Motorcycle industry in Thailand Free Essay Example

Executive Summary
Thai motorcycle industry entered in Thailand since 1964. There are four main players in this industry including Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, and Suzuki. Even there are not much competitors but the competition among them are fierce. Thai market for motorcycle is in maturity stage. This makes the players have to use strong strategies to possess market share. The dominant player in this industry is Honda For customer analysis, among four leader players they quite focus customer similar group. It might be because nature of product is suitable to certain group of people.

However, they try to differentiate by focus niche group with new lifestyle. The common target group is teenager to working age. This result in the way they communicate to each target group. As motorcycle is product that are high value so the level of consumer involvement decision are high as well. People try to study what advantages and disadvantage of each model in each brand. Nevertheless, point of purchase in the sale point pays important role.

As we can see from the retail show room, promotions broad are very attractive and different among the shops.

Therefore, customers can not make decision from their home. Dealer in show room encourage customers to visit the shop to meet direct sale person for the information. For competitive analysis, the players are keeping develop themselves particularly many strategies. Honda has the most capacity and sales while other competitors also grow continuously. They have different strength points. For example, Honda is the 1st Fuel injection system applied while Yamaha is 1st produced automatic type of motorcycle and 1st produced Eco Motorcycle.

For future trends, in short term, it will not much change in position of leader but they will try to focus target customer narrowly and differently. For long time Thai market might decline. However, sale will go constantly but not jump high because people will buy new motorcycle when they want to replace the old one. Motorcycle Industry

Motorcycle industry in Thailand is growing dramatically. It is because proper geographical and economic structure. Particularly geographic, Thailand has a popular over 65 million people. The areas are flat for the most part. For some rural area it is much better to use motorcycle and in the big city with heavy traffic jam motorcycles have become the most convenient vehicle for quick travel. Thai motorcycles industry was monopolized by the Japanese four
brands are Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki, and Suzuki. History

First stage: Import parts for assembly (1964-1977) – CKD stage

In 1964 Board of Investment (BOI) got a policy to promote producing motorcycles in Thailand to replace imports. In 1966 Siam Yamaha Co.,Ltd is the first company which established motorcycle assembly factory. Thai Honda Manufacturing Co.Ltd began to operate as the second factory in next year. Then in 1968 Thai Suzuki motor Co.,Ltd was third motorcycle manufacturer in Thailand. Later in 1971 the market was sluggish including increasing the number of import used motorcycle. Therefore, the government announced the policy to prohibit import used motorcycle. In the same year, the government got the first motorcycle industry policy. The significant issue is the assembly motorcycle manufacturer have to use parts from domestic 50 percent of all parts within 2 year since the announced date(3 November 1971) to be competitive and suspension establish motorcycle plants within 5 years from announced date(3 November 1971) to accomplish economy of scale. Until the end of the announcement in 1976 Thai Kawasaki Motor Co.,Ltd established as the forth assembly plant. In 1977, the government required the existing motorcycle producer use at least 70 percent local parts within 2 years. As for expand and new factory must use parts from local at least 70 percent since start the operation. Moreover, Industry ministry had a policy to assign motorcycle plants to produce motorcycle with cylinder capacity not exceeding 125 cc to meet the needs of the market and to take advantage of economies of scale (Economy of Scale) as well.

Table 1: Details of the motorcycle manufacturers in Thailand in 1977

Honda
Suzuki
Yamaha
Kawazaki
Total
Capacity (unit per year)
49,920
87,360
72,000
25,000
234,280
Capital (million Baht)
20
18
9
5
52
Employment(person)
134
304
566
100
1,104
Source: Bank of Thailand

Second stage: Began producing parts in 1978-1987 – Localization

In 1978 there was a prohibited import motorcycles and raised import tax to some particular motorcycle from 40 percent to 60 percent including transportation and insurance. The result of prohibited import and force to use parts inside country was the producers increase their capacity. In 1980 the total capacity was 338,000 units per year which higher 103,720 units per year from 1977. However, this policy provided producers with higher production costs because of not proper economy of scale and quality of parts in non standard. As the producers can choose types of part as they want so parts did not improve and late improve. Therefore in 1984 the government allowed operators to use such parts gradually until 70 percent of the total value of the component in January 1986. In 1984 the government collected special tax for motorcycle that import in special case 20 percent of duty to be paid. It increased from the original import tax 60 percent of price and increased import duty from 30 percent to 40 percent.

As for promoting the production of parts in the country, government regulations require that manufacturers of motorcycle must use exhaust systems following industry standard. They also allowed only factories that are promoted by Board of Investment (BOI) can expand a manufacturing plant or permission to establish a factory to produce engine cylinder capacity not exceeding 150 cc. The protection of motorcycle industry policy during this period lead to the production of motorcycles increased from 190,779 units in 1978 to 310,083 units in 1987 , with a total production capacity in 1986 was 480,000 units, including the production development and launch new style of motorcycle to market to have more choices.

Table 2: Details of the motorcycle manufacturers in Thailand in 1980

Honda
Suzuki
Yamaha
Kawazaki
Total
Capacity (unit per year)
96,000
108,000
109,000
25,000
338,000
Rate of capacity utilization
70.1
86.5
95.7
75.8
84.0
Capital (million Baht)
20
18
9
5
52
Employment(person)
335
460
1,378
120
2,293
Source: Bank of Thailand

Third stage: Producing important parts (1988-1997) – Key Parts Supplier This period the government continued to enforce parts of the country are 70 percent of the total value of raw materials. The result promoting investment allowed manufacturers to use motorcycle engines produced in the country in 1989. In 1993 Board of Investment BOI promoted for 4-stroke motorcycles to help reduce pollution from exhaust and in the first investment the company is Kajiwa Motorcycles C.,Ltd, a joint venture with Italy, its annual production capacity of 70,000 units . Moreover, government began to take care of consumers’ benefit by control price of motorcycle and protect monopoly.

Government assigned producers must report production cost and procurement approach since 13 December 1980 onwards The motorcycle industry continued to grow at a high rate. Until it can produce up to 1.6 million units and capacity utilization rate reached 90.4 percent in 1995, driven primarily by the demand for motorcycles both inside and outside the country. As well as the effect of the protection of the government helped Thai producer improve their capacity and ready to support the growth of demand

Forth stage: Extending cooperation to the producers parts (1998-2001) – Agglomeration

In this period, the manufacturers of all types of part occurred in Thailand. This included the types of electronic components. The manufacturers were not only the first Tier but also include the second tier. This made ​​high competitive among the producers who produced the same types in same time they had to meet the QCD standard (Quality-Cost-Delivery). That was the producers must produce the quality with low cost and on time delivery. Consequently, 2001 Thailand motorcycle industry could produce one million
units and consumed the local parts (Local intent) about 90 percent. In addition, government changed the policy of protecting domestic industry to require the products to be safe and do not destroy the environment.

Fifth era: export and research and development (R&D) (2002 – present) Late 1990s was the period that government reduced the protection industry which was the result of a free trade agreement between the countries in 1996 revoked the ban on importing new motorcycle and canceled enforcement components produced domestically and un-enforced engine production in the country. In the fifth, Thailand became the production base of motorcycles in the region. Not only production to consume in country but also exported. In 2005, Thailand exported Complete built up (CBU) and Complete Knock down (CKD), including more than 1.3 million units Furthermore, Japanese motorcycle manufacturers began to apply research and development, technology transfer from Japan to the recipients of investment, such as Thailand.

One reason for the need to apply research and development was because during this time retailer price was strong. Therefore, in order to compete, manufacturers need to reduce production costs but the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers had strict production conditions that using quality raw material. This could lead to lower production costs by applied research and development to reduce the losses in the production process.

Figure 1: Show the motorcycle industry, production, sale in the country and export in Thailand in 1972 – 2011.

Market Analysis
Market Size
Total motorcycles sales for the domestic industry reached 2,130,041 units in 2012, of which 1,062,494 or 50% were AT motorcycles. Family motorcycle achieved sales of 981,865 units, accounting for 46% of total of sales last year; followed by 32,726 units for on- and off-road types, accounting for 2%; and 32,083 units for sport motorcycles, accounting for 2%; and another 20,899 units of other types of motorcycles. Figure 2: Show market share by types of motorcycle

Figure 3 demonstrates market share divided by motorcycle companies. Honda is the dominant player who possess market share 74% of the market. The second player is Yamaha gain 19%. For Suzuki and Kawasaki earn 3% and 2% respectively. Another 2 percent belong to other brands including Triumph, Ducati and Tiger

Figure 3: show market share base on players in the market

Thailand Motorcycle is divided into two categories based on the appearance which are Moped and Sport. Most motorcycles are moped with engine sizes from 100 to 125 cc while Sport got engine 250 cc. Thailand produces about 90 percent of Moped. The rest of the production is Sport type. It is consistent with sale of Moped are higher than Sport motorcycle. In 2004 Moped motorcycles were produced most 2.86 million unit. Figure 4: Show production and sales of motorcycles in Thailand divided by type of vehicle in 1990 -2011 (in thousand units). Source: TAI

Market trend
Thai motorcycle industry already exists in Thailand 49 years since 1964. Product life cycle of motorcycle spend long time. Many are of the opinion that the Thai motorcycle market begins to a stage of saturation, but it has not lowered competition among manufacturers. On the contrary, the competition is as fierce as ever despite the small number of major players compared to the automobile market. This situation encourages the players have to launch new interesting product on the time. Fashion and lifestyle are used to create emotional though the products.

Many motorcycle companies try to adapt themselves to serve consumers to get beyond function of motorcycle but show consumer’s lifestyle. Thailand is a country with a large market size motorcycle. The holding motorcycle proportion is 4 people per vehicle. The current version of the motorcycle in Thailand has begun to be economic model. The opportunity to expand the domestic market began to decline. Current sales are the purchased to replace old vehicles. This may result in decline ability to attract investment to Thai motorcycle industry. Situation of Thai Motorcycle Industry

From the 1990s onwards the motorcycle market in Thailand continued grew. Until the economic crisis in Thailand in 1997 (Asian financial crisis or Tom yum kung crisis) made motorcycle sales volume decreased significantly. The sales originally sold about 1 million vehicles per year, and dropped to about half million in 1998. Nevertheless, only 2-3 years after the economic crisis, the motorcycle market the sales volume increased continuously in 2001 sold about 907,100 units and 1.3 millions later in the next year.

The volume of sales back to the original level before the economic crisis of the country’s motorcycle market is growing by the year 2005, the volume of sales to 2.11 million vehicles most. For 2012, the sale climbed to 2.13 million which was higher than 2005. In 2007-2009, the sales dropped due to great recession which affected the entire world economy. After the global recession, the sales continued to increase year by year. To increase sales motorcycle manufacturers try to promote sale with many ways. Figure 5: show sale volume of Thailand Motorcycle 1993-2012

Strength and weakness of Thailand for investment in Motorcycle industry (compare to ASEAN country)
Strength
Weakness
Public utility and transportation system are equipped
Investment benefits received from the government
Quality and technology motorcycle production base
Law conducive to investment
Market size is smaller and get in saturation stage
Social and politic stability are decline
Higher wage
Shortage technician level labor

Thai motorcycle industry has a lot of strength over competitors. The manufacturers are convenient doing business and operation. Although labor costs are higher than other neighbor countries, other good strength can reduce the other costs such as management cost, business operation, transportation, and distribution costs. Thai motorcycle market also provides sufficient standard quality for exporting to developed countries such as Japan, USA, and UK. At this point Thailand should maintain the standard and improve the existing strengths. In term of develop public utility and transport system, although Thailand are quite ready, other neighbor countries also continuously improve particularly Indonesia and Vietnam.

There are probably in the future both countries will replace this advantage. Thailand should correct the weakness particularly maintain social and political stability. It becomes the major issues which affect the investors’ confidence including country’s direction in short and long term. In term of labor issue, they should improve skill of labor to compensate with higher wage. As Thai motorcycle market get into saturation stage however they can expand investment to export in order to maintain the motorcycle production base for the future. Five Force Model Analysis

Industry Competitors and Intensity of Rivalries
Rivalry among competitors in the motorcycle industry is relatively intense. While each major competitor has its own market niche, price discounting, new product introductions, advertising campaigns, and innovations in motorcycle technology consistently fuel rivalry between firms. Rather than competing based on price, the major players in the motorcycle industry tend to compete based on services and features. Each major company offers different types of products targeted to different consumer segments. There is a high level of differentiation between classes of products and brands, causing high switching costs for consumers. Accessories and parts are produced for one specific brand. In addition, margins are not low, and the product is not perishable. Because of these factors, competition does not tend to gravitate towards price as much as other factors.

Even though price is not the main basis of competition in the motorcycle industry, the intensity of competition is very high. The industry is composed of five distinct leaders, each of which is large and has high brand equity. Because the industry lacks a definitive leader, rivals end up poaching each other’s business. Additionally, the sheer number of competitors in the market in addition the main five creates an abundance of purchasing options for the consumer and cause heavy competition. Rivals in the motorcycle industry have diverse approaches and ideas on how to compete. While one company might believe that adding new features to their products will help boost sales, another company might believe that increasing speed capabilities will be more beneficial. Another company might believe that offering easy financing is the key.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers
A number of motorcycle manufacturers involved in the industry in such a way that the pyramids upside down and the motorcycle manufacturers and parts suppliers are related to link backwards (Backward Linkage Effect) Motorcycle productions of Japanese manufacturers in Thailand (Big 4) are the leaders of the market including Japanese producer’s parts. Thai producers’ parts are 15 percent of the value of purchasing all the parts of the motorcycle. The producers must have potential to produce to meet QCD standard. For local content, it found that Japanese manufacturers use more than 90 percent of material and electronic parts from Japan.

For the 1st Tier of part manufacturers are mid-sized businesses and joint ventures with foreigners who mostly are Japanese. In the 1990s, these are called OEM12 production until mid- 1990 onwards, as manufacturers of motorcycle parts can purchased from other foreign countries with cheaper price. This pressure affect on the first tier manufacturers to improve efficiency of product design and development capabilities. For the 2nd and 3rd Tier of producer parts are small enterprise owned by Thai people. Technology in capable of producing is quite low. The manufacturers in this group will sell parts to the first tier, including one for a replacement (REM14) both locally and abroad. Bargaining Power of Customers

The vast majority of the motorcycle industry’s customer group consists of individual consumers. Motorcycle customers are only mildly price sensitive. Since a motorcycle is a relatively expensive item and therefore a significant fraction of income, buyers are likely to seek a favorable price. Also, since motorcycles are usually a luxury purchase, the intention to buy one indicates the willingness to spend a significant amount of money. More importantly, customers are much more sensitive to quality and brand image than price. A motorcycle purchase is a reflection of one’s identity and influences how others perceive them.

Threat of New Entrants
The maturity, large number of competitors, and high capital requirements needed to enter the motorcycle industry make it a fairly unattractive industry for new competitors to enter. A more complete and detailed analysis of the seven barriers to entry will show the motorcycle industry to be a hostile, unreceptive environment for new entrants. As a mature industry, current competitors enjoy the benefits resulting from economies of scale. Established motorcycle producers have the luxury of lower costs per unit because they can allocate their fixed costs to a larger number of products. New entrants do not have as large of a demand and must distribute their costs over a smaller quantity. Because of this, individual costs per unit are larger, resulting in a higher product price. Besides the difficulty new entrants find in attracting customers, another deterrent to entry are the high capital requirements demanded by the industry.

Characteristic of a mature industry, price is no longer a differentiating factor among similar product offerings by different competitors. Leaders in the motorcycle industry, such as Yamaha, now differentiate their products by providing “high-value-added products” at their own dealerships. For new entrants to enter the market and take away current market share from existing competitors, high capital investments in infrastructure, dealerships, development of new products, and promotions targeting specific customer segments are required. High capital requirements, increasing demand, and specialized products are factors contributing to the high barriers to exit the industry. Current competitors holding the majority of the market share are hesitant to leave the industry because of the positive industry outlook and niche markets each have carved out for themselves. With few companies leaving the industry, it leaves very few market segments untapped and available to new entrants.

Substitutes
When analyzing the competitive threats on the motorcycle industry as a whole, the motorcycle trade association members must keep in mind three main substitutes of motorcycles: bicycles, undersized cars, and public transportation. Each of these substitutes can be further broken down into subcategories. Each category is considered a substitute for motorcycles because it either satisfies at least one of three costumer needs that motorcycles satisfy, or it gives the costumer something that motorcycles do not offer. Though the levels of threats posed by each category of substitute differ greatly, the motorcycle trade association members must be sure to address each of them when deciding where to go from here. Most importantly, keep in mind that these threats are ever present, and if the various motorcycle manufacturers do not act soon, they will risk losing customers throughout the coming years.

First of all, it is important to understand what motorcycles do for buyers because this sets up a framework for the underlying motivation behind the purchase of any type of motorcycle. Since the motorcycle industry is responsible for designing and manufacturing about seven different kinds of motorcycles, or other automatic two-wheel vehicles, several customer needs are met by each category: means of transportation, low fuel costs, environmentally friendliness, recreational activity, and “cool factor.” In addition, we will analyze another factor that motorcycles lack compared to potential substitutes – safety. Bicycles are also a threat to the motorcycle industry based on a few critical factors. First, as two-wheel transportation vehicles, they are similar in basic function to motorcycles, satisfying the consumer need of basic transportation from point A to point B. The reason why bicycles make viable alternatives to motorcycles is related to the consumer’s need to spend less money. Bicycle owners incur zero gas mileage costs, making this alternative the most environmentally friendly option. To be technical, the only real costs associated with bicycles are the upfront purchase, maintenance, optional accessories, and human labor.

In addition, bicycles satisfy the consumer’s need for recreational activity similar to motorcycles. Anyone from the average consumer to the avid biker can use a bicycle as an alternative means of outdoor recreation. Compact cars and hybrids (Eco car) are the final and most influential classification of substitutes that pose an immediate threat to the motorcycle industry. Overall, both types of cars present high switching costs to the consumers. For the consumer who is interested in switching to a motorcycle, high switching costs could be a highly motivating factor to not buy a motorcycle at all. Hybrids are primarily substitutes because they satisfy the customer’s need for a fuel-efficient mode of transportation. For many consumers, increased safety is a motivating factor in buying a compact car over a motorcycle Public Transportation can be one alternative for travel to destination such as boat, taxi, BTS, and bus. People would like to take public transportation to help them in many advantages. For example, in Bangkok traffic is so jam. People actually prefer BTS or MRT to travel to avoid traffic as well as more convenience. Another example is people who avoid hot weather and want to keep their appearance during the way to go to office. They might prefer taxi instead of motorcycle. Key Success Factors

1. Quality
Quality is a key in this industry because it is vehicles that need safety. The manufacturer must comply with required product standards. A key success factor for a firm operating in this industry is their ability to design and develop products that comply with legal standards. Products that do not meet standards are not able to be sold on the market

2. Design

Consumers tend to focus on design and feature which suitable with their lifestyle. The manufacturers attempt to offer new products to serve with every life style especially, automatic motorcycle. Motorcycle Companies do research in studying consumer behavior to know what consumers prefer and focus what consumer need.

3. Technology and save energy

In this economic situation, people tend to look for the most worth product. Manufacturers should keep abreast of latest technological advances in various components and parts, as well as technical and performance characteristics. 4. Distribution center

Distribution center or show room is the one that open way to consumer easily access purchase. This is the reason why companies improve image of dealer show room around country. They also increase number of store into small city because in small cities people still need to use motorcycle in daily life. As well as develop the show room to be one stop service which can serve after sale service. 5. After sale service and activities

Many consumer give importance to the after sale service because motorcycle is durable goods that consume time to use. Some consumers use their motorcycle more than 5 years. After sale service include service mind, price, and time of taking care as well as parts to repair. For the activities, this topic includes consumer relationship and sale promotion because it is important factor that motivate consumer buy the products. Point of purchase plays important role such as low down payment, free 1 baht gold and zero percent installment payment.

Factor that affect change
1. Minimum wage
Thai government announced the policy to increase minimum wage to be 300 baht. This increase wage cost 80% of average minimum wage. This policy is very significant to Thai labor market. It provides both advantages and disadvantages. For the advantage, the policy help all labors in Thailand earn more income. Human being gets better because people have more money and they can spend a lot in the market including purchasing new motorcycle. As a result to number of sale in 2012 were more than 2.1 million units However, there is also drawback. The manufactures have to pay more cost including wage and also more expensive parts. Price of parts are getting higher particularly middle size and small size because of small economy of scale 2. Technology

Technology is one factor that affects change of the motorcycle industry. As for Honda, the market leader change motor of all models to be fuel injection system since 2008. Honda change production line to serve this innovation. This affects all players to change as well. Yamaha is the second player who changes to fuel injection system to be 62 percent and carburetor still use 38%. So, Yamaha sent the first automatic injection was spark 135i. For the second model, Yamaha tried to serve woman need. They launched Fiore which uses automatic engine with a genius injection technology YMJET and DiASil Cylinder that make it less fuel consumption. While Suzuki also produce with electronic petrol injection. Therefore, the players in this industry have to improve all the time and do research and development in order to offer the better solution to consumers.

3. Disaster effect

After Thailand has suffered with big flood in 2011, Thai motorcycle industry is one industry that gets direct effect from this situation. Factories have got damage in many areas. They have to recover their factory and create protect system to cope for unexpected disaster. However, it did not affect much to sale because consumers want to buy new motorcycle to replace the damage one. Sale of whole market tends to increase as trend.

4. Economic
In this economic situation, people tend to save money and careful in spending. World economic is also unstable. The causes are from many effects such as public debt in EU. US economic has not recovery yet and fiscal cliff and world political. Back to consider Thai economic, cost of living keep increasing. Consequently, people are carful in spending. They will study information and get involve to consider before buy product particularly motorcycle.

5. AEC opening
As Thai motorcycle industry is in saturation stage, the leader players try to go to other country in AEC. The motorcycle producers will use Thai as production base and export to our neighbor countries. This issue encourages Thai have to improve themselves especially skill workers both technician and language skill. Table 3 shows the potential if the motorcycle manufacturers want to run business in each country.

Table 3: Population, income, number of motorcycles in the ASEAN Country
Number of resident in 2009(million)
Income per person to the purchasing power between countries 2009 (US$) Number of motorcycle (thousand)
Number of persons holding one motorcycle
Indonesia
243.3
3,830
28,000*
9
Philippine
92.2
3,900
2,983*
31
Vietnam
87.3
2,700
20,366*
4
Thailand
67.8
5,990
16,549
4
Myanmar
50.0
1,290
1,630
31
Malaysia
28.3
13,740
8,903
3
Cambodia
14.8
1,820
751**
20
Laos
6.3
2,060
n.a.
n.a.
Singapore
5.1
47,940
147
35
Brunei
0.4
50,200
12*
33
Asean
596
4,520
80,000 (Round)
7
* 2008, ** 2007 Source: Population Reference Bureau, CEI. Collected and calculated by Kasikorn Research

Customer Analysis
Customer is one of the most important drivers for business success. Most business try to serve goods and services according to customer wants and needs to meet the customer satisfaction and become well-known brand recognized. Moreover most of them are concern more about turn general customer to be their customer loyalty too. So, understand customer behavior is needed for business development. Consumer behavior

An analysis of consumer behavior is affected by a host of variables ranging from personal, professional needs, attitudes and values, personality characteristics, social economic and cultural back ground, age gender professional status to social influences of various kinds exerted a family, friends, colleagues, and society as a whole. The combination of these factors help the consumer in decision making further psychological factors that as individual consumer needs, motivation, perceptions, attitudes, the learning process, personality characteristics are the similarities which operates across the different types of people and influence their behavior.

With competition in the motorcycle market continually increasing, understanding customers’ attitudes and behavior is critical to maintaining and growing market share and profitability. The conclusions of consumer behavior while buying motorcycle are: 1. Maximum motorcycle users belong to 18 to 25 years age group and most of the users are college students and field workers. 2. Maximum motorcycle users belong to middle class and upper middle class segment 3. These are the reasons for buying two wheelers:

Good mileage and convenience
Business purpose
Cost effective
Comfort drive in crowd and easy parking
College going purpose
Short distance travel in city
Affordable price
Personal vehicle
4. As far as mileage per liter of petrol is concerned.
5. Reasons for not buying scooter:
It has low mileage and low fuel efficiency.
It has problem with controlling, balancing and breaking on speed. Old style and old fashion
It is not good for long drive and not a comfortable drive.

It doesn’t match the young person’s dynamic personality 6. Almost all the people give preference to stylish outlook, control, mileage, efficiency & brand image before buying motorcycle. 7. Television advertisement, road hoardings and road shows are the major source of information which affects motorcycle purchased. 8. Family members and friends are main initiator, for purchasing a motorcycle. 9. All the people are satisfied with the functioning of their motorcycle. 10. Regarding spare parts of motorcycle, they are cheaper and readily available in the market. 11. All the people are satisfied with the functioning of motorbikes and they don’t have any hesitation to recommend to others to buy a motorcycle.

The brand perception is dependant mostly on the peripheral cues depending upon the nature and quality of the service provided along with the pricing, maintenance, availability of spare parts and related issues.

Moreover, dealers play a very important role in building up the brand perception of the cars. Since dealers are the connecting link between the customers and the manufacturers thus becoming the most important link in joining the company to its customers as he is the person who will sell the product, will deliver it and will keep on providing the after sales services to the customers as and when required.

Dealer as a part of customers’ satisfaction journey with the product called motorcycle. Their proximity to the customers, the service provided by them and the relationship maintained by them with the customers helps the motorcycle companies to establish and reinstate the brand personality communicated by them to the customers. Target Market

In overview, the small size motorcycle is popular for customer in Thailand because Public transportation is not distributed around country and people thinks motorcycle riding is cheaper than car driving. So the purpose of motorcycle purchasing now is for compensate the old one.

A target market is composed of people who are most likely to be potential customers. For example, the target market for a low powered, commuter motorbike is likely to be: A worker, commuting a relatively short distance to and from his/her workplace. An environmentally aware person, who wants to protect the environment by reducing his /her carbon foot print A person who does not want to rely on public transport

The type of person who wants the independence of their own transport, so that they can travel when they want Possibly, a person on a small budget, unable or unwilling to pay for the running costs of a car local dealer as a public relations exercise, for advertising products, and for increasing publicity.

For this report we are going to focus only four main manufacturers in the Thai motorcycle Industry as following

Thai Honda Manufacturing
Honda is the largest motorcycle manufacturer in Japan and be the most outstanding motorcycle brand in Thailand with the highest market share. Honda has remained on the leading edge by creating new value and providing products of the highest quality at a reasonable price for worldwide customer satisfaction. There are four kinds of Honda motorcycle

1. Family:Honda wave series
2. A.T.:Scoopy i,Forza 300, Zoomer-X, Honda cilck, Spacy i etc. 3. Sport: CBR and MSX series
4. On and off: CRF series

Three major models from Honda still topped the market. Honda Wave accounted for 64,784 units; Honda Scoopy i 33,876 units; Honda Click 125i 23,048 units. This implies trust among Thai customers towards the brand, making Honda the leader in the family and AT segments. Apart from the major models, new models regularly introduced by Honda targeting new customer groups have also received a positive response. For example, Honda PCX150 and Honda Spacy i are fulfilling the AT segment; Honda CBR150R and Honda CBR250R remain the most favorite in the sport segment. Consequently, Honda has maintained their market leadership in all segments and rocked the industry with new products for customers all these years.

The rising purchasing power among the younger customers is an interesting factor. The customers have become more confident in spending as the country’s economy has become more stable. The AT motorcycle targeting on the younger customers achieved half of Honda’s new registration in June. Honda reached 102,147 units, of which 60,340 or 59% were AT motorcycles. Family motorcycles achieved sales of 94,372 units, accounting for 46 per cent of total of sales in the month. Honda posted the largest sales in family category of 80,098 units, or 85%. That definitely implies trust among the customers towards our brand. And that makes us the leader in every market segment.”

The market in the second half tends to grow, despite a less expectation, thanks to the growing economy. Prices of agricultural products have become more stable and the unemployment rate has remained low. Consequently, customers have more confident in spending. Conclusion

The family motorcycle is the best seller of Honda, next is AT motorcycle. The customers decided to buy Honda Wave which is family motorcycle because saving fuel, saving cost. Another reason is Honda always launches the interesting promotion for leasing purchase with no down payment and low interest rate. Moreover, they trust in Honda Brand that very famous in quality, safety, and reasonable price and good after sale service. For the AT motorcycle, the company focus on fashionable design and colorful for both men and women along with the promotion for teenagers such as Movie bonus buy 1 get 1 ticket for Honda member, joining with game online company like Asia Soft to provide special activity for the Honda Click Play customers etc.

The present customers are working people, family members, teenagers and students. The expected target customers are younger customers who has never experienced in riding motorcycle. Honda predicts this trend by observing the sale in June this year showed that The AT motorcycle targeting on the younger customers achieved sale for 59% while family motorcycles achieved sales for 46% of total of sales in the month. The high potential customer in the future, Honda focuses on the buyer who has over 25 ages. So the company launched the new campaign “Fun” motorcycle. All models are 125cc, 220 cc and 300 cc. Honda sets their price in higher rate than others model. Most customers purchase products from dealers of Honda.

Thai Yamaha Motor
From the economic situation not only motorcycle industry, the overall of Thailand industry is still quiet since first period of year. All businesses have to keep eyes on the market month-by-month. These situations effect to customer behavior that is changed by decreasing the unnecessary expense along with the debt per family is higher. So the customers do not want to buy new motorcycles. From this point, the company set up more strength plan with focus more on direct contact with customers. Yamaha participates with the dealers in order to increase selling. Especially set up the marketing strategy by using more below-the-line promotion for stimulate customers go into shops.

From the researches and customer behavior analysis, Yamaha found that most customers have money in hand but they are not intention to buy. However, the customers who want to change their cars, they have willing to purchase in one day so Yamaha concerns this point and response the need of customer by move outside to contact directly to customers. Yamaha has clearly policy that does not want their dealers compete by lower the price but persuade the customers by the special promotions and options and giving souvenir or premium products to consumers such as vintage helmet. It is better than lower the price and could be creating good customer behavior to market. Yamaha divided customer in to 3 categories as following:

1. Demographics Segmentation
By age; 15 -22 years (teenagers), 23-35 years (working age) and over 36 years (adult) 2. Psychographic Segmentation
By personality; enthusiastic, self- confident and socialize, adventure and love changing 3. Behavior Segmentation
By preference; high quality and fashionable

With the purpose of increasing customer satisfaction by differentiation with its product design and features, marketing activities and the futuristic showroom concept, the company focuses on the activities that reinforce brand loyalty among its customers. First is the introduction of new models with regular updates. In the automatic segment, Filano

It is the newest automatic model with European classic style combined with smart Technology of fuel injection “YMJET-FI”. With cool and charming design, it becomes a big hit on street among teenagers.

Fiore

It is the new automatic model with advanced technology of fuel injection “YMJET-FI”. With concept of “cute, chic, and cool”, its target is young ladies who love fashion. Fino

Fino is still the flagship model. Yamaha penetrates into a new target market of young fashionable ladies by introducing its new model “Fiore” with advanced technology of fuel injection “YMJET” to reinforce its image of “automatic leader”. Thai Yamaha Motor expands its sales to wider areas as well with Spark Nano model which has a manual transmission The marketing of Fino started from the outstanding design which is different from others by classic style and Fino is totally different from Nouvo and Mio that are designed for modern style. From these different classic style leads to the expand to new customers who has never using motorcycles before such as teenagers, the art and fashion designed student, the people who drives the car along with loves the vintage design that want to try motorcycles

Nouvo

The small CVT undergone bodied motorcycle. It was introduced in April 2002 for Southeast Asia markets and in 2004, Brazil, where it was renamed the Yamaha Neo. Nouvo is from the French word Nouveau, which means new or fashionable.

Yamaha engineers intended to develop the frame with the same or higher level of rigidity as a moped bike in order to achieve a moped-like ride and good handling performance but also have the same level of comfort as a scooter. Yamaha Nouvo specification itself is a stylized modern and classy with an aggressive style gives charm more on the motor scooter. The target customer of this type is male teenager to middle age. Conclusion

Sale proportion of Yamaha consist of AT motorcycle 80% and manual motorcycle 20% and Fino sale is 60% of total sale.

So the present target customer is the consumer who love freedom, self-confident and dare to change. They are teenagers and working age. The target in the future is increasing sale in both automatic and manual motorcycles cover all age all customer through “ Do innovative strategy” by uses 3S — Sale, Service and Spare part and develops Yamaha Square Showroom to be new look with excellent service and effective network in servicing and selling spare part completely system. Yamaha continues to promote the strength of Yamaha about saving energy according to the need of consumers and provides interesting promotions, activities and after sale service for Yamaha customers. Distribution channel; Showrooms, dealers and Yamaha website

Marketing strategy: from the decreasing rate in motorcycle market this year, Yamaha uses “Above-the-Line Advertising” and focuses more “Below-the-Line Promotion” than previous years. This type of advertising is often centered on specific localities and is used to promote products that a consumer will want to see in person. It can be coupled with in-store sales help in order to explain the features of the product.

Thai Suzuki Motors
Suzuki Motor Corporation is a leading Japanese carmaker and a global motorcycle manufacturer, competing head-to-head with rivals Honda and Yamaha. Suzuki boosts its sales in rural areas. The venture is intended to help Suzuki challenge market-leader Honda, which controls more than 70 % of the market. Suzuki also launched a new THB 30,000 motorcycle model – the Suzuki Smash Junior – that is aimed at the teenage market.

Chiang Mai is the second largest market for motorcycles following Bangkok with total motorcycle sales of more than 50,000 units a year. The company currently has a customer base of more than three million around the country of which 400,000 are active customers and more than 70 % of motorcycle sales in the country involve installment financing. Suzuki also has about 500,000 customers in the northern provinces of Thailand and they contribute more than 25 % of total sales to the company. There are 3 types of Suzuki motorcycle

1. Automatic; Jelato, Skydrive, Nex, Let’s and Hayate
2. Family; Shooter,Smash and Shogun
3. Big bike; Hayabusa and GSX-R1000
In this year Suzuki has plan to stimulate Big bike sale and decrease small-sized motorcycle production. The company hopes that this strategy can increase market share up to 20% like Suzuki Swift. The company prepares budget around 500m Baht for new 4 line productions. Suzuki reveals their plan that the firm will focus on medium to big sized (over 200cc) motorcycle as well Thailand is the country-based of production and export to Europe, USA and Asia, means that Thailand is the second production factory next to Japan. Suzuki choose Thailand to be production-based because the medium to big sized market in Thailand is growing faster, low-level tax rate and less commercial limitation from AEC in 2015 which can reduce cost for manufacturing. Conclusion

Suzuki launched the first eco motorcycle in Thailand, Nex, Let’s, Let’s premium but they are not quite successful as Suzuki expected because spare part manufacturer could not produce enough to customer needs. This year management team decided to change their strategy, products and target customer group. In world market, Suzuki is the top5 famous brands in medium sized motorcycle (200 cc) and Big bike (over 1,000 cc). This is the strength and should be the way to successful of the company. Their goal is increase market share from 3 to 20% within 5 years.

Suzuki will divide sale service into 2 groups. The first one is for buying medium sized motorbike. The dealers must have the high potential and ready for 3S (sales, service and spare part). Next, the showrooms for big bike are separated to another places with the luxury concept. For small sized automatic and family motorcycle, they will remain in the market but less proportion.

Kawasaki Motors Enterprise Thailand
Kawasaki wins the trust of customers and the community by providing high-performance products and services of superior safety and quality. The company has strong brand presence and efficiency in operations The company is marketing its products worldwide through local distribution centers to offering a new line of products geared to customers who prefer high-performance motorcycles.

In addition to offering a new line of products geared to customers who prefer high-performance motorcycles, the company is working to enhance the Kawasaki brand by marketing locally in Asian countries such as Kawasaki Motors Enterprise (Thailand) Co. Ltd. and P.T. Kawasaki Motor Indonesia through direct investment. “People expecting superior products and services designed to fulfill their needs and help create a better tomorrow” The company emphasizing attractive design, superior technology and the latest models that appeal to the world market Comparison between motorcycle brands in Thailand

Honda
Yamaha
Suzuki
Kawasaki
Best selling
1. Family type
2. AT

Honda wave
AT 80%
Manual 20%
Fino selling is 60% of AT type
AT
Suzuki Nex
Big Bike
Cause
of purchasing
Reasonable price
Quality and safety
Good after sales Service
Service centers cover in Thailand
Design and feature
Fuel saving

Design and feature
Fuel saving
Futuristic showroom concept
Good after sales service
Eco-motorcycle
Fuel saving
Price and quality
High quality – Guaranteed by brand
Safety
Good after sales service
Design and superior
technology
Fuel efficiency
Safety

Market strategy
Promotion; leasing purchase
No down payment and low interest rate.

Advertising
Focus on activities that reinforce brand loyalty and increase below the line advertising. Increase market in rural area.
Increase big bike sale and production, decrease small sized motorcycle production. Differentiation
Increase customer loyalty
Present customer
Working age
Family members
Teenagers
Student
Young fashionable
Teenagers
Student
Working age who love freedom and self-confident.
Teenage
Working age
Working age to adult who love unique product.
Expected target customer
Younger customers who never have experienced in riding motorcycle. Male teenagers to working age.
Working age
Family members
People who interested in medium-sized motorcycle.

High potential customer in the future
Over 25 ages
Family members
High income customer
High income customers who love next generation machine.

Top ten best selling motorcycle in June 2013
Ranking
Ranking in May
Name
Type
Unit (June)
1
1
Honda wave 110i
Family
361,631
2
2
Honda scoopy i
AT
150,830
3
4
Yamaha Fino
AT
84,168
4
3
Honda Click125i
AT
103,331
5
8
Honda spacy i
AT
25,977
6
5
Honda wave 125
Family
65,527
7
6
Yamaha spark 115
Family
40,181
8
7
Honda zoomer-X
AT
39,589
9
9
Honda MSX125
Sport
23,899
10
10
Yamaha mio 125
AT
26,583

How to they communicate to their consumers
The Internet
Almost everyone uses the internet. It is quite common for a potential customer to search the internet to compare products, before buying. All the major motorbike manufacturers have impressive web sites, advertising their products. Manufacturers also advertise their products by placing advertisements through search engines such as Google. Usually these advertisements are placed on specialist motorcycle websites. Magazines

Specialist motorcycle magazines, these offer advertising space, which is often purchased by motorbike manufacturers and suppliers of accessories. The readers are having a real interest in everything associated with motorbikes. It is common sense to advertise in these magazines, as this is a direct route to the target market. Television

TV is an expensive way of advertising and it does not necessarily reach the target market. However, sponsoring a program, especially a program associated with motorbikes, is more likely to catch the attention of the target market. Radio

Advertising during a specialist broadcast can reach the ears of the target market. However, radio adverts will only be effective when the broadcast is directly associated with motorbikes, such as, a Grand Prix. Grand Prix

Using billboards at a televised Grand Prix or similar event seems a good way of promoting sales of certain types of motorbike. People attending an event of this type have an interest in racing motorbikes. Some racing motorbikes have small engines. Racing is not only reserved for superbikes, but also small 125cc bikes. Telephone Sales

Direct telephone calling of potential customers is not the most popular way of selling motorbikes. A potential customer wants to see and hear a motorbike. Telephone sales are useful for certain types of products, motorbikes are not normally included on this list. Billboards

Billboards placed in ideal situations, such as traffic lights, could catch the eye of potential customers. For a minute, whilst a motorcyclist or driver is stationary at a set of lights, has time to view a large billboard. Motor show

It is a public exhibition of current automobile and motorcycle models,
debuts, concept car and motorbike, or out-of-production classics. It is commonly attended by manufacturers. Most auto shows occur once or twice a year. They are vital to motorcycle manufacturers and

Competitive Analysis
“Although the Thai motorcycle market may be smaller than the Indonesian or Vietnamese markets in volume, in terms of quality and strategy Thailand plays a big role as major motorcycle manufacturers have all pinned their hopes on the country with continuous investment to expand production and set up R&D Centers. Many are of the opinion that the Thai motorcycle market has reached a stage of saturation, but it has not lowered competition among manufacturers. On the contrary, the competition is as fierce as ever despite the small number of major players compared to the automobile market” (The Nation, 2013)

According to the passage although Thai motorcycle market is smaller than other countries, we still be the 5th largest country in the world market and also being the main Japan hub.

Business players in this industry consisted of four major motorcycle manufacturers which are Thai Honda Manufacturing, Thai Yamaha Motor, Thai Suzuki Motors and Kawasaki Motors Enterprise (TH) and other companies such as Triumph Motorcycle, Ducati, Tiger Motor and so on.

Competitor’s General Information

Manufacturer Performance Analysis
Market Share
Comparing market share earnings by company among January – July 2013, 2012 and 2011 as following January – July 2013

January – July 2012

January – July 2011

Production Capacity

As you can see from the table above Honda is number one manufacturer who able to produce product in the highest volume with 1,400,000 per year, following by Yamaha, Suzuki, and Kawasaki at 600,000 units, 360,000 units, 150,000 units respectively.

This maybe the reason why Honda always be the leader in this market; highest production capacity with highest sales volume Sale Volume

Comparing sales volume at the end of the year by manufacturer among 2011, 2012, and 2013

Total sales volume of 2011, 2012 and 2013 are 2,007,080 units, 2,130,041 units, and 1,274,830 units respectively. For the year of 2013 in the graph, it shows sales volume from January until July, 2013 this is the latest update information at this present. If we take a look at the big picture sales volume 2011 – 2012 of every manufacturers are increased with a great number. How about this year sales? How far each manufacturer is going to hit their sales target and go beyond last year sales? We are going to talk in the next topic of same time last two year between 2011 – 2012 and 2013

Comparing sales volume of January to July period by manufacturer among 2011, 2012, and 2013
Honda
Honda sales reached at 943,374 in 2013 that is different from total sales at the end of year 2012 (1,491,029 units) at 547,665 units or 36.73%. It seems to be not too difficult for Honda and not easy in the economic situation like this

Deeply information of same time last two year of Honda Manufacturing shows higher sales performance which is increased steadily from 881,000 to 943,374. So, it is a good sign to break the old sales target and gain more profit. Yamaha

247,691 units left or 50.56% for Yamaha to touch their 2012 sales volume record, half of 100% of sales volume with 22% dropped of sales volume (compared with same time last year 2012 and 2013) will bring Yamaha in to a big challenge trouble. Suzuki

Huge different unit of sales volume left (48,957 units or 57.5%) at 2013 to reach sales volume record of 2012 will cause Suzuki lose their share market. 26% decreased from same time last year production of 2012 shows poor selling performance. Kawasaki

This small manufacturer is quite interesting with fast moved of production sales volume. Although some production unit is left quite big amount at 17,104 units or 40.15%, the total different units compared of current production 2013 with same time last year of 2012 it shows 97% higher selling performance of 2013 production selling. This will be a big move or a good chance of the company to step up their positioning. Strategies

Honda
Customer-focused
Product Diversification
Product Development
Brand Strategy
Yamaha
Brand Strategy
Product Diversification
Product Development
Corporate Strategy
Suzuki
After Sales Service
Dealer Development
Product Diversification
Brand strategy
Kawasaki
Differentiation
Quality Management
Product Development

Thai Honda Manufacturing
Company aims to win their customer’s heart with focused on customer wants and needs; also offering product diversification by launching new various models to stimulate customer demand. Company believes that this is the strongest one of their key success in this business. Moreover company always concentrate on allocate funds to the introduction of new models, as well as the improvement, streamlining and modernization of production facilities, and improvement of sales and R&D facilities. Also concentrated on marketing strategy by using music and sport to be their channel e.g. Man U’s soccer school campaign. For business they cooperated with Channel V Thailand Thai Yamaha Motor

Yamaha mainly focus on brand strategy; they use lifestyle marketing, especially music and sport marketing by utilizes popular stars as its product presenters. As for sport marketing Thai Yamaha sponsored the Thai Premier League, the UEFA Champions League and several world major football leagues.

Moreover with the purpose of increasing customer satisfaction by offering product diversity with its product design and features, marketing activities and the futuristic showroom concept, the Company focuses on the activities that reinforce brand loyalty among its customers.

Thai Yamaha Motor (TYM) has stated its corporate strategy as “value added business” with “sustainable growth” with clear direction on corporate social responsibility

Thai Suzuki Motor
“Suzuki is committed to use its amassed technological expertise and all other available resources to help raise the quality of human life in society by promoting corporate growth through manufacture and supply of socially demanded products. – Suzuki Motor”

Thai motorcycle industry this year has very strong competition with sluggish market maybe because of indirect impact from high volume purchasing car in government’s first car scheme last year. This situation forces many company launch new strategy of 0% down payment and 0% for installment periods but Suzuki thought that it is going to affect the overall market so they committed to concentrate more on providing customer satisfaction, after-sale services and so on.

This year 2013, Company sales target is 100,000 units which hoping 10% proportion of market share within the year of 2015. Four more strategies will be apply; brand strategy, product diversification strategy, dealer development strategy and after sales service strategies and continue focusing on customer experiences and product development not only focus on selling vehicles. They are keeping research on customer behavioral and life style of each country for better product development. Then, they come up with new model matching with Thai life style in the concept of eco motorcycle with 112.7cc. Furthermore, the Group will also be strengthening its lineup of middle and large sized motorcycles.

The company expects to increase its market share through more aggressive marketing and product development such as TV commercials. Today Suzuki has only 5 per cent of market share and 50 dealers, along with internal problems after a major restructuring. So even if the product is competitive, Suzuki is still not strong enough to emerge a competitor. Kawasaki Motors Enterprise Thailand

Kawasaki is marketing its products worldwide through local distribution centers to offering a new line of products geared to customers who prefer high-performance motorcycles.

Company has strict quality control standards which integrate high-powered engines and highly-accurate power control technology. These standards have also been applied to all of the company’s products, including motorcycles. Moreover, Kawasaki gives top priority to environmental issues, and believes the fuel-efficient and clean engines necessary for the low environmental impact technologies can be manufactured only with a high standard quality control system.

The company will continue pursuing customer satisfaction, setting its basic idea to develop products that are “Advanced Environmental Technologies,” “Fun to Ride,” and “Ease of Riding.” Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths
Strong Brand Image
Largest Production Capacity
1st Fuel injection system applied
Full of Spare Part with wide outlets

Weaknesses
Product Recall
After-service

Strengths
Customer Service Providing: 24hrs roadside assistance and free maintenance 1st produced automatic type of motorcycle
Weaknesses
Long Time Consumption of Development
Focused on Automatic type and slow economic adaptation

Strengths
Well-Performed of Innovation
1st produced Eco Motorcycle
High Investment Budget THB 500million
Weaknesses
Lack of Spare Part
Only 360,000 Product Capacity
Less Inventory
50 Dealers for whole country

Strengths
Differentiate Products
Spare Part Availability
High Quality

Weaknesses
Production Capacity at 150,000 units per year
Lack of information, service providers

Thai Honda Manufacturing
Strengths
Honda is the number 1st in the Thai motorcycle industry for 24 years by having largest market share more than 70%. Reveal a great success with the Gold Award TRUSTED BRANDS AWARD 2013 Honda motorcycles have been a product that has been entrusted to the five highest consecutive five continuous years. Honda manufacturing can produce motorcycle up to 1,400,000 units (Largest production capacity) per year with providing full spare parts available and coverage service providers all around Thailand. Honda’s investments in R&D reach as much as 5% of revenue. The business relies on these investments to achieve competitive advantage through various technologies. They serve best quality engines around the world and also be the first manufacturer who develops fuel injection into the fuel motorcycle supply system e.g. PGM-FI

Weaknesses
Large amount of products produced normally created some bad quality. Unfortunately it too late to find it out before selling those products, recall is the best way to protect the consumer but is it better to make sure or inspect quality of all products before sell!

Customer service care was complained a lots from the customers that staff was not perform well and lack of services mind. Staff training or awareness of staff recruiting should be more concentration and careful. Thai Yamaha Motor

Strengths
Yamaha is the 1st manufacturer of automatic type of motorcycle innovation and this type of product is the main type of their sales. Customer trusts and loyalty them of the best Automatic. Founding The Yamaha Club, which gives Yamaha customers in Thailand access to 24-hour roadside assistance and free maintenance, and it allows members to attend promotional events such as movie premieres, touring activities and thank you parties.

Yamaha increasing their good image and reputation by launched Riding Academy (YRA) that represents the first standardized riding training centre in the ASEAN region which has been fully certified by Land Transport Department under the Ministry of Transport and Communication in August 2007. The training class consists of both in theory and practice on the riding course. Currently, the Yamaha Riding Academy has started providing classes for trainees from both governmental and private sectors with a target of 5,000 trainees per year. This facility also serves as a training centre for all Yamaha dealers nationwide. Weaknesses

Too long time consumption of product development seem to be their big weakness that make them not compete with Honda and stay in the 2nd manufacturing in the market. It may because they focus too much on automatic and too specific target group of customer only central and northern east parts of Thailand so when they do marketing they did not look at the big picture of the country.

Thai Suzuki Motor
Strengths
After Suzuki sales were continually decreased they started to concentrate more on customer wants and needs. So, Suzuki always comes up with the new design and innovation motorcycle with matching to customer life style e.g. Eco motorcycle.

Large amount of money are invested to develop new models, invest on new technology, increase services outlets, and so on. They believe more efficient allocated their resources will make their position improve.

Weaknesses
Although they are 1st produced Eco motorcycle, sales volume was not quite increased. It is because of not enough products in stock then the customer
ordered was cancelled. We think this is not a good reason for failure because customers intend to purchases the products that not mean the products was not interesting but it because company itself so company should do something to deliver their good production to serve to customers. Kawasaki Motors Enterprise Thailand

Strengths
Kawasaki able to keep their spare part availability for performing maintenance in an efficient and economic way because they got the license of spare part producing in Thailand so customer will not take long time for spare part import ordering. Company is Weaknesses

Lack of Information access, it is very difficult to access to the products information. Only main website with less clarifies explanation will decreasing customer buying intention. Less care of customer also reducing customer satisfaction and less service outlets will effect to customer loyalty too.

Future Trends
For future trends, in short term, it will not much change in position of leader but they will try to focus target customer narrowly and differently. For long time Thai market might decline. However, sale will go constantly but not jump high because people will buy new motorcycle when they want to replace the old one. Short term trends (3 years)

Honda will continue to dominate the Thai motorcycle market because they really don’t have any real competitors that can keep up with them for the time being. The past three years, Honda has market share of 68-72% – usually 4-5 times more than the second place. Honda has dominated Thai motorcycle market for the past 24 years, don’t see it changing short term. However, second placed, Yamaha could lower the gap between them and Honda. Yamaha for the past three years has market size of 19-24% – clearly second best and Honda’s most clear rival. Yamaha has done huge marketing investing – pop stars, football (local and international) to up brand. Suzuki plans to up its market share to 10% by 2015 – recent only 3-4% past 3 years. It will be
difficult because Honda is very powerful in this market, on the other hand Honda has its weakness, mainly product recalls in 2011-2012 (over 1,000,000 units) which will greatly affect its reputation and future sales. Suzuki and Yamaha’s aggressive marketing campaigns are already trying to take advantage – even though Yamaha’s sales decrease from 2012 to July 2013 (24%-19%) –– Suzuki sales also went down from 2012 to July 2013 (3.58%-2.62%) – only time will tell how good will they do for the rest of the year. Production capabilities of Yamaha, Suzuki is too inferior to Honda To conclude in the near future (3 years) Honda will continue to dominate with Yamaha and Suzuki second and third respectively

Long term future (20 years)
If things remain the same, as in if Yamaha and Suzuki aren’t able to improve then Honda will continue to dominate. Honda has its weaknesses but still Yamaha and Suzuki weren’t able to get more sales for themselves – just proves Honda’s power in the market However, Toyota might decide to enter the Thai motorcycle market – this might change the industry landscape. Toyota should be a better competitor for Honda than Yamaha or Suzuki. This is all ‘if ‘. Toyota should definitely have at least the same market as Yamaha – steal customers from Yamaha and Suzuki. Type – moped’s been the dominating type of motorcycle bought and used in Thailand for the past three years (44-50%) – cheap cost, low fuel cost, easy maintenance.

Family and automatic are close second and thirds – both early 20s%. Sport motorcycle market is increasing steadily (4%-5%-8% – 3 years) Looking at numbers sports is increasing (people into style and looks rather than just comfort) might bring down family, automatic and maybe even moped – but moped will still dominate short term Yamaha are clearly looking to dominate the more than 250cc along with Kawasaki but their production capacity is just not enough to compete with Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, and Kawasaki is not even close to Honda’s production capacity Long term due to people being more conscious about looks and style, sports MIGHT gain to second place in the long run (20 years) – only problem might be price as standard of living will only increase people will have even less to spend on luxurious things.

Those with money would rather buy car or top luxurious motorcycle brands (Ducati, BMW, Harley) Also family type motorcycle could decrease due to more family planning and children control to cut cost – leads to expensive standard of living I think moped will remain first – Thai roads are too small and too much traffic for sports type vehicles to maneuver easily – the 250-400cc could boom but more than that is doubtful Customer – short term – late teens to thirty – shouldn’t be that much change in customer demographics – don’t see many old people riding motorcycles in the streets from experience – to school, college, work Same reasons as now – cheaper, fuel less and cheap, not too much traffic as they can zigzag. New customers – eco friendly – hybrid motorcycles are being done right now (Honda). People in other/smaller provinces – easier to travel by motorcycle because not too many public transports available like in Bangkok Long term – in Thailand motorcycle will always be used – I don’t see too much change in customer demographics – people with limited means, young – thirties. Unless government come up with new first car program then most people will prefer motorcycles because its cheaper and easier to look after Dealers are offering more and better after sales so it is better for customers.

Reference
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http://www.prachachat.net/news_detail.php?newsid=1373817451
http://acsbdc.org/business-topics/customer-analysis
http://www.aphonda.co.th/2007/promotion/2007_page305.asp?id=1261 http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Big-bike-market-set-to-change-gear-3