H-D marketing boss: youth does not own cool

Youth does own cool, says the marketing boss at Harley-Davidson.

Speaking at a marketing conference in Orlando, Florida, Mark-Hans Richer warned that brands must not neglect the "growth market" of older consumers to focus solely on youthful audiences.

"I'm going to go heretical on you, and say that youth does not own cool. Youth does not own growth. Youth does not own innovation or disruption," Richer said. "And 'old people' are a growth market, too. We marketers worship at the altar of youth at our peril."

Harley-Davidson has, like a lot of motorcycle manufacturers, aimed to expand its customer base in the last few years, with an emphasis on reaching a more diverse group of consumers. The Street 500 has been a big part of that strategy, as well as the likely introduction of an electric bike in the next few years — although Richer said that the e-bike also piqued the interest of older consumers as well.

However, there has also been a renewed commitment to consumers who are often a lower priority for other brands, despite being a valuable and growing demographic in America and Australia.

In 1970-71, the proportion of the population in Australia that was 15 years or younger was 30 percent, and that figure had dropped to 22 percent in 2001-02. Over the next 40 years, the proportion of the population over 65 years will almost double to around 25 per cent. There are two main factors for the ageing population: the fertility rate has decreased and people are living longer.

Richer continued: "The market potential in front of you today is 111 million fifty-plus adults (in America). Ten years from now, it'll be another 17 million. And 10 years from then, it will be another 32m … and on and on and on.

"The growth prospects are rich and I fear that we are ignoring this."

"We tend to lock ourselves off into these boxes (that assume) one generation has a certain mindset and a different generation has a different mindset," said Richer. "But they share a lot more mindsets than we typically give them credit for."

Source: www.warc.com