Does a Company’s Heritage Matter to You? – Question of the Day
Earlier this week, Indian Motorcycle started teasing an all-new Scout model to be revealed on April 2. Like most of Indian’s marketing materials, the teaser drew from the brand’s long history. Indian does, of course, tout itself as “America’s First Motorcycle Company”, which is factually true, even if the line from the origins of Indian (née Hendee) in 1901 to today, as part of Polaris Industries, isn’t exactly linear.
This made me think of a presentation I sat through recently from Royal Enfield, the other kind of Indian motorcycle that also claims a 1901 date on its birth certificate. The presentation was for the Canadian debut of the Bullet 350, the latest iteration of what Royal Enfield claims to be the oldest motorcycle to be in continuous production, tracing back to 1932.
And then you have brands like Harley-Davidson and, to a lesser extent, Triumph, which have also made their long histories a core part of their identities. Meanwhile, BMW just finished celebrating its 100th birthday and marked the occasion with a new retro-flavored R 12 nineT, but beyond that, is more focused on the present and the future than the past (of course, there are … other reasons that BMW doesn’t like to dwell too much on its history.)
All of this leads me to the Question of the Day: do you care that much about a company’s heritage? Honoring your past is important, but at what point does it just become PR and marketing?
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Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.
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It sort of does to me. It all depends. Moto Guzzi, Ducati etc while At times may have had problems they where best booked with great heritage but brands like HD may be old brands there bikes are and have always been rubbish and not ridin by true motor cyclists.
Heritage is an intangible asset of a company and its something that can and does resonate with buyers. It doesn't make the product better or add direct value, but each itineration of motorcycles produced adds to the linage which is part of the fabric of the company and thus can add intrinsic value. Japanese manufacturers produced some amazing cruisers during the 2000s and were excellent value for money, but Harley soldiered on professing heritage that to this day enables the company to endure. This intangible heritage is something that Polaris never had with Victory, but it now has hoped to capture with the Indian marque, and they were wise to capitalize on its historical significance.