Situation BackgroundThorr Motorcycles is a company that manufactures 200,000 motorcycles per year. It also licenses T-shirts, shoes, leather goods, toys and other consumer items. The company currently enjoys a high brand image by manufacturing premium motorcycles and has around forty percent market share. The challenge for Thorr is that the industry is growing, but sales of its high-end products are declining. The reason for this loss of market share is that the target customers for its premium product are getting older and younger people do not identify with Thorr's brand image. Additionally, Thorr is a premium product and young people do not have the significant disposable income needed to support the brand. Recommended Solutions, Rationale and Results The first step of the simulation is to determine the market position of Cruiser Thorr using a perceptual map. . Four parameters need to be selected in the simulation, and I chose lifestyle image, product design and style, price and product uniqueness. According to the simulation, “a large polygon represents a significant market share”. Apparently, polygon size doesn't matter because the most accurate choices were lifestyle image, service offerings, engineering quality, and price. My logic is that the bigger the polygon, the bigger the market share. The logic according to the simulation is that service is a way to retain customers and that quality engineering is a necessity for a motorcycle product. The simulation apparently takes place in a vacuum for the first sequence. First, “price” is not a critical factor in a true oligopolistic market. In a true oligopoly, companies use factors other than prices in order to generate...... middles of paper ...... users began offering rental options whose life cycle product shortened again by several years in the late 80s and early 90s. I think the Thorr simulation could have better execution. First, the simulation gives conflicting advice at first. The simulation tells the user that a larger polygon means more market share; however, the largest polygon is not the optimal result. Second, “price” is not a critical factor in a true oligopolistic market. In a true oligopoly, companies use factors other than prices in order to generate greater revenue and market share. Third, customers can read the numbers, so survey results should be directly correlated to the perceptual plot rather than trying to interpret the numbers. Finally, the company could have significantly shortened the product life cycle by introducing leasing options rather than offering better financing..