetted in black and white on the front cover, and the dealer's hours, address and a choice of photo and optional custom caption on the back. A two-sided black-and-white bind-in appears as pages one and two with a flap in the back. Economics prohibit four-color bind-ins—luckily, black leather dominates in this book!

On page two and the half-page flap of the bind-in, dealers may add their signatures and some custom copy beneath a block of promotional copy. On the right of this page, they may run a coupon or message, such as a list of upcoming regional motorcycling events. Beneath this, a local map to the dealership is provided.

Dealers choose products to showcase on the bind-in, and may even include their own sale prices on these items. These items are only found in the custom catalogs.

The holiday custom catalog presents gifts of interest to Harley-lovers such as a H.O.G. Bank (piggie bank), chocolates and a pewter reproduction of the first Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Again, dealers customize the product selection on the half-page flap.

USE ONE MAIL STREAM, SAVE MONEY

Dealers have their custom catalogs mailed through a Banta central processing facility. They mail only within their sales region. This single mail stream is the most economical solution for the dealers to drop catalogs.

Harley's list database management firm generates the catalog mailing list from a variety of sources, including each dealer's territory list (ranging in number of names from 75 to 8,000), and these are combined using Sybase. Banta processes the electronic file to maximum postal efficiency, says Bear. He also points out the crucial relationship between data collection and binding. The first must be optimized for the second to work smoothly, Bear says.

Telesz explains that the customized cover and insert are produced at the same time. The covers are offset printed on Heidelberg sheetfed presses, while the inserts are done with a Heidelberg web press.

"The strategic part of the production is to organize the covers in the proper binding sequence so we can fill the pockets of the stitcher to optimize the mail stream," says Bear. He points out that Banta binds five to eight dealership catalogs simultaneously.

WHO GETS MAILED?

Who receives the custom Motorclothes and Holiday Gift catalogs?

Harley-Davidson has its own house file of Harley owners (core customers). An outside vendor provides additional lists which dealers can choose to use. These include qualified promotion-responders and competitive motorcycle-owners. The dealers may also include their own lists.

"The target audience is Harley owners," says Stevie Hasley, account manager for Harley-Davidson at Carmichael-Lynch.

LIFESTYLE PICTURES TELL A "SMALL STORY"

A flip through the summer edition yields a few nice photographic views of real Harley riders at a real rally. Hasley calls the three one-page photos by Jon Gipe a "small story"—purely visual.

"Riders go to these events in the summer and recognize the setting," she says. "When they open the book, they see their world."

In an unusual catalog approach, men's and women's gear is mostly shown together.

Product descriptions are brief and to the point. Explains Hasley, "Owners identify with the brand, so little descriptive verbiage is required. Simple rally and product shots get the job done."

The white space sets off the product photos starkly, all the more so since most of the clothes are presented solo, not worn by models. "The point is to get riders to visualize themselves in new Harley gear, and then get them to a dealership," says Hasley.

The back covers often feature a custom photo of the dealership, or in the case of the holiday issue, some dealers pose their staffs wearing Santa hats. "Dealerships are such a part of the Harley culture," notes Hasley. "Riders enjoy swapping stories there, and exchanging ideas on bike customization."

Finally, the type size throughout the book is extremely small considering the amount of white space. This is partly a creative trend and partly a conscious bucking of direct-marketing rules, meant to appeal to the customers' own "rule-breaker" mentality.

Straightforward is the watchword. "Harley knows that starbursts and pithy product descriptions are not the key to increased dealership traffic," Hasley says. What is? "A no-nonsense approach that leverages Harley's unique dealer network to speak directly to the customer with targeted product offerings."

"For many dealers, this is the main piece they put out. Because it's corporate-generated, they save lots of money but get to personalize the catalog, too," she says.

While bikers may not like heavy traffic on the road, Harley dealers think heavy retail traffic is great. n

PRODUCTS: Those overalls might not leave much to the imagination, but the photo does. The strategy is to get customers to visualize themselves in Motorclothes.

FIRST SPREAD: Real Harley enthusiasts grace the inside front cover. At right, the bind-in can be customized with coupons or event promos.