Thorr Motorcycles, Inc. is dealing with sales decreased on its CruiserThorr, a 1500cc power priced at $25,800. The reason is found that its target customer in the age group of 35 to 50 years are growing older and are no longer interest in the lifestyle that CruiserThorr symbolizes. Also younger customers in the age group of 21 to 35 years prefer low-cost motorcycles, because they do not have large disposable incomes. The company may lose younger customers to its competitors, who carried lower cost motorcycles.
New marketing plan is proposed for CruiserThorr by using of a Perceptual Map. A Perceptual Map is a visual representation of what the customer thinks of a brand. It can have innumerable axes, where each axis represents an attribute of a product. It my show that customers' perception of a brand is different from what the company is trying to promote. In this manner, it can identify opportunities by highlighting unsatisfied needs of customers give different importance to a brand's attributes. Additionally, a brand's position can be compared with that of its competitors. This information can be correlated with sales figures to ascertain market strengths.
A position strategy can be formulated using the insight gained from a perceptual map.
In the simulation, student will construct and use a perceptual map to create a marketing plan for a motorcycle brand. The competitor product's comparison table is provided as follows: Company | Thorr Motorcycles, Inc. | Haruhiro-Daisetsu Motorcycles | Michelin Mecanique | Brand | CruiserThorr | Anzai | Espritique | Engine Features | Superior Engine Design | Durable Engine | Best Air-Cooled Engine | Lifestyle Image | High-Upper Market Segment | Fun-Younger Market Segment | Safe-Lower but Large Market Segment | Price | $25,800 | $14,300 | $17,600 | Services | Limited Services | Support to Dealers | Wide Range of Support and Services |
Also Market Research Ratings provided a sampling of motorcycles users (320 men from ages 20 to 50 years) was asked to rate CruiserThorr and its competitors, on a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best), for the following parameters. The table reflects how customers view the competing brands on each parameter. The perceptual map also uses this data to plot all three motorcycles when the parameter is selected.
Phase I: Choosing Four Fundamental Parameters
After carefully analyzed the data, four fundamental parameters were chosen, those are lifestyle image, service offerings, price, and quality engineering.
Lifestyle image plays the most important role in the motorcycle industry. Lifestyle image is what a customer thinks about a brand. The customer's beliefs and attitudes constitute the brand's image. This image is conditioned by the manner in which the company advertises and promotes the brand., especially in the power cruiser segment.
Service are simple but time-tested ways of ensuring loyalty among customers, dealers, and distributors. Customer loyalty is greatly enhanced by providing services such as club memberships, training for motorcycle maintenance, customization, financial services, and support to motorcycle owner groups.
Price is the most important attribute of product, because it drives purchase decisions in most cases. Younger customers usually prefer less expensive motorcycles. However, an inexpensive motorcycle may also mean low brand image. Price drives purchase decisions and a high price is directly proportional to a high image. Normally, price cannot be lowered without adversely affecting brand image.
Quality engineering covers all the aspects of manufacturing from sourcing the best material to high-quality production to superior styling. A motorcycle brand cannot maintain a high brand image without this attribute.
Phase II: Reposition CruiserThorr
With $13 million budget provided for marketing strategy and based on the SWOT analysis and consumer preferences, following decisions were made: * Marketing strategy is to