Marketing Practices of Motorcycle Distributors in the United States

The purpose of this thesis was to describe and analyze the marketing practices of motorcycle distributors in the United States. The information used in this thesis was obtained primarily from a mail questionnaire survey sent to motorcycle distributors throughout the United States. The majority of the motorcycles sold in the United States in the most recent year of record, 1970, were imported. With the inclusion of domestic manufactured motorcycles and parts, sales of used motorcycles and cost of service, the total value of the motorcycle business in the. United States in 1970 was veil over a billion dollars. There were two basic channels of distribution used by motorcycle distributors in the United States (1) Distributor - Other Distributors - Dealers - Consumers and (2) Distributors - Dealers - Consumers. There were two methods by which respondent distributors most often determined the selling price of motorcycles; (1) cost-plus technique cad (2) competitive market price technique. Discounts given by motorcycle distributors consisted of cash discounts, quantity discounts, seasonal discounts and trade discounts. These discounts consisted of reductions in price from list, prices and offered some price flexibility. Promotion is a term which encompasses advertising, personal selling and sales promotion. Motorcycle- distributors who responded to the mail survey used all of the basic methods of promotion to sell their products. All distributors completing the mail questionnaire indicated a belief that the motorcycle industry on the whole would continue to grow. Among the reasons for this belief were the increased social acceptance of motorcycles, expansion of advertising of cycles and increased discretionary income available for expenditure on recreational equipment