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...
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...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.
Harley-Davidson states their mission as “We fulfill dreams through the experiences of motorcycling by providing to motorcyclists and to the general public an expanding line of motorcycles, branded products and services in selected market segments.” They have performed wonderfully over the past hundred years, and have not forgotten their mission or where they came from. Over the years they have stuck with the things they know, and also expanded into related services and products. Out of the 151 motorcycle manufacturers, Harley-Davidson and Indian were the only two companies to survive the Great Depression. Harley-Davidson was the only one in America after Indian dropped out in 1953, but face Indian again now since they re-entered the market in 1999.
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.
"Harley-Davidson: At Last" as presented in Hartley's Marketing Mistakes and Successes presents the circumstances around HD's near collapse and since rinse to near mythic success. This case is a great example of marketing myopia; HD saw them-selves as full-size motorcycles' manufactures, not in the transportation, or even the entertainment industry. They believed no one bought motorcycles for transportation, but rather for leisure time use.
A Harley-Davidson motorcycle is more than just a mode of transportation or ordinary product. It's
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.
So, in 2003, it was the celebration of the 100th birthday of the Harley-Davidson. And, in order to commemorate it, fans of this famous brand rode until Milwaukee to see the parade of 10 000 Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Through this celebration, we can see how recognized this brand is for the owners, or should I say fans. Indeed, this case also shows how the strategy and the marketing of Harley-Davidson are good; because Harley has fans and they will do all they can for their bikes and their brand.
Since Harley-Davidson is already a big player in cruise market, to be profitable in this sector might be time consuming and difficult for Ducati. Also, Harley-Davidson has a loyal customer base which might make it tougher for Ducati to attract more customers towards its side.
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.
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.
After the first 15 years, Harley-Davidson had established themselves as a fore-runner in the motorcycle market. The other prominent companies were Indian, Thor, and Excelsior. At the beginning of WWI, they were overwhelmed with orders from governments around the globe for bikes for the war effort. This allowed Harley-Davidson to almost triple the size of their manufacturing plant, which is still located in the same place in Milwaukee. These orders brought greater economic prosperity to all the motorcycle companies of the time but especially Harley-Davidson.
Harley-Davidson’s management had much to be proud of as the company wrapped up its Open Road Tour centennial celebration that began in July 2002 in Atlanta, Georgia, and ended on the 2003 Memorial Day Weekend in Harley’s hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The 14-month Open Road Tour drew large crowds of Harley owners in each of its five stops in North America and additional stops in Australia, Japan, Spain, and Germany. Also during its 2003 centennial year, Harley-Davidson was named to Fortune’s list of “100 Best Companies to Work For” and was judged third in automotive quality behind Rolls-Royce and Mercedes-Benz by Harris Interactive, a worldwide market research and consulting firm best known for the Harris Poll. The company’s revenues had grown at a compounded annual rate of 16.6% since 1994 to reach $4.6 billion in 2003—marking its 18th consecutive year of record revenues and earnings. In 2003, the company sold more than 290,000 motorcycles, giving it a commanding share of the 651+cc motorcycle market in the U.S. and the leading share of the market in the Asia/Pacific region. The consistent growth had allowed Harley-Davidson’s share price to appreciate by more than 15,000% since the company’s initial public offering in 1986.
The mission of Harley Davidson motorcycles is to give people the exceptional personal experience of freedom on the road.
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."
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.