KTM is an on and off-road motorcycle manufacturing company that has established itself as a player in the European off-road industry with a 13% market share. The European motorcycle market in general has been in decline for the past three years and is forecasted to have even slower growth in the coming years. The off-road market in America, however, has much more potential than Europe because of its open spaces and the sport’s continued rise in popularity. Currently, the CFO of KTM is facing the challenge of achieving the growth needed to facilitate BC European Capital’s exit from its 49% stake in the company. While analysts favor a merger with Ducati, KTM executives also have the option of growing in-house. KTM should look to the growing off-road market as a means for growth in-house and should therefore avoid a merger with Ducati just as the company avoided a deal with Harley-Davidson because not enough synergies exist.
Technological innovation has opened the door for recreational riders to enjoy off-road riding without breaking their bank account. With a young and growing customer base, the off-road market is gaining increasing amounts of publicity through televised events like the X-Games. The sport is becoming more organized as clubs and organizations are forming around the country. Organization combined with technology contributes to the development and maintenance of riding trails in environmentally sustainable ways. Safety is always an important issue but is also addressed through organization with better instruction, safety equipment, and the marking of dangerous obstacles throughout trails.
Although some analysts doubt KTM’s prospects for growth, the company can sustain its current growth by focusing on the grow...
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...oducts. Customization will also be important, as it is not uncommon for riders to develop relationships with their sponsors to create a unique rider need. This is, in fact, how Honda differentiates itself in the European on-road market.
The CFO of KTM is faced with many options but capitalizing on the change in customer preferences in North America is the best course of action for KTM. In addition to financing KTM’s shift to the off-road market of North America, an IPO will allow the company to still take advantage of the 5.3% projected global demand for motorcycles for the next four years. Just because there is a focus on North America does not mean that the broad geographic dispersion of KTM dealers will be forgotten. In other words, KTM is doubling down on North America and will still have a moderate degree of dependence on other markets for cash flows.
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.
Achieving world class business performance is a major challenge in today’s society. Manufacturing companies continue to face increased competition and globalization from its competitors. (1, p. 148). The automotive industry is one of the most volatile manufacturing industries that we have, which was evident in the 2008 – 2010 automotive industry crisis. (2) This global financial downturn served notice to the American automotive manufactures to raise the bar, in order to achieve word class business performance. General Motors, one of the country’s largest automotive manufactures, had to receive a government bailout to survive. During this time many with the corporation asked themselves, if we were a world class business, would we be facing this pending crisis. The answer was a resounding “NO”. General Motors has come out of bankruptcy and is focused on being a world-class business organization.
There are many ways in which Harley-Davidson can improve its operations, all of which can be found through conducting a thorough analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats the company is presently facing. The executives of Harley-Davidson considered the company’s internal strengths and weaknesses by completing an internal factor analysis summary (IFAS). Next, the external opportunities and threats were analyzed by completing an external factor analysis summary (EFAS). The analysis of these two summaries in turn produced the viable strategic alternatives outlined in the company’s strategic factor analysis summary (SFAS). The resources, capabilities and diverse leadership team of Harley-Davidson have provided the foundation for the company’s continuing ability to be both versatile in its product offerings as well as adaptive to consumer desires. The strategies of adjusting pricing, refocusing the company’s corporate culture and targeting a new consumer market will assist the company in fine tuning its operations over the next several years to ensure Harley-Davidson maintains its position as the leader in the motorcycle industry.
Mr. Singleton and Montana Mountain Biking (MMB) could extend its marketing power through market affiliates. This report will outline the potential competitive advantage to MMB for partnering with industry sector affiliates.
...d our money in each segment. For example, in the first year we were given the option to spend $500,000 to invest in advertising. We decided on using all $500,000 which gave us the highest awareness and shareholder value for that year. As the rollovers continued we made a few errors in terms of financing our budget for marketing, which mirrored in our attempt to sell the highest amount of bikes.
Ducati was able to grow and expand only because of the brand name and the value it created to its customers and therefore they must continue to focus on their existing segment and try to expand
Allstate insurance is the second largest property and casualty insurance company by premiums in the United States. Allstate insurance handles about 12% of the U.S home and auto insurance market. (Allstate, 2014). Many of Allstate’s customers fall under what one could refer to as a traditional selection of insurance for automobiles. Recently, Allstate has noticed a major shortcoming in lifestyle insurance, which includes coverage for motorcycles, boats, and other recreational vehicles, in comparison to its competitors. The motorcycle insurance sector is a 10.4 billion dollar industry and growing (PRWEB, 2012). The U.S. Department of Transportation website reports some astounding figures, including that 5,370,035 motorcycles were registered three years before the article, 7,138,476 motorcycles registered at the time of the article, and grew to 9,477,243 registered motorcycles at the end of 2012 (NHTSA, 2013). It is obvious as to why Allstate would identify motorcycle insurance as a worthy lifestyle product to devote marketing research dollars into in order to develop new strategies for cornering a share of the market.
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)
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.
The principle of Best Position entails improvement of Honda’s global competitiveness. For Honda and their suppliers to improve in global competitiveness, they need to have a plan. Modine and most U.S. firms need further development in the process of planning. Instead of
Harley-Davidson was founded in 1903 by William Harley and Arthur Davidson and continued to grow throughout the First and Second World Wars, before being absorbed by American Machine and Foundry (AMF) in 1969 (James & Graham, 2004; Johan Van & Brian, 2000). Facing stiff completion from Japanese motorcycle manufacturers, AMF sold Harley to a group of executives led by Jeff Bluestein and Vaughn Beal (James & Graham, 2004; Teerlink & Ozley, 2000). A tariff on imported heavyweight motorcycles and a public offering put Harley-Davidson on sound financial footing. Richard Teerlink joined the company in 1987 as President and brought about substantial structural change working with consultant Lee Ozley (Teerlink & Ozley, 2000). Today, Harley-Davidson is a cultural phenomenon consisting of Harley-Davidson Credit and Insurance, ...
"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."
Over the past decade, the motor industry has faced many of mergers between companies in the bid to get more clients and internationalize their market share. The well planned mergers have arguably led to relative success while those that might have omitted some vital factor have had to contend with the pain of getting into damaging losses.
Specialized produces a full range of high-end and entry-level road bikes, mountain bikes, commuter/city bikes, children’s bikes, BMX bikes, and offers an extensive line of bike accessories. They divide the bike market in two categories: (1) the retailer- it only sells to the retailer because they realizes a strong relationship with the dealers is a key factor for success. (2) The end-user consumer- its focus in designing the product and broken down into the target age groups.
The motorcycle industry offers products which can be viewed as luxuries or wants as opposed to necessities. When concerning Harley-Davidson, most motorcycle owners have purchased their bikes as a second vehicle, using them more during weekends and off-time instead of during the work week. This implies that the motorcycles serve for recreational purposes and thus are an item which can be expendable at times. This has hurt the industry recently with the slight recession the United States economy is facing. Another interesting thing to note about the motorcycle industry is the different appeal bikes carry in different global regions. In the United States for instance, Harley-Davidson has had much success because of the market trends and tastes people enjoy. Harley-Davidson has benefited from a U.S. market which enjoys casual and recreational riding. This isn’t necessarily the case overseas, as in Europe the trendy pick is a sleeker street bike, with a focus on speed and handling as opposed to power and comfort.