The politics of the "Jap bike"

The reason for my confusion is that in one post BeeString claims a 100% market share for HOG. I'll contend that they never had a 100% market share as Indian was there first. When Indian died in '53 the British manufacturers were well established and had a sizable market share. When the Brits mostly succumbed to their own troubles in the late '60s and early '70s the Japanese bikes were well established although not really operating on HOG's turf until the CB750 and Z1 and later large displacement models from the '70s onward.

Let's face it, by 1980 an AMF Harley-Davidson was a rolling, (er, pushed?) joke except amongst motorcycle club types, true believers, and hangers on. HDI didn't just wait for the tariff and then try to push the old stuff. No, they honestly came out with a better product, the Evolution engine upon which the resurgence of HDI hinged. They truly did put a better product on the market. They brilliantly combined that with image and identity marketing, as afore mentioned, and the rest is history.

I want to touch on market share a moment. To keep it simple, let's say company A develops a product and sells two units. They are the only producer and thus have a 100% market share. The next year company B hits the market with a similar product and sells one unit while company A sells three. Uh oh, company A went from 100% market share to 75% so they must be failing, right? Wrong! Their production and sales increased by 50% while the market for their product increased by 100%. These are simple numbers but I used them to illustrate a point. A given market expressed as a percentage appears to be static--a zero sum game--with only shifts between players in that market. In fact, one needs to look at the actual numbers to determine if production and sales are increasing or declining. The fact is that since the end of the tariff in 1987, HDI's sales and production numbers had steadily increased until 2007.

I will avoid any discussion of quality for the moment. Robert Pirsig went insane and received electro-shock treatment for his trouble of trying to define and quantify it.

I would agree that HD have done an amazing marketing job in both positioning and selling their product. However, it is my understanding that their bike sales have actually reached a plateau. It started about five or six years ago, and they reacted by marketing more to women, which worked for a while. Now they figure they have pretty much sold a bike to everyone who is going to buy one, so the only new sales are to people trading up(?) to a new bike.

Their answer - accessories, clothing etc. H-D only allows sales of officially recognised H-D products, and they very actively defend their trademark and search out those who use it illegally. So now they make their money from licensing out the trademark!

For some odd reason they are also very sought after in Europe - but they are prohibitively expensive! When I worked at Volvo, one of the Swedish guys in upper management was buying new Harleys as fast as he could get them - he shipped them back to Sweden and was making a 100% profit on the deal! He figured it paid for his retirement!

It's interesting to note that HOG has rolled out the Euro only XR1200 which only invokes an image of flat track racing. Leather clad gangs of dentists and accountants need not apply. It more closely resembles something Mert Lawmill would build than anything I've seen come out of Milwaukee in my lifetime, yet there they are, building for a new market.

All that aside, the salient question is why does the typical American motorcycle buyer prefer a heavy and slow motorcycle over something lighter and more sporty?

Yes, every company has the right to petition/lobby/cry for help from the Federal Government, but its akin to General Motors asking congress to impose tariffs on Toyota until GM can get their employees to stop calling in sick during the week and then working for double-time pay on Saturdays. Or Ford asking Governor Grandholm (the baby assassin) for a tax incentive because they can't afford to keep paying a high school dropout $35 an hour for installing 30-40 screws an hour on an F-150 (I've been all over the plants, and I've seen just about everything).

Its not an isolated problem, it's an epidemic. And it's not the government's job to create socialist (as in anti-capitalist) buffer zones for companies to get their panties on straight.

Its interesting that a large chunk of HD's congressional work is centered around lobbying US congress to press foreign government to influence them to remove or reduce tariffs on HD cycles in foreign markets.

The point is, compared to things like the US Steel industry (which is currently being protected by President Bush's tariffs), HD is nothing, and they have no business lobbying US congress (weighing down our federal government) with their own whims. Its not the government's job to create or uphold the integrity of an American icon.

I don't believe its by any freudian slip that the 1930 tariff on imports (which helped to ensure that the Depression would last another 15 years) is often referred to as the "Smoot Harley Tariff Act" when in fact the world-economy crushing American foreign policy law was called the "Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act". Give a liberal an inch and it just turns into a wrecking ball.

As has been mentioned before, it's all in the marketing. Change the want into a need and then into a have-to-have.

I've joked with the guys at the paint stores before that if someone decided to, and did it right, they could sell Latex Paint Thinner by the quart.:laugh: Just got to make the customer believe that he is getting "something special".

Don't forget the Pet Rock craze!

I knew a manager at Arbys. I guess they're classic for doing the same thing. They get a different sized bun, put on 2 oz less meat, call it something different, and raise the price $2. and they sell like crazy.

As far as marketing to the female crowd - every time a company tries it they fall on their face. Cadillac keeps trying it unsuccessfully. Actually the only segment I know of where it's been positive is in (the sale of pink) firearms.

Have you seen the US Secretary of Transportation's (did I get that right?) motorcycle safety ad on tv? I guess she's a Harley chick and she got in a bad wreck some time ago.


My fiance thinks that the only biker chicks are either butch lesbians or women who are trying to impress a guy. We'll see what she has to say when her leather-bikini clad arse is on my bike.

Um...

Why are we muckraking something that happened over 20 years ago?

Is Harley once again lobbying for a tariff or something?

HD is actively lobbying congress to get them to press foreign markets and make deals so HD can avoid being subject to tariffs in foreign markets. The lobbying dollars are being funded by the HD riders and the costs of deliberating are being funded by the American taxpayer.

BeeSting wrote:

HD is actively lobbying congress to get them to press foreign markets and make deals so HD can avoid being subject to tariffs in foreign markets. The lobbying dollars are being funded by the HD riders and the costs of deliberating are being funded by the American taxpayer.

Ok, I get where you're coming from now.

Yeah, I remember the Government of India's response to US pressure to alleviate the tariff on big bikes. I forget exactly, but something along the lines of "only rich people can afford big bikes anyway, so they can also afford the 60% tariff." LOL

All that aside, the salient question is why does the typical American motorcycle buyer prefer a heavy and slow motorcycle over something lighter and more sporty?

Good point, Nate. I've seen it mentioned often, and that is the marketing of an image, and you have to admit that it has worked. I don't want to detract from the interesting discussion here, but regarding the above quote, if the shit is going to hit the fan, I prefer to be sitting up straighter in the event that you have make a quick move. Just think of jumping out of a reclined Laz-y-boy chair or jumping from a barstool? (slightly exaggerated, but I think you get my drift...) Just my $.02.

My doctor (his name is Dr. Osama Hussein Galal), a frail middle-eastern guy, parks his new, shiny Harley behind the reception desk in his new office.

I think he has single-handedly cancelled out the "toughness" of about 2000 HD owners.


btw - I picked him based on his VA experience, not his Al Qaeda-esque name.

No problem-just lay a tariff on any Harley over 700 cc's.
Tit for tat.