Harley-Davidson offers various customization options while Yamaha offers competitive pricing options. Polaris excels in product safety while Honda brings reliability to the table. SYM has been praised for its high-quality and performance.
HARLEY DAVIDSON
CONSUMER PERCEPTION OF THE BRAND
- Harley-Davidson's reviews are predominantly negative, with people mainly pointing out engine failures, electric part malfunctions, and high fees. The average rating of the company on the Consumer Affairs website is around 1.2 stars.
TARGET MARKET
- Harley-Davidson has focused lately on expanding its aim at the millennials and baby-boomers.
- The company has also been targeting women. An example of this is their bike line Sportster.
- In general, Harley-Davidson targets passionate bikers coming from the upper-middle-income group and between the ages of 25 and 40 years.
PRODUCTS
- Harley-Davidson offers electric, street, sport, heritage, touring, trike and CVO bikes.
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
- Harley-Davidson's main competitive advantage is its broad product portfolio, brand recognition, and years of experience.
- Another advantage that Harley-Davidson has against their competitors is its wide array of customization options.
HONDA
CONSUMER PERCEPTION OF THE BRAND
- People think of Honda mainly as the brand that manufactures automobiles. On the Consumer Affairs website, Honda has 4 out of 5 stars average rating.
- In general, customers are dissatisfied with paint quality, electric part malfunctions, roadside assistance and build quality.
TARGET MARKET
- Honda has committed to serving the eco-friendly field, intending to have two-thirds of its global vehicle sales come from electrified vehicles.
- Their US market, however, is currently lacking interest in eco-friendly vehicles and demands bigger size, utility, and driving dynamics.
- In the US, Honda's motorcycles marketing team is targeting multicultural millennials. Their strategy is a combination of digital and social media ads that focus on multicultural individuals.
- Their target market is middle-income individuals.
PRODUCTS
- Honda offers adventure, touring, cruiser, sport, super sport, minimoto, and standard bikes.
- In, addition, they offer off-road (Source 19) and police bikes.
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
- Honda leads the market in terms of reliability. The brand has a widespread reputation of being reliable, which is supported by consistently earning high rankings in Consumer Reports.
- Also, Honda is competitive in terms of fuel efficiency in comparison with other brands.
POLARIS
CONSUMER PERCEPTION OF THE BRAND
- On the Consumer Affairs website, Polaris has an average score of two stars.
- Most of the reviews are negative, and the complaints are focused on vehicle malfunctions.
TARGET MARKET
- While millennials are one of Polaris' main consumer groups, the brand is currently targeting baby boomers.
- Through their marketing and message, they aim at people with heritage value by evoking feelings of nostalgia.
PRODUCTS
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
- Polaris has a competitive advantage in terms of safety/quality of their products. According to the executive vice-president of global operations of the company, they have invested significantly in safety development.
YAMAHA
CONSUMER PERCEPTION OF THE BRAND
- On the Consumer Affairs website, Yamaha Motorcycles has an average rating of 4.2 stars, and most of their reviews have positive feedback.
- Their consumers' feedback focus on how innovative the brand is, the quality of their manufacturing, ease of steering, and suitability for learner-drivers.
TARGET MARKET
- Yamaha targets the middle-class market and individuals between the ages of 25 and 35 years old.
- Through their marketing and message, they also target families with children.
PRODUCTS
- Yamaha offers the following motorcycle types: motocross, cross-country, trail, dual-sport, super sport, Hyper Naked, Sport Heritage, Transcontinental Touring, Adventure Touring, Sport Touring, and scooters.
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
- Yamaha has the best price to performance ratio in the field and competitive pricing in comparison with its competitors.
SYM
CONSUMER PERCEPTION OF THE BRAND
- The general US opinion around SYM is that it is a scooter company rather than a bike manufacturer.
- The customers praise the brand for its high-quality and performance but consider it low-tech when compared to other bikes in the market.
TARGET MARKET
- Through their advertising and their message, SYM targets both millennial men and women.
PRODUCTS
- SYM offers scooters, e-bikes, cubs, and bikes in their portfolio.
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
- A review made by one of MN Motorcycles experts said the bike is capable of outperforming other more technologically advanced motorcycles.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
To provide the competitive analysis of Harley-Davison, Yamaha, Honda, SYM, Polaris, we searched through reliable industry sources, and the official company websites. This search helped us determine each company's target market, brand perception, products, and competitive advantage. However, the search did not bring any official statement about SYM's competitive advantage. To provide this, we used the following strategy.
As our first step, we searched credible review sites, such as Consumer Affairs, Consumer Reports, and other similar sites hoping to find reviews that could help us determine its competitive advantage or to provide a customer perception. However, these sites did not list any review from SYM's consumers.
Next, we looked for reports or analysis made by experts and third-party companies about SYM. We hoped to find a comparison of the company with its US competitors and use it to determine its competitive advantage. We searched sites like Marketing91, Industry Week, Competitive Advantage Analysis, among others. A review made by one an expert from MN Motorcycle on one of their bikes, praised the bike's quality, but there was little information to make a competitive advantage analysis.
As our next steps, we searched for any survey conducted in the US about the motorcycle manufacturing industry that would contain insights into the brand perception and competitive advantage of SYM against the other brands. We researched through sites like Research Gate but were unable to find any survey of the kind.
Lastly, we decided to look for interviews with the leadership team of the company hoping to find mentions of the position SYM has in the US market, its target market, or how the brand is perceived. Additionally, since the company is headquartered in Taiwan, we searched through local news sites like Taipei Times and UDN. Unfortunately, although we found a few interviews with its leaders, the company's perception, strategy, or position in the American market was not mentioned.
While we found enough information to give a small insight into the brand's perception, its target market, and insight on the brand's advantage, not enough information was available to provide a competitive analysis of SYM in the US from a more official source.