Yamaha Motor Targeting Generation Z in India
Chennai, India, Nov. 11 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Yamaha Motor Co. is expanding sales of its sports motorcycles in India, the world's largest market for two-wheeled vehicles, by targeting Generation Z, or people born in and after the mid-1990s.
There is strong demand for motorcycles in the country of more than 1.4 billion people, and local automakers with cheap products command a sizable market share.
The Japanese company is differentiating itself with a strategy centered on sports bikes with excellent design to spur demand among young people.
Yamaha is promoting to Gen Zers in India its motorcycles with displacements of at least 150 cc, sporty appearances and colorful wheels. Priced at 100,000 rupees or more per unit, they are more expensive than common bike models in the country which have lower price tags of between 60,000 and 90,000 rupees.
The main customers of Yamaha's bikes are upper middle-class people increasing in urban areas.
Eishin Chihana, chairman of Yamaha Motor India Group of Companies, told an interview last month that Yamaha will "sell motorcycles that young people aged 18 to 25 can admire."
Yamaha's sports bikes were very popular in the 1980s and 1990s, and this impression is still present in Indian society, Chihana said.
Skandha Jay, a 22-year-old Yamaha sports motorcycle rider, said that riding a Yamaha bike was a dream and that the price matches the quality.
Cheap motorcycles with displacements of up to 125 cc are popular in India, where overall annual demand for bikes exceeds 17 million units. Local makers such as Hero MotoCorp Ltd. and TVS Motor Co. have a combined market share of over 50 pct, while Honda Motor Co. has the biggest presence among Japanese manufacturers.
The Honda Activa, released in 2001, has become a popular scooter with annual sales of more than one million units thanks to its affordable pricing, fuel efficiency and ease of riding.
Until 2017, Yamaha had targeted families in regional cities but the effort had been hampered by the sales networks of local giants. It shifted to a strategy of targeting urban youths in 2018.
Following the strategy change, Yamaha's unit sales prices increased and its 2023 operating profit rose more than 20-fold from 2017, despite its models only making up around 4 pct of the Indian market.
Yamaha's dealership stores in India were renovated based on blue, the brand color of the company's racing team. It plans to increase the number of stores to 900 by 2027 from the current 400.
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