mika
Still Wondering
H-D must have to take all those huge profits made over the past few years and invest it in developing new bits of chrome or coffee mugs, or in their marketing department to convince people the "lifestyle" is cool. You know, if they have to explain it..... I rode a friend's Ulysses and was quite impressed. Just one more reason to despise H-D.
H-D has clearly been a master in licensing and managing its name to third party manufactures of product. Ducati is the only other MC manufacturer to be able to come close to duplicating their success. What did they do with the money? YouÔÇÖre well wide of the mark.
- two examples are in this threads story source. First they purchased and further developed Buell motorcycles. Eric Buell started and ran Buell as an independent and was eventually bought out by H-D. Secondly MV Agusta was purchased by HD with some of that money as well. If a fraction of the leaks and rumors were true riders missed out on the resurrection of the Cagiva Elephant and several Cagiva sport bikes that were reported to be in rapid development in an effort to expand customer base and bring a return on investment.
- H-D has spent a great deal of money going through the hoops and the expense of establishing itself as an exporter to the European market.
- H-D has been is about to enter the India market after several years of effort to overcome import barriers, transport laws and other legal issues.
- A final example of what they have done with those profits is they paid investors dividends. I am not a big fan of the ÔÇÿHarley lifestyleÔÇÖ stuff nor do I purchase H-D branded items, yet I must admit to be a past owner of H-D stock. The dividends paid and the money made by buying and selling H-D stocks is, I suppose, in part responsible for my BMW lifestyle.
It is easy to make fun of the branding but if you are a fan of motorcycling there is much more to this story and deeper implications for motorcycling than chrome coffee cups.