Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

The millennial media landscape is distinctly different
Mean hours per week, per capita (UK, 2017)
Age 75+
Age 65-74
Age 55-64
Age 45-54
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Age 35-44
Age 15-34

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‘Attacking a fortified area is an act of last resort.’
Sun Tzu, c.500 BC. Clavell (1981)
SELECTING MARKET TARGETS
CHAPTER 9
Harley-Davidson brought 
low by tariffs and 
demographics
A tour of the modernist building of the 
Harley-Davidson museum in Milwau-
kee helps to explain why the midwest-
ern maker of motorcycles has iconic 
status, but also why it is struggling. 
Nearly all the visitors are white, middle-
aged men, some clad in leather and 
heavily tattooed, others dressed con-
servatively. Harley is the quintessential 
baby-boomer brand but its customers 
are slowing down.
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The firm has been losing sales at home 
for eight consecutive quarters with 
the latest being no exception. Sales 
in America plunged by a tenth in the three months 
ending at the end of December compared with the 
same period a year earlier, it said this week. The total 
cost of tariffs (those imposed specifically on its bikes 
by the European Union and China, and also those 
levied by America on imports of steel and aluminium, 
its main materials), together with restructuring costs, 
wiped out its profits.
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The 116-year-old business has been through tough 
times before. It almost went under in 1981 when 
America was in recession and Japanese makers 
Rough ride
of motorcycles dumped unsold inventory onto the 
American market at extremely low prices. Then a 
group of employees bought the company, persuaded 
the government to impose tariffs on Japanese bikes, 
improved the quality of its wares and returned to the 
heavy retro look of the 1940s. That did the trick for 
baby boomers who flocked in droves to the expensive 
toys cleverly marketed as a symbol of freedom, indi-
vidualism and adventure on America’s scenic roads.
Now tariffs are the enemy: the company expects 
their cost to rise to $120m this year. Matt Levatich, 
Harley’s boss, stoked President Donald Trump’s ire 
when he announced in June his plans to move pro-
duction of motorcycles destined for the European 
Sales keep plunging in the home market
Source: Digital-Fotofusion Gallery/Alamy Stock Photo.

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INTRODUCTION
Introduction 
One of the key decisions a company faces is its choice of market, or markets, to serve. 
However, many firms enter markets with little thought as to their suitability in the longer 
term. They are entered primarily because they appear superficially attractive for the firm’s 
products or services. As we shall see in this chapter, a strong case can be made for choosing 
markets and industries where the prospects are attractive, but also where the firm can estab-
lish a strong, defensible, position. Figure 9.1 suggests that if we compare, in general terms, 
the attractiveness of markets and the strength of the competitive position we can take, then 
there are several traps to be avoided: 
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