Build a subculture, not just an audience
Demographics tell you who buys. Calvin Ross Carl uses Harley to show why the subculture customers want to join matters more.
Summary
Calvin Ross Carl points out that Harley’s actual demographic is upper-middle-class professionals with money, because the bikes are expensive. Its subculture is something else: rebel bikers against the daily grind and the status quo, built on freedom, brotherhood, and the open road. The brand connects the real customer to a subculture they may not live in but badly want to.
Highlights
- Harley’s demographic is affluent professionals.
- Its subculture is rebel bikers against the status quo.
- The pull is aspiration: who customers want to become.
Key insights
Audience and subculture aren’t the same
The people who buy and the identity they buy into can look very different. Strong brands know both.
Aspiration does the work
Customers don’t need to be deeply part of the subculture. They need to want to be, and the brand is the bridge.
Detailed analysis
Targeting by demographics alone would make Harley a brand for comfortable professionals. Defining the subculture gives it values to stand for and a world customers want in on, which is far more durable than an age and income range.
Conclusion
Know who buys, then define who they want to become. The subculture is what makes the brand worth joining.
I want to talk about how brands can focus on building not just an audience, but a subculture. So let’s build a subculture, not an audience, today.
Demographic-wise, if we’re talking about Harley, Harley’s demographic is actually upper-middle-class professionals with money, because Harleys are expensive. But their actual subculture, once you stretch all the way to that, is Harley’s for rebel bikers who are against the daily grind and the status quo, and it’s focused on freedom, brotherhood, and the open road.
And so that connects your actual customer persona to this really aspirational subculture that they might not be deeply ingrained with, but they desperately want to be deeply ingrained with. So it is an aspirational desire to become part of that subculture.