QMR Individual assignmentQMR Individual assignment

Revving up for the Hog Ride Revving up for the Hog Ride
Submitted by: Swarnendu SenSubmitted by: Swarnendu Sen (2012PGP 392) Submitted to: Prof. Saripalli Bhavani Shankar Submitted on: 10th December, 2013

Table of Contents
Introduction..3 Conceptualization of the problem..3 Appropriate qualitative techniques used for obtaining data.4 Rationale for choosing the techniques5 Profiling of the respondents...6 Detailed guide with questionnaire.7 Plan for data Analysis..8 Expectations from the study...9

References9

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Introduction
The two-wheeler market of India is a very large market in terms of volumes. More than a million bikes get sold in a month with all manufacturers combines. Though companies like Hero Motocorp, Bajaj Auto etc share around 50%(1) of the market between but the main growth is set to come from the premium bike segment with the sales showing 35% increase in the past three years(2). So, it makes sense for Premium bike manufacturers to tap into this market and to get their Segmentation Targeting and Positioning (STP) Strategy right.

Conceptualization of the problem

A product essentially fulfils two needs functional and emotional. The functional needs are fulfilled by the mass segments and thus consumers of premium bike are essentially fulfilling their emotional and aspirational needs by purchasing premium bikes. So, the challenge for Harley Davidson is that it has to maintain its aspirational value to bike lovers. It has already created the HOG (Harley Owners Group) but according to the article among the 2,000 plus bikes sold over the past two years only 25% have registered for the HOG ride . So, the underlying reasons have to be explored. Is the customer base changing with changing times? Is such an activity not appealing to the HOG club anymore or is there some other reason? The market is also witnessing high growth in newer generation sports superbikes at a lower price than Harley Davidson. Is it a threat for Harley-Davidson or are they a separate segment? Though there maybe some initial overlap in the price ranges in the two categories but are the emotional needs of the consumers satisfied in similar way by a superbike when compared with a Harley-Davidson bike? Apart from competition from sports bikes, many prominent MNCs like cruiser bikes of Triumph (makers of bikes like Bonneville, Street triple, Rocket III and Daytona) are entering the Indian market (3). So, the market place is getting more and more competitive. Traditionally, Harley-Davidson has relied on the pull of the brands and word-of-mouth marketing. Is this marketing and communication strategy still effective in the present context? Harley-Davidson is also planning a change of production approach for its two brands (Sportster and Dyna) from assembling the imported parts to localization approach. What effect will this news have on the Harley-Davidson customer segment? Is a Harley-Davidson bike more about owning the brand or does engineering and place of manufacturing also play an important role in the minds of the customers. India will be Harley-Davidsons second manufacturing unit outside USA (after Brazil) (4). Looking at the significant volume growth in the Indian and South-East Asian market, it will definitely provide cost advantages but will it affect the brand image (made in India tag for a Harley Davidson bike) is a question to be explored. Thus the main research agenda can be summarized as follows: rearranged to obtain a better order of objectives. What are the aspiration needs that Harley Davidson owners are looking to fulfil How much importance do they give to price which stands between the customer and their dream bike What marketing and communication strategy of Harley-Davidson would be effective in the present context
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 How to involve the customers actively to maintain the brand culture of Harley
Davidson

What are the effect of localization of Harley-Davidson bikes production in the minds
of the customers and consequently what may be the possible trade-offs associated with the decision How to protect the market share of Harley-Davidson from upcoming sports bikes and well established premium brands like Triumph What marketing and communication strategy of Harley-Davidson would be effective in the present context What are the effect of localization of Harley-Davidson bikes production in the minds of the customers and consequently what may be the possible trade-offs associated with the decision

Appropriate Qualitative techniques to be used for obtaining data

Qualitative marketing research provides a gamut of data collection techniques like -In-depth interviews, Focussed Group Discussions, Projective techniques, Participatory Appraisals, Observation, Ethnography and Case studies. Each of the techniques has its advantages and limitations based on the research problem. In this case, Appraisal techniques and Observation techniques are not suited as we are interested to know more about the why part rather than the how part. Ethnography and case studies are time consuming techniques (about 3 -6 months or more) which cannot be used in such a context. The techniques appropriate in this context are:
Focussed group Discussions

Multiple Focussed group discussions have to be conducted in series (two or three depending upon respondents and the quality of data obtained) comprising of around 8-10 people. The environment must not get very threatening and at the same time the moderator should see that the group does not reach consensus or start deciding on what the company should do. The objective of a focussed group discussion is to get insights only. If you can conduct the discussion well covering all aspects you may be able to bring in the data which you want to collect from projective techniques.
Projective Techniques

Projective techniques are used to probe into the subconscious. The techniques used here could be sentence completion and brand personification . Both the methods can be used in tandem to know about the brand personality, which brands are similar to it and what are the attributes that make Harley-Davidson stand out among others. Then in the interview, this may act as a starting point and carry forward the research.
In-depth Interviews

The respondent selected for an in-depth interview must be an expert on the subject matter and must know every aspect of bikes. The re searchers interviewing technique must engage the participant by posing questions in a neutral manner, listening attentively and asking follow up questions and probes based on those responses. Phone conversations can also be carried out
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but face to face interviews are preferred as they provide face validity. Respondents can be chosen from FGDs.

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Rationale for choosing the techniques

Why FGD

A focussed group discussion is able to obtain bike enthusiasts perceptions regarding the aspects they look forward to when making a purchase decision. It sheds light on how is the consumer buying behaviour, what are the needs, where do they search for information, what comprised their choice and consideration state and how did they finally narrow down to their purchase decision. It provides multiple view points and concerns of individuals. Since we are concentrating on bike enthusiasts only so a focus group discussion will permit them to develop their own questions as well as seek their concerns and needs in their own terms and in their own language.
Why Projective techniques

Projective technique may be useful to understand the associations (words and imagery) of brand Harley-Davidson in the mind of the customer. This will serve as a good starting point for an in-depth interview where the view of the participants can be probed deeper to understand his causal explanations.
Why In-depth Interview

The research problems required probing deep into the minds of the customers and understand what is it that they are trying to fulfil by buying a Harley-Davidson bike. It may involve uncovering some deep desires of proving oneself to be macho and powerful or some other thinking pattern which the participant may feel shy to discuss in a FGD. An In-depth interview is thus suited in this context as it provides rich data about the experiences and beliefs of a customer and helps in identifying the connections and relationship between events (like HOG ride) and brand image. For example, a respondent will feel more comfortable sharing insights in response to question rela ted to price or the localization of Harley-Davidson manufacturing in a closed door interview than an open FGD forum. Hence In-depth interview would provide deeper understanding of the customers and accordingly the company can assimilate the information in their marketing communication or in the activities planned to enhance the brand culture.

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Profiling of the respondents

A targeted sampling procedure has to be followed for collecting the relevant qualitative data. The study should include Harley owners, Owners of competitive brands and bike enthusiasts who are planning to buy or upgrade to a premium bike (a snowball sampling technique can be used to identify the third group of people). Owners of Royal Enfield can be interviewed to understand their thinking pattern as generally a Royal Enfield owner upgrades to a Harley-Davidson or a Triumph cruiser bike. Each of the groups must comprise of bike enthusiasts from across generations starting from new owner to age old bike enthusiast. It would give a taste of the customer segment that Harley-Davidson caters to and also how the views of its customer have changed with time. It is difficult and also not advisable to go for a demographic segmentation of a bike enthusiast as it is more of an emotional need. One of the expectations from the study itself is to try to come up with a psychographic segmentation of the customer base of Harley-Davidson.

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Detailed guide with relevant questions

While conducting the in-depth interview or FGD it is essential to let the participants speak as much and as uninhibitedly as possible. The interviewer/moderator should not interfere unless the discussion is totally digressing from the actual agenda. Thus, it is essential to keep track of the information that the researcher wants to get out of the study and hence list of the following questions are essential.
Questionnaire Do the respondents know about Harley-Davidson bike? Redundant when you know the respondent has a bike. When and where did they first hear it? How much attached are they to the brand? Who/What influenced him?Elaborate. For projective technique: Complete the sentence- if Harley Davidson were a living organism it would be________. Why do you think so? You may be interested in knowing how the personality of the bike matches the personality of the respondent. What are the qualities that their dream bike should have? Have they ever ridden a HarleyDavidson? Describe the experience. How was it different from other bikes? Why did they choose/not choose to buy a Harley Davidson? Among other factors, how much role did price have in their decision? Do they know about the localization of Harley-Davidson? What do they feel about it? Did they know about the HOG ride? - For Harley owners: Did they go for it? How was the experience? If they didnt go, then why? - For Non-Harley owners: Do they want to be part of such an elite group? Why/ why not? - For prospective owners: How much does being a part of HOG influence their final buy decision? Do they think it is a big deal? Why/Why not? What is their favourite brand? How similar/different do you think Harley Davidson is from their favourite brand? Elaborate. Is there no separate guide for in-depth interview? Asking the same information privately may not be of much value.

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Plan for data analysis

The interviewer in the In-depth interview or the moderator of the FGD should constant be taking notes of the views of the participants. It would be better to record the same also so that it can be referred in the future. It has to be made sure that a back up copy is created for the files. The notes have to be read, reread and review marking down important raw qualitative data. The plan for the data analysis involves:

Compiling
First a glossary of all the important terms used among bike enthusiasts have to be prepared and their respective meanings have to be listed down so that any person can make sense of the results. This is the first and very important step. Once done, the compiling of the data has to start with grouping similar kind of data or feedback (maybe by highlighting them with different colours or creating groups or files). At the end of the process, all the mountains of notes taken during FGDs or interviews must boil down to the gist, removing all other digressions.

Disassembling
This process involves memo-ing the compiled data by putting page markers or sticky notes. Then, the data has to be coded and a code key has to be prepared to get a reduced manageable data.

Reassembling
The disassembled data has to be reassembled in this stage in a meaningful way so that it can be easily visualized. For this similar patterns have to be noted and identified from the coded data. Simple statistically tools like tally marks and frequency counts are useful in this stage. After, this the pattern may be represented in a matrix form so that it is easily interpretable and critical insights can be drawn from it. Indigenous typologies or Analyst -constructed typologies may be used in this stage. In this context, analyst constructed typology may be a better approach to classify the customer base of Harley-Davidson. In this stage, the researcher has to look for constant comparisons between the three groups of respondents to see that the data gathered satisfies the assumptions. Negative instances may be found in the data which should not be overlooked. Also, there has to be rival thinking while making sense of the gathered data. Then only will it fully serve the research objective.

Interpretation
Finally, after all the hard work, the data will be ready for interpretation to provide the actual picture of the emotional needs and desires of the Harley-Davidson customer. What are the aspects they value and how deep is their brand loyalty. Also, interpretations have to be made of the taste of the new generation of bike enthusiasts. Why are they choosing rival companies or sports bikes over a Harley-Davidson? From all these interpretations only will the researcher be able to suggest a proper call for action for the company.

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Expectations from the study

The data collected is expected to unravel the buying behaviour of a premium bike customer. Insights would be collected regarding what are the emotional needs that a premium bike is required to fulfil and what aspects of it those the Harley-Davidson brand fulfil. How deep is the loyalty and brand pull of Harley-Davidson among the bike enthusiasts. When and where did the customer first learn about the brand. This would give the company idea regarding the tastes and preferences of its customer and thus connect with them deeper while planning next activities like the HOG rides. Among other things, it would also give an idea of price sensitivity of a premium bike enthusiast is his decision driven totally by choice of bike or does he comprise on the brand and specifications taking price into consideration. Basically, it would try to provide a psychographic segmentation of its customer base and provide details about the habits and preferences of its customers. Responses from owners of competitive premium bikes would give an idea of why did HarleyDavidson lose out on a potential sale. Was Harley-Davidson in their consideration set- if so what was its ranking? What were the reasons due to which they decide to drop Harley from their consideration set. This would give Harley-Davidson ideas about what necessary course of action to take to protect its market share and increase its revenue. It would also bring out how effective is the present marketing and communication strategy. Lastly, the study would bring forward the reaction of its customers towards the localization step of Harley-Davidson. It would try to answer how much importance does a customer put on a made in USA Harley-Davidson tag. Would they still buy a localized Harley-Davidson (if available say at a lower price). Will other premium bike owners switch to a low-priced localized Harley? This would give an idea about the possible trade offs of the localization decision of Harley-Davidson.

References:
1. [Link] As accessed on 7th December, 2013 2. [Link] As accessed on 7th December,2013 3. [Link] As accessed on 7th December,2013 4. [Link] As accessed on 8th December,2013 10 | P a g e