Perceptual Maps

The term “biker”” is anyone who rides a motorcycle, but for most Americans the term suggests tattooed, leather clad, barroom brawling, criminals” (Quinn & Forsyth, 2010, p. 237). The image that non-riders have refers to the “Outlaw biker” (also call the one percenters) and makes up only one percent of the culture (Quinn & Forsyth, 2010, p. 238). This paper will bring forth the other ninety-nine percent of the culture to give the public a look at the image from a different perspective. The research questions were: What is the culture of the American biker, how has it changed over the years and what influenced those changes? It starts from its early beginnings in the 1940’s with returning World War II veterans, who were looking for something other than the domestic expectations of the dominant society (Austin, Gagne, & Orend, 2010, p. 946) through the “non-outlaw recreational touring” (Austin, Gagne, & Orend, 2010, p. 943) biker culture of today. Influences, such as how the American biker culture has been exaggerated by the media and hyped by the movies to portray an image of thug like and dangerous. Then showing how the manufacturing side, with commodification and branding, created an alluring image of that culture which continues to evolve even today. This author’s methodology is a review of literature from scholarly journal articles and on-line sources about the biker culture.

My life can be divided into two segments. The first part I lived with my family and Mexico City, the second part started when I moved to Austin in the start of college. The live that I lived in each of the sections has been different from the activities that I took part in, all the way to what kind of location those activities occurred. In this paper I will explain the two mental maps that I created. For each map I will compare and contrast the Landmarks, nodes, edges, paths, and edges in each of the sections of my life and why they are relevant to me.

The motorcycle industry is growing annually and sales on CruiseThorr at Thorr Motorcycles are decreasing. This is largely due to its target customers, 35 to 50 yrs old, growing older and no longer being interested in the lifestyle that CruiserThorr symbolizes. Other factors include younger customers, in the age group of 21 to 35 yrs old, preferring low-cost motorcycles as they do not have large disposable incomes. Younger customers do not identify with CruiserThorr's lifestyle image and competitors are eating into CruiserThorr's market share. In order to reduce this trend, the following marketing

Sales of the Cruiser Thorr are decreasing. The decrease is because the Cruiser Thorr’s target consumers are aging and their tastes

Marketing and Sales represents Ducati’s most significant growth opportunities because their brand management strategy advances the Ducati name into the consciousness of their markets. In addition to motorcycles, Ducati extends the brand by selling accessories and apparel. For sure, Ducati owners will buy these products but perhaps more importantly, the aspirational aspect of the brand drives people to buy Ducati-branded items even if they don’t own the bike. This behavior is seen with the Harley-Davidson brand: many people wear H-D clothing and

The product life cycle is perhaps one of the most important things for a marketing manager to focus on and understand considering it allows them to effectively plan for the future (Perreault, Cannon, & McCarthy, 2011). Everything that occurred in the simulation was directly tied to product life cycles. Initially, CruiserThorr was well within the Maturity phase of the cycle and even beginning to enter Sales Decline. This is what caused the marketing team to evaluate the current situation and decide on a new marketing strategy. After that, the simulation continued to focus on CruiserThorr while also evaluating the effect of the new product of the RRoth motorcycle. This product is in the Introduction stage as it is a new product to the market. That is only the evaluation for each individual product though. As a whole the product of "motorcycle" is in the maturity stage as well. It has existed for

Browne (2010) situates her argument of the racialization of surveillance by focusing on how surveillance technologies place emphasis on classification of the visual aspects of one’s identity. She draws heavily from Paul Gilroy’s (2000) concept of “Epidermal thinking” – a concept referring to the modern discourse of visual judgements and how they can racialize practices in society. The concept of otherness is important to epidermal thinking, as prototypical whiteness and the ‘Other’ are examples of how skin is categorized through visual judgements. Such visual judgements translate to surveillance in terms of controlling the freedom and mobility of individuals by means of profiling those with bodies that deem them “out-of-place” (Browne 2010).

The last phase takes place 1 year later, after the RRoth has been introduced into the market. This is where perceptual maps can determine if the marketing plan was a success or a failure. The data collected by customer’s surveys that were imputed into the perceptual map and displayed in graphic form to show the results. The interpreted data showed consumers who viewed the motorcycle as a status symbol as well as a quality engineered product sought after the CrusierThorr. The price of

The final simulation involved interpreting the market research discoveries to plot Cruiser Thorr’s brand characteristics on a perceptual map. Lifestyle image received the highest value of them all, which were nine because of the appreciation of the product. Quality Engineering received an eight because of the positive responses on the Cruiser Thorr’s engine outperforming the competition. Because price initially reflected a negative

Moreover, a customer’s connection to their vehicle is not explainable to anyone other than themselves. A good vehicle will be with the owner through many years of experiences and truly becomes a part of the family. Good or bad, everyone remembers their first vehicle and a connection to that vehicle, and that feeling, can transcend rational thought when purchase a new type of vehicle. Because of this, it is required to present the customer with targeted marketing providing the customer with adequate information to sway their opinion towards a Nighthawk Motors vehicle.

The third phase of the research requires interpretation of market research after one year of implementing the new marketing plan. In addition the RRoth’s perceptual map is created by choosing the relevant attributes. The CruiserThorr had a rating of 5 for price, because people viewed the bike as expensive when compared to other bikes. A lifestyle image of 9 was chosen because the bike fit the image the consumer wanted. Service offerings rated a 7 because some of the competitors offered more services. Quality engineering of the CruiserThorr rated an 8 because customers trust that the quality of the bikes from Thorr Motors is high and the company has a high brand image. The RRoth was rated an 8 for price because the motorcycle is cheaper than the CruiserThorr and appeals to young consumers. A rating of

1. Introduction! The Braaap organisation is a motorcycle manufacturing company driven by a vision of making motorcycling more enjoyable and more accessible. Braaap’s initial vision was to create “WorldClass” motorcycles that are high quality, unique and affordable. Braaap is an emerging company amongst an industry dominated by a few well-established brands.! This report will examine the products and services offered by Braaap, the key characteristics of the company’s operating system, their significance to the market, their pricing policy, pricing variables and their affect on demand. This report will also look into Braaap’s promotional methods, their channels of

To fill their psychological needs of freedom and individualism, as well as their sense of adventure, women are purchasing customized motorcycles by the thousands. Harley Davidson has certainly recognized the women motorcyclist market as a great growth opportunity for

Historically Harley-Davidson to be a Niche Marketer, which is they had focused in on one particular aspect of the market. Kotler and Keller identified the following characteristics of niche marketing; customers have a distinct set of needs, they are willing to pay more to the firm that best suits their needs, it is not likely to attract competitors, gains economies through specialized products and it has a size, profit and to grow. Almost all of these hold true for the “heavyweight” segment of motor cycles that Harley-Davidson produced.

One of Harley Davidson biggest opportunities is intrinsically linked to its major weakness. Internationally there is a large bit of a very big pie that Harley Davidson has not managed to attain. Although Harley Davidson has less than 13% of the heavy weight motorcycle sales in Europe, they manage to hold the number 2 ranking in this market. This ranking indicates that no one competitor owns the heavy weight market in Europe and suggests that the customer loyalty amongst the competitors is far from what Harley Davidson enjoys in the USA.