Ch. 7 - Business Marketing

Yamaha Motor Company in the production of its motorcycles, even though the engines are entirely manufactured by them, uses different raw materials to build this parts. Other components of the bikes instead are entirely produced from outside manufacturers: for example the all breaking system is entirely provided by a small and very successful firm in Italy which is Brembo, specialized in the production of breaking system for sport cars and bike and one of the most successful brand on this field. This is a strategic partnership between Yamaha Motor Company and Brembo that permits both firms to gain profits from this alliance: Yamaha earns positive feedback by mounting on its bike a breaking system with renowned fame while Brembo acquires prestige by being chose from one of the most popular motorcycle brand in the market.

Another components entirely produced on the outside are the tyres and from the many producers Yamaha Motor partnership in this case is with Bridgestone and with their top of the line Battlax tyre, utilized for track and road.

Brembo braking system on the 2015 YZR R1 along with Bridgestone Battlax tyres

Ch. 11- Developing and Managing Products

Since 1953, Yamaha Motor Company has produced innovative machines that exceed their customers expectations through their superior quality, their unmatched performances and their extraordinary value. Passed to electronic fuel injection in 2002, renewed and recognizable by its dual pot under the seat in 2004 (172 hp according to the manufacturer sheet), equipped with 4-valves, the variable admission, ride-by-wire and slipper clutch 2007, the R1 was different again from the rest of the production in 2009 by integrating the Crossplane timing of the M1. Lately, Yahama Motor has been struggling on the superbike market due to the ruthless competition of the others producers such as Honda, BMW, Kawasaki and Aprilia with more agile, more powerful and sophisticated products. The resurgence of Yamaha Motor Company begun in 2012 when Yamaha decided to create a new superbike based directly of its successful track derivative, the YZR Yamaha M1 that was able to win 6 world championship in the last 10 years. 

 

An all Yamaha Podium at the 2014 Australia GP with race winner Valentino Rossi

 

 

 

Race Winner and MotoGP World Championship Leader Valentino Rossi at the latest 2015 Argentinian GP

 Valentino Rossi, current driver for the MotoGP Yamaha Movistar Team, has helped the Japanese technicians developing the new R1 thanks to his 20 years experience on the race tracks. The new 2015 R1 in fact is designed for the racetrack and is definitely not an evolution of the old R1 line. The use of electronic control systems from the MotoGP materializes a significant advance in the Superbike machine design,  making the R1 the only Superbike market to resume prototype features its brand started in Grand Prix.

On the commercial side, the R1 flows into the competition in this month. With a long campaign that announced it's imminent arrival on  the market and by stimulating drivers all over the world curiosity with many videos that very giving small glances of the new bike, Yamaha Motor has no doubt that customers who have booked their new R1 won't be disappointed.

 

Ch. 8 - Segmenting and Targeting Markets

Yamaha Motor Company strive to satisfy its customers and exceed their expectations with products and services of superior quality, unmatched performance, and extraordinary value. Having their Target Market defined, with the upcoming of a new model the company knows that the product will have to satisfy certain criteria in order to being evaluated by its customers. Every division of Yamaha Motor Company in the world, even tough they're targeting the same people, will have to deal with different needs and uses of their products base of the location. For instance, while in Europe a super sport type of bike is more researched, in the Indian Markets those types of bikes are not even considered because scooters and moped are very popular and fits better the needs and expectations of the Indian Market. Knowing which type of product is of better use for each type of markets its a tremendous advantage for Yamaha Motor Company Marketers that at this point, knows where to focus their efforts for advertising and publicize a specific bike model. Also, the booming of smart phones was a tool that Yamaha Motor utilized to promote new bike models and also gave the opportunity to its customers to diffuse videos of their new purchases where they were able to share their enthusiasm and satisfaction to potential buyers. Yamaha Motor Company utilized smart market research to effectively reach potential customers on their mobile devices with a huge success.

Yamaha utilized smart market research to effectively reach potential customers on their mobile devices. - See more at: https://blog.instant.ly/blog/2013/04/life-in-the-fast-lane-yamaha-motors-goes-mobile/#sthash.ymoBKIza.dpuf

Yamaha utilized smart market research to effectively reach potential customers on their mobile devices. - See more at: https://blog.instant.ly/blog/2013/04/life-in-the-fast-lane-yamaha-motors-goes-mobile/#sthash.ymoBKIza.dpuf

Yamaha utilized smart market research to effectively reach potential customers on their mobile devices. - See more at: https://blog.instant.ly/blog/2013/04/life-in-the-fast-lane-yamaha-motors-goes-mobile/#sthash.ymoBKIza.dpuf

 

Ch. 15- Marketing Communications

Yamaha Motor Company is awarded to be one of the best motorcycle producer in the world, thanks to its racing heritage with a lot of international wins during the years as well as its promotional mix that promotes the brand worldwide. Especially nowadays, with the coming of social media at his peak, Yamaha Motor spreads its powerful message daily interacting with its customers and potential buyers without loosing an occasion to remind their audience that they are out there improving. It's a huge public relation effort to keep up with the competitors and thanks to the ultimate Hashtags tool, Yamaha is always in first line. Partnering up with its main sponsors and media channel, Yamaha always have the opportunity to be named and brought to the spotlight, shining amongst its rivals especially through its racing events and latest victories where the pilots reminds the public that their success is also merit of the team. It's a powerful chain because people that doesn't necessarily follows Yamaha Motor Company are able to know about it thanks to the athlete or the media channel. Facebook and twitter are powerful tools and Yamaha Motor Company (as well as its competitors) knows it. A single win or anything related to them and Yamaha goes under the spotlight just for being hash tagged, giving them a tremendous exposure in the web.

Ch. 10 - Product Concepts

Yamaha Motor Company is an autonomous and independent branch of Yamaha Corporation, which produce and sell musical instruments and home appliances. 

The logo that recognizes Yamaha Motor Company is three diapason on red background, which they symbolize the relation that exist between the three main areas of a company: technology development, production and sales. Yamaha Motor Company it's easily recognize as Global Brand due to his high earnings worldwide, its customers acknowledgment and its public marketing and financial data, not only in Japan where the company was founded.

 

Yamaha Motor Company has a great product line that doesn't include only motorcycles, but also outdoors vehicles like snowmobiles, watercrafts, marine engines, power portable generators as well as parts and accessories. All this products are shopping products that requires comparison shopping because of their high price on the market and they can be found in Yamaha Motor Company dealers.

Also, Yamaha Motor Company works consistently on new prototypes of its product line that has the chance to be introduced to the market yearly in Motor Shows and International Exhibition. In this huge exposition, along with its main competitors, Yamaha Motor Company introduces new product concepts which, some of them will stay concepts and others will be introduced the following year to the market and ready to be purchased by customers. The New Yamaha YZR R1 was in fact presented at the EICMA (Esposizione Mondiale del Motociclismo - World Exposition of Motorcycles) in November 2014 and will be available on the market starting April-May 2015.

Ch. 17 - Personal Selling and Sales Management

Yamaha Motor Company is concerned regarding the relationship that is being created with its potential customers and the way the sales transaction occur. In order for all their customers to have a remarkable experience and to have them come back and choose over and over their products, Yamaha Motor has all its sales representative being intensely trained. All details are being taken in consideration so that the future transactions can be smooth and effective: starting from the technical features of the line products passing to the financial promotion and financing. Obviously dealers across the world have different strategies and promotions due to the various target market.

In the case of street bikes, the potential customer starts researching on his own and Yamaha Motor offers different platforms where its products are being publicize. Through popular social media such as Facebook and Instagram, customers all over the world can check the newest adds and pictures of the many local pages. For detailed informations, the Yamaha Motor Website its a great platform that offers a variety of news and details regarding Yamaha products. Each category of bikes also promotes some sales event regarding 2014 models where Yamaha Motor finance cash in order to purchase the bike, giving convenient apr interest rate for monthly payments. After a detailed  look of the website, there is also the possibility for the customer to get in touch with the closest dealer by submitting his personal informations and the product in which its interested.

Once the personal research its over, the customer can finally visit one of the Yamaha Motor Dealers where a Yamaha Representative will take care and conduct the transaction, accommodating the Customers requests and find the best suitable option financing wise. The courtesy and knowledge of Yamaha Sales Management staff is widely recognize and makes Yamaha Motor one of the leaders in its field, creating an endurable relation with the customers that last and having them choosing over and over Yamaha products.

Ch. 16 - Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Promotion

Yamaha Motor Company is one of the leaders in the motorcycle industry where its products are synonyms of determination, passion and technology at its finest. It was 1998 when Yamaha Motor introduce to the world the very first R1 and since then it striven to produce the finest line of sport bike ever built. Till today. Yamaha energy comes from the passion of its engineers, its employees and riders to find future solutions in order to make its customers happy and satisfied about its products, giving them the unique excitement they're looking for. And with a year in advance, Yamaha executives were announcing their commitment to invest significantly in their capacity to develop a new advanced product. Defined as a new chapter or better, the beginning of a new era, the new 2015 Yamaha YZR R1 was developed and with it, an amazing "We/R1" advertising campaign focused on the innovation this product was going to bring on the market. 

Yamaha we/R1 live coverage few days before the presentation.

 The campaign in the months preceding the unveiling of the new bike was focusing in releasing few details in order to grew the curiosity and interest of the Motorcyclists crowd, followed by the publish of short video regarding the "We/R1" message and all ended the day that the R1 was unveiled with a live coverage of the event that was streamed online and accessible to everybody. Also, the most popular social media were able to give hint and information about the event, as well as the creation of the ashtag #we_R1. Yamaha took advantage of the event to introduce to the market other new products, leaving the R1 last to make sure that the number of users online at that moment was maximum. To complete the show, the new 2015 YZR R1 was presented by ninth time World Champion Valentino Rossi, known also for his great communications skills.

Valentino Rossi unveiling the new R1