High on Harley

In India, Harley Davidson wants to sell to people who live up to the bike’s image rather than anyone with a stash of cash.

If you stand on any of the shining highways out of Delhi — to Jaipur, Greater Noida or Chandigarh — on a Sunday morning, you are likely to see a group of men on superbikes. They will be in ankle- or knee-length leather boots, denims, leather jackets, aviator sunglasses and tight helmets. You will find that they are not speed maniacs, their fat bikes notwithstanding, and they choose to cruise at a leisurely pace. On Monday, the same men will attend to patients in hospitals, toil hard in an information technology sweatshop or sign files in government offices. These are the Harley Davidson customers in India — ordinary mortals on weekdays and determined bikers on weekends.

 

Ever since it started selling from a showroom in Hyderabad in July last year, Harley Davidson has tried hard to create some bit of its fabled aura in India too. The numbers are tiny: It sold 250 in 2010 (the superbike market in India last year was around 1,000); the sales for the current year are under wraps but industry experts reckon it has sold around the same number in the first four months of 2011. Also, globally merchandise (shirts, jackets etc) is about 20 per cent of Harley’s business; it is much smaller in India. Surely, it doesn’t enjoy the same cult status as in the West where it has been around for over 100 years. Still, a waiting list has emerged for some of the popular models.

Film stars Sanjay Dutt, Shahid Kapur and Arshad Warsi have bought a Harley each.  But there are others too — information technology professionals, government servants, doctors, retired people, architects and even farmers — who want to belong to HOG or Harley Owners’ Group. Buyers, says Harley Davidson India Managing Director Anoop Prakash, range from 25 to 60 years, “though most are 35 to 40 years”. Some companies have faced enquiries from their people if they could buy a Harley under the “own your car” scheme. Most have bought the Harley for lifestyle, not for daily commute. Almost every owner also owns a car.

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Though the Harley price range starts at Rs 5.5 lakh and goes up to Rs 36 lakh, most of the sales are at the bottom end. Harley runs a scheme along with ICICI Bank under which one can buy its entry-level bike for monthly installments of Rs  8,000. The company imports the popular models as completely-knocked-down kits at 30 per cent customs duty and assembles them here. There has been speculation that the company is drawing up plans for a locally-assembled Harley that would carry a lower price tag and expand the market.

But Harley is very clear on who should be its customer. The company doesn’t want every macho man in the country with a bit of cash to spare to come to its dealership; it wants to sell to people who are aware of the Harley brand equity. The natural choice is the professional who, because of his travels and exposure to the flat world, knows what Harley is all about. Most buyers are men, though two women in Bangalore bought Harleys recently for personal use. At least one female employee of the company also drives a Harley to work.

So which towns and cities are buying Harleys? “Mostly, all cities which have had British influence are depicting a strong biking culture,” says Harley Davidson India’s marketing director, Sanjay Tripathi. So, while much of the demand has come from Delhi and Mumbai, some numbers are also coming from Indore, Raipur, Nagpur, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kanpur and Allahabad. Another market is the North-East. These states, says Tripathi, have had a culture of superbikes because a lot of heavyweight bikes were brought here by British soldiers during World War II when they faced the Japanese troops. When the war was over, they left the bikes behind which were  lapped up by the locals.

Some Harleys were also left behind in Delhi too, where these were converted into three-wheeled public carriers that plied between the Red Fort and Connaught Place. These were yanked off the road in the 1990s when the pollution levels had risen alarmingly. But they had kept the Harley brand alive in the country, though nobody knows what has become of them since then. According to a survey conducted by Harley prior to the launch in India, around 200 of bikes were in use in the country.

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Harley, at present, sells through its dealerships in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Bangalore and Hyderabad, and is looking at opening in Ahmedabad, Chennai and Kolkata by the end of the year. Kolkata will help it sell in the North-East more. Upcountry sales could throw up the challenge of spares and service. A Harley needs to be serviced after 1,600 km; how will the owner in Kohima get it serviced? The company has decided to send its mechanics to  smaller towns to service the bikes in the surrounding areas. Once the volumes pick up, this business model will become more cost effective.

Old superbike aficionados are converting to Harley. GODS, or Group of Delhi Superbikers, is the best-known group of superbikers in the country. There are 40 members who do up to 180 km on weekends and one long trip to Ladakh and three or four shorter ones every year. Three of the members, discloses GODS founder Arun Thareja, a practicing doctor, have shifted to Harley. Many films stars and cricketers, if Tripathi is to be believed, have sent feelers through their agents that they would like to become Harley’s brand ambassador in India. But Tripathi is not keen — the brand is too big for any endorser.

Footfalls in the showrooms, Tripathi says, are on the rise. People come with their whole families or spouse to show them what they want to buy. Black, of course, is the colour that sells the most. “We see four kinds of people visiting our showrooms: rich urban bikers whom we call RUBs, born again bikers who are in their late 20s or early 30s, pure enthusiasts and posers,” says he. The company recently organised a ‘Book Your Ride’ event in Mumbai, where anyone could pay Rs 50,000 and book his Harley; as many as 42 people signed up in a day.

So, have HOGs come up in India? As soon as one buys a Harley, one becomes a member of the global HOG community which is 1.3-million strong. The company throws in with the motorcycle all the HOG paraphernalia — maps, safety kits and biking gear. In markets like Delhi and Mumbai, Harley owners have got together with help from the company and the dealers. They drive out of town on weekends. Tripathi joins some of these bikers, on his Harley of course. In addition, three HOG rallies have been organised in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

Vikram Bhalla, the founder of below-the-line marketing firm Vivify, who owns a 1200cc Harley Nightster, says: “There are a lot of good machines available today, Harley is best in terms of ride quality. In India biking culture is at a very nascent stage but is picking up.”