Harley Davidson Marketing Strategy
Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary……………………………………………………………2
2. Situational Analysis
a) Strengths………………………………………………………….3
b) Weaknesses…………………………………………………….3
c) Opportunities…………………………………………………..4
d) Threats……..……………………………………………………..4
3. Analysis of Harley Davidson Case Study……………………………..5
4. Recommendations…………………………………………………………….6
5. References…………………………………………………………………………8
1. Executive Summary
Harley Davidson is an American motorcycle company founded in 1903 by William S. Harley and Arthur Davidson. In the following 108 years of business, the Harley Davidson business has endured the peaks and troughs of economies to be recognised as an iconic brand in the motorcycle industry. After breaking records on the race track, Harley Davidson secures contracts to supply 60000 motorcycles American military during World War II, exposing thousands of servicemen to the Harley Davidson brand. Through clever marketing and positioning, Harley Davidson has shed the bearded biker image, and now appeals to people from varying backgrounds all over the globe.
The following report will provide a situational analysis of the Harley Davidson Motorcycle Company and discuss some of the marketing strategies that have enabled Harley Davidson to adapt to its market place and create customer loyalty rarely seen in today’s business environment. Oliver as cited in Sorce (2002) discusses the aspects of developing customer loyalty, and four elements that are necessary in order to do this;
1. The product must be perceived as superior by a large enough segment of the firm’s customers in order to be profitable.
2. The product must be subject to adoration (or focused commitment).
3. The product must have the ability to be embedded in a social network.
4. The firm must be willing to expend resources to create the village (Sorce, 2002).
The discussions in the following report will establish without doubt that Harley
1. Executive Summary……………………………………………………………2
2. Situational Analysis
a) Strengths………………………………………………………….3
b) Weaknesses…………………………………………………….3
c) Opportunities…………………………………………………..4
d) Threats……..……………………………………………………..4
3. Analysis of Harley Davidson Case Study……………………………..5
4. Recommendations…………………………………………………………….6
5. References…………………………………………………………………………8
1. Executive Summary
Harley Davidson is an American motorcycle company founded in 1903 by William S. Harley and Arthur Davidson. In the following 108 years of business, the Harley Davidson business has endured the peaks and troughs of economies to be recognised as an iconic brand in the motorcycle industry. After breaking records on the race track, Harley Davidson secures contracts to supply 60000 motorcycles American military during World War II, exposing thousands of servicemen to the Harley Davidson brand. Through clever marketing and positioning, Harley Davidson has shed the bearded biker image, and now appeals to people from varying backgrounds all over the globe.
The following report will provide a situational analysis of the Harley Davidson Motorcycle Company and discuss some of the marketing strategies that have enabled Harley Davidson to adapt to its market place and create customer loyalty rarely seen in today’s business environment. Oliver as cited in Sorce (2002) discusses the aspects of developing customer loyalty, and four elements that are necessary in order to do this;
1. The product must be perceived as superior by a large enough segment of the firm’s customers in order to be profitable.
2. The product must be subject to adoration (or focused commitment).
3. The product must have the ability to be embedded in a social network.
4. The firm must be willing to expend resources to create the village (Sorce, 2002).
The discussions in the following report will establish without doubt that Harley
References: Armstrong, Gary and Kotler, Philip 2011, Marketing: an introduction, 10th edition (pp. 50-51), Pearson Prentice Hall, USA. Oliver, Richard L. (1999). Whence Consumer Loyalty? Journal of Marketing, 63, 33-44 Sorce, P. (2002). Relationship marketing: A research monograph of the printing industry center at RIT. New York, USA: Rochester Institute of Technology Firat, F., Dholakia, N. & Venkatesh, A. (1995). Marketing in a postmodern world. European Journal of Marketing, 29, (1) 40-46 Harley Davidson Inc. (2011). Harley Davidson Inc. 2010 annual report. Retrieved from http://www.harley-davidson.com/en_US/Content/Pages/home.html Clothier, M. (2010, September 30). Why Harley is showing its feminine side. Bloomberg Business Week. Retrieved from: www.businessweek.com Pearson Prentice Hall (Producer). (2011). Creating & capturing customer value [Video]. USA. Berry, L. (2002). Relationship marketing of services – perspectives from 1983 and 2000. Journal of Relationship Marketing, 1, (1) 59-77 MacAlexander, J., Schouten, J. & Koening, H. (2002). Building brand community. Journal of Marketing, 66, 38-54 Schembri, S. (2008). Reframing brand experience: The experiential meaning of Harley–Davidson. Journal of Business Research. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2008.11.004