Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/379417
www.PowersportsBusiness.com MOTORCYCLE Powersports Business • September 8, 2014 • 35 the customer should have to go to the parts counter to get, today are being dumped on the Internet, so the value or the return on investment for a franchise dealer has been diminished over time, and without the fran- chise dealers, we have no business. Without the OEMs and the new motorcycles that are going out on the street, none of us have, we don't have a business, so it's in the interest of supporting them and doing something that's unique for them. They are the cornerstone of our business. Everything else that we do is what I would describe in the aftermarket, and those franchise dealers have had a tough time with the aftermarket, and we want to improve our own brand equity. We have problems ourselves with people and pricing violations on the Internet, so we wanted to do something that we could control and give them a high value program. PSB: Do you expect dealers that do sign on will have a franchise kit assembled on their showroom floor? DW: Absolutely. There is a compliance com- ponent to what we're doing. There are some federal standards and local/state standards for exhaust systems, both for street and dirt motorcycles. We have worked very hard to bring our product in compliance. We want dealerships to install Yoshimura product on brand new motorcycles before [customers] go home to the Internet, so the ideal situation for us would be a dealer that has one, two, or three franchise kit-equipped bikes on display on the floor and then to take the components of our exhaust lines that are legal for a dealer to install on new motorcycles and accessorize before they go home to the Internet again. The dealer has control until that bike comes out of the finance office. Once it comes out of the finance office and is warranty registered, the dealers loses, we all lose, control, and that customer is going to end up on the Internet, so it's not just the franchise kit. We would like to merchan- dise the franchise kit also on other new bikes and have dealers understand that we have a new signature series of exhaust that they can install on motorcycles on the showroom floor and keep that margin in their brick and mortar store and not let it go to the Internet. PSB: Why unveil these kits at the Tucker Rocky show? DW: Tucker Rocky's been a very good partner for Yoshimura. When we originally talked about this program to Tucker Rocky, every- body that we talked to got excited about it, understood what we were trying to do, so we've been kind of working with Tucker Rocky over time to bring this program together. It's been an awful lot of work. There's a lot of moving pieces in this program, and so because Tucker Rocky has been a good working partner and committed to support the program, we told them that this would be where we would go public with it. PSB: How long has this been in development? DW: We had a Grom here last year on dis- play with several of these components, and we could see the writing on the wall for that model in that the dealers were really excited about the bike, but they weren't necessarily excited about the margins that they were going to see in it, and so we brought something to the market before the bike even arrived to help them with that issue. And the Grom was the first place that we started surveying the dealers, saying "What would you think about a program like this if we were going to bring it to market?" And the reaction to it was overwhelmingly positive, so that was where it started just over a year ago. PSB: Will Tucker Rocky dealers be the only dealers who can get their hands on these? DW: At this stage in the game, there are two places a dealer can get this product, Tucker Rocky; it is also available from Yoshimura direct. Pricing is fixed; there is no benefit to getting it from us or from Tucker Rocky, and if somebody finds out about the program and signs into the database, we literally will ping a message at them that requests that they get the product from Tucker Rocky. PSB: What has the dealer reaction been so far? DW: The dealer reaction has been, what they're telling us is finally somebody is doing something. The dealer reaction has been really, really positive, and typically my response to them has been, well, please understand that you guys complained; we listened, and we've done something now. We've got a program for you that we are willing to absolutely protect and make sure it's something that has absolute integrity. We've done our part; now you need to do yours. PSB: Are you requiring a minimum order to start? DW: Not at all. If a dealer, for example, let's say if a dealer is in a market that's not strong with motocross, we don't expect them to buy one of these kits because it's here and it's on offer. We want these kits to work for the dealer in question. We definitely want them to get into the database, so it puts them up on our radar screen. We will target market to these dealers, so as we introduce a new kit, if it's a Kawasaki dealer that's signed in, and we bring a new street franchise kit to the market, we're going to let those Kawasaki dealers know what it is, what the pricing looks like, and the collateral that we're going to provide to support the program. The program needs to work for the brick and mortar store. We don't want the dealer to order a franchise kit if it doesn't fit their demographic. PSB YOSHIMURA CONTINUED FROM PAGE 32 (Far left) Dave Waugh, direc- tor of sales for Yoshimura R&D of America, Inc., center, explains the company's new franchise kits at the Tucker Rocky Brand Expo in July. (Left) To encour- age dealers to stop by its Tucker Rocky Brand Expo booth, Yoshimura plastered signs in elevators and hallways of the host hotel.