Harley Davidson Case Study

Harley-Davidson: At Last as presented in Hartleys Marketing Mistakes and Successes presents the quite a little around HDs near collapse and since rinse to near mythological success. This case is a great example of marketing myopia; HD saw them-selves as ?full-size motorcycles manufactures, not in the transportation, or even the entertainment industry. They believed no one bought motorcycles for transportation, but earlier for leisure time use. Like the automotive industry of the time, Harley-Davidson perspective its cure customers would buy its products versus those of any of its major competitors, chiefly because they were each(prenominal) foreign. Interesting enough this was true, HD annual unit sales never changed; they just did not grow with either the market or even the population. In the 1950s motorcycle sales were rough 50,000 units annually, of which HD had 70%. By 1971, there were nearly 4 one thousand thousand motorcycles registered in the US and HD market share had dropped to 5%. Harley-Davidson was founded in 1903 by four men in a woody shed experimenting with the internal combustion engine. By the beginning of the60s, HD had a good deal wiped out all of its domestic competitors. Its motorcycles were used by nearly every police department in America. This was soon to change.

The chairman of Harley-Davidson at the time, William E. Davidson was the son of the founder. He believed the lightweight motorcycles were no affright to Harleys business. By the middle of the 1960s HD realized its mistake an tried to fence in this segment by bringing motorcycles from Italy. These were of no go against spirit than the motorcycles Harley was producing in its plants, and no where no wear the quality of the Hondas, the market leader at the time. Harley-Davidson went public in 1965, ultimately becoming a division of AMF, a recreational and bowl equipment manufacture. After losing money for more than a decade, Harley-Davidson was sold to a group lead by Vaughan Beals, the... If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

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