Harley-Davidson Tops Automotive Industry In Brand Intimacy

Evans Brasfield
by Evans Brasfield

Ever heard of “brand intimacy”? Most people haven’t. It’s a marketing term used to describe the emotional attachment between individuals and brands. When it comes to brand intimacy, one industry, the automotive industry, takes up many of the top positions. Ironically, the leader in the automotive category is not an automobile brand at all.

According to MBLM’s Brand 2017 Intimacy Report, Harley-Davidson has moved to the top of the automotive heap after ranking third in 2015. When the sheer number of cars sold is compared to that of motorcycles, the fact that a motorcycle-only brand could top this category is significant. While number-two-ranked BMW and number-four-ranked Honda also make and sell motorcycles, the number is dwarfed by the volume of cars these companies sell in the U.S., making Harley’s accomplishment even more remarkable.

The demographic groups that put Harley on top are consumers 35 to 44 years-old and for 45 to 64 year-olds. (Interestingly, the top brand for millennials is Chevrolet.) Still, HD ranked in the top three across all age groups, which illustrates the incredible strength of the brand among more than just the demos considered to be the Harley faithful. Clearly, Harley-Davidson is doing something right.

To find the rankings of brands based on emotion, MBLM analyzed the responses of 6,000 consumers and 54,000 brand evaluations across 15 industries (ranging from apparel, beverages, consumer goods, luxury items, media/entertainment, and travel) in the U.S., Mexico and UAE.

Read the press release below for more information.

Begin Press Release:

MBLM Announces Automotive Industry is #1 for Brand Intimacy

Brand Intimacy 2017 Report Reveals Harley-Davidson Ranks First in Category, Followed by BMW and Toyota

NEW YORK — April 20, 2017 — MBLM, the Brand Intimacy Agency focused on strategy, design, creative and technology, today revealed that the automotive industry ranked first in its Brand Intimacy 2017 Report. The report, which is the largest study of brands based on emotions, found that Harley-Davidson placed first in the industry followed by BMW and Toyota. Brand Intimacy is defined as a new paradigm that leverages and strengthens the emotional bonds between a person and a brand. According to the 2017 report, top ranked intimate brands continued to outperform the S&P and Fortune 500 indices in both revenue and profit over the past 10 years.

Harley-Davidson ranked third in MBLM’s 2015 report but overtook BMW and Toyota this year. In addition to being the strongest intimate category overall, the automotive industry is also the top industry for males, those older than 35 and those with a higher income. The remaining brands in the top 10 for the industry are: Honda, Jeep, Chevrolet, Ford, Volvo, Mercedes and Chrysler.

“The auto industry leads all others in the degree of intimate brands. Car brands form powerful bonds with us because they are both significant purchases and an extension of our identity and values. Cars make a statement about who we want to be and what we admire,” stated Mario Natarelli, partner at MBLM. “As technology continues to disrupt the category in terms of car sharing, autonomous vehicles and electric/hybrids, it will be interesting to see which brands adapt best to the changing needs and priorities of their customers.”

Leading brands like BMW, Toyota and Honda form powerful bonds with their customers through better (more reliable) performing cars and better service, delivering high-quality products that assure customers that their money was well spent.

While ranking first, the category is showing some potential signs of slippage compared to the 2015 report. Auto recalls hit a record high of 53.2 million in 2016, topping the 51.1 million recalls in 2015.

Other notable automotive industry findings from the report in the U.S. include:

  • The archetype most associated with the industry is fulfillment –  exceeding expectations, delivering superior service, quality and efficacy – and it has the highest average fulfillment score of any industry
  • The top brand for millennials is Chevrolet, for consumers 35 to 44 years-old is Harley-Davidson and for 45 to 64 year-old consumers is Harley-Davidson as well
  • Harley-Davidson has had success in building and maintaining intimacy across multiple generations, placing in the top three for all age groups; although the brand appears to be less popular with millennials, its ability to appeal to all ages is a sign of its strength as a brand
  • Millennials have less intense feelings of intimacy for their top brands than the older groups; the average brand intimacy quotient for the top three automotive brands for millennials is 59.5, while the top brands of consumers ages 35 to 44 average a score of 62.3, and those of consumers over 45 average a score of 62.6
  • Millennials are more comfortable with fully self-driving vehicles than consumers of other generations (47 percent versus 31 percent) and would also be more willing to use car-sharing services if they were readily available (42 percent versus 28 percent)

This year’s report contains the most comprehensive rankings of brands based on emotion, analyzing the responses of 6,000 consumers and 54,000 brand evaluations across 15 industries in the U.S., Mexico and UAE. MBLM’s reports and interactive Brand Ranking Tool showcase the performance of almost 400 brands, revealing the characteristics and intensity of the consumer bonds.

To download the full Brand Intimacy 2017 Report or explore the Ranking Tool please visit: http://mblm.com/brandintimacy/.

Evans Brasfield
Evans Brasfield

Like most of the best happenings in his life, Evans stumbled into his motojournalism career. While on his way to a planned life in academia, he applied for a job at a motorcycle magazine, thinking he’d get the opportunity to write some freelance articles. Instead, he was offered a full-time job in which he discovered he could actually get paid to ride other people’s motorcycles – and he’s never looked back. Over the 25 years he’s been in the motorcycle industry, Evans has written two books, 101 Sportbike Performance Projects and How to Modify Your Metric Cruiser, and has ridden just about every production motorcycle manufactured. Evans has a deep love of motorcycles and believes they are a force for good in the world.

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  • Dirk Lehew Dirk Lehew on May 01, 2017

    I have ridden at least 15-20 different Harleys over the years, trying in vain to find what it is that makes them so desirable to so many. I REALLY wanted to like at least one, so I could be open minded and add a totally different bike to the large stable I've owned over my 47 years of riding. But no, their goodness to me is superficial: beautiful to look at and be seen on but anachronistic on the inside. And I always came back to this question: If Harley built an airplane, would you fly in it?

  • JohnnyS JohnnyS on May 11, 2017

    The thing to bear in mind while reading this is that this is NOTHING to do about motorcycles: It's all about finding a "brand" that is loved by a group and then exploiting that brand for profit, running it into the ground.

    Remember Cadillac? Pre-WW2 it was a very high end car with extremely good build quality and reputation. Post-war until the late 1950s, it was a technology leader: Many of the stock car racers of the day wanted to run Cadillac engines because they had the
    highest level of technology. But in the 1960s, GM started to build Cadillac cars that weren't special: They were the same stamped steel, overweight and clumsy cars as the cheaper Chevys with a little more stuffing in the seats and a bigger but still inefficient 1950s-tech V8, but GM loved charging extra for the "brand". Exploit that "brand intimacy" and make money!

    These days, the Europeans and Japanese have shown that Caddy is no longer the high end "luxury car" it once was, and they have leapfrogged Cadillac to be the most respected brands. All because GM decided to sell the sizzle of "Cadillac" and failed to keep the improvements and development going to KEEP Cadillac at the top of the heap.

    GM used up all the brand recognition on Cadillac, and made as much money as they could. Now they've sucked all the profit out and the Cadillac brand isn't worth much any more. That's how you exploit "brand intimacy".

    So if the advertising parasites are circling around Harley, saying that it has "great brand intimacy", you better be ready for someone to come along, take HD and peddle lots of crap under the HD brand while only continuing to produce old bikes and failing to design successful new bikes because they won't invest enough money or effort to do a good job. Oh, wait...

    HD needs to have "Easy Rider" remade so the young people today have SOME reason to like their bikes.

    • Born to Ride Born to Ride on Jun 01, 2017

      They don't need to remake easy rider to be successful with young people. Their social media campaigns sell the freedom and carefree lifestyle that resonates with my peers. Pretty girls, campfires, lakeside beers, and cliff jumping all with the trusty sportster in the background of the frame. They are marketing geniuses, the iron 883 is one of the most common bikes I see people my age riding. Hell, I even considered buying one when I was about 19 or 20 and all I had was my SV650. One test ride was all I needed to be violently jerked from the romanticism that I was sold. I think it happened when I was rocketed from the seat when I went over a bump that I hardly felt every day on my Suzuki...

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