Hunsk Engines is a motorcycle company that made the fatal mistake of expanding its research in the market on its new products. The companies main competitors were companies like Harley Davidson, where they sold classic products that were seen as something with altering respect. Marty Echt is hired on by Hunsk Engines to restore the company’s image, on what used to be classic motorcycles. He argues that the company made the mistake of forgetting about its original products and, “lost its identity”. This problem frequently happens when companies attempt to grow, in order for new products to make it in the market place you have to carefully strategize its competitive characteristics and know when to introduce a new product through Michael Porters life cycle.
Michael Porter tells us how the life cycle works through stages, first of which is the development phase, into the introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Hunsk motors didn’t carefully take into account each phase of its product sold, and lacked the ability to connect consumers towards the motorcycles identity. By introducing...
When one thinks of classic Americana, they reminisce about the 1970s and 1980s and the notion of the nostalgic past in terms of what is the classic American image. It was a time of economic prowess where the blue collar factory worker would work 9 to 5 and then go to the local bar with his coworkers. However, times have since changed. The industrial plants that once dominated the Great Lakes economic region has become a shell of its past to the point where it is now none as the Rust Belt as industry left and white collar jobs became the norm. Since this degradation has settled into this once industrial cities, many cities and companies have sought to rebrand themselves in order to build from their reputations in the past to appeal to the nostalgia felt today. One such case where these is a correlation between a company and city are that of Harley Davidson, founded 1904, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Both have sought to rebrand themselves to the public and consumer, with Milwaukee seeking to transformation its image into that of a young and vibrant and city while Harley targets a new clientele. It is this shift to Harley’s "cult branding" to attract new clients that parallels Milwaukee's attempts to integrate itself to a service sector economy based on touristic leisure and the consumption of
Harley-Davidson owns a twenty percent market share followed closely by Honda, Yamaha, and Kawasaki. One thing they have had to overcome in the marketplace is the stereotypical image associated with motorcycle owners. It seems the publ...
This case study is about “Specialized Bicycle Components Inc.” known as Ride the Red “S”. Specialized was founded in 1974 by Mike Sinyard. According to Chris Murphy, director of marketing for Red “S”, specialized is for serious riders. He says, “The customer is buying the ride from us, not just the bike.” The company began to produce its own bike parts by 1976, and introduced the first major production mountain bike in the world in 1980. Specialized now has an extensive global distribution network of 5000 retailers in 35 countries in Asia, North America, South America, and Australia. They maintained a reputation as the technological leader in the bike and bike accessories. The formal mission is still the same since they established the company “To give everyone the best ride of their life.”
Dansk Designs Ltd., founded in 1955, is a company that markets stainless steel flatware. The firm traditionally followed a strategy of differentiation. They produce high quality products for the “top of the table”. Their goal was to reach a small market segment, which consisted of upper class, prestigious customers. Dansk Designs wanted to sell the concept of the Dansk brand, and believed their consumers would purchase the Dansk products because of the prominent brand name and because the products were the very best in taste and quality. Ted Nierenberg, the founder of Dansk Designs has recently decided that he wants to keep Dansk growing at 15% to 20% per year. Nierenberg feels as if his current product line will not provide sufficient growth to meet his objectives, and believes it is in the company’s best interest to introduce a new line of house ware products called Dansk Gourmet Designs Ltd. Nierenberg believes they should market this new line to a much wider group of consumers at competitive prices. However, I believe that although expanding into a new market with a new product line will increase short-term revenues, in the long run it will be detrimental because the new line will dilute the brand identity of Dansk Designs. If Nierenberg wants to grow every year 15% to 20%, I believe he should consider ways to lower costs instead of increasing volume and revenues.
"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.
During the 1970's, HD was facing a decline in market share due to increased competition with Japanese companies. By phasing out weak models, becoming more selective, and limiting sales and promotions, HD was able to carve out a niche in the marketplace which it enjoys today. Now again faced with a period of decline, HD is relying on its newly adopted marketing objectives. First, HD needs to expand its potential customer base to include enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts young males, and females into buying HD motorcycles over any other competitor. This thought is accomplished through the introduction of the VRSC’S, and the lower and narrow Sportsters, Dyna’s, Softail’s and positioning them in the market to a younger demographic. Secondly, HD needs to position the VRSC’S, Sporster, Dyna and Softail to also appeal to first time buyers of motorcycles. HD's strong brand identity can help pull in new clients.
James, W. B., & Graham, B. (2004). Strategic change in the face of success? Harley-Davidson, Inc. Strategic Change, 13(4), 205.
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.
Ford’s production plants rely on very high-tech computers and automated assembly. It takes a significant financial investment and time to reconfigure a production plant after a vehicle model is setup for assembly. Ford has made this mistake in the past and surprisingly hasn’t learned the valuable lesson as evidence from the hybrid revolution their missing out on today. Between 1927 and 1928, Ford set in motion their “1928 Plan” of establishing worldwide operations. Unfortunately, the strategic plan didn’t account for economic factors in Europe driving the demand for smaller vehicles. Henry Ford established plants in Europe for the larger North American model A. Their market share in 1929 was 5.7% in England and 7.2% in France (Dassbach, 1988). Economic changes can wreak havoc on a corporation’s bottom line and profitability as well as their brand.
"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."
Another strategy used by BMW to differentiate itself from other automakers in the market is the proactive usage of technology and innovativeness in the development of products. From the early 1990’s, BMW has been on the forefront of incorporating technology in its designs in line with the technological advances of the modern world. This has led to the creation of inventive products. The uniqueness of these auto products put BMW in a position of advantage. The development of the hydrogen car as early as 2000 was an indicator of the company’s innovative strategy. In addition, the company also presents itself as environment friendly creating a whole range of vehicles in this category. This is a differentiation strategy meant to boost the company’s image and reputation amongst customers. In addition, this gives the environment conscious customers a variety of products to choose from giving BMW an upper hand in the industry.
Where there is rapid growth comes increased competition; similarities in products across manufacturers have reduced brand differentiation across the board. The problem now is the severe rise of copycat companies and manufacturers that copy designs and specifications of cars, and proceed to undercut the original manufacturer’s profit margins. So to improve their brand standing, every manufacturer’s individually have resort...
Italian manufacturer Piaggio ranks as one of the world’s top four players in its core business. It has consolidated leadership in the European 2-wheeler market. Piaggio should not miscalculate its competitors. Competition in the industry is very powerful, not only nationally but internationally as well. This is due to two well-established companies in this sector which are the Japanese Yamaha and Honda. Yamaha and Honda strengths are their long-run experience in the sector and the high quality image of products. Due to participations to the motorcycle championships, these two companies constantly receive positive feedbacks to their efforts in researching for first class products. In the future, other kinds of competitors are expected to arise: Chinese companies whose ability to imitate and create similar products at highly competitive prices is getting more and more dangerous (Piaggio, 2008)
Its objective is to integrate people, process, and technology. Toytoa’s product development procedure is essentially different from a manufacturing process. Its backbone is not visible, but knowledge and information which are untouchable. The product development’s cycle time is much longer than hours. It usually takes weeks or even months. The production chains are non-linear and multi-directional. Workers are no longer manufacturing workers but specialists with high diverse technology. This product development strategy is viable for Toyota. This is because this strategy does help Toyota to prolong the life cycle of current product. For instance, Toyota Camry is a very successful current product which is prolonged its life. Camry has been made since 1980s. Camry is set at an middle-high level of family veichle. After 30 years development, Camry is still very famous all over the world. This cannot be separeted by Toyota’s successful product development strategy. One of the key features of the Toyota product development system is functional engineering managers. They are primarily teachers in the Toyota system, who are the most technically competent engineers, with the highest levels of experience. Toyota’s management group is consist of high educated experts. They were all engineers and their technical excellence is very famous. But recently, Toyota’s product development system does not work very well. In
Market Segmentation, Positioning and targeting for BMW 1.1 Introduction This report aims to examine the market segmentation, positioning and targeting of BMW (automobile company). BMW will be examined giving information about the company and where it is now and any recommendations that we feel are appropriate. 1.2 BMW Company Profile BMW was formed in 1917, from the merger of two small aero engine makers. Their famous blue and white symbol stems from the colours of the Bavarian Luftwaffe and is said to resemble the view of the one of their plane through a propeller. BMW is renowned for its sporty, sophisticated & luxury image which has been built up since the 1970's with many motor sport victories ranging from Touring Car to Formula 1.