Word: sportster
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Harley-Davidson has been through a few cycles. It was founded in Milwaukee in 1903, and within a decade built itself into a global business. It survived the Great Depression by selling to police departments. In 1957, it introduced the Sportster, a sleeker, less expensive alternative to the company's popular touring bikes and a response to a wave of British imports. The Sportster's relatively small size made it appealing to women. But by the 1970s, motorcycling had become a marginalized sport. Its renaissance came in the late 1980s, driven largely by baby boomers' new affluence. From...
Acknowledging the challenge of selling premium motorcycles in this economic environment, Harley-Davidson recently introduced a print ad aiming to play on the Sportster Iron 883's relatively low price. The message: "About six bucks a day. Cheaper than your smokes, a six-pack, a lap dance, a bar tab, another tattoo, a parking ticket ..." The Sportster line is expected to account for a larger share of Harley-Davidson's sales this year - though still less than 25% of the total. (The company notes that there is still a waiting list for the new $29,000 Tri-Glide Ultra Classic...
...first moves was to hire a director of product development for "outreach customers" - young people, women and those in non-U.S. markets. Richer's team quickly discovered that young people aren't into the heavy chrome found on many Harley-Davidsons - hence the emphasis on the primarily black Sportster Iron 883, which was already in development...
...Honda, Ducati, Kawasaki and Suzuki. Harley-Davidson also owns a line of products under the Buell brand. But it may make sense to transport some of those products to a new sport-bike line bearing the Harley-Davidson brand, pricing them at roughly the same point as its Sportster line, or less...
...Harley-Davidson dealers like Emily Vindeni, of Glendale, Calif. In a typical month, Vindeni sells about 70 bikes at her shop. In January, however, she sold 42. Vindeni recently cut her staff by 10 people, to 65. She's reduced her inventory and lowered prices on some items. The Sportster is usually one of the slowest-selling models, "the ones we're trying to get rid of at the end of the year," she says. But soon after arriving at her showroom, the Sportster Iron 883 sold out. "They've been saying for a long time that it's important...