Great post. This is a study in two very different ways to go about things and the impact that the ever dwindling popularity of motorcycling in this country has had on each approach.Frulk_imp said:
Harley-Davidson made a conscious decision to reinvent themselves as a lifestyle company. They stuck firmly to their core product and marketed everything else associated with that product for all they were worth. This paid off incredibly well for them for quite some period of time and paved the way for their bloated pricing. That makes for quite the Catch-22 these days. Were they to slash their prices in half, there would likely be considerable damage done to the brand. It's one of those strange things about lifestyle products.
The ever-dwindling popularity of motorcycling is proving to be challenge enough for all motorcycle companies (the rise in sales since the beginning of the pandemic aside). But in the case of H-D, they are also facing the ever-dwindling base of hardcore H-D types. Sadly for H-D hat's more or less the only customer base they have to work with. In other words, I'm guessing that those "casual buyers" out there don't tend to set foot in a Harley-Davidson dealership. Even if the popularity of motorcycling weren't in the toilet, once all the boomers are gone H-D would likely still be struggling. It's a real double-whammy for them.
Honda on the other hand (or Honda Powersports to be more specific), focused on continued diversification of their product offerings. It would be interesting to see the sales figures as it seems that for many parts of the country motorcycles are no longer Honda Powersports' core product. For those areas it seems the core product would instead be the ATV's and SXS's based on what many here are saying. Such a move by Harley-Davidson would have likely been a turn-off for a very large portion of their customer base.
Followed up by this excellent post:
The irony is even deeper when you stop to consider the fact that the CB1100 was specifically created in order to compete directly with Harley Davidson's offerings in Japan (along with the large displacement offerings from Ducati). To those who can't help but poke fun at H-D at every possible opportunity, I sincerely would like to know were you in charge of keeping the company afloat, what moves would you make?Frulk_imp said:
