Honda Bikes

In addition to the Company's deep advertising spend, Honda's long-term strategy was evident in the Company's stout commitment to research and development and advanced manufacturing techniques. As a result, Honda used their productivity-based cost advantage to bring about new bike models at pricing points below the competition. Furthermore, this enhanced efficiency enabled them to have a shorter conception to market turnaround period, providing an additional "leg up" on the competition. Honda's investment in advertising and R&D not only helped to improve their brand awareness, production efficiency, and pricing points, but ultimately breathed life into the overall U.S. market for recreational motorcycles and left their competitors in a sizable hole following the 1960s. Honda's dealerships were also larger in size and were able to take chances in new markets thanks to the size of their network.

As reiterated in the Boston Consulting Groups analysis of the motorcycle market, the key to Honda's success was their strategic weight on market share and sales volume. This stress on market share is evident when one of the Company's top questions asked to a prospective Honda dealer is the level of market share in the community. It can be said that the primary role of a Honda dealerships General Manager is to maximize local Honda market share. Moreover, Honda subscribed to a long-term strategy with objectives targeting sales volume marks rather than pure dollar consideration. The competitive Honda philosophy also centered on maintaining an agile product line where products could be updated, redesigned, or cut in price based on activity from the competition. Despite the additional costs incurred by overseas shipping, the proficiency that Honda, and similar Japanese companies are able to attain in their manufacturing and production sectors enable them to continue to price their products competitively relative to North American and European rivals.