Harley-Davidson’s marketing strategies Harley-Davidson, Inc. has a long-standing culture of relationship nurturing with its customers – of association with its customers on personal levels. Owing to this, customers look at Harley-Davidson as not only a company, but as also a family to whom they owe their loyalty. Harley-Davidson is an example of a company which has a loyal (brand) following and its customers aid in future sales via marketing based on the consumer. The company has been doing business since 1903; according to its website, “Four young men experimented with internal combustion in a tiny wooden shed. Not only did the shed not burn, but the motorcycle they built went on to serve over 100,000 miles” (Harley Davidson, n.d., p.1). William S. Harley in 1901 came up with a blueprint of a motor for fitting a bicycle. Arthur Davidson later joined him, and they then built the 1st Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The demand for Harley-Davidson is in excess; the company utilizes customer surveys along with motorcycle rallies while conducting market research. This research did lead Harley; it led the company to start manufacturing motorcycles designed for women. There has been a 10% increase in the number of women riding the motorcycles since 1987. On the company website, Harley does have a page set aside for riders who are women. Harley-Davidson appeals to its customers by way of brand identity. “The value of brands in today’s environment is phenomenal. Brands have the power of instant sales; they convey a message of confidence, quality and reliability to their target market” (Learn Marketing, n.d., p.2). Everybody recognizes a Harley-Davidson’s bar and shield symbol. Having ownership of a Harley motorcycle signifies American pride, a... ... middle of paper ... ...ustomers, there are difficulties too, with the first being development of a customer satisfaction measure that has validity. Surveys on customer satisfaction are not reliable indicators of purchase intent or the probability of a repeat business. They are either poorly conceived or conducted, do not measure the right activity or fail to assess satisfaction or relative value many a time (Reichheld, 1996). Another drawback is that, if undertakings aimed at measuring satisfaction of customers overwhelm other indicators of strategic performance such as the ones concerning success of a new product or learning in an organization, the management will likely shift its focus to only the short-term, in turn discouraging risk-taking in the development of products and processes, only leading to incremental improvements as per (the) current products along with service activities.
FORBES MAGAZINE names Harley-Davidson Company of the Year (December 20, 2001) “Harley-Davidson, Inc. has been named Company of the Year by FORBES Magazine, one of the worlds leading business publications.” Key factors for the FORBES Company of the year award included Harley-Davidson’s record sales growth and earnings, along with strong overall financial performance. This is due to the great strides in engineering and development, along with the respect of the American people for an outstanding American company.
Like the automotive industry of the time, Harley-Davidson thought its cure customers would buy its products versus those of any of its major competitors, chiefly because they were all foreign. Interesting enough this was true, HD annual unit sales never changed; they just did not grow with either the market or even the population. In the 1950s motorcycle sales were approximately 50,000 units annually, of which HD had 70%. By 1971, there were nearly 4 million motorcycles registered in the US and HD market share had dropped to 5%.
A Harley-Davidson motorcycle is more than just a mode of transportation or ordinary product. It's
For its 100th year, Harley Planned for selling 290 000 bikes. And in 2002, the firm reported a gross profit of US$ 1.4 billion on US$ 4 billion sales.
Despite their conception in 1903, Harley-Davidson and the motorcycle industry as a whole didn’t really take off until after the Second World War. Many people rode motorcycles during the war, with Harley-Davidson themselves supplying almost 90,000 motorcycles for the U.S. military during this time. Many veterans chose to purchase motorcycles upon returning home, as they enjoyed riding during the war and wanted to continue riding in their civilian life. This generation known as the "baby-boomers" quickly became the main target audience for many of Harley-Davidson’s marketing efforts. With sales increasing and the industry growing, many "motorcycle clubs" and "rallies" were introduced. Unfortunately, due to the lewd behavior displayed by most people associated with these clubs and rallies, bikers typically had an image of being disorderly and raucous. Harley-Davidson’s image itself took a big shot due to the Hells Angels. This was a motorcycle gang wishing to become notorious for "drug trafficking and other organized crime activities," who used only Harley-Davidson motorcycles. All of this combined to lead to a decline in demand and sales throughout the entire industry during the 1960’s. The industry was really helped out with the release of the Hollywood film Easy Rider in 1969. This film helped change the public’s perception of bikers and sparked an increase in motorcycle demand which has lasted to this day.
Harley-Davidson became very involved with racing between 1915 and 1925. They have continued to stay involved in racing ever since, but with much less success since they had to start competing with Japanese companies. The Harley-Davidson always placed in the top five at every event, and sometimes all five seats were taken by Harley-Davidsons. These early races were very well organized but usually very dangerous. This scared a majority of the public but the young were entranced by it and sought for sponsorship from major companies such as Harley-Davidson.
Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE: HOG, HDI formerly) is one among the top heavyweight motorcycle manufacturers worldwide. It manufactures heavy motorcycles and is US-based (Milwaukee, Wisconsin to be exact). Harley-Davidson is a parent company of a group of companies – inclusive of the Harley-Davidson Motor Company (HDMC) and Harley-Davidson Financial Services (HDFS). The company makes sales of over 750cc class motorcycles made for cruising on highways; it offers over 30 models of motorcycles for touring alongside custom-made Harleys via a network spread across the world comprising over 1,600 dealers across 6 continents. The company’s motorcycles are uniquely designed – their designs along with exhaust notes are distinct. More so, they are noted for their being heavily customized; the customization brought about the chopper motorcycle style. Harley-Davidson as a brand has been and still does attract a loyal (brand) community, with the Harley-Davidson’s logo licensing accounting for approximately 5% of the net revenue of the company (41 million US Dollars in 2004). Its range of products in the United States is priced between 8,100 and 31,000 US Dollars. Annual sales for 2012 in total were 5.6 billion US Dollars, with net income at 624 million US Dollars, or 11% of the sales. The US is its major market (68% of the sales) with the rest predominantly done across western countries. It is dominant in the US, with a 60% market share. There are limited sales in the developing countries. Worldwide, Harley-Davidson has a market share of 35% for the heavy motorcycles with an engine displacement of over 651 cubic centimeters (cc), whereas BMW, the second largest maker, has a 20% market share, approximately. Besides the design, manufac...
After the buyout by Beals, Harley Davidson improved in terms of its productivity after gaining production lessons from the Japanese firm. Furthermore, the company changed part of its marketing move which helped in the improvement in the overall performance of the company. Most people used the logo of the company’s bikes freely and this resulted in bad image for the company. As part of making up and restoring its image, the company decided to license all its logos and any other items that was relating to the company. This helped the company to obtain new customers a part from its already existing customer base. The demand of the products of the company also increased over time after the licensing of the products and the logo of the company. This meant that the company could not satisfy the demand hence this became a problem of its success. The company had also the potential of expanding in terms of exporting ...
"We fulfill dreams through the experience of motorcycling, by providing to motorcyclists and to the general public an expanding line of motorcycles and branded products and services in selected market segments."
Some of their tactics involve events all over the world such as the Harley-Davidson county fair. And other activities that are specials for only people that own a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Also, anyone can attend the Harley-Davidson museums and learn more about the history of Harley-Davidson. Plus, there are shopping centers and other stores that sell items with the Harley-Davidson name on them. Every time I see a person wearing a Harley Davidson T-shirt, it makes me thinks about the American made motorcycle.
Harley-Davidson has survived through many decades and is an American business icon. Rivals have often successfully imitated motorcycles , but never duplicating them. It is often seen as those who are experiencing a "mid life crisis", are a part of a motorcycle gang, or an investment bankers that are attracted to these particular motorcycles. It is believed that Harley-Davidson is successfully selling the freedom within the American Dream through their motorcycles.
Williams, P. & Naumann, E. 2011, "Customer satisfaction and business performance: a firm-level analysis", The Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 20-32.
Women are seen as still being relatively new in the Harley Davidson world and they are working hard to cultivate these relationship. A common theme is that women are not taken seriously when it comes to the topic of motorcycles. Leslie Prevish, who previously worked for Harley Davidson, is a big promoter of women ridders and created the “garage party” to market to women (Zube, 2013). Harley Davidson understands the needs of women and is therefore marketing deeper to reach these needs and build loyalty with
Customer satisfaction is a key ingredient to the success of any business.It is the most important factor that creates repeated customers. Some people know it but do not realize its importance. If a customer of yours is satisfied with one of your products or services, chances are this customer will purchase more of your products or services, which will increase your revenue. Therefore, in order to have your new or existing customers buy more from you, you will have to follow techniques that work. Customer satisfaction takes a very important place in Marketing. As much as you think that your marketing strategies should help you generate sales, think about how the same marketing strategies could help you achieve Customer satisfaction. There are a lot of elements involved with Customer satisfaction.
The market can be divided into 2 categories men and women. In the category of men Men: Men under 30 group accounts for 44% of all sales. Therefore, a great opportunity exists here because of the group's size. This group's members buy motorcycles for their transportation and recreation needs. Men in this group buy more of mopeds, scooters and entry level lightweight road bikes. Men between 30 and 50 makes up 45% of buyers. The motorcycles most frequently purchased are the heavyweight tourers and cruisers. Many buyers are married couples looking for an alternative to taking the car out for weekend drives to the country. Men over 50 group accounts for about 11% of motorcycle sales. The heavyweight touring class and the middleweight road bike categories account for most of the sales here. Women group is a segment that is growing at a fast rate, and represents an opportunity area.