Topic > Motorcycle Market: The Harley Davidson Case

Key Information Presented in the Case Harley Davidson is known as one of the leading manufacturers and sellers of motorcycles in the United States. The company had good business and a large market share in the early 1960s, when it controlled a total of about 70% of the motorcycle market, before the invasion or intrusion of a small Japanese company that produced smaller motorcycles. read, known as Honda. The case study shows that Harley Davidson accepted the invasion of the Japanese company and instead of facing the competition waited a long time, until the company lost control over the motorcycle market in the United States. Failure to act by Harley Davidson management led to the bankruptcy of the company which saw it sold to AMF, an American company, although it was later purchased by Beals. After the acquisition by Beals, Harley Davidson improved in terms of productivity after learning manufacturing lessons from the Japanese company. Furthermore, the company has changed some of its marketing move which has contributed to the improvement of the overall performance of the company. Most people used the company's bicycle logo freely and this resulted in a bad image of the company. As part of revamping and restoring its image, the company has decided to license all its logos and any other company-related items. This has helped the company acquire new customers in addition to its existing customer base. The demand for the company's products also increased over time after the licensing of the company's products and logo. This meant that the company could not meet demand, so this became a problem for its success. The company also had the potential to expand in terms of export… half of the paper… of every company is of great importance and must be maintained because it tells a lot about the company to the customers. To solve the image problem, Harley Davidson could opt for public image building campaigns. This will involve providing the right information to the public and the right quality of products. This can be word of mouth where customers will play an important role or other means. The benefit of this is that more people will be aware of the company and have the right information, thus eliminating the perception that people had about it. The other alternative that the company could use and apply was licensing the company logo. This makes people view the company as serious and the use of its assets as something that should be respected. This helped build the company's image and thus improve long-term performance.