It’s pretty easy to be cynical about motorcycle marketeering, especially in video adverts. After more than a decade of watching good-looking hipsters bro-hug and high-five each other, or grim-looking gurus of speed shredding wheelies madly off in all directions, someone like me (a middle-aged dad) might wonder: Who’s making bikes for the rest of us? The people who don’t need constant assurance from subculture counterparts? The people who don’t crave a constant adrenaline rush? The people who wonder what’s over the next hill, the next border, the next continent?
Here in this advert, Royal Enfield tells us, “Hey—we get you. And we’ve got a bike for you. And here’s where it will take you. You don’t have to be a rich, good-looking, anything special: You just have to get on your bike and go.”
There’s a lot of actual talk about “Home,” but you can ignore all that, since it’s always the between-the-lines stuff that actually matters in marketing.
Really, it’s just another sales pitch. Royal Enfield has realized Asia’s working class has growing wealth. Now, they want new toys, and they want new experiences; travel, in particular. The Himalayan adventure bike is aimed square at that market. Royal Enfield has boldly proclaimed it wants to be the world’s largest manufacturer of mid-displacement motorcycles, and this is just another part of that marketing plan.
Will it work? Hard to say. Ever-tightening emissions laws mean Royal Enfield’s petrol-powered plans might get pushed out, before the company really has the chance to dominate as the execs hope. But, I hear increasing interest in and demand for these bikes every year, in Canada. Too bad it’s so hard to find a dealer.
