Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1542398
B To The Masses r IVES nging Motorcycling a I J ack McCormack dreamed big dreams. He saw matorq/cling going mainstream well before the explosion of the industry in the 1970s and the pub- lic's acceptance of the sport during the 1990s. Motorcycling was ver/ much a niche market when Jack McCormack lirst came to industry in the 1950s. Only about 50,000 motorcycles were being sold annually, and Mccormack thought that number should be much higher. He had grand ideas on how motorcycling could become more accepted by the gen- eral public, but the staid management of the day thought McCormack's head was in the clouds. They seemed to be happy with the old-boy's club mentality of the market in those da),s. Advertising almost exclu- sively in motorcycling magaz ines, the makers of the day were in a sense, preaching ro the choir. Wtren McCormack became the national sales manager of Arnerican Honda in 1960, he finally worked for a com- pany that sharcd his big dreams- Within a few years Honda alone was sellin8 as many motorqycles in America as the rest of the manufacturerc combined, and McCormack had a big hand in the industry's dizzying growth. McCormack took up motqrcycling in high school. He lived in Holl|/r'ood and was studying agriculture. The closest school offering the vocational training was in Van Nuys, so after sufferinS through a year of public trans- portation, he saved up from a summer job and bought a I 947 Triumph Tiger 100. Mccormack tried his hand at racing for atime and did pretty well in the novice class, but he found his real ral- ent was in building the race bikes. He served in the Marines during the early 1950s, and was assigned to be a drill instructor in San Diego. He stayed involved in the sport during his time in the Corps and when his stint with the Marines was over, his racing connections helped eventually land him a ,ob at Johnson Motors, western distributor of Triumph. McCormack worked as a district rep for Johnson Motors for nearly three years. The constant travel was a straln on his family sa he left Triumph and took a job with a family-owned machine-tool business as a sales rep. Mccormack often made his sales calls riding a Triumph in a business suit. 'At first I tried to hide the fact that I rode a motorcy- cle," McCormack said. "But one client saw me riding and it became such a conversation piece that I used it to m),, ad\rdntage, " McCormack was friends with famous racing announc- er Roxy Rockwood. Roxy's day iob was a motorc/cle policeman and the two would pass each other on L.A.'s freeways and would stop at coffee shops to talk bikes. One day Rockwood asked McCormack a question that would change the direction of his life. "Have you ever heard of Honda," Rockwood asked. Mccormack hadn't, but learned the company, which was iurt opening shop in America, was looking for a district rep. McCormack alked to Honda, was hired and during the two-week notice period from his old iob, w-as pro- moted to American Honda's sales manager position before he'd even started. When he started at Honda, McCormack was ridinS to work everyday on a Triumph. One of the first things American Honda executive vice president and general manager Kihachiro Kawashima asked Mccormack to do as Honda's sales manager was to produce sales proiections. ''l had never done a sales proiection in my life," he admitted. "There was no source to flnd that information in those days, so I called Don Brown at.lohnson Motors flriumphl, Walter Davidson at Harle),/, Bill Cooper at AJS/ l4atchless, etc. I told them if they would give me their sales figures, I would share with them the proiections I came up with for Honda. To their credit, they did it." HcCormack projected that Honda would sell 15,000 units. From that he came up with a gross-income esti- mate and asked Japan for the then unheard of sum of $150.000 for advertising- "This was almost as much as the rest of the industry combined spent on advertising," McCormack said. "But they were simply spendinS money in the motorcycling industry and I wanted to reach new buyers." With a generous ad budget, McCormack went for- ward spreading the gospel of Honda from his small oflice at Honda's storefront headquarters on 4077 West Pico Boulevard. A full-page ad in Life magazine was revolution- ary for its time. The resulting interest from the ad not only generated new customers for Honda, but also helped the company establish a large dealership network. "l commonly spent l8 hours a day in the oflice with a phone growing out of my ear," McCormack recalls. "We set up dealers anywhere someone had a storefront, We even had a barber shop become a dealer in Utah. He put Honda Cub 50s in his front store window- We also had a men's clothing store become a dealer." McCormack had Honda purchase a Chevrolet El Camino. He insisted it be air-conditioned, remembering the long hourc spent on the road driving in ttre desen heat in a truck without air conditioning when he worked for Triumph. The llrst major trip he made was inJune of 1960 - going cross-country to Laconia for the annual motorq/- cle races and rally. He hauled a 250 Dream, a 305 Dream and a 50cc Cub and put them on display at Laconia. While in the Northeast, he hired David Jones as a dis- trict manaSer, Save him the El Camino and bikes, and flew back to Los Angeles, That process repeated itself through- out the country There were fel/er than 50 dealers when McCormack staned at Honda, and less than a year laGr, he'd build the dealer network to over 300 st ong. McCormack's sales proiection of 1500, considered wildly optimistic at the time, was easily exceeded, The Honda 50 Super Cub retailed for $245. For the first time, customers could whip out a credit card and wdk out a new motorcycle owner. And Honda's growth continued at a phenomenal rate, so much so, that it is studied today in business schools, McCormack established a company dealership in Phoenix to test marketing ideas. That dealership was the flrst to try mass displays, a test-riding course, computer- aided parts manaSement and other retailing inno\rations never tried before. Shops were clean, bright and inviting, unlike the dimly lit and greasy-floored shops customers had often encountered. The New York City-based Grey Advertising Agency listened to McCormack's sales philosophy and proposed a Honda advertising campaign in 1962 with the slogan, ''You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda." McCormack knew immediately that the agency had finally put into words his philosophy about selling motorcycles. After all, here was a man who had for years ridden motorcycles in a business suit. "l figured it out years later that what we were doing was eliminating the feminine resistafte,'' McCormack says. "We were eliminating the mother's resistance, the girlfriend or wife's resistance, because these things weren't dirty and the guy wasnt walking in with grease on his shoes." While McCormack recalls his days at Honda as one of the most exciting times in his life, it was not a storybook ending for him there. Even though Honda was growing by leaps and bounds during the early I960s, McCormack, the top American employee of the company, was never paid anymore than his $ 10,000 staning salary three yearc earlier (equi\ralent to about $70,000 in today's dollars). Feeling unrewarded for his work, McCormack left Honda and shortly afterward introduced Suzuki to America. Regardless of the way McCormack and Honda part- ed, there's little doubt that his relationship with the com- pany w"as a perfect marriage for both during that era- With American Hond4 McCormack was a vital part of the one of the most successful business launches in U.S. history His accomplishments have largely Eone unrecog- nized. Those inside the industry howeve( remember McCormack's ma,or contributions to Honda. "When Honda came to U.S., the Japanese didnt knrlr the American market and it took a person widr an enb€pre- rrcurial V$on like Jack I'4cCormack to help them srrcceed," sail Gary Christopher, former senior manqger at Honda, "Some of the storier from the beginnings of Americn Honda are remarkable - like setting up dealership,s out of the ba<.k of El Caminos, To see where it all started, to what Honda has become, is anazing. Ttny were blazing nev/ ter- ritory and the industry was forever changed." (ll 86 JUNE 21,2006 . CYCLE NElIttS BY Llnnv LawnENcr l=- I ?a, YI ,/ I -r' i E] I (From lefr ro righr) Mr. Hondo, John McCormqck ond Tex Brichord pose ot the Ambosrodor Holel in Lo3 Angeles, circo 1962, in one of Mr. Hondo's rqre viritr to the United Stotei.