Victory Motorcycles Diversification Paper

Starting from a company of less than 75 workers and owning less than 20,000 SCU for production, research, quality assurance and conduct warranty work Off The Chain Bikes has doubled the plant capacity and hearing doubling the workforce within two short years. The company is successful by targeting and capturing lucrative market shares by heavily investing in the desired technical specs and design styles of one of the most influential Racing bikes. Our keen ability to thoroughly research market demands, predicting competitive strategies between the four market majority shareholders by reviewing and interpreting the marketing reports and our aggressive design and development plans have significantly increased our market share and increase shareholder value. Our core competencies and strategic goals will be realized by carefully following our established plans and aggressively price our bikes to increase total market share.

Some driving forces in the motorcycle industry include a general income increase in such emerging markets as China, India, and Southeast Asia. Consumers in these markets prefer performance bikes which typically are more cost-friendly than Harley-Davidson bikes. Due

Harley Davidson Company has a long history of building quality motorcycles that have been well receipted in various niches. The company has actually helped to shape a part of the American culture through its products. Its product positioning and marketing strategies can served as a classic example of building a brand icon. Harley Davidson has developed immense levels of brand loyalty over the years. However, the historic company has also been affected by the economic volatility since the recession. The company must know reinvent itself as it turns the next page in its history.

In 1868, a man named Sylvester H. Roper invented the very first motorcycle. He lived in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He came up with the idea of a twin cylinder steam velocipede with a cool-fired broiler between the wheels. When he came up with this idea, people thought that it was craziest idea someone could come up. He went through with it anyways. His invention helped pave the way for motorcycles today. Roper’s inventions came to a screeching halt when he passed away demonstrating one of his many inventions along with many other motorcycle inventors. Harley Davidson came about in 1903. A lot of people were riding motorcycles instead of bicycles in 1902. He helped World War I by seeing increased interests in communications and getting place to place. You rarely saw messengers on horseback anymore at that time. When World War II happened, Harley Davidson’s motorcycles skyrocketed up to 100mph. The only type of motor he still uses is an air-cooled v-twin engine. Over the years his bikes have changed and developed into much bigger and better bikes. He’s one of the many bike builders in the United States. Most people in the United States have Harleys or a different make similar to the Harley. I don’t personally care for Harleys or any other motorcycles besides a sports bike.

The first Harley-Davidson bike rolled on to the scene as a race bike. William Harley completed his blueprint for the bike and explained that he wanted to design an engine to fit on a bike (Dyer, J., Godfrey, P., Jensen, R., & Bryce, D. 2015). Its competition at the time was the Hendee’s manufacturing company’s 1.75 horsepower, single cylinder motorcycle. The first race was a test run, but the Harley Davidson officially entered into the racing scene in 1914, where the bike and the rider won every race. The nick name for the bike was given because of the victory lap the rider would take after every win (Dyer, J., Godfrey, P., Jensen, R., & Bryce, D. 2015). After being dubbed the fastest and most winning bike in the country, the thrill seekers and men with a rough attitude started to take notice of the brand. The military even started to contract with the motorcycle company. The police force looked into the motorcycles for high speed chases, whereas the biker gangs would use them to get away from the law (Dyer, J., Godfrey, P., Jensen, R., & Bryce, D. 2015). Harley-Davidson controlled over 60% of the market and was the only company producing motorcycles at the time in the United Stated. But they got too comfortable and were unwilling to make a change. Then Honda came to the scene to make a splash.

Harley must deal with weaknesses that prevent the company from maximizing performance and moving from the fifth largest manufacturer to first in the world. The motorcycle giant has a narrow product mix, preventing the business from reaching more market segments and age demographics. Another weakness exists from sales primarily originating in North America, and insignificant or nonexistent sales in developing countries. Furthermore, the company has a limited supply chain that hampers potential expansion in the global motorcycle market. The demand for Harley-Davidson products has the opportunity to create new business alliances to increase market reach and broaden the product

“Victory Motorcycles is a motorcycle manufacturer based in Spirit Lake, Iowa, United States, which began production of its vehicles in 1998. Its parent company, Polaris Industries, created the firm following the modern success of Harley-Davidson. Victory’s motorcycles are designed to compete directly with Harley Davidson and similar American-style motorcycle brands, with V-twin engines and touring, sport-touring, and cruiser configurations. The first Victory, the V92C, was announced in 1997 and began selling in 1998. Victory has been modestly profitable since 2002.”

Harley Davidson is America’s most successful manufacturing company. It has established itself as market leader for the heavyweight motorcycles and is the world’s most profitable motorcycle company. Harley Davidson has been around for over 100 year and although it sitting on a healthy position in term of profitable, heavy competition and negative trends raises the question on the length that Harley Davidson will continue to be a profitable company. This Strategic analysis will summarise the Macro-environment of the Motorcycle industry as well as summaries the effect of the five forces have on the profitability of motorcycle industry. Also an internal analysis will be conducted which will outline Harley Davidson resources and

Harley-Davidson is a US based company that makes motorcycles. This company was started in 1903 by William S Harley and Arthur Davidson. This company manufactures products that are associated to be used for leisure activities and also offers financial assistance inform of credit to its customers. The company has been a stand-alone in terms of competition within its market. The industry this company exists has stiff competition with both recession and depression but it has remained in a position to beat competition. There are several reasons which has helped this company to beat the Japanese, challenges that may result from technological advancements and hardships resulting from motorcycle industry dominated by leisure riders. There are reasons that this company has been able to manage the market challenges and how this US based company is able to

Founded in 1903 by Arthur Davidson and William S. Harley to supply racing motorcycles. When the business began Harley-Davidson began producing small engines fixed to frames. Being very successful in business, Harley-Davidson invented a V-Twin engine which was larger and much more efficient than previous models. This new invention formed an integral part in developing what is considered to be the modern day motorcycle. After the wars when soldiers were coming home soldiers found motorcycles to provide a cheaper form of transportation. This research paper will discuss the general business environment, risks and uncertainties, corporate strategy, and viability of Harley-Davidson forming a co-operative strategy along with recommendations for the company.

Moreover, the emergence of these competitors is ironically at least partially the result of the fact that Harley’s production did not meet market demand. While new production capacity and facilities will certainly go a long way towards meeting short-term demand for touring and custom motorcycles in the domestic market, all indications are that there will be continued strong demand in the home market as well as growing demand in the larger European market. Looking towards the future, Harley-Davidson management must decide how to best match the company’s vision and resources (which now include Eaglemark Financing and Buell performance motorcycles) with the opportunities and threats in the global motorcycle market.

According to PRWeb (2013), the Motorcycle, Bikes and Parts industry has entered the maturity stage and it is shifting its focus on the international trade. There is an increasing demand for low-cost and fuel-efficient motorcycles by the customers as they have less disposable income. In 2009, the industry revenue declined by 37.3% (Molavi, 2010) and it is forecasted that the trend will continue in the next five years to 2012 with declining percentage of 6.7% every year (“PRWeb”, 2013).

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,

    Some of the company's biggest competitors are the Japanese manufacturers, Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, and Suzuki. When the Japanese manufacturers entered the industry they became dominated by stylish designed motorcycles at a inexpensive price. Hence, due to their management, designs, and advanced products at an affordable price, the Japanese manufactures held an competitive advantage. They also provided diverse products that allowed for them to gain knowledgeable use of economies of scale and scope in manufacturing. This allowed for them to produce new models with advanced features and lower price, gaining a larger customer base.

It is expected that there will be a change in the target customer as the younger generation of potential riders are looking for the motorcycles. Previously, only older people aged above 45 years were demanding these types of products. With easy access to the countries where production can be done on a less expensive level, the companies within the industry are employing the production processes which will save their costs and allow them to earn a large amount of profit.