An interesting video for sure. I remembered some of the story from the Reagan years but never paid attention to it. The latest with Donald J and the tariffs on steel and aluminum - wouldn't have thought it could up the cost by $2200 per unit. Ouch !!
If I were a CEO right now of a company in the category of non-essential services, I'd be head scratching right now. If the company isn't in dire straits right now, it certainly will be by the time we get out of this pandemic. When we finally get our freedom back, the loose change in our pockets will be accounted for in needs, not wants. Going to restaurants, sports games, or any recreation that has an associated charge will likely fall by the wayside and may not recover any time soon. People are going to consider alternatives to public transportation and if I were Harley Davidson I would be putting on my thinking cap and looking at new markets that evolve from this pandemic situation.
If people get paranoid about public transit, what could replace it? Micro cars maybe? How could we incorporate those in to a market where the average vehicle is 2500 lbs? Lane ways for micros? Maybe we could dedicate the HOV lanes for the micros since carpooling will likely be a thing of the past. You could park 3 micros in the space provided for 1 North American vehicle. The major highways in Toronto Ontario as an example can handle 40,000 cars per hour. If we went to micros, maybe 80,000 cars an hour. That would certainly help with the lack of infrastructure and maybe relieve some of the traffic problems.
In a typical family, the husband and wife go their separate ways to get to and from work. A couple of micros for commuting and a family car for other required travels would work. Some ingenuity in the insurance market would help sell the possibility. Maybe insure the driver for whatever he's driving and not the individual vehicles. I always thought that would make sense. I'd love to have a fleet of vehicles for different experiences but I'll be damned if I'll pay out $10,000 a year to insure them all.
The motorcycle market has been falling off for years along with golfing. This pandemic will make that situation worse. Before you try and sell any more motorcycles, you need to energize the market again. Millennials will try anything that looks like fun. Riding around on a rainy day on a motorcycle wouldn’t cut it. They’re wimps, not Harley riders that live to tell about their attempt at the Iron Butt run they did last summer.
The only thing that’s going to pull Harley Davidson out of the ditch will be some creative thinking and a diversification in their market strategy. They tried to enter a market for motorcycles under $10K and it didn’t work. Very poor attempt. It wasn’t the price of a Harley that was the problem, it was the market attitude and the Millennials. Give them a self driving car with an onboard computer to work or play from while they travel from one place to another, and they will be all over it.
Anyway, my 2 cents.
