Strategic management: Selling Airbag Jackets for motorcycles in Germany

Résumé du document

Germany has the biggest population in Western Europe with 82 million people. Germans tend to live in big cities (unlike in France where people live in medium and small size cities except for Paris). The CIA World Fact Book states that 74% of the total population lives in an urban environment and strangely the number is higher for France with 77%. But the difference lies in the people that live on the outskirts, which are considered part of the city when we talk about transportation and traffic. This conglomeration in Germany means traffic which makes people want to buy two- wheelers in order to avoid traffic. 12 urban areas account for more than 1 Million people (Cities and its outskirts: Essen, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Munich, Mannheim, Hanover, Bielefeld, Nurnberg, and Aachen ).

Germany is an ageing population with 20.3% (CIA, 2010) of the population over 65 years old; the median age is 44.3 years. These figures might be worrying the long term plans of the government and multinationals, but my project of selling airbag jackets should not be directly hampered by this ageing issue. Germany is a federal republic with stable ground lines: democracy, universal suffrage, moderate pressure groups (labor union, religious communities, veterans group, immigrants etc.) that make the economy one of the leading ones in Western Europe.

Extraits

[...] On the short term the number of sold jackets should approximate 500 the first year as we have experienced on other markets the second year (depending whether the distributors are motivated and good), and 4000 jackets for the third year. BEING STRATEGIC Helite can sell the jackets to German motorcyclists if it really acts strategically. The German culture seems better suited to the product and the market is more than double the size of the French market (Index 1). To implant in a country one needs to create opportunities and be active on the spot, at the geographic location. [...]

[...] To better answer the clients' needs a specific product for Germans should be developed. If the clients know the product is suited for their country, they will hopefully not regard the product as French, so less reliable, pretty but not comfortable and less durable. Germans tend to wear bigger sizes so the range of sizes will be wider, they like red and gold color like the colors of their national flag, they really favor quality over price so a very high quality product could be launched. [...]

[...] They have come to us or accepted our collaboration proposal so they already know the result that synergy of both competencies can generate. The Distributors need to be strategic partners. The sales network will be organized around geographical areas. There will be exclusive distribution licenses for each regions (Bundesländer) or cities depending on the geographical situation. Choosing the good distributors is a crucial part of the success. To avoid mistakes, we should have standards distributors have to respect in order to become and stay distributors. For example, if less than 300 jackets are sold in a year the exclusivity is lost. [...]

[...] The initial investments are minimal because the whole communication can be done through internet. Competitors Competitors will follow very quickly, investing much more in communication and having an already established notoriety in the biker's world. Helite needs to stay leader of the mechanical technology (because there is also an electrical technology), in order to keep its competitive advantage. The technological advantage is a realistic fact that must be maintained. Indeed Helite started its research and development 6 years before the competitors, it has more experience, and two specialized engineers who only focus on airbags, finally Helite is the only company that deals exclusively with airbags. [...]

[...] Broadening its distribution network to other countries such as Germany is one solution that is in my capacity. THE CHOSEN LAND: GERMANY Germany has the biggest population in Western Europe with 82 Million people. Germans tend to live in big cities (unlike in France where people live in medium and small size cities except for Paris). The CIA World Fact Book[1] states that 74% of the total population lives in an urban environment and strangely the number is higher for France with 77%. [...]