| Author | Message | ||
     Al_lighton |
http://www.dealernews.com/dealernews/LATEST+NEWS/W andell-Harley-Davidson-needs-to-be-more-agile-see/ ArticleStandard/Article/detail/742994?contextCateg oryId=48447 So let's get this straight..HD kills off Buell when the Buell name cachet was never higher, so that they can focus on their core brand and customers, and then make statements in the link above like: Harley-Davidson is plotting a marketing course designed to walk a tightrope: attracting new customers without alienating die-hard fans, CEO Keith Wandell says. “We can’t survive on our core customers alone,” Wandell told a symposium audience at the Center for Operational Excellence at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business Friday. Wandell hinted that the company will bring new products to market more quickly and try to be a more agile player to keep up with market trends. Brilliant management. Just Brilliant. | ||
| Pwnzor |
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| Whatever |
Al, you almost gave me a heart attack. For a minute I thought A_S_B was closing down. Never! Hope you have fun in the desert soon.  | ||
| Whatever |
Wandell isn't even worth the breath... you look at the 1190RS and then you get the WOW factor... EB has been unleashed... Wandell and the chrome butt jewelry is boring. | ||
| Pwnzor |
I got a Hardley Davidstein Visa card offer in the mail yesterday... All the "rewards" are issued in chrome... I'm not even bs'ing here, literally the card has chrome rewards. I think I saved it, I'll see if I can find it when I get home and scan it for public entertainment purposes. | ||
| Blake |
Par for the course. Not very bright. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
HD: the last few seconds of smart bomb footage before the static. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
dont even get me started on the revolving door policy they did with the MV Augusta diabocle | ||
| Madduck |
Always remember, Harley Davidson survived worse management. So soon we forget about the Brunswick years when the product line included holiday rambler. The current management team will do their best to kill off the brand but it will endure. Harley will be harder to kill than Indian or ChrisCraft. | ||
| Slaughter |
American Machine and Foundry got a lot of heat for their running of the Mother Company - but there was some good that came of it. MOST curious to see what The Golfer pulls out of his ass to convince people that the Mothership is going to be an "agile" company. (not holding my breath) | ||
| Azxb9r |
All the "rewards" are issued in chrome I got the same offer... it gave me a good laugh. Did you check out the interest rate they offered? | ||
| Hughlysses |
Pwnzor, that is the most awesome motivational poster, EVER! | ||
| Just_ziptab |
Between 60 and 70 stores have closed in recent years, and another 30 are expected to be trimmed from the field soon. How does reducing the number of dealers help anything at all? Are dealers a liability to h-d's bottom line"? There is a reason I don't have a lot of things..................simply because there is not a dealer for "those things" in my area........DUH! | ||
| Buellerxt |
Easy to criticize from a Buell perspective, and I surely wish Buell's were still being made, and improved upon, but I'd give Wandell very high marks. Harley is the bike of choice for every age group, including the 18-35 group! Costs are down, efficiency is up, profitability is up, and all in a very tough economy. The guy seems to be batting a very high average for sure! Yeah, it may not be 'cool' to acknowledge, but the guy turned Harley around from the crazy MV Augusta, everything will be good forever, bs drug trip they were on. | ||
| Buellifer |
Wendall is an avid golfer maybe he will bring back the H-D golf carts. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Ummm......No, HD ISN'T the bike of choice for every age group. Every year the average Harley buyer's age moves farther to the right. When Wandell says "core" he means the aging and dying baby boomers. | ||
| Pwnzor |
I would hazard a guess that their "core" is moving toward something that looks a little better, works a lot better, and costs about half as much. | ||
| Whatever |
Or this...  I really like the styling on this bike, and I bet it handles much better than an Electroglide of any age. | ||
| Whatever |
That is Jim B's bike btw at the Big Jim Memorial ride this year. Cool, isn't it?  | ||
| Cyclonedon |
I can walk through a Harley dealership in 5 minutes now days because there isn't anything there worth looking at! I use to love Harley Davidson but they have totally screwed up their product line and I think Keith Wandell is a total idiot so I no longer have any use for the brand. | ||
| Swampy |
"Between 60 and 70 stores have closed in recent years, and another 30 are expected to be trimmed from the field soon. How does reducing the number of dealers help anything at all? Are dealers a liability to h-d's bottom line"? There is a reason I don't have a lot of things......" The big red brick buildings, the floor plan, the inventory, where do you think all that money comes from? The mothership holds ALOT of the debt of the dealerships, 30, 60, 90 days of credit. The mothership would require a certain amount of inventory such as chrome, tee shirts and bikes to be on the floor, I am speculating here but probably it is tracked on a monthly basis, if a dealer did not order a certain amount of merchandise a sales rep. would be knocking on the door in the morning for a little discussion with the owner with ideas about moving more merchandise before the month was up. Someone has to make those interest payments, that is the inspiration of the morning pep talks that go something like this " This weeks goal is to sell more ____ or we are going to have to start laying off people" | ||
| No_rice |
harley forcing there dealers to build monstrosity stores killed alot of them, or forcing them to drastically remodel for no damn reason. they have decided that the current slat wall style is no longer acceptable, so now we have to remodel the whole showroom to how they want it to be. doesnt matter that we still havent fixed the roof... so what if it rains on the new show room. its been raining in on the old one since before i was here. and yes, we have to order x amount of stuff from harley in x amount of time, all the time. they tell us we need to be selling it, but they really dont worry about that. they only really make sure that we are buying as much as they want wether we can get it sold or not. | ||
| Paint_shaker |
Harley's don't sell because of what Wandell does.... Harleys sell because they are Harleys... Unfortunately, long before Wandell the mothership began "guiding" it's dealers along a certain destination... | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Let's not forget that Harley just recently bought MV Agusta, for about $150 million, IRC, and then invested another $250 million in making that company viable. Then, they gave it back to the original sellers for free. Now there is a business plan for you! Gonna get a lot of new young riders in the showroom with that move, right? | ||
| Spank |
Whatever - That Victory drives like an old caprice wagon but with two wheels...And it isn't very cheap either. I don't have much experience with a Electroglide other than driving my uncles a few years back, but I have to say the Victory is more "refined". The adjustable windshield is pretty neat as well. | ||
| Swampy |
and yes, we have to order x amount of stuff from harley in x amount of time, all the time. they tell us we need to be selling it, but they really dont worry about that. they only really make sure that we are buying as much as they want wether we can get it sold or not. And.....if the customer base gets tired of whatever merchandise that the mothership is peddling, the dealer is stuck with it. You usually don't see real motorcycle gear in a H-D dealership so you are stuck with what they have or shop somewhere else. As the mother ship grinds slowly down shit creek, their knowlege of "we can't survive on our core customers alone" and their vision of "we want to focus on our core customers" is at odds with one another. One side is rowing upstream and the other is rowing down...all the while they are sinking where is a motivational speaker when you need one? | ||
| Crusty |
You usually don't see real motorcycle gear in a H-D dealership I don't know what dealerships you frequent, but most of the H-D shops that I go into have some very good motorcycle gear. They also have some "Lifestyle" items, but quality is almost always very good to excellent on everything they sell. It's also top dollar in price; as they don't give anything away. Then again, Neither Aerostich suits nor Vanson leathers are going for short money, either. | ||
| Gregtonn |
“We told people to go away,” he said. “We said, ‘We don’t want you.’ ” Fixed that for you Keith. G | ||
| Oyrider |
I have a Victory Cross Country, its a 2011 model in white/silver. Rode it on Hwy 50 in Nevada... took the 35 mph corners at 70 and didn't drag anything! I'll admit I had an extra 5 psi in the rear suspension, but it handled well for an 835 lb moose. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
If I ever come back to another harley, it will be an antique - maybe a XR750, XLCR, MX250, MT350/400 or a XR1000 the new stuff - meh. |
