The document outlines Harley-Davidson's marketing strategy to target women ages 25-34 for its Sportster bike line. It identifies magazines, internet, outdoor, and television advertising as the key media mix. The strategy involves pulsing advertising across four cycles aligned with seasonal riding patterns, and allocating $23 million total with $5 million for promotions including events at the Sturgis and Daytona Beach rallies and a national bike giveaway promotion. The goal is to increase Sportster sales by 3,000 bikes within the next year through a high-reach, moderate frequency campaign.

1. Objectives and Strategy
Target Audience and Media Mix
The target audience consists of women 25-34 years of age, who have attended at
least some college, are actively employed (over 50% are full-time), have a household
income over $50,000, married (50/50 split between those having kids and not having
kids), Caucasian, and own their own place of residence. The indexes show that these
women live in Pacific, New England, East Central, West Central, and South West regions
Further research shows that the female riders are somewhat different than the
average female consumer. For example, studies have shown that well over 50% of
women prefer to listen to the advice of another female that has knowledge of a product
before they will make the purchase. When it comes to female riders however, only 10%
have mentioned that they were influenced by the advice of another female before
purchasing a bike.
Women want to find an escape from the mundane life they live Monday through
Friday. They want to have the freedom of the world under their feet, but it is not a 365-
day a year deal, but a weekend thing. So it is always important to show the thrill of the
bike, without showing the counterculture stigmas that have plagued the bike scene for the
last half-century.
This targeted demo has heavy readership towards magazines with Quintile I
having an index rating of 111 and Quintile II of 112. With these high numbers for
magazines we look to hit magazines that appeal to these women. The first magazine that
we suggest hitting is Women’s Health, which goes into great detail of women’s life style
from diets and exercise to beauty tips. We think this is an excellent outlet for our
demographic because it also has a circulation rate of 1.5 million. A secondary magazine
that should be thought of is Elle, which is known as one of the premier fashion magazines
in the world featuring some of the world’s newest and popular fashions.
The Internet is a huge gathering place for the demo reaching rates of 130 for
Quintile I and 134 for Quintile II. With these kinds of numbers it is important for the
campaign to successfully get a foothold in the medium. We propose placing banner ads,
sidebars, and creating a Facebook profile.
Outdoor advertising, which has seen renaissance in the last decade or so, has
grown in popularity amongst our demographic, as far as their viewership. The Quintile
rates came out quite high with Quintile I coming up with a 133 mark, and Quintile II
achieving a 127 mark. Outlets in this medium that deserve consideration are billboards,
building murals, bus stop stands, and a variety of street advertisements.
While television does not show particularly well for our demo, it is historically a
strong medium. The Quintile rates from this demo are pretty low. Quintile I is 63, while
Quintile II has a mark of 85. We realize that it will allow our message to reach millions

2. of eyes with relative ease. Channels like morning talk shows, prime time, day time, and
late night series shows would be a good place to start inserting our advertisements.
Reach, Frequency, GRPs
Our marketing push is for a higher reach ratio than frequency. We want to make
sure that Harley-Davidson’s message of bikes for women reaches all possible consumers.
The goal is to acquire a 77% reach during the first quarter of the campaign. We will
allow a reach that can fluctuate between 70 – 85% during the rest of the campaign
schedule. The smallest effective frequency per cycle for Harley-Davidson’s campaign to
women would be a 3. The overall goal of after our reach and frequency numbers is to
increase the amount of purchases of the Sportster bike by 3,000 in the next financial year.
Taking into account of our reach and frequency goals, our GRP will turn out to be 231.
Offensive or Defensive
The market for women motorcyclist is still fairly new and fresh, meaning no
company even including Harley, Honda, and Suzuki, has yet to create a stranglehold on
the market. What all of this means is that this is not a time to play the defensive. A
leader like Harley should take the offensive, be merciless, and take the market.
Scheduling and Timing
Scheduling: Pulsing
Cycle 1: November, December, January
Cycle 2: February, March, April
Cycle 3: May, June, July
Cycle 4: August, September, October
Cycle 1 will start off the advertising relatively hard with a push towards the purchase of
the Sportster as a winter holiday gift, whether it is Christmas, Hanukah, or Ramadan.
After the beginning of January, ads will steadily drop because the holiday sales season
has ended and in many of the geographical areas, the weather is not suitable for
comfortable riding.
Cycle 2 will be very light until the end of March and beginning of April as the weather
begins to warm up and riding becomes more comfortable.
Cycle 3 will be the heaviest cycle for advertisements as this is the time of year when
women do their most riding as people begin to take off for their summer vacations. This
is the time to push promotional giveaways.

3. Cycle 4 will heavily push promotional events, because this is when the two main bike
rallies in the United States take place (Sturgis August and Daytona October). This is also
the time of year to push the year-end sales that dealers will be having to try and get rid of
their 2012 models.
Media Budget
The budget allotted towards Harley-Davidson’s female campaign is $23,000,000
with $5,000,000 of that to be allotted to promotions. We have divided the budget as
follows:
Magazines: $7,000,000
Internet: $2,500,000
Outdoors: $1,500,000
Television: $6,500,000
Promotions: $5,000,000
Geography
The United States geographical centers contain five different regions: Pacific,
South West, South East, West Central, East Central, Middle Atlantic, and New England.
Of the seven regions, five have CDI and BDI numbers that show potential for growth,
and/or constant high sales (Pacific Coast, Southwest, West Central, East Central, and
New England).
REGION CDI BDI POPULATION SPOT MARKETS
Pacific 100 79 1,298,000 San Fransisco, Los
Angeles, Seattle, San
Diego
South West 100 75 826,000 Phoenix, Dallas,
Houston
West Central 106 126 1,134,000 Minneapolis, St. Louis,
Kansas City, Denver,
Oklahoma City
East Central 108 115 981,000 Chicago, Indianapolis,
Detroit, Cleveland,
Milwaukee, Louisville
New England 120 100 442,000 Boston, Providence,
Hartford,
Portland/Auburn

4. Sales Promotion
Harley-Davidson Corporate has set a promotional budget of $5,000,000 aside for
the campaign. We propose using $4,000,000 of promotional dollars splitting it evenly
between the Sturgis Bike Rally in Sturgis, SD and the Daytona Beach Rally. The last
$1,000,000 will be used to pay for a bike giveaway raffle that uses the mediums of
magazines, the Internet, and outdoor advertisements.
The Sturgis and Daytona Beach Rallies gather an estimated 1,000,000 riders to
their events each year. While these rallies may seem like promotional events that leave
little room for customer growth, a substantial amount of growth could actually be
achieved if Harley-Davidson is successful in converting female passengers into full-time
riders and buyers. The promotional events at these rallies would consist of test drives for
potential customers, demonstrations about different components of the bikes
(horsepower, weight distribution, etc.), informational pamphlets about the seven different
models of Sportsters, and models on display showing the different accessories and
equipment that can be purchased for the Sportster. Also each rally will give away ten
2012 Iron 883 Sportsters, which will take about $160,000 out of the budget.
The advertising campaign for the bike giveaway in the magazines, on the Internet,
and outdoors, will give away thirty 2012 Iron 883 Sportsters to lucky winners. These
promotions will consist of both advertisements that are specifically mentioning the
giveaway and ones that are general ads for the Sportster. At the bottom of each ad there
will be a website and a physical address that people can write to, to register for the
giveaway. This giveaway will cost nearly $240,000 for the bikes, and another $60,000 to
transport the bikes to the winners.