Harley-Davidson Is Fighting For Its Life by Building Anti-Harleys in Asia

[DeluxAuto]

https://jalopnik.com/harley-davidson-is-fighting-for-its-life-by-building-an-1835649241/amp

“We see tremendous long-term opportunity in China,” Chief Executive Matt Levatich said on a call with analysts in January.

Harley said last year that it expects industry-wide sales of smaller bikes in Asia to grow 6% a year between 2017 and 2022, while it expects sales of many types of motorcycles in the U.S. to decline over that period.

Harley-Davidson is in trouble, and has been for some time. Young people in America don’t want the big, heavy motorcycles that are Harley’s main business, and President Trump’s trade war has been nigh disastrous. So it increasingly has turned to Asia. Pretty soon, the company hopes, selling bikes abroad will be its biggest market.

Harley’s in a weird spot. But like how Buick sells a ton of cars in China but is trying to get over its image as a has-been here in the U.S., Harley has found that its image overseas has much greater upside than here. What’s interesting about that strategy, is that Harley is growing in Asia and other markets by selling lighter-weight motorcycles, which is the same strategy that Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, and Suzuki used to nearly break Harley itself when they entered the American market in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

 

[SpeareChucker]

Uhhh...


okay.

Is this a "globalism" sucks thread?

 

[HisArpy]

Uhhh...


okay.

Is this a "globalism" sucks thread?

No, it's a "Trump" sucks thread by proxy.

Apparently, any time a US company sees, and/or acts on, a business opportunity, it's all Trump's fault.

Somehow.

 

[oralaccents]

Harleys are dying a slow death in North America, because nobody under 50 wants one.

Good news is now even Wat Tyler can afford one (used).

 

[HisArpy]

Harleys are dying a slow death in North America, because nobody under 50 wants one.

Good news is now even Wat Tyler can afford one (used).

It's a customer base issue.

Those who ride them have only comprised a small segment of the population since the beginning. Yet, in order to thrive a business has to gain market share. You can't do that if your product only appeals to a small segment.

HD got where it is today because of the baby boomers buying the bikes as status symbols. Once the fad faded, the handwriting was on the wall.

Golf and golf accessory manufacturers are facing the same dilemma today.


HD is attempting to broaden it's market share with it's smaller urban bikes as well as it's E-bike. To purists, it's pollution of the brand. To potential buyers, the new product carries the stigma of the old product and all of it's character traits/flaws. This has never turned out well for any company in similar situations.

HD would have done better to spin these off in a secondary subsidiary under a completely different badge.

 

[oralaccents]

Buell-er….Buell-er….Buell-er?

Amarichi !

 

[SpeareChucker]

Harleys are dying a slow death in North America, because nobody under 50 wants one.

Good news is now even Wat Tyler can afford one (used).

~~ tee hee ~~


But he already has one...

 

[RoryN]

[thread]

Nice work. This one hit home.

 

[Luk]

Nice work. This one hit home.

He certainly got the deplorable contingency in a tizzy.

 

[doowdniw]

No, it's a "Trump" sucks thread by proxy.

Apparently, any time a US company sees, and/or acts on, a business opportunity, it's all Trump's fault.

Somehow.

Trumps sucks, true enough, but the article seemed a bit deeper than that.