Harley Davidson Case

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This is a feasible alternative and it will benefit Harley-Davidson in the coming years.

3. New Product line to attract more customers in the European markets.

Exhibit 4 shows the market shares of the leading producers of Motorcycles by geographic region for the heavyweight segment since 1998 to 2003. In the year 2003, the registrations for Harley-Davidson in the European market, although higher from previous year, are still below the competition. Harley-Davidson motorcycles models had yet become one of the 10 best-selling models in any major European market.

This alternative proposes to develop a new product line to attract more customers in the European markets. Harley-Davidson’s product has a high price tag but it is compensated with its quality. It is superior to any Japanese competitors.

Introducing a new heavyweight motorcycle to European markets that maintains Harley’s quality and offers durability and affordability, will attract more customers.

Pros: A lower price tag that will make Harley’s motorcycles more affordable. Gain more customers in the European market since price is low.

Cons: Cost/Time to produce. Customer may start to doubt Harley’s reputation if price is too low.

This solution is feasible and should be taken into consideration.

- Recommendation

Market segmentation to target young people and future millennials is my recommendation. Learning more about Generation Y and future generations and to re-target its strategies to get these groups’ attention would exponentially increase customer engagement, sales and revenues for Harley-Davidson.

- Plan of Action

Market segmentation is simply categorizing prospective buyers into groups, or segments, that have common needs and respond similarly to a marketing action. This process will enable Harley-Davidson to target distinct categories of consumers who are more attracted to Harley’s products and services differently from one another.

As Harley-Davidson enters its 101st year, a new era has begun. Technology is part of a new worldwide innovation and Harley-Davidson must benefit from it.

Finding out demographics, locations, buying behavior, personal interest and hobbies, customer engagement, attitude and satisfaction from Generation Y will allow to develop a strategy that will offer a more personalized buying experience, along with marketing tactics that will result in more sales and an increase of revenue for Harley-Davidson.

After all this information has been collected, creating subcategories of Generation Y will not be difficult. This will help to determine the best way to deliver products to different market segment. Also, keep in mind that Generation Y are more tech-driven, hence using the worldwide web to reach this customer group is imperative. At the end, a good analysis will provide Harley-Davidson with valuable data for future strategy implementation. This means that the information will be used to re-target its marketing strategy to boost sales in the upcoming years.

- Contingency Plan

To do a market segmentation is an option that Harley-Davidson must follow. If it fails, the best option would be to continue to do business as they are currently doing. To continue to target baby boomers, Generation X and Y and to maintain its quality products.

Also, since Generation Y is not so interested in Harley’s products, offering incentives will be an effective way to appeal to youngsters. A program that appeal to youngsters in college would increase sales.

Since Harley-Davidson is already offering financing, it will be a great idea to continue to do so but with 0% interest for excellent-credit buyers.

Bibliography

“A better market Segmentation Strategy.” What Are Market Segmentation Strategies?, www.selligent.com/content/market-segmentation-strategies.

“Generations X,Y, Z and the Others.” WJSchroer, socialmarketing.org/archives/generations-xy-z-and-the-others/.

Staff, Investopedia. “Market Segmentation.” Investopedia, 2 Oct. 2014, www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketsegmentation.asp.

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