Ducati case study analysis

Ducati Case Study |
Business Strategy |
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09/10/2010 |
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Overlook at the Company
Ducati Motor Holding is a motorcycle manufacturer in Bologna, Italy. It is a very well known brand due to their achievements in the motorcycle industry, success in motorcycle racing and marriage of style and performance.
The motorcycling industry is a very competitive one;there are tons of brands and different types of motorbikes. However Ducati manages to stand out. Their constant innovation and love for design makes the difference.
Ducati was founded in 1926 by the brothers Ducati. They started a firm that manufactured radio components, vacuum tubes, etc. It began to be successful in 1935 and began to expand. They even managed to survive WWII, although the companywas a repeated target for bombing. They copied the idea of the firm SIATA and developed their own small engine to introduce in bikes in order to motorize them. They partner for a little while and it was a great success.
As Ducati embraced the success they broke up their relationship with SIATA and start their adventure solo. Their designs were a great success. As soon as the demand for biggerand more powerful motorcycles began they surprised the market with their models. They were not extremely successful or profitable, but as they make the difference they had a secure place in the market.
In 1953 the entity split into two separate companies: Ducati Meccanica SpA & Ducati Electtronica (Ducati Energia SpA). They separated their production line of electronics and motorcycles. Thegovernment stepped-in and subsidize some of the modernizations of the factories of the firm and impulse their performance.
The most well known achievement of Ducati is the 250cc road bike. It was a huge invention and revolutionized the industry.

Since then the company has suffered some upside downs and has been passing through different hands along the years.



Industry AnalysisWe will do an industry analysis using the five forces model in order to do an assessment of the firm and know how attractive it is.
1- Degree of Rivalry:
The main competitors of Ducati are Harley Davison, BMW, Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki. The rivals vary depending on the specific product that we are referring to.

Basing the analysis of the rivals depending on the products wewill have:
* Hyper-Sport: These are high-tech motorcycles closely derived from the motorcycles competing in the World Superbike Championship. The main competitors for these products are Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki.
* Super- Sport: The SS line has been the star production line of Ducati since 1973; nevertheless it is the one which the highest amount of competitors. The most relevant oneswhere Triumph, BMW and all the Japanese manufacturers.
* Naked: This line of masterpieces of pop-culture interpretation has been increasing since 1996. Its competitors are Honda, Triumph and BMW.
* Sport Touring: These comfortable bikes compete with the ones of Triumph, BMW and all the Japanese manufactures.
We can see that there are tons of players and a handful of them are well known andestablished. However, the companies target their customers based on their capabilities and so that makes them specialized.
There are some companies that have a strong brand identity, for example Harley Davidson; they made their brand so powerful that there are people that have tattoos with their logos. It is a whole different life style.
All these points made competitors a strong negative ifwe do set ourselves in the position of a new firm trying to enter the market.
2- Buyer Power:
There are a wide variety of individuals with equally different tastes and reasons for buying a motorcycle. The type of buyers can be classified into: knee down, fast, urban, weekend, highway, easy and undecided customers. All the buyers differ from each other in their age, income, education and...