Essay about Strategic Audit of Harley Davidson Inc.

The Harley Owners Group or HOG is a factory sponsored motorcycle enthusiast club established in 1983. Its main aim was to negate the influence of outlaw bike-gangs as the face of the Harley Davidson brand and enhance the lifestyle experience of a Harley Davidson owner. This was the roadmap of the firm’s broad philosophy of getting close to the customer. There was a great need to address two main issues with respect to the brand.

Harley Davidson been in business for over a hundred years. The company operates in several related markets. They sell motorcycles, motorcycle parts and operate a financial component. Additionally the company operates in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia. All Harley-Davidson business segments operate internationally.

Objectives: What are the corporate, business, and functional objectives? Are they consistent with each other, with the mission, and with the internal and external environments?

Harley-Davidson treats the dealers not only as partners, but also as customers. Harley has developed a very effective marketing strategy, but it is the responsibility of manufacturing to produce high quality and reliable motorcycles.

1.HOG has been phenomenally successful at attracting members and chapters. From nothing in 1983 it has grown to half a million members in 1,160 chapters. This is the core of Harley-Davidson's market and it is easily reachable through Hog Tales magazine. This is particularly important for Harley given that its customers are so varied making it hard to reach them through traditional marketing methods. HOG overcomes

Upon initial review of this evidence, it would appear that Harley Davidson has two distinct market segments, with differentiated needs. While there are clearly two segmented markets that need to be addressed, many of the needs of each segment can be handled with a single strategy. Finding the right bike, creating a culture for riders, and providing a means to get away are all important to the current prime market. It just so happens that these features are also important to the new target segment: young people. Fortunately, with some tweaking, current products can be made appealing to a totally new audience. There are three main areas of focus for this new brand management strategy. First, the barriers to entry and perceived barriers to entry must be lowered. Second, riders and potential riders must feel that they will have a place within the culture. Finally, riders must feel that they are being offered an opportunity to find their own experience.

As pointed out in the video, Harley Davidson is fully committed to fostering and growing the women motorcyclist market. Women today represent a large sector of the workforce, enjoy higher incomes than 20 years ago, and possess more disposable income. Furthermore, women are much more empowered than ever before and are encouraged to exercise their freedom of expression and individualism.

Good relationships, continuous improvement, employee and management involvement, team building or employee training and empowerment are not just words out of a management book for Harley-Davidson. Only by adopting those management techniques and building a solid base between the management and the Unions/employees made it possible for Harley-Davidson to improve its management processes. While management 's responsibility is to build

Harley-Davidson 's promotion is designed to move customers from ignorance to awareness. Harley-Davidson 's advertisements contain very little if any persuasive material on specific models or comparisons between other brands. Instead, they simply show the product in use in a typical setting. Because Harley-Davidson has built such a strong reputation over the years, much of their promotion occurs through word of mouth. At this stage in the company 's long history their main promotional goal is simply to inform customers that the company still exists.

Harley-Davidson has managed to dominate the U.S. market by investing in research and development, experimenting with its designs and

On a business level, Harley may want to try to develop new products that will give them an extra push past their competitors. They already have the loyalty base and combined with the threat of new entry into the business, they can enter other performance type industries. Bicycles, roller blades, and skateboards are just a few of the products that they can develop that may not be out of their range. Generation X and Y have gotten into these extreme sports and perhaps by reaching out to them with these types of products, they will develop future relationships with them. These performance products can be used for recreation and competition while keeping that edge that Harley has had since it began.

Harley-Davidson, Inc. has a long-standing culture of relationship nurturing with its customers – of association with its customers on personal levels. Owing to this, customers look at Harley-Davidson as not only a company, but as also a family to whom they owe their loyalty. Harley-Davidson is an example of a company which has a loyal (brand) following and its customers aid in future sales via marketing based on the consumer. The company has been doing business since 1903; according to its website, “Four young men experimented with internal combustion in a tiny wooden shed. Not only did the shed not burn, but the motorcycle they built went on to serve over 100,000 miles” (Harley Davidson, n.d., p.1).

Therefore, this case study will focus on Harley Davidson’s alternatives aspects such as product mix, core brand value, and product life cycle based on motorcycle industry in Canada. This is because these are helpful and useful to make decisions to extend Harley’s lifetime and to suggest ideal recommendation be part of living life in target market.

Moreover, the key to success in future is knowing who you are and sticking to it, understanding the customers’ bases, looking for market opportunities, and applying you brand properly. Harley-Davidson offers attributes, such as clothing, shoes, and caps etc. for the shoppers who want to associate themselves to the brand. Consistency is the key for the business.

In Harley-Davidson’s circumstance, the most significant strengths include a strong brand that attracts repeat loyal consumers for additional purchases. Moreover, the company has more than a century of expertise creating the brand that consumers are willing to spend more on custom products. The strengths safeguard Harley’s market share making long-term sustainability and growth achievable while fending off aggressive and low-cost competitors.