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Imagine yourself in a helicopter over Milwaukee, USA, on the shiny morning of June 13, 1998.

You look down casually on the criscrossing tangle of roads on Interstate 94, and then do a doubletake. You can't believe your eyes.

It seems like there are hundreds of moving objects on the highway below. Maybe even thousands. You watch in horror as a veritable sea of black advances like warrior ants into downtown Milwaukee.

You hastily reach for your binoculars and your heart goes thump, thump, thump. Thousands upon thousands of Harley bikers, swathed in trademark leather and shining chrome bikes seem to

be almost invading the city.

What should you do? Maybe you should call the newspaper. The police perhaps. Surely Milwaukee needs some sort of warning.

But it's too late. The bikers are already in the city.

Then you see the fluttering flags
The roads of Milwaukee seem to be lined with cheering people. Flags flutter in the sunshine. The roar of the crowd seems to drown the chucka, chucka, chucka sound of the helicopter you're in.

Down at street level, 50,000 proud Harleys roar through the city. You don't know it yet, but among those riders are senior executives, CEOs, employees and long-time owners of Harleys. It's a heck of a parade and over 125,000 owners turn up for Harley's big 95th Come Home' birthday.

Wouldn't it surprise you, even appall you, to know that in the spring of 1984, just 14 years earlier, only twenty-eight bikers showed up?

28 to 365,000 members: What changed in 14 years?
It's called HOG. Short for Harley Owners Group.

Harley had dug a deep financial hole for themselves in 1983. Money for advertising was kinda non-existent. Saddled with this Catch 22 situation, Harley Davidson set about creating the first HOG chapter.

Using newsletters and club magazines they built their subscriber base one member at a time. From one solitary chapter, the HOG has mushroomed to an astounding 940 chapters around the world.

Working on an advertising budget of 10 cents or less
In 1997, Harley Davidson spent just $1 million on advertising. Before you say "Oh, I don't have a million," -- look at Harley's advertising budget for 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992...all the way to 1984.

Zero.

A big fat zero.

All their money, squillions of dollars, went into creating an absolutely top-notch product. And then creating a community that would buy into the brand.

You were expecting some big secret, weren't you?
It's called community. Yeah, that's the big secret. Creating community among your clients. Harley does it. Sting does it. Apple does it. So why don't you do it?

It's way too much trouble, huh?

Well let's jump back to Harley Davidson's profit line. Think jackets, boots, gloves, t-shirts, bike accessories, baseball caps. Then do the math. Don't you think each HOG member is going to spend at least $10 to keep up his/her Harley image?

What's $10 profit x 350,000 members? You got it. $3.5 million.

Now let's look at actual figures In 1996, Harley took home $100 million. Up from $20 million, just eight years before in 1988. Mind boggling, huh?

And we're not even counting the profits from the sales of the Harley bikes!