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

Ch. 14 - Marketing Channels and Retailing

Yamaha Motor Company can count of many retailers for selling its products. In the immediate New York and New Jersey area there are eight dealers that promote Yamaha brand and competitors. I recently visited New York Honda Yamaha, a retail shop located in Long Island City that happens to be the number one volume dealer in the Tri-state region.

After being welcomed by one of the employees that showed me around the store i immediately realized why NY Honda Yamaha is well awarded. As Yamaha Motor Company, their mission statement is concerned towards Customer Satisfaction which they show with their knowledge regarding all products they have in store. The sales people don't give any pressure at all and they are ready to help potential customers to find the bike that better fits their needs.

They are primarily Yamaha and Honda dealers so all new bikes are from these two major brands, but they also carry used bikes from different brands. I was interested from where they get their bikes: primarily they're coming from Japan but even more interesting is how different categories of bikes such as maxi-scooter and naked bikes are coming from Europe, where this models are very successful. The bikes are exposed in order and their look is more fascinating then ever.

As well as being a dealer, New York Honda Yamaha provides assistance to its customers having in store a well furnished garage. All new and used bikes are provided with meticulous assistance and the bike doesn't leave the store until it's 100% safe to ride. They provide parts and accessories as well for all their products. In store they have a small gears section where helmets, leather suits and other gadgets are being sold. If a product is not available, they're ready to order it for the customer. The availability and courtesy that this dealer provides it's a tremendous advantage for their business and being the number one in the Tri-state region its self explanatory. Customers looking for a new bike are seeking people that are able to walk them all the way through the purchase of the bike of their dreams and Yamaha Motor Company has well trained their dealers in order to achieve this goal.

Ch. 6 - Consumer Decision Making

Nowadays customer research gives valuable data relating to customers in order to make a decision regarding the product they will buy. Yamaha YZR R1 target market is mostly a male population, motorcyclists from all over the world involved in track and road riding. Consumers are empowered to make the right decision when it comes to purchase a new bike, spending a considerable amount of time researching and expecting from the manufacturers to give them the best technology. When they choose the bike of their dreams, the customers finally looks for the best financial option available,  demanding fast service. However, Yamaha Motor knows that their target market is the same as their main competitors such as Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Ducati: Yamaha have to create a special need to their future customers in order to gain their attention because their competitors won't just sit and look at them.

With the knowledge that consumers will spend lots of time researching information's regarding the bike, Yamaha had the R1 being tested and reviewed by the main motorcycles magazines and websites, including technical details about the bike that has being tested several times on track and first impressions by test Rider. Also, Yamaha Motor Company can count on an important racing heritage that has an effective effect on the Customer, having the YZR R1 being developed by 9 times MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi and 4 times AMA Superbike Champion Josh Hayes, involved as well in promoting the bike through track test and interviews where they speak about the potential of the new R1. The making of Technical Commercials on the web contributes to strengthen Customers decision.  The release of these data have a tremendous impact on Customer's opinion that through this external information research has all the necessary resources to evaluate and purchase the bike. The final step in this process is to find the most adequate financial proposal by visiting the retailer that will give the customer the best advantage as service and price.

Ch. 5 - Developing a Global Vision

Yamaha Motor Company its a global motorcycle manufacturer established in 1955 upon separation from Yamaha Corporation and its products are present in more then 180 countries and region, consolidating its unique position in the Motorcycle Market.

Yamaha Motor have major factories worldwide, mostly concentrated in Japan, India, Europe and North America. This show a perfect example of Global Marketing Standardization where Yamaha Motor maintains its product uniform all over the world. A key for the worldwide company success it's its partnership with Hewlett Packard for the improvement of their IT system to support global business operations resulting in an improvement in reliability through the system life cycle to support global businesses and more efficient maintenance to reduce effort and cost when introducing new international branches. In India, where sales are 43.1%, Yamaha Motor has made sustained investments in developing and implementing an effective business contingency plan as well as measures for recovery of IT infrastructure and operations.

A factor that differentiate Yamaha Motor worldwide is the culture of where its products are sell. European and North American market focus their selling mostly on supersport product such as the R1 and similar because of the widely popular Racing Heritage of its sports team while in Asia, especially India and Japan, Yamaha Motor promote traffic units less powerful and more manageable in the highly busy Asian cities.

The purpose of Yamaha in being global is to be a corporate group that people always look to for the next advances and innovations by listening to the necessities of its customers in each market and build and supply products that fit the realities of the specific markets, as well as incrementing their profits that are increasing consistently year after year.

Ch. 4 - The Marketing Environment

Motorcycling in America is more for sport than for transportation, and it's more popular with all ranges of society than at any other time. Much of the growing popularity with motorcycles is from people well into their careers and Yamaha Motor Company understood that, mainly targeting customers in their late 30s through their mid 50s, as known as Generation X and Y. The expanding popularity of motorcycling and a growing desire for new and ever-better products matches the Yamaha YZR R1 marketing strategy that spares no expense in its pursuit of excellence. Supersports category is becoming more selective and defined, with many customers opting to ride a specifically designed road  bike on the road and a track bike on race circuits. Also, according to the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA), one out of every twelve U.S. motorcycle owners is female which is about 8 percent of the nation's motorcycle owners. A very important statistics for a potential slice of the market that keeps increasing year after year and shows how the scenario is evolving. The new R1 purpose and design philosophy are entirely different based on this new Marketing needs. Featuring sophisticated MotoGP derived technology, this new machine is a purely focused sport bike that has been developed both for road and track.

Yamaha Motor Company can count on several events in the U.S. to target and convince potential customers at the Circuit of The Americas (Austin, Texas) and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Indianapolis, Indiana), where two races of the MotoGP World Championship are held every year. In such events many Fans, Motorcycle Enthusiasts and Riders comes from all over the U.S. and Yamaha Motor Company as well as its main competitors are able to manage showcases to introduce their brand new products to convince the audience over the race event Weekend.

Despite the growing popularity, motorcycling is not an expensive activity in the United States considering that, always according to the AMA, its member-riders earn an average household income of $84,000, and own 2.6 motor-cycles where they spend an average of $800 a year on maintenance items and do about sixty percent of the work on their own bike. They also spend approximately $1,200 a year on apparel and accessories. All of this is facilitated by the web where potential customers can do basic research about the product they're interested in, get the answers about their specific needs and eventually being able to access to it.

Ch. 3 - Ethics & Social Responsibility

Yamaha Motor Company has operate to create distinct values through engineering, manufacturing and marketing based on its Corporate Mission by providing new excitement and a more exciting life for people all over the world. 

      The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is to be expected by a company such as Yamaha Motor because it can contribute to sustainable development of society through its business activities based on its “Corporate Philosophy". The approach to CSR it's being shared by Yamaha Motor Company with all its employees so they can applying it in their daily routine at work. 

The presence of the Risk Management and Compliance Committee is a system for controlling risks and its duty is to oversee hazards faced by the company and it moves to forbid major accidents, identifying and evaluating dangers and the measures to overcome them by creating risk management regulations and initial emergency response regulations as its main procedures. 

 Yamaha Motor is enforcing the creation of safer working environments to detect potential dangers or harmful conditions by taking measures to prevent accidents on the workplaces. Thanks to job-specific education and training, such as safety manager training programs and skill improvement programs for supervisors, as well as holding occupational safety and health meetings, the company is focused on developing human resources that can support occupational safety.

Yamaha Motor Company does its best to establish workplaces that esteem diversity, defining its position on human rights by creating the Disabled Employment Promotion Committee and is working to improve the workplace environment through measures such as having analysis of organizational work and other tasks conducted by committee members assigned to each division. As of December 2012, the Company employed more then 140 people severely and mildly disabled, increasing the disabled employment rate. In doing this the Company is looking to build a society in which people with and without disabilities can live and work together. 

        The relationship with its customers its very important for the company which expects from its employees to improve continuously the quality of its products by sharing quality–related informations, formulating action plans and training, raising customer satisfaction to higher levels.

      By being a worldwide transportation machinery manufacturer, Yamaha Motor Company considers the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to be critical for the environment. Reducing every year the CO2 emissions its the main target of Yamaha that going forward will work is way to reduce gas emissions completely in all of its business units as well as reducing environmentally hazardous substances, that could be harmful to human health or the environment.

Yamaha is also involved in special Environment friendly events such as a beach cleanup and baby loggerhead sea turtle watching event at Nakatajima Sand Dunes in Japan, where endangered loggerhead sea turtles come to lay their eggs. Every year since 1991, lots of people including friends, employees and family members participate to this event that show the involvement of the company in environment related matters.