Motorcycle industry in Thailand Essay Example for Free

Motorcycle industry in Thailand Essay Thai motorcycle industry entered in Thailand since 1964. There are four main players in this industry including Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, and Suzuki. Even there are not much competitors but the competition among them are fierce. Thai market for motorcycle is in maturity stage. This makes the players have to use strong strategies to possess market share. The dominant player in this industry is Honda For customer analysis, among four leader players they quite focus customer similar group. It might be because nature of product is suitable to certain group of people. However, they try to differentiate by focus niche group with new lifestyle. The common target group is teenager to working age. This result in the way they communicate to each target group. As motorcycle is product that are high value so the level of consumer involvement decision are high as well. People try to study what advantages and disadvantage of each model in each brand. Nevertheless, point of purchase in the sale point pays important role. As we can see from the retail show room, promotions broad are very attractive and different among the shops. Therefore, customers can not make decision from their home. Dealer in show room encourage customers to visit the shop to meet direct sale person for the information. For competitive analysis, the players are keeping develop themselves particularly many strategies. Honda has the most capacity and sales while other competitors also grow continuously. They have different strength points. For example, Honda is the 1st Fuel injection system applied while Yamaha is 1st produced automatic type of motorcycle and 1st produced Eco Motorcycle. For future trends, in short term, it will not much change in position of leader but they will try to focus target customer narrowly and differently. For long time Thai market might decline. However, sale will go constantly but not jump high because people will buy new motorcycle when they want to replace the old one. Motorcycle Industry Motorcycle industry in Thailand is growing dramatically. It is because proper geographical and economic structure. Particularly geographic, Thailand has a popular over 65 million people. The areas are flat for the most part. For some rural area it is much better to use motorcycle and in the big city with heavy traffic jam motorcycles have become the most convenient vehicle for quick travel. Thai motorcycles industry was monopolized by the Japanese four brands are Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki, and Suzuki. History First stage: Import parts for assembly (1964-1977) – CKD stage In 1964 Board of Investment (BOI) got a policy to promote producing motorcycles in Thailand to replace imports. In 1966 Siam Yamaha Co. ,Ltd is the first company which established motorcycle assembly factory. Thai Honda Manufacturing Co. Ltd began to operate as the second factory in next year. Then in 1968 Thai Suzuki motor Co. ,Ltd was third motorcycle manufacturer in Thailand. Later in 1971 the market was sluggish including increasing the number of import used motorcycle. Therefore, the government announced the policy to prohibit import used motorcycle. In the same year, the government got the first motorcycle industry policy. The significant issue is the assembly motorcycle manufacturer have to use parts from domestic 50 percent of all parts within 2 year since the announced date(3 November 1971) to be competitive and suspension establish motorcycle plants within 5 years from announced date(3 November 1971) to accomplish economy of scale. Until the end of the announcement in 1976 Thai Kawasaki Motor Co. ,Ltd established as the forth assembly plant. In 1977, the government required the existing motorcycle producer use at least 70 percent local parts within 2 years. As for expand and new factory must use parts from local at least 70 percent since start the operation. Moreover, Industry ministry had a policy to assign motorcycle plants to produce motorcycle with cylinder capacity not exceeding 125 cc to meet the needs of the market and to take advantage of economies of scale (Economy of Scale) as well. Table 1: Details of the motorcycle manufacturers in Thailand in 1977 Honda Suzuki Yamaha Kawazaki Total Capacity (unit per year) 49,920 87,360 72,000 25,000 234,280 Capital (million Baht) 20 18 9 5 52 Employment(person) 134 304 566 100 1,104 Source: Bank of Thailand Second stage: Began producing parts in 1978-1987 Localization In 1978 there was a prohibited import motorcycles and raised import tax to some particular motorcycle from 40 percent to 60 percent including transportation and insurance. The result of prohibited import and force to use parts inside country was the producers increase their capacity. In 1980 the total capacity was 338,000 units per year which higher 103,720 units per year from 1977. However, this policy provided producers with higher production costs because of not proper economy of scale and quality of parts in non standard. As the producers can choose types of part as they want so parts did not improve and late improve. Therefore in 1984 the government allowed operators to use such parts gradually until 70 percent of the total value of the component in January 1986. In 1984 the government collected special tax for motorcycle that import in special case 20 percent of duty to be paid. It increased from the original import tax 60 percent of price and increased import duty from 30 percent to 40 percent. As for promoting the production of parts in the country, government regulations require that manufacturers of motorcycle must use exhaust systems following industry standard. They also allowed only factories that are promoted by Board of Investment (BOI) can expand a manufacturing plant or permission to establish a factory to produce engine cylinder capacity not exceeding 150 cc. The protection of motorcycle industry policy during this period lead to the production of motorcycles increased from 190,779 units in 1978 to 310,083 units in 1987 , with a total production capacity in 1986 was 480,000 units, including the production development and launch new style of motorcycle to market to have more choices. Table 2: Details of the motorcycle manufacturers in Thailand in 1980 Honda Suzuki Yamaha Kawazaki Total Capacity (unit per year) 96,000 108,000 109,000 25,000 338,000 Rate of capacity utilization 70. 1 86. 5 95. 7 75. 8 84. 0 Capital (million Baht) 20 18 9 5 52 Employment(person) 335 460 1,378 120 2,293 Source: Bank of Thailand Third stage: Producing important parts (1988-1997) – Key Parts Supplier This period the government continued to enforce parts of the country are 70 percent of the total value of raw materials. The result promoting investment allowed manufacturers to use motorcycle engines produced in the country in 1989. In 1993 Board of Investment BOI promoted for 4-stroke motorcycles to help reduce pollution from exhaust and in the first investment the company is Kajiwa Motorcycles C. ,Ltd, a joint venture with Italy, its annual production capacity of 70,000 units . Moreover, government began to take care of consumers’ benefit by control price of motorcycle and protect monopoly. Government assigned producers must report production cost and procurement approach since 13 December 1980 onwards The motorcycle industry continued to grow at a high rate. Until it can produce up to 1. 6 million units and capacity utilization rate reached 90. 4 percent in 1995, driven primarily by the demand for motorcycles both inside and outside the country. As well as the effect of the protection of the government helped Thai producer improve their capacity and ready to support the growth of demand Forth stage: Extending cooperation to the producers parts (1998-2001) Agglomeration In this period, the manufacturers of all types of part occurred in Thailand. This included the types of electronic components. The manufacturers were not only the first Tier but also include the second tier. This made high competitive among the producers who produced the same types in same time they had to meet the QCD standard (Quality-Cost-Delivery). That was the producers must produce the quality with low cost and on time delivery. Consequently, 2001 Thailand motorcycle industry could produce one million units and consumed the local parts (Local intent) about 90 percent. In addition, government changed the policy of protecting domestic industry to require the products to be safe and do not destroy the environment. Fifth era: export and research and development (RD) (2002 – present) Late 1990s was the period that government reduced the protection industry which was the result of a free trade agreement between the countries in 1996 revoked the ban on importing new motorcycle and canceled enforcement components produced domestically and un-enforced engine production in the country. In the fifth, Thailand became the production base of motorcycles in the region. Not only production to consume in country but also exported. In 2005, Thailand exported Complete built up (CBU) and Complete Knock down (CKD), including more than 1. 3 million units Furthermore, Japanese motorcycle manufacturers began to apply research and development, technology transfer from Japan to the recipients of investment, such as Thailand. One reason for the need to apply research and development was because during this time retailer price was strong. Therefore, in order to compete, manufacturers need to reduce production costs but the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers had strict production conditions that using quality raw material. This could lead to lower production costs by applied research and development to reduce the losses in the production process. Figure 1: Show the motorcycle industry, production, sale in the country and export in Thailand in 1972 2011. Market Analysis Market Size Total motorcycles sales for the domestic industry reached 2,130,041 units in 2012, of which 1,062,494 or 50% were AT motorcycles. Family motorcycle achieved sales of 981,865 units, accounting for 46% of total of sales last year; followed by 32,726 units for on- and off-road types, accounting for 2%; and 32,083 units for sport motorcycles, accounting for 2%; and another 20,899 units of other types of motorcycles. Figure 2: Show market share by types of motorcycle Figure 3 demonstrates market share divided by motorcycle companies. Honda is the dominant player who possess market share 74% of the market. The second player is Yamaha gain 19%. For Suzuki and Kawasaki earn 3% and 2% respectively. Another 2 percent belong to other brands including Triumph, Ducati and Tiger Figure 3: show market share base on players in the market Thailand Motorcycle is divided into two categories based on the appearance which are Moped and Sport. Most motorcycles are moped with engine sizes from 100 to 125 cc while Sport got engine 250 cc. Thailand produces about 90 percent of Moped. The rest of the production is Sport type. It is consistent with sale of Moped are higher than Sport motorcycle. In 2004 Moped motorcycles were produced most 2. 86 million unit. Figure 4: Show production and sales of motorcycles in Thailand divided by type of vehicle in 1990 -2011 (in thousand units). Source: TAI Market trend Thai motorcycle industry already exists in Thailand 49 years since 1964. Product life cycle of motorcycle spend long time. Many are of the opinion that the Thai motorcycle market begins to a stage of saturation, but it has not lowered competition among manufacturers. On the contrary, the competition is as fierce as ever despite the small number of major players compared to the automobile market. This situation encourages the players have to launch new interesting product on the time. Fashion and lifestyle are used to create emotional though the products. Many motorcycle companies try to adapt themselves to serve consumers to get beyond function of motorcycle but show consumer’s lifestyle. Thailand is a country with a large market size motorcycle. The holding motorcycle proportion is 4 people per vehicle. The current version of the motorcycle in Thailand has begun to be economic model. The opportunity to expand the domestic market began to decline. Current sales are the purchased to replace old vehicles. This may result in decline ability to attract investment to Thai motorcycle industry. Situation of Thai Motorcycle Industry From the 1990s onwards the motorcycle market in Thailand continued grew. Until the economic crisis in Thailand in 1997 (Asian financial crisis or Tom yum kung crisis) made motorcycle sales volume decreased significantly. The sales originally sold about 1 million vehicles per year, and dropped to about half million in 1998. Nevertheless, only 2-3 years after the economic crisis, the motorcycle market the sales volume increased continuously in 2001 sold about 907,100 units and 1. 3 millions later in the next year. The volume of sales back to the original level before the economic crisis of the countrys motorcycle market is growing by the year 2005, the volume of sales to 2. 11 million vehicles most. For 2012, the sale climbed to 2. 13 million which was higher than 2005. In 2007-2009, the sales dropped due to great recession which affected the entire world economy. After the global recession, the sales continued to increase year by year. To increase sales motorcycle manufacturers try to promote sale with many ways. Figure 5: show sale volume of Thailand Motorcycle 1993-2012 Strength and weakness of Thailand for investment in Motorcycle industry (compare to ASEAN country) Strength Weakness Public utility and transportation system are equipped Investment benefits received from the government Quality and technology motorcycle production base Law conducive to investment Market size is smaller and get in saturation stage Social and politic stability are decline Higher wage Shortage technician level labor Thai motorcycle industry has a lot of strength over competitors. The manufacturers are convenient doing business and operation. Although labor costs are higher than other neighbor countries, other good strength can reduce the other costs such as management cost, business operation, transportation, and distribution costs. Thai motorcycle market also provides sufficient standard quality for exporting to developed countries such as Japan, USA, and UK. At this point Thailand should maintain the standard and improve the existing strengths. In term of develop public utility and transport system, although Thailand are quite ready, other neighbor countries also continuously improve particularly Indonesia and Vietnam. There are probably in the future both countries will replace this advantage. Thailand should correct the weakness particularly maintain social and political stability. It becomes the major issues which affect the investors’ confidence including country’s direction in short and long term. In term of labor issue, they should improve skill of labor to compensate with higher wage. As Thai motorcycle market get into saturation stage however they can expand investment to export in order to maintain the motorcycle production base for the future. Five Force Model Analysis Industry Competitors and Intensity of Rivalries Rivalry among competitors in the motorcycle industry is relatively intense. While each major competitor has its own market niche, price discounting, new product introductions, advertising campaigns, and innovations in motorcycle technology consistently fuel rivalry between firms. Rather than competing based on price, the major players in the motorcycle industry tend to compete based on services and features. Each major company offers different types of products targeted to different consumer segments. There is a high level of differentiation between classes of products and brands, causing high switching costs for consumers. Accessories and parts are produced for one specific brand. In addition, margins are not low, and the product is not perishable. Because of these factors, competition does not tend to gravitate towards price as much as other factors. Even though price is not the main basis of competition in the motorcycle industry, the intensity of competition is very high. The industry is composed of five distinct leaders, each of which is large and has high brand equity. Because the industry lacks a definitive leader, rivals end up poaching each other’s business. Additionally, the sheer number of competitors in the market in addition the main five creates an abundance of purchasing options for the consumer and cause heavy competition. Rivals in the motorcycle industry have diverse approaches and ideas on how to compete. While one company might believe that adding new features to their products will help boost sales, another company might believe that increasing speed capabilities will be more beneficial. Another company might believe that offering easy financing is the key. Bargaining Power of Suppliers. A number of motorcycle manufacturers involved in the industry in such a way that the pyramids upside down and the motorcycle manufacturers and parts suppliers are related to link backwards (Backward Linkage Effect) Motorcycle productions of Japanese manufacturers in Thailand (Big 4) are the leaders of the market including Japanese producer’s parts. Thai producers’ parts are 15 percent of the value of purchasing all the parts of the motorcycle. The producers must have potential to produce to meet QCD standard. For local content, it found that Japanese manufacturers use more than 90 percent of material and electronic parts from Japan. For the 1st Tier of part manufacturers are mid-sized businesses and joint ventures with foreigners who mostly are Japanese. In the 1990s, these are called OEM12 production until mid- 1990 onwards, as manufacturers of motorcycle parts can purchased from other foreign countries with cheaper price. This pressure affect on the first tier manufacturers to improve efficiency of product design and development capabilities. For the 2nd and 3rd Tier of producer parts are small enterprise owned by Thai people. Technology in capable of producing is quite low. The manufacturers in this group will sell parts to the first tier, including one for a replacement (REM14) both locally and abroad. Bargaining Power of Customers The vast majority of the motorcycle industry’s customer group consists of individual consumers. Motorcycle customers are only mildly price sensitive. Since a motorcycle is a relatively expensive item and therefore a significant fraction of income, buyers are likely to seek a favorable price. Also, since motorcycles are usually a luxury purchase, the intention to buy one indicates the willingness to spend a significant amount of money. More importantly, customers are much more sensitive to quality and brand image than price. A motorcycle purchase is a reflection of one’s identity and influences how others perceive them. Threat of New Entrants The maturity, large number of competitors, and high capital requirements needed to enter the motorcycle industry make it a fairly unattractive industry for new competitors to enter. A more complete and detailed analysis of the seven barriers to entry will show the motorcycle industry to be a hostile, unreceptive environment for new entrants. As a mature industry, current competitors enjoy the benefits resulting from economies of scale. Established motorcycle producers have the luxury of lower costs per unit because they can allocate their fixed costs to a larger number of products. New entrants do not have as large of a demand and must distribute their costs over a smaller quantity. Because of this, individual costs per unit are larger, resulting in a higher product price. Besides the difficulty new entrants find in attracting customers, another deterrent to entry are the high capital requirements demanded by the industry. Characteristic of a mature industry, price is no longer a differentiating factor among similar product offerings by different competitors. Leaders in the motorcycle industry, such as Yamaha, now differentiate their products by providing â€Å"high-value-added products† at their own dealerships. For new entrants to enter the market and take away current market share from existing competitors, high capital investments in infrastructure, dealerships, development of new products, and promotions targeting specific customer segments are required. High capital requirements, increasing demand, and specialized products are factors contributing to the high barriers to exit the industry. Current competitors holding the majority of the market share are hesitant to leave the industry because of the positive industry outlook and niche markets each have carved out for themselves. With few companies leaving the industry, it leaves very few market segments untapped and available to new entrants. Substitutes When analyzing the competitive threats on the motorcycle industry as a whole, the motorcycle trade association members must keep in mind three main substitutes of motorcycles: bicycles, undersized cars, and public transportation. Each of these substitutes can be further broken down into subcategories. Each category is considered a substitute for motorcycles because it either satisfies at least one of three costumer needs that motorcycles satisfy, or it gives the costumer something that motorcycles do not offer. Though the levels of threats posed by each category of substitute differ greatly, the motorcycle trade association members must be sure to address each of them when deciding where to go from here. Most importantly, keep in mind that these threats are ever present, and if the various motorcycle manufacturers do not act soon, they will risk losing customers throughout the coming years. First of all, it is important to understand what motorcycles do for buyers because this sets up a framework for the underlying motivation behind the purchase of any type of motorcycle. Since the motorcycle industry is responsible for designing and manufacturing about seven different kinds of motorcycles, or other automatic two-wheel vehicles, several customer needs are met by each category: means of transportation, low fuel costs, environmentally friendliness, recreational activity, and â€Å"cool factor. † In addition, we will analyze another factor that motorcycles lack compared to potential substitutes – safety. Bicycles are also a threat to the motorcycle industry based on a few critical factors. First, as two-wheel transportation vehicles, they are similar in basic function to motorcycles, satisfying the consumer need of basic transportation from point A to point B. The reason why bicycles make viable alternatives to motorcycles is related to the consumer’s need to spend less money. Bicycle owners incur zero gas mileage costs, making this alternative the most environmentally friendly option. To be technical, the only real costs associated with bicycles are the upfront purchase, maintenance, optional accessories, and human labor. In addition, bicycles satisfy the consumer’s need for recreational activity similar to motorcycles. Anyone from the average consumer to the avid biker can use a bicycle as an alternative means of outdoor recreation. Compact cars and hybrids (Eco car) are the final and most influential classification of substitutes that pose an immediate threat to the motorcycle industry. Overall, both types of cars present high switching costs to the consumers. For the consumer who is interested in switching to a motorcycle, high switching costs could be a highly motivating factor to not buy a motorcycle at all. Hybrids are primarily substitutes because they satisfy the customer’s need for a fuel-efficient mode of transportation. For many consumers, increased safety is a motivating factor in buying a compact car over a motorcycle Public Transportation can be one alternative for travel to destination such as boat, taxi, BTS, and bus. People would like to take public transportation to help them in many advantages. For example, in Bangkok traffic is so jam. People actually prefer BTS or MRT to travel to avoid traffic as well as more convenience. Another example is people who avoid hot weather and want to keep their appearance during the way to go to office. They might prefer taxi instead of motorcycle. Key Success Factors 1. Quality Quality is a key in this industry because it is vehicles that need safety. The manufacturer must comply with required product standards. A key success factor for a firm operating in this industry is their ability to design and develop products that comply with legal standards. Products that do not meet standards are not able to be sold on the market 2. Design. Consumers tend to focus on design and feature which suitable with their lifestyle. The manufacturers attempt to offer new products to serve with every life style especially, automatic motorcycle. Motorcycle Companies do research in studying consumer behavior to know what consumers prefer and focus what consumer need. 3. Technology and save energy In this economic situation, people tend to look for the most worth product. Manufacturers should keep abreast of latest technological advances in various components and parts, as well as technical and performance characteristics. 4. Distribution center. Distribution center or show room is the one that open way to consumer easily access purchase. This is the reason why companies improve image of dealer show room around country. They also increase number of store into small city because in small cities people still need to use motorcycle in daily life. As well as develop the show room to be one stop service which can serve after sale service. 5. After sale service and activities Many consumer give importance to the after sale service because motorcycle is durable goods that consume time to use. Some consumers use their motorcycle more than 5 years. After sale service include service mind, price, and time of taking care as well as parts to repair. For the activities, this topic includes consumer relationship and sale promotion because it is important factor that motivate consumer buy the products. Point of purchase plays important role such as low down payment, free 1 baht gold and zero percent installment payment. Factor that affect change 1. Minimum wage Thai government announced the policy to increase minimum wage to be 300 baht. This increase wage cost 80% of average minimum wage. This policy is very significant to Thai labor market. It provides both advantages and disadvantages. For the advantage, the policy help all labors in Thailand earn more income. Human being gets better because people have more money and they can spend a lot in the market including purchasing new motorcycle. As a result to number of sale in 2012 were more than 2. 1 million units However, there is also drawback. The manufactures have to pay more cost including wage and also more expensive parts. Price of parts are getting higher particularly middle size and small size because of small economy of scale 2. Technology Technology is one factor that affects change of the motorcycle industry. As for Honda, the market leader change motor of all models to be fuel injection system since 2008. Honda change production line to serve this innovation. This affects all players to change as well. Yamaha is the second player who changes to fuel injection system to be 62 percent and carburetor still use 38%. So, Yamaha sent the first automatic injection was spark 135i. For the second model, Yamaha tried to serve woman need. They launched Fiore which uses automatic engine with a genius injection  technology YMJET and DiASil Cylinder that make it less fuel consumption. While Suzuki also produce with electronic petrol injection. Therefore, the players in this industry have to improve all the time and do research and development in order to offer the better solution to consumers. 3. Disaster effect After Thailand has suffered with big flood in 2011, Thai motorcycle industry is one industry that gets direct effect from this situation. Factories have got damage in many areas. They have to recover their factory and create protect system to cope for unexpected disaster. However, it did not affect much to sale because consumers want to buy new motorcycle to replace the damage one. Sale of whole market tends to increase as trend. 4. Economic In this economic situation, people tend to save money and careful in spending. World economic is also unstable. The causes are from many effects such as public debt in EU. US economic has not recovery yet and fiscal cliff and world political. Back to consider Thai economic, cost of living keep increasing. Consequently, people are carful in spending. They will study information and get involve to consider before buy product particularly motorcycle. 5. AEC opening As Thai motorcycle industry is in saturation stage, the leader players try to go to other country in AEC. The motorcycle producers will use Thai as production base and export to our neighbor countries. This issue encourages Thai have to improve themselves especially skill workers both technician and language skill. Table 3 shows the potential if the motorcycle manufacturers want to run business in each country. Table 3: Population, income, number of motorcycles in the ASEAN Country Number of resident in 2009(million) Income per person to the purchasing power between countries 2009 (US$). Number of motorcycle (thousand) Number of persons holding one motorcycle Indonesia 243. 3 3,830 28,000 9 Philippine 92. 2 3,900 2,983 31 Vietnam 87. 3 2,700 20,366 4 Thailand 67. 8 5,990 16,549 4 Myanmar 50. 0 1,290 1,630 31 Malaysia 28. 3 13,740 8,903 3 Cambodia 14. 8 1,820 75120 Laos 6. 3 2,060 n. a. n. a. Singapore 5. 1 47,940 147 35 Brunei 0. 4 50,200 12 33 Asean 596 4,520 80,000 (Round) 7   2008,   2007 Source: Population Reference Bureau, CEI. Collected and calculated by Kasikorn Research Customer Analysis Customer is one of the most important drivers for business success. Most business try to serve goods and services according to customer wants and needs to meet the customer satisfaction and become well-known brand recognized. Moreover most of them are concern more about turn general customer to be their customer loyalty too. So, understand customer behavior is needed for business development. Consumer behavior An analysis of consumer behavior is affected by a host of variables ranging from personal, professional needs, attitudes and values, personality characteristics, social economic and cultural back ground, age gender professional status to social influences of various kinds exerted a family, friends, colleagues, and society as a whole. The combination of these factors help the consumer in decision making further psychological factors that as individual consumer needs, motivation, perceptions, attitudes, the learning process, personality characteristics are the similarities which operates across the different types of people and influence their behavior. With competition in the motorcycle market continually increasing, understanding customers’ attitudes and behavior is critical to maintaining and growing market share and profitability. The conclusions of consumer behavior while buying motorcycle are: 1. Maximum motorcycle users belong to 18 to 25 years age group and most of the users are college students and field workers. 2. Maximum motorcycle users belong to middle class and upper middle class segment 3. These are the reasons for buying two wheelers: Good mileage and convenience Business purpose Cost effective Comfort drive in crowd and easy parking College going purpose Short distance travel in city Affordable price. Personal vehicle 4. As far as mileage per liter of petrol is concerned. 5. Reasons for not buying scooter: It has low mileage and low fuel efficiency. It has problem with controlling, balancing and breaking on speed. Old style and old fashion It is not good for long drive and not a comfortable drive. It doesn’t match the young person’s dynamic personality 6. Almost all the people give preference to stylish outlook, control, mileage, efficiency brand image before buying motorcycle. 7. Television advertisement, road hoardings and road shows are the major source of information which affects motorcycle purchased. 8. Family members and friends are main initiator, for purchasing a motorcycle. 9. All the people are satisfied with the functioning of their motorcycle. 10. Regarding spare parts of motorcycle, they are cheaper and readily available in the market.