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The Harley Owners Group was not the first motorcycle club to exist, there has been club’s dated as far back as 1948. True the years the motorcycle rider has brought a curtain image on himself and the general public started looking at the biker as if he was an outlaw/ criminal living free with no law’s. That image brought lots of negativity for Harley Davidson Motorcycle Company, that’s why the company came with the idea of starting HOG. This showed the people that there is another side to riding. HOG is a sponsored community marketing club, operated by Harley-Davidson for enthusiasts of that brand's motorcycles. The HOG is "the grandaddy of all community-building efforts," serving to promote not just a consumer product, but a lifestyle. The HOG has also served to open new revenue streams for the company, with the production of tie-in merchandise offered to club members, numbering over one million strong worldwide, making it the largest factory-sponsored riding club in the world. The Harley-Davidson community was the prototype for the ethnographic term subculture of consumption, defined as "a distinctive subgroup of society that self-selects on the basis of a shared commitment to a particular product class, brand, or consumption activity." The Harley Owners Group was created in 1983 as way to build longer-lasting and stronger relationships with Harley-Davidson's customers, by making ties between the company, its employees, and consumers.
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