Anyone noticed there's never any motorbike adverts?

[urbanfireblade]

Hi, i was watching tv the other day, and it dawned on me that you never see a dealer advert advertising their new motorbike. There's hundreds of car ones, but i can't remember the last advert advertising a new bike from any manufacturer.
Why is this????

[simon_g]

Fewer than 100,000 powered two wheelers sold last year in the UK, a third of them scooters.

In comparison, nearly 2 million cars sold in the same period, mostly generating much more profit per unit. No wonder they have the money to burn on advertising while the bike industry sticks to lower profile and more targeted marketing.

[AndyC_772]

I'm still surprised there aren't more ads along the lines of:

"130 mpg, £2500, no batteries. Honda CBF125"

...plastered all over the newspapers. Bikes like that tick enough of the fashionable 'eco' boxes that I'd have expected them to fly out of showrooms to buyers who wouldn't otherwise have considered a motorcycle at all.

[philrl1]

I read somewhere that advertising executives reckon as far as larger capacity bikes are concerned it's a waste of money for manufacturers to advertise as bikers as a consumer group are very clued up to the bike they want and advertising makes very little difference to sales. Having said that I can't understand why bike/scooter manufacturers aren't trying to encourage more car drivers onto smaller capacity bikes and scooters for commuting due to lower costs. Maybe peope think owning a small bike for commuting only isn't worth it as they'd still want/need to own a car? Must a reason as I'm sure they'll have done their research?

[LVC]

The good old days ;)

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[philrl1]

I remember the advertising slogan from Honda from around the late 1970's, early 80's - "you meet the nicest people on a Honda". Lol

[urbanfireblade]

It is strange, maybe its a government thing, hush hush/boycotting smaller bikes so less new riders interested=(in theory)statistically lower % of accidents in the 18-24yr old bracket. Something like that!
Also new bikes are so expensive nowadays and most are viewed as a 'weekend toy' its more a 'want' and not 'need' scenario. A car falls into the 'need' catagory.

[Grumpy]

Laughed my head off at the utube clips!
I'm in the process of clearing out my house, as I have sold it...found manufacturers brochures for Harley Davidson Sx250!!
How often do you see brochures these days!