It is now Friday, and we have two major business visits today. Our first visit is to Harley-Davidson Japan. First and foremost, I want to mention that I was very impressed with the presentation given by the people from Harley Davidson. One of the most impressive aspects of the presentation was not just the facts about the business, but how Harley-Davidson tries to create a community of it's riders. They sponsor activities and gatherings around the world. Furthermore, Harley-Davidson Japan, still has a growing market even though they are a large bike with a fairly hefty price tag. A more interesting fact about this situation is that Harley-Davidson has few return purchasers. The company attributes this fact to the fact that the bikes hardly ever wear out and the customers hang on to them even after their riding value has deminished. So, this fact means that a person buying a Harley-Davidson rarely has to buy a second bike. Furthermore, Harley-Davidson has not suffered any declines with the recent recession according to the gentlemen we met with.
Our second visit for the day was to the Sony Headquarters in Japan. Sony first gave us a tour of their show room. We were not allowed to take pictures in here, but we did get to see their newest projects. Some of the items we got to view were a 200 inch HD projection screen. Talk about a big, clear TV. We also got to see some of their video camera equipment, both newer and a little older. We also looked at their slow motion photography camera, and I got to kick a soccerball at a target then view it on the slow motion camera. I actually hit the target, barely. We also, looked at the new rolley (as much as I want one $400 USD is too much for my taste). We also got to see their newer projects that involved solar panels. After our tour of their show room we went to see a presentation they had prepared for us. Needless to say, I was less than impressed by their presentation especially after seeing their show room. I really feel like Sony did little more than rehash what the public already knows about the company with a little bit of company history in their presentation. One interesting note that I gathered from these two visits is that Sony seems to promote the better and more powerful product which works in some cases. Harley-Davidson promotes the community and life style that comes with their product. Both of these companies are very strong and well-known companies world-wide. I think it just goes to showw that the marketing strategy used by a company has a lot to do with how well the company fairs, because in the case of both of these companies a lot of their products tend to be rather pricey. Even with a fairly steep price both companies still tend to continue make profit even through recession. After completeing our business visits for the day we had the rest of the evening free. Needless to say I called it an early night. Lack of sleep seems to have caught even me at this point.
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