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Harley's Strategy

Decent Essays

Identify Harley 's strategy and explain its rationale.
Harley is a globally recognised brand firmly associated with large motorbikes with a historic emphasis on style, individuality and freedom rather than on technology, speed or sports. From a segmentation view they belong in the heavyweight motorcycle market and are particularly strong within a sub-segment of super heavyweight. Their bikes are strongest in the Cruiser motorcycle segment, feature in the Touring bikes segment (focus on their style and image) and through acquisition of Buell, now have a presence in the Performance models segment. The Harley-Davidson image and the customer loyalty earned and sustained by the unique ‘Harley Experience ' are its greatest assets.
The appeal …show more content…

Honda, in particular, are renowned for their engine technology and they can sustain continued engine innovation as they have a very large product range to which engines are central and over which the costs can be amortised more easily.
Harley turned to their own strengths and organisational capabilities to achieve cost efficiencies and product / brand differentiation. By utilising ‘Strategic Innovation ' they chose to establish competitive advantage through creating value for customers from novel experiences, product delivery, customisation options and customer care. As a smaller organisation and one which adopted a non-hierarchical, team based structure, Harley successfully engineered a transformation in employee commitment and job satisfaction which also helped the company sustain this competitive advantage once it had been achieved. By ensuring that the ‘Harley Experience ' was kept to a very high level it proved impossible for imitators or competitors to tap into the brand attractiveness. The sustainability of Harleys differentiation is less vulnerable to being overturned by changes in the external environment and is more difficult to replicate. Harley differentiate on more than one plane – their products certainly, but also their design, marketing and customer interactions – have you ever seen a group of Honda owners get together BECAUSE they are Honda owners ? Way to go Harley.
How can Harley D. sustain and enhance it 's

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