Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/379417
MOTORCYCLE Packages designed to increase margin on new bikes BY LIZ KEENER MANAGING EDITOR Yoshimura wanted to be noticed at the Tucker Rocky/Biker's Choice Brand Expo. Not that other vendors didn't want to see dealers, but Yoshimura made extra efforts to attract deal- ers to its booth, with stickers on elevator and hallway floors leading to the expo hall of the distributor's show. Why the big fuss? Yoshimura had something new to show dealers, and the company didn't want any Yamaha, Honda, or Kawasaki fran- chise dealers to miss out on its latest program. Yoshimura has created what it calls franchise kits for seven motorcycles. The kits include a variety of accessories and a unique vehicle graphics kit designed to be sold as a package, to increase dealer margin on new, unregistered motorcycles. The kits for the Yamaha YZ250F and YZ450F, Kawasaki KX250F and KX450F and Honda CRF250R and CRF450R include a stain- less steel exhaust system, an engine plug set, a steering stem nut, axle blocks, a brake clevis, a graphics set and "customer care swag." The Honda Grom kit includes a carbon fiber slip-on muffler, a fender eliminator kit, an engine plug set, a steering stem nut, stand stoppers, bar ends, two sets of graphics (one for the red, and one for the black Grom) and "customer care swag." For dealers, the packages will also include labor estimates and warranty documents. Though Yoshimura has only released the kits on seven bikes for the launch, the company is already looking at adding kits for another five or six street bikes. So far, dealer reaction has been extremely positive, with more than 100 dealers signing into Yoshimura's franchise kit database on the day the program was introduced at the Brand Expo. Powersports Business caught up with Dave Waugh, director of sales forYoshimura R&D of America, Inc., who filled us in on the program. PSB: Why did Yoshimura decide to create these kits? DW: There's a lot of issues from a global per- spective with trying to maintain price, protect brand equity and brand value. Yoshimura is obviously a brand that we believe has that magic quality about it and has historically done well in franchise brick-and-mortar stores. Today, because of the pressure from the Internet, a lot of those stores and busi- nesses have been reluctant to inventory or carry the product. We've heard time and time again about the problems with price-topping on the Internet. They're not justified in carrying the product. So there's a couple things that we've done. One is, from a compliance standpoint, we worked very hard to develop a line of product that is compliant, even in California, so we have well over 100 skus today that a California dealer can bolt or mount on to a brand new motor- cycle on a showroom floor. In the interest of getting these dealers engaged with the brand called Yoshimura and getting them to recognize that we've heard their complaints, we've established this prod- uct line and the database to manage it, so we can have something that's truly exclusive to them. Their customer cannot go to the Internet and buy this product. In the lifecycle of a motorcycle, when a manufacturer puts it in a crate, it goes to distribution, ends up in a dealership under a flooring plan, the dealer has control of that product, and they have, in effect, control of the customer in a way. With this product line, they can take that customer off the Internet by sending them home with the product, rather than send the bike home, where the customer is going to end up on the Internet, and we have no control. Often- times a customer ends up on the Internet; they buy some substandard product and ends up having a horrible ownership expe- rience, so we have a product line that the dealer can actually use to take that customer off the market before they go home. PSB: Why did you decide to start with the seven bikes that you started with? DW: For one thing, because it was a way that we could cover each of the brands. It was a way that we could have kind of a level playing field. The motocross segment obviously is full-race product, and with this line of bikes, we could cover the 250 and 450 open and the full-blown motocross race bikes with a franchise kit that covers all brands, and the pricing is a fairly flat line between them, so we could cover a lot of good bases with this product. And then the Honda Grom, because … when a lot of the product that we developed for the Grom was first released, we were already working on developing the franchise kit pro- gram. ... It's a bike that new dealers have no problem selling, but the margins are chal- lenged, and this is a way that a dealer can sell a Grom and hold really good margin on it by upselling it, and it's a far superior product than it was as a standard bike. PSB: How did you decide which components were going to go into the kit? DW: We are not just an exhaust manufactur- ing company, so for the fast-moving compo- nents and the race bikes that are out there, we have a family of hard parts, we have a family of exhaust applications, and so it's one of the things that we believe, anyway, is that if the customer buys Yoshimura exhaust, they can continue to accessorize that bike with high- quality components. And in these motocross lineups, we had all of the bases covered. The only thing that we really had to add, other than the dealership and marketing support material, was a custom graphics kit. PSB: What made Yoshimura want to work with franchise dealers only on this kit? DW: Today franchise dealers have a hard time. … Even the factory parts that they have supposedly the exclusive rights to, and that Yoshimura introduces franchise accessory kits 32 • September 8, 2014 • Powersports Business www.PowersportsBusiness.com See Yoshimura, Page 35 Yoshimura has designed franchise kits featuring a package of Yoshimura performance products for seven bikes, including the Honda CRF450R.