'Aspiration in smaller cities is exponential': Pallavi Singh

The 6th Season of Harley Rock Riders - a music festival that brings rock music and motorcycle lovers together was held on 30^th and 31^st October. Pallavi Singh, Marketing Director at Harley-Davidson India informs that Harley-Davidson’s new Dark CustomTM motorcycles made a debut at the festival. She expresses, “Dark Custom is a platform where we are going to launch three bikes under the price band of Rs 10 lakhs. Street™ 750 is available at 4.5 L, Iron 883™ at 6.9 L and Forty-Eight® at 9.5 L at ex-showroom rate and are available at various dealerships. Dark Custom is a Harley Davidson philosophy started in the year 2008 and when I say Dark Custom it does not mean Black.  It means a Black Canvas where customers can actually go and make what they want. It’s a platform for people to customize their motorcycles and think what they want to do with their bikes. And under this philosophy, we have launched three new bikes where customers can look at them for the first time, sit on them and of course ride them on 1^st November at Taj Presidency, Mumbai where we have Harley Boot Camp happening. This will also give them a chance to experience the brand and ride with their fellow riders”.

Harley Davidson has a strong brand presence across the world. When we ask her the key factors which Harley India attributes this growth to, she says, “Harley Davidson philosophy does not change in whichever  country it goes and even in India our objective is to fulfil the dream of ‘Personal Freedom’ through events like Harley owners which is a community where lot of people are riding their motorcycles. So our strategy in India is to give people reason to ride and we are doing it past 6 years through our experiential dealer network. Secondly, it’s on ground events through our community. Thirdly, giving customers what they want”.

The brand believes in connecting with it consumers on multiple touchpoints. BTL and digital play a key role in its marketing strategy, “Digital and social is a factor which needs to be included in your strategy to reach out to the masses. And as for Harley Davidson, we invest lot of time on social media platform and on ground events to reach out to our consumers”.

Brand currently has 65% market share in 600cc plus segment. It has 18 dealerships across the country including Indore, Jaipur, Surat, and one coming up in Nagpur on Nov 4. She explains, “We already have presence in two-tier cities so there is huge potential in India which is beyond Metro cities. Aspiration in smaller cities is exponential and huge demand is coming from there these days. Also there are 20 plus women riders in India right now. Target audience is already quite broad in India and come from all walks of life. There is no stereotype Harley owner. We have 12 models in country right now and there is Harley for every customer anywhere in the world. Our customer base in India is very young. It starts from 28 years and goes up to 45 and even 65. But our age group in India is very young”.

Harley Davidson is currently running Test Ride and Win campaign across Asia Pacific campaign. “That campaign is about somebody who goes to dealership and test ride the bike where one person will actually win and go to Harley Davidson Museum and sit with one of our best designers and customize bike according to his requirements. It is a very experiential experience. This campaign is helping us drive more of our customers in dealership and create more demand”, adds Pallavi.