Re: John Miller you are blind or?
Alright, I'm still looking for the details. I'm not refuting anything or questioning the number 1 position. In fact, I'm sure you are right about Kubota's shooting star. But it seems a bit misleading to state that compact tractor sales are up 8.6 % YTD when that specific data point is for two-wheel drive tractors under 40 hp. Also, in the same table, I see that FWD tractor sales are down almost 23 % for the same period but without any breakout of tractor HP class. And, BTW, what constitutes the "Farm Wheel" tractor class that defines the scope of this study? As a propeller head marketing analysis and numbers guy, I just need more than what I see there (on that one page).
Okay, how did we interpolate the brand statements here? Did I miss a link, or a table, or something? If so, I'll go there and we will all feel better about those strong, and probably correct, statements. My questions are completely out of curiosity and I most certainly don't intend to let such disconnected (from ME) information influence my near-future buying decisions.
I love reading all of this brand pride stuff and subjective quality interpretaion conjecture, BTW. I will add a bit of what I think is objective reasoning and conversational seasoning (that rhymes!) to the quality-to-retail-sales-level relationship discussion:
Assuming that retail sales is directly correlative to quality, as some of you espouse (and I will add that I think it is indirect and only contributory instead of exlcusive), I pose this question: When a product loses market share as a result of a quality issue, or perhaps as a result of a perceived quality issue, and said company rectifies the issue in a timely manner, how much time will elapse before retail sales levels reflect the turn-around in quality?
Answer: That depends. If we are talking hamburgers and McDonalds is busted selling e-coli burgers that hospitalize a few hundred senior citizens, they will likely (could possibly) be more timely in turning around the sales drop "echo" than, say, a company manufacturing mining equipment, or airplanes, or dump trucks, or even compact tractors. Give this a little thought and consider that quality-related recovery trends must be much slower, according to basic laws of economics, for big-ticket durable goods that are replaced infrequently. If Mahindra blasts their way into the top quality or price/value spot in the next six months, most all of you magnificent afficianados will adopt the quality product based on the obsolescence or upgrade schedule for the machine you own, not on the identification of competitive advantage. Sure, the new knowledge might escalate the discussions with our collective spouses, but most of us cannot afford to respond in the form of a retail transaction for a considerable amount of time. Heck, I've known for a year-and-a-half that I need a bigger machine and new product offerings keep muddying my decision process.
On the other side of this discussion, you might be back at Mickie D's after the e-coli debacle fades if they start offering $1 half-pound USDA certified Black Angus burgers grilled over mesquite by bikini-clad, 21-year-old, super-model health inspectors (females, of course) /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif.
I gotta' stop here. Obviously it's lunch time if I'm using food analogies to discuss tractor quality and market share issues /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif.