The Sparkles Series

Harley Davidson
Organisation-led Integrated Marketing
Angus Jenkinson Professor of Integrated Marketing Luton Business School angus.jenkinson@luton.ac.uk

Branko Sain Research Fellow Luton Business School branko.sain@luton.ac.uk

The Centre for Integrated Marketing has been funded by industry to research best practice and develop intellectual and other tools on behalf of leading marketers and their agencies.

Anyone literate in Marketing is likely to respect the marketing achievement of Harley-Davidson in its marketing transformation from a no-hoper to one of the great brands of the Western world: an achievement that began not with agencies but with employees. $100 invested in Harley stock in 1986 was worth slightly more than $7,000 by the end of 1998 and the company continues to succeed. This was achieved by a revolution across the organisation centred everyone on re-invigorating the brand and its promise of value.

Creating value is the name of the game
The Harley Davidson transformation began with a company that was suffering. In the 10 years to 1983, Harley’s market share of the 850 CC plus motorcycle category had dropped from 80% to 23%. The company was haemorrhaging cash and profits. Staff were demoralised. The culture and environment was toxic.

The first phase of the transformation involved rationalisation and tough command and control management. This was phase 1 management. It was not enough however to create success: for this positivity and commitment was required. The company had to move out of financial regulation and power governance into shared marketing commitment towards vision and value based on a collective appreciation of the Harley identity. This is phase 2 management, and the core of integrated marketing.

Harley’s problems began it was the company was sub optimised internally, with many hostile