Yamaha two-wheelers are popular among Nepali bike riders. The company recently launched two of its products, Ray Z and Yamaha Ray scooters, in international market including Nepal. Popularity of its products has been increasing and the company considers Nepal as an important market. Jun Nakata, Sales and Marketing Director of the India Yamaha Motor  spoke to Sagar Ghimire of New Business Age during his recent business trip to Nepal. Excerpts: 

 

What is the purpose of your visit to Nepal?

Since Nepal is a very good market for Yamaha, I am here to hold face to face intense discussions on our future business plans, with partners, to explore further market prospects for Yamaha. My meeting with partners here, so far, has dwelt on strategies to expanding our market here amid existing stiff competition. 

 

How is Yamaha’s market here?

Total demand for Yamaha in Nepal is increasing. This year only it increased by 25 per cent. Thus, Nepal is a big market for us and we cannot ignore this country. The scooter segment here is growing tremendously and we see a lot of potential in this segment.

 

What are the recent Yamaha products introduced in Nepal?

We introduced Yamaha Ray scooter here last April. Back in September, we had introduced Ray Z scooter also. These are our two new products launched here in Nepal. Our target customers for these scooters are youngsters. 

 

What challenges is the company facing now in Nepal?

Currently we are focused on Nepal’s scooter market and our main competition in this segment is Honda. In the motorbike segment, we have been competing with Bajaj. Competition is the main challenge we are facing. 

 

What are your strategies to tackle this competition?

Providing customer satisfaction is our main strategy.  Every year we continue investing in innovating our products by improving their performance and design. Apart from that, we are in a constant touch with our customers through our partners and assess their comments and complaints. Awareness is an important factor in marketing. So, we are looking forward to create awareness among customers about the strength and features of Yamaha scooters. Yamaha brand scooters are equally popular in Asian, European and American markets.  

 

What similarities and differences do you find in Nepali and Indian customers in terms of choice, demand and satisfaction?

Basically Nepalis and Indians are very close in terms of choice, demand and satisfaction. I came from Yamaha India Motors. We take care of the Indian domestic market. Our strategy in India focuses on improving customer satisfaction. It’s the same concept and strategy here in Nepal too. We provide good service, excellent showrooms and attractive products. 

 

Why would youngsters, your targeted customers for two-wheelers, choose Yamaha? 

Yamaha two wheelers are stylish, sporty and innovative. We always provide attractive products to our young customers.  Though some customers prefer cheap price, we believe in providing quality, performance and style at reasonable price. We believe that quality counts over price. 

 

Do you have any schemes or promotional plan for your products?

Generally, promotional plans and exhibition are rolled out during special occasion. Just like Yamaha Scooter Exchange Mahamela was organised last October to offer best automotive services to potential visitors and customers. We provided opportunity to customers for exchanging old bikes and scooters with Yamaha Ray Scooter at reasonable prices. It was a good platform for customers to exchange their old two-wheelers and get a new one. We even provided on-the-spot finance services to those in need. We would like to continue organizing these kinds of events in the future also. 

 

Yamaha in India has given special emphasis to its female customers by appointing more female staffs at customer care contact points and introducing female customer care programme. Can we expect similar programme also here in Nepal?

We have got similar programmes here in Nepal too. We have appointed actress Namrata Shrestha as our brand ambassador. We have made it mandatory for our big dealers to have at least one female representative in workshop to deal with female customers. We have appointed more lady staffs at our showrooms also.  We are going to introduce safety driving lessons for the young ladies soon. We are also thinking about launching programmes to provide scooter riding lessons to ladies.