May 25, 2010
Part of any industries (and societies) maturation is the response of those members to the information and challenges that they face on a daily basis. And regardless of those challenges an industry is measured (i.e. judged) by the response of it’s participants to those changes/challenges. Some recent examples; the costs of healthcare and uninsured citizens, or illegal immigration or the environmental challenges facing the world. One challenge that this writer has had to face recently is the biases we as an industry/individual (hmmm, yeah, this writer) have towards women. Granted some of these were not even “recognized” as biases, as they were part of the very fabric of who i am as a red blood male and we as an industry have by history…..but biases still the same. Thus as an industry, i have to believe we haven’t been able to really “see the forest from the trees” as it relates to women, their influences and importance to the growth in our industry. In doing research for a class project (yeah, i’m trying to “educate” myself, and get my masters), I came upon some interesting information that made me seriously look at how males (and the motorcycle industry) views women and their influences/role on our industry. I then started to put fingers-t0-keyboard and write my Final Term Paper on the subject of “Diversity in the Motorcycle Industry”. I’ll be posting snippets of this paper here for you to read and comment on over the next few weeks. Oh, Betsy, thanks for such a great photo too.
“The white, male majority labor pool has historically dominated the American workforce, and especially the motorcycle industry. For a variety of complex social and economic reasons, women did not begin making inroads into the mainstream motorcycle industry (i’m not referring to riding here, but rather the industry as a whole) until the mid-late 1990s—(in comparison Carly Fiorina had already risen to the very top as CEO of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005, computers being also strongly male dominated). Still, in most cases minorities (ie. women in this case) are still viewed as second layer castings and/or “bait” to attract the “real” target consumer-i.e. males, and few things are proactively done from the major players to embrace and accommodate them. While on a grass roots level, a number of dealerships, magazines, organizations, associations and manufactures are taking steps to “include” or address the woman consumer, there is still a lack of “leading by example” from the major motorcycle companies themselves. Which is a lost opportunity for these companies. If the motorcycle companies were to study more in-depth the habits and the “reach” of the women consumers influence, they would quickly see that women not only take the lead in the decision of consumables directly, (85% of ALL brand purchases are made by women), but are having an indirect influence on the motorcycles industries direct target market, (ie. male) in the decision on 1) whether to even purchase a motorcycle, and 2) what type (cruiser, touring, off-road, dual sport, sports, etc) or brand (Honda, BMW, Harley Davidson, Yamaha, etc) of motorcycle to purchase.
Yes, while males today make most motorcycle purchases predominantly, the industry fails to recognize the ‘veto’ power of the female in the purchase decision. For every man that owns a motorcycle there are possibly ten that want one and have not purchased because of strong opposition from the women in their lives. The motorcycle industry does nothing to directly market to these women’s objections, whether that is safety concerns or image perceptions. Browse through any motorcycle magazine, the industry still uses ‘women’ as either eye candy or in a provocative poses. Practices that have not been seen in car advertising (TV, Websites or Print) for decades. In the fear of losing its existing male market share, the motorcycle industry is stuck between being current and relevant and fixated on the mindset of “yesterday” that by nature isolates them from the current consumers. Basically a vicious struggle between “Past Habits” verses “Present Opportunities”.
Hey CJ I can’t wait to read more on this. Good observations. Keep me posted.