Hog There Are Many Opportunities for Harley Essay

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There are many opportunities for Harley Davidson moving forward in the motorcycle industry. Historically, Harley Davidson has sold most of its bikes in the United States and has enjoyed success almost exclusively in the heavyweight and superheavyweight categories. This leaves a lot of opportunity for Harley Davidson to capture other markets, if it can find the right branding and niches. There are also internal opportunities to lower costs and improve quality, both of which could increase profits at the company at least in the short run.

Lehman Trikes represents one of the opportunities that Harley Davidson faces (Looney & Ryerson, 2011). The trike industry is a niche part of the motorcycle industry, wherein Lehman offers parts and kits for converting existing motorcycles into three-wheeled motorcycles. This industry is likely to remain niche, despite some promising growth from motorcycle enthusiasts. From Harley's perspective, the deal represents a couple of opportunities. The first is that it gives them another outlet for parts sales, where Lehman would simply be a retailer of sorts as people seek to convert Harley bikes into three-wheelers using Lehman kits. Having Harley on board helps lend legitimacy to the kits, and working with Lehman provides Harley with an opportunity to capture revenues from the conversion of its bikes into three-wheelers (Huze, 2010).

For Harley the second opportunity that relates to the Lehman deal is the potential of the trike industry niche for development by Harley Davidson. Once Harley develops the parts and technology for trikes in-house, it will have the ability to sell kits on its own, or even to develop its own line of trikes. It stands to gain from Lehman, therefore, the technological capabilities to compete in this industry for itself, something that occurs a few years after the initial deal (Huze, 2010).

In general, this is the approach that Harley needs to take to develop their business further.

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Overall, Harley's business has been dependent on older people -- baby boomers -- purchasing bikes. As these baby boomers enter their 60s, they might be challenged to ride Harleys, which are heavy and relatively difficult to control. There are also balance issues as older people have lower equilibrium than younger people. Harley's ability to respond to the aging of its core market, followed by a smaller Gen X demographic, represents a challenge going forward in the long run. Trikes are a niche market, but any market that is growing is a good one. Further, trikes help solve the balance problem if not the control problem, and may be a way for Harley to stretch its appeal to its core market for an extra decade.

There are also opportunities overseas. Part of the problem for Harley is that its products have not traditionally appealed to the overseas consumer, where motorcycles are often viewed more as a specific transportation solution rather than a luxury item. This leads consumers to cheaper bikes. Harley has to consider that it needs to find ways to appeal to foreign buyers more in order to become less dependent on specific segments of the American market.

2. There are significant threats that Harley faces. One such threat is in the economy. The recent performance of Harley Davidson is such that its revenues today are still below the peak in 2008, the result of the economic downturn that reduced demand for luxury items, and that is usually what a Harley bike is for most consumers (MSN Moneycentral, 2013). This reduced demand is therefore an ongoing threat, and if there was any further economic downturn the company would be challenged to recover. It is now back to profitability after some cost cuts, but must consider that its business remains highly dependent on a health economy, and there is no.....

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