1) Review the instructor's feedback provided to you in Assignments 1-8.2) Edit and update Assignments 1-8 using the feedback provided to you by the instructor.3) Using a Word document, set up the writ
Harley Davidson’s Marketing Mix
1) Product: Provide a brief description of the company’s products (goods and services). Note: Large corporations usually have numerous products, as such, you can narrow them down to one category.
Harley-Davidson is best known for their choppers and custom motorcycles. Their motorcycle are not just available to buy, a variety of them are also available for rent. The company also offers other product lines like, motorcycle engines, parts, and accessories (i.e. H-D’s Screamin’ Eagle brand). Harley Davidson even has an apparel line under the MotorClothes brand (Ferguson, 2017).
2) Price: Provide a brief description of the company’s pricing strategies. Is it an effective strategy? Why or why not? How does their pricing compare with that of competitors?
“Harley-Davidson motorcycles are generally more expensive than most other motorcycle brands available in the American market” (Ferguson, 2017). Harley-Davidson uses the premium pricing strategy, meaning the prices applied to the products are fairly high in this type of pricing strategy. The company justifies their pricing strategy by describing the craftsmanship and quality in their product. “The company deals in mainly heavy built chassis and high displacement engines, it denotes that it aims at a particular level of quality in its products” (Bhasin & Danielle, 2019).
I think the strategy works for the company because even though the company has experienced some setbacks and has gone through red periods in its profit curves, they overcame by means of rightsizing and layoffs (Bhasin & Danielle, 2019). H-D motorcycles range from $7,000 for the 500 cc Street 500 to $44,000 for a fully loaded limited touring model. “With an average price of $20,338 in 2019, that makes Harley-Davidson substantially more expensive than most of its competition with the exception of Indian, its most direct competitor. The average price for a 2019 Indian is about $20,800” (Travers, 2019).
3) Place: Explain how and where the company sells its products. Note: Many companies have brick and mortar locations as well as an online store and offerings.
Authorized Harley-Davidson dealers such as dealerships, rental dealers, and online store are the primary places for distribution of the company’s products as well as merchandise. A large chink of the company’s revenue comes from these dealers (Ferguson, 2017). Since Harley-Davidson is so well known their product is definitely in high demand across the globe.
“Due to involvement of tax structure and heavy custom duties; major strategic changes have been made in production policies, and two major production units are now announced outside home country, namely in India; for the Asian market, and Brazil; to cover distributions in Latin Americas, which is a major “Placement” advantage for Harley Davidson” (Bhasin & Danielle, 2019).
4) Promotion: Briefly describe how this company advertises and promotes its products. Provide an example of a promotional activity used. Is it effective? Why or why not?
Harley-Davidson’s promotional mix contains the following strategies/tactics:
Personal selling (field selling)- used to encourage customers to explore and try the company’s motorcycles at authorized dealerships.
Public relations- i.e. organizing and supporting Harley Owners Group (H.O.G.) rallies in various locations, to promote and increase awareness about the company’s brands and products.
Advertising- used to reach large populations of potential customers
Sales promotion- occasionally used in H-DA’s marketing mix
Direct marketing- the least significant of the company’s marketing communication strategies and tactics (Ferguson, 2017).
Some examples of how H-D has promoted or advertised their products is by displaying them in top notch magazines, movies, and television series. They organize sale fares with large discounts in times of low sales and constantly has been carrying out lucky draws and coupons for discounts on services, free services, and spare parts (Bhasin & Danielle, 2019). I think this method works for the company, as they have one of the largest loyal customer rates and continue to bring in a new population/generation of customers.
References
Ferguson, E. (2017, February 7). Harley-Davidson Marketing Mix (4Ps) Analysis.
http://panmore.com/harley-davidson-marketing-mix-4ps-analysis.
Bhasin, H., & Danielle. (2019, May 13). Marketing mix of Harley Davidson. Marketing91.
https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-mix-harley-davidson/.
Travers, J. (2019, October 15). Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Buyer's Guide. U.S. News & World Report.
https://cars.usnews.com/powersports/motorcycles/harley-davidson-motorcycles.
