Yamaha Motor India Sales Pvt Ltd (YMIS) recently unveiled its maiden brand mascot initiative to promote the Yamaha Children’s Safety Programme. Roy Kurian, Vice President - Sales & Marketing, YMIS, talks about the company’s performance after it forayed into the scooter segment as well as introduction of new variants in the motorcycle segment; and its aim to garner a 10% market-share overall in the two-wheeler industry by 2018
By SALONI DUTTA
Q] What were the challenges for Yamaha in establishing the brand, positioning and communication in India?
We faced a lot of challenges before 2008, as our focus was on our entire portfolio. We realized customers were interested in products that showcased Yamaha’s DNA, i.e, style, performance, power, innovation, etc. So we changed our strategy and launched Yamaha R15, a miniature of the R1 sports bike, for racing and sports enthusiasts. We also launched three models of FZ city bikes, FZ 16 and FZ S called ‘Lord of the Streets’, and Frazer, a touring bike. With distinct positioning, we connected very well with youngsters. We faced some challenges when we launched our scooter in 2008, as Yamaha was known for its macho and bad boy image. We roped in actor Deepika Padukone and today, our scooters are popular, well-established with youngsters, thus overcoming the challenge.
Q] How did Deepika Padukone as brand ambassador help the brand’s growth? Will you be looking at celebrity endorsers going ahead?
We signed Deepika in 2012 for our scooter category, and the association actually helped in building brand connect. Brand ambassadors don’t sell your product; they aid better recall and recognition. When we launched Deepika, the scooter market was already cluttered and we were a new entrant, so we wondered how to make an impact and penetrate quickly. Signing Deepika helped us do that.
Q] You just unveiled a new brand mascot initiative to promote the Yamaha Children’s Safety Programme. What was the insight behind this?
About 80% of our consumers are in the age group of 18-30. However, we found through surveys that many commuters are not aware of basic traffic rules such as red lights, danger of speaking on mobile while driving, riding without helmets, etc. Hence, we decided to communicate these safety measures as part of our social responsibility. We started the programme with children, teaching them about safety, thereby influencing parents. The emotional connect helps as kids talk about safety and push their parents to wear helmets and eventually when they grow up, they associate Yamaha with safety.
We went to schools to educate children about safety but found them to be disinterested. So we decided to bring in a mascot that would have more impact and appeal to children, interact with them and teach them about safety. We now have a mascot-naming contest - kids can visit a Yamaha dealer and submit their entries. We have also organized events in a few cities where kids can meet the mascot.
Q] What is the brand’s current market-share and what is your target market-share in the two wheeler segment?
We are focused on deluxe and 150 cc premium bikes and scooters. We have close to 19% marketshare in the premium bike segment and in scooters, we have almost 7-8% share all over India. Our target is to have a market-share of 10% overall in the two-wheeler industry by 2018.
Q] What are the fundamental principles of your marketing strategy? What does your marketing mix look like?
Our fundamental principle is to contribute to society. After the launch of our mascot and safety initiatives, we want brand Yamaha to be a well-known family brand, not just known amongst youngsters. We would like our products to be in line with our principle and basic core strategy. Our global brand slogan is ‘rev your heart’ and we would like to rev hearts of everyone in the Indian society. Our BTL and ATL activities go hand in hand. For ATL, we have presence on radio, television and newspapers (60% television). In BTL, ground level activities are done across our dealerships in different cities regularly. Percentage-wise, our marketing spends would be the same as they were last year. We undertook quite a few BTL activities with Miss India when we partnered with them last year. We had the contestants visit our dealers and interact with customers. We also had events like gully cricket contest, which helped us connect better with our TG, activities on women’s day, etc.
Q] What are you doing in the digital space to connect with your consumers?
We are actively involved in social media; we have our own IT company which helps us in connecting with people online. We get a lot of hits and the number is improving with each passing day. In terms of spends, we are using the digital medium, but not very aggressively right now. Our market-share spans around 3 to 3.5% across India, which means only 3.5% people are talking about Yamaha or are interested in Yamaha so far, but if we talk about the deluxe segment and scooters, we have a 12-13% response. Gradually, as we move forward, we will increase our market-share in the digital space and accordingly our spends on digital will also increase.
Q] What’s the USP of the brand? What differentiates you from your competition?
Brand Yamaha is innovative, unique and different. Our product is not just a two-wheeler, it has a lot of passion in it. The differentiation comes from the core DNA which is of style, power, technology and innovation. When a person rides a Yamaha at 7,000-8,000 rpm (rotations per minute), the adrenaline rush is the USP of Yamaha. It is fun, exciting, stable, enjoyable, a safe ride and this differentiates Yamaha from others. We create wow products, and our styling ensures that our bikes are head-turners.
Q] The brand has a varied line of products that cater to various target groups. What factors decide the communication for each product?
We have a top-down strategy. We have products like FZ series and Ray as well as R15, sporty editions for young consumers, while products like Ray stand for beauty. We are associating with Deepika and Miss India, and trying to connect to girls in India through this beauty segment. We mainly have these two groups and communication and marketing activities are based on them.
Q] What was the rationale behind your pricing strategy?
We consider two factors for our pricing strategy - our bottomline and product positioning. We don’t only consider cc and compare with the products positioned against us, but also take into account features and quality that our products offer. We try to set an optimum price.
Q] What is your current dealership strength? Has your distribution strength grown enough to supplement your expansion plans? How are you looking at Tier II and Tier III markets?
We have close to 400 dealers, almost 250 branches, around 800 sub-dealers, and touch-points. When we say top-down approach, our initial products were sold in metros, and then the focus shifted to Tier II cities. Thus, we have a very good network and a market-share in Tier I cities, in fact above national average. Even in Tier II cities, we have gained a good market-share and it is better than the all-India average. Now, our focus is on Tier III and IV cities as earlier scooters were predominantly Tier I and 50% sales happened in urban markets. However, now we have seen a change and even rural or semi-urban markets have started responding to scooters. With more women being educated, they require vehicles for personal mobility. Many women are buying scooters and we have a programme, Yamaha Female Riding, that teaches women how to ride scooters. If a woman learns to drive on one scooter model, the likelihood of her buying the same model increases.
Q] Which region provides the most traction?
For Yamaha, South is contributing very high; almost 40% of our sales come from the South.
Q] Adverse macro-economic factors and hike in fuel prices have affected the entire automotive space. Did it affect your marketing spends too?
In the last couple of years, we have seen a steady growth in fuel prices and sentiments have been bad since 2010. But it has not affected us because when you position a product in an unconventional way, there is always a demand for it. It did not affect us at all, which is visible in the results. The industry grew by only 4% in the 2013 calendar year, and Yamaha grew by 33%. This is because our strategy and connect is really good and anyway people are buying motorcycles, and Yamaha has been able to be in the consideration list, which was not there earlier. We are expecting a similar kind of growth from Yamaha this year too.
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