Indian Motorcycles Media Plan

Media Planning Group 9

Greg Doughty

Savanna Steel

Brad Summerville

Derrinita Walker
Table of Contents
7 Executive Summary

8 Company History

10 Media Objectives

12 Competitive Analysis

14 The Target Audience

16 Media Selections
6 Broadcast
6 Magazines
6 Newspaper
6 Web
6 Outdoor
6 Promotional

6 The Plan
6 Media Plan
6 Budget
6 Sample Creatives
6 Evaluation

6 Alternative Recommendations
Executive Summary

Our company has developed a complex and diverse media plan to help In-
dian Motorcycles to reemerge back into the market. This plan is anticipated
to reach out to Indian’s target market, which is white males, ages 45-54. The
campaign’s mediums will focus primarily on print and radio. Most of the
research found points to the dominance of Harley Davidson in the market.
With Indian Motorcycles having difficulties staying in the market since the
1950’s, their main competition will be Harley Davidson.

Creative
The target market for this media plan are baby boomers that are used to
traditional media. The creative portion of this plan will cater towards the
traditional thinking of these “boomers.” It will bring Indian Motorcycles
back to their level of superior quality.

Promotion
In order to successfully reach our target market, our main focus for promo-
tion will be surrounded by three motorcycle events. Bike Week in Daytona
Beach, FL on the first week of March, Sturgis Bike Week in Sturgis, ND on
the first week of August, and Biketober Fest in Daytona Beach, FL on the
third week of October.


Company History
Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing
Company is a motorcycle manufacturer
based originally in Springfield,
Massachusetts. Indian is America’s oldest
motorcycle brand and was once the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in
the world. They have been attempting to compete with Harley Davidson
since Harley began in 1903. They first realized their weakness, in comparison
to HD, during WWII when the Davidson Corporation was chosen over them
as the number one producer of bikes for the Army.

In the 40’s, America was in an extremely patriotic time, and lacking the
support of the army and police force made their company look less appealing
than the nationalistic Harley brand. This began their demise; in 1945 they
tried to start a new kind of motorcycles with a more light-weight design.
Tragically, these bikes suffered from poor quality and a lack of development
which left Indian with a sour spot on their reputation. By 1949 they almost
completely discontinued their classic motorcycles, and were trying to get the
new type of motorcycle to work. In the 1950’s they tried to fix their image
by importing motorcycles from England, namely Royal Enfield cycles, but
this did not help much as soon many brands were coming over to America
and labeling themselves as Indian. Especially from Italy, and these bikes
were of course smaller and less of what the company was actually going for,
and even less of what consumers wanted. By 1975 sales were deteriorating
to a dangerous level, and in January 1977 the company declared chapter
eleven bankruptcy. The brand name passed through many people and many


court dockets in the 1980s, finally decided in December 1998 by a Federal
bankruptcy court in Denver, Colorado.
In 1999 a new company based in Gilroy, California began manufacturing
motorcycles under the renowned “Indian” name after purchase of the Indian
trademark; however they are often referred to as “Gilroy Indian” motorcycles
instead of just Indian. They picked up steam and were working hard on
restoring the image. The company, however, yielded to bankruptcy again in
late 2003, after a major investor backed out.

This obviously left a void for someone to step into and try one last time to
save this great company and once again go head to head with the famed
Harley-Davidson. In 2006 this happened. On July 20th, a press release was
issued in which Stellican Limited, a London-based private equity firm,
announced they would take over Indian and move to a new home in Kings
Mountain, North Carolina, where it plans to resurrect the Indian Motorcycle
Brand. They have yet to release any new bikes, and intend to start selling in
2010.

10
Media Objectives
Media Objectives (What tasks the media are expected to carry out?)

• Create national awareness of Indian Motorcycles while staying within

the $18 Million budget

• Following the reemergence of Indian Motorcycles into the market,

continue support through the entire year of 2009.

• Target 45-54 year old white males with an income of $60,000 and over.

• After the introduction of Indian Motorcycles, maintain awareness of the

product by reaching X percent of the target market.

• Use media that will effectively communicate the joy of owning an

Indian Motorcycle.

Media Strategy
- Focus on magazines and radio as the primary mediums to create
awareness for the target market.
- Provide continuing support through the entire year of 2009.
- Use motorcycle-oriented consumer magazines to restore Indian
Motorcycle’s reputation to what it once was.

Other Media considered, but not recommended

- Telemarketing (People with a higher income don’t have time to listen
to telemarketers.)
- Direct Mail (Clutter and consumer resistance.)

11
Competitive Analysis

Harley Davidson

The Harley Davidson Company was founded in

1903 in Milwaukee, and is known for designing
motorcycles for long road trips and driving.
They are a corporation of independently owned
dealers. They are known also for supplying
Police officer’s with their fleet for motorcycle
cops. They also provided rides for the military
during World War I, and World War II. By the
1920’s they had dealers in 67 countries. They were the leading industry until
the early 1950’s when they had strong decline, but they regained their status
in the 1980’s. According to a recent Harley-Davidson study, in 1987 half of all
Harley riders were under age 35. Now, only 15% of Harley buyers are under
35, and as of 2005, the median age had risen to 46. As the age of riders is
getting higher, so is the average income. In 1987, the median household
income of a Harley-Davidson rider was about $38,000 and in ten years the
median household income for those same riders has jumped 2.2% to about
$83,000. They have bought out almost every other company in the industry
and is definitely the leader in the market.

13
Red Wing Motorcycles

Red Wing motorcycles are a new company started by Rock Legend,

Steven Tyler. They are currently sold at the Manchester Harley-Davidson
and Nashua Harley-Davidson dealerships. They began selling bikes in 2007,
but with well determined objectives to be the new brand to “revolutionize
the market”; they have already become a major player in the Industry. They
advertise that every single bike is hand signed by Steven Tyler. They are
going for a very high income bracket, and a higher age group.

Buell Motorcycles

Though this company was bought out by Harley Davidson, it is

still important to view their unique product in its own light. The Buell
Motorcycle Company is an American motorcycle manufacturer based in
East Troy, Wisconsin and founded by ex-Harley-Davidson engineer Erik
Buell. The company first partnered with Harley-Davidson in 1993, and
became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Harley by 1998. This company
became known more for racing bikes than street bikes, and since their join
with HD they have worked exclusively on their “Sportster” and other racing
or “crotch-rocket” style bikes. Their focus is mainly on sport bikes, so they
will match more with our secondary target audience than primary.

NSU Motorenwerke AG

This is a German company which has been bought out by

Volkswagen in 1969. They reached their heyday with motorcycling in
America during Harley Davidson’s dark years and held the position of
largest manufacturer from 1955 until the 1970s. Since then, they have not
had a lot of success in America.

14
Target Audience
Primary Target Audience:

Indian Motorcycles has a clientele

distinctively different from its major
competitor Harley Davidson because of
the base price of its product. An Indian
consumer is primarily a white male
between the ages of 45 and 55, married,
Snap Shot and has children that may or may not
bee still living at home. Although he may
Age: 45-54
seem like he’s a part of Regular Middle
Race: White
America, his average annual income is at
Gender: Male least 60,000.
Income: $60,000+
Marital Status: Married Generally this man is a professional
working in Corporate America holding a
Geographic Distribution:
management position. By no means is he
Entire Country
an avid outdoor enthusiast but he does
Lifestyle Habits: enjoy travel and hobbies that are both
Reads newspaper, mostly a status and club oriented (e.g. he may
local belong to a country club or a small bike
Use tobacco products group).

15
 Secondary Target Audience:

Because indian Motorcycles appeal to

more than one male age group we have
identified a second market that has
consumer potential.

The second target would be a white male

Snap Shot between the ages of 35 and 44, married
or single, and may have a young family.
Age: 35-44
Although he may seem like he’s a part
Race: White
of Regular Middle America, his average
Gender: Male annual income is at least 60,000.
Income: $60,000+
Marital Status: Married or Generally this man is a professional

Single working in Corporate America holding

a supervisory position. He enjoys family
Geographic Distribution: activities, travel and hobbies that are
Entire Country both a status and club oriented (e.g. he
may belong to a country club or a small
Lifestyle Habits:
bike group).
Read magazines at early
hours of the morning

Prefers trade or hobby

magazines and national
newspapers

16
 Media
Selections

17
Broadcast
Television

Normally television would be the

way to go when introducing or
re-introducing a product into the
market. Most households have a
television and if a company was
to place ads on the right stations
with enough frequency they
could raise awareness for their
product, however high income
customers are the exception to
the rule. Consumers with a larger
annual income spend less time in
front of the television--the Indian
target is no exception.

This being the case we’ve

decided to limit the use of
television commercials to reach
our consumer.

19
 Radio

On the opposite side of the

broadcast fence is radio. Since the
invention of the television the in-
home radio has never been the
same but instead of becoming
obsolete, it switched formats and
became the King of the Road.

Radio is one of the best ways to

reach consumers during their
daily commute. Just going to and
from work a person can spend up
to 3 hours round trip (rush hour Snap Shot: Television v. Radio
traffic is no joke!).

Wanting to reach out to our hard

working, high-earning, 9 to 5
male, we have decided to place
radio ads on several stations with
higher listener rates during “drive
time”.

20
 Television Stations
We have chosen to use cable networks and specific television dayparts to
reach our target market and increase awareness of the Indian Motorcycle
brand towards the end of the year as to prepare for the 2010 release of the
product into the market. The index numbers of the cable networks and
the dayparts will be listed in the following order: 45-54, 35-44, 55-64. The
following Cable Networks and television dayparts are the most popular
within our target:
• ESPN (180, 190, 161)
• History Channel (173, 158, 170)
• Speed (162, 214, 163)
• Travel Channel (143, 105, 127)
• Discovery (132, 132, 117)
Dayparts:
• Mon-Fri 8PM-9PM (492, 451, 335)
• Mon-Fri 9PM-10PM (489, 454, 345)
• Mon-Fri 10PM-11PM (474, 428, 321)

Radio Stations
In using these radio stations, we hope to focus in on the surrounding areas
of the bike events, in order to increase awareness of Indian’s presence at
the events. The types of radio that our target listens to and the a selection
of the stations we have decided to use are as follows:

• All News (117) WCOA, Pensacola, FL. KORN, Mitchell, SD.

• Classic Hits (158) WJGL, Jacksonville, FL. KCCR, Pierre, SD.
• Classic Rock (155) WBGG, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. KFXS, Rapid City, SD.
• Sports (128) WAOC, St.Augustine, FL. WAXY, South Miami, FL. KWSN,
• Sioux Falls, SD.

21
Magazines
We have selected magazines that
have a high index within our primary
target market age range, but with
high indexes in the secondary and
tertiary target age ranges, as well.

They are listed after the magazines

in the following order: Index for
45-54, Index for 34-45, and then
Index for 55, 64. These magazines
and index numbers are as follows:

• Popular Science (271, 211, 214)

• Golf Digest (266, 240, 345)

A Sample Magazine Ad
• Popular Mechanics (233, 220, 239)

• Guns & Ammo (210, 294, 241)

• Men’s Health (178, 280, 165)

We want to increase our reach by placing ads in multiple magazines, with

less emphasis on frequency, to prepare our target market prepared for 2010,
when Indian launches their motorcycles back into the market. We have also
utilized more specific magazines geared towards our target market with
magazine selections that focus on motorcycles.

22
Within these magazines, we have also placed ads during the months prior to
major bike events across the United States. This is to increase reach before
the events, and attempt to spark interest in Indian Motorcycles before the
reader arrives to the said events. We hope that through these ads, we will be
able to garner more support for the promotions we plan to run during the
events of Bike Week in Daytona, Sturgess, and Bike-tober.

Out of the dozens of motorcycle enthusiast magazines these three

appealed to out target market the most for the following reasons

• Higher quality production

• Features more expensive bikes and parts

• Targets a mature reader

• Has little to no mention of street racing style bikes

• Emphasizes bikes as leisure source for travel

23
Newspapers
USA Today is the top national paper
in America with an average weekday
readership of 6,275,497.

Because of its wide reach and varied

general content it would be the paper
most likely to reach our side spread
demographic.

The Wall Street Journal is the

newspaper of choice for professionals
and investors alike. The average
weekday readership of 5,063,751.

Because its readers generally have a

higher income, this paper would reach
the targets with the right amount of
disposable income to find our product
an attractive investment.

24
A Sample Newspaper Ad

25
Outdoor

A Sample Billboard Ad

Our recommendation to use billboards effectively is to place them in high

traffic areas in the weeks leading up to and during Bike Week, Biketoberfest
and Sturgis Bike Week. We will advertise all summer in North Carolina
because that is where the company headquarters are located.

Eventually billboards will be placed in close proximity to Indian dealerships

to alert newcomers or travelers that the motorcycles are available in the
area and to remind residents of their presence.

26
Promotional
Bike Week has been a tradition since
January 24, 1937. Today Bike Week
has transformed into a 10-day festival
that expands throughout Volusia
County. There are hundreds of events
for motorcycle enthusiasts to enjoy.
Bike Week now welcomes hundreds
of thousands of visitors annually and
is enjoyed by locals and motorcycle
enthusiasts world wide.
‘OfficialBikeWeek.com
27
Another Daytona centered festival ,
Biketoberfest, is sponsored by the
AMA and boasts a similar turnout.
Although there are lots of Harley
enthusiasts in attendance, both
gatherings represent an opportunity
to showcase the new motorcycles,
answer questions and even offer
road tests.
Each August, hundreds of thousands
of motorcyclists journey to the Mecca
of the motorcycling world: Sturgis,
South Dakota.
‘SturgisBikeWeek.com
The Plan

29
30
Media Rationale
The media that we have selected to utilize in order to complete our
objectives are primarily print and radio. A larger emphasis will be placed
into print because it appeals to our target market more so than the other
types of media.

For the most part, the more affluent and educated spend more time
reading magazines and printed material over the other media, like radio
and television. We want to place a larger emphasis within our media plan
into the magazine portion of print simply because it is a more focused
approach to our target market. We also have chosen to do this because
most of the individuals who fall within our target market are more likely to
view our ads if they are in magazines over the other types of media.

Radio is our second approach simply because between it and television,

our target market will most likely be exposed to ads placed in radio
than commercial ads on television. Our consumer market does not
use motorcycles as their primary mode of transportation and more for
recreation. Therefore, on their way to their jobs or other destinations
they can listen to the ads about getting a motorcycle. One would think
it makes less since to advertise on a medium most drivers of motorcycles
could not hear, but we are advertising to people who do not already own
motorcycles, rather those who are looking to buy one. However, we do not
want to place as much of an emphasis on radio as we do with print, but we
still want to increase our reach with the media so as to increase awareness
for the Indian Motorcycle brand.

31
Outdoor media, like billboards, are also important to our goal with raising
awareness of our brand; that why no matter what people are driving they
can see the ads. We hope to target in on the geographic locations of the
major bike and motorcycle events that occur within the Unites States.
During the time before the events take place, we chose to use outdoor
media, specifically billboards, to promote our brand in preparation for the
events that occur in both Florida, in March and October, and South Dakota,
in August.

Television will be the medium we put the least amount of focus in simply
because it is the medium that is least used by our target demographic. We
still want to, however, increase our reach and raise awareness, so we are
attempting to get the word out regarding Indian Motorcycles as often as
we can.

Seasonality

A motorcycle is a product that is owned and used year round, but there
is little need to promote all year. Very few drivers ride their bikes in cold
or rainy weather so we are promoting mostly in the summer months
nationally.

Advertising in magazines, TV, and other forms of print will be focused

during the spring and summer months. However specialized outdoor
advertising will take place during March, July, August and October, the
months of three main “gatherings” of bikers in the United States.

32
33
Media Plan
Budget

34
35
Evaluation

36
37
Alternative
Recommendations

38
39
Closing Statement

40
41
42
43
44