MUMBAI: Japanese musical instrument producer, Yamaha Music has roped in a team of country’s popular musicians and singers, to endorse its line of instruments. The company is the first-of-its kind to promote its range through endorsement in India.
This initiative is a part of the company’s global strategy to integrate with the local market through connecting its products with well-known musicians of the country.
“This is our artist relationship which we implement in every country that we are in. It is a key part of our business strategy,” Yamaha Music (India) deputy manager regional management (West & East) Tarun Sehgal told Radioandmusic.com (RnM).
Under the arrangement, pop singer Shibani Kashyap has endorsed Yamaha’s range of guitars, music composer Loy Mendonsa endorsed the synthesizers (MOTIF & MOX series), Louiz Banks the Digital piano, Raghav Sachar the Wind instruments and Gino Banks, the electric drums. Yamaha has also got rock band Parikrama and fusion band Indian Ocean to endorse their products. It also plans to increase its artist portfolio and add more artists to endorse its line.
“The artists will use Yamaha products at their performances and we will use their pictures and photos on our site and POS (point of sales). We will support their independent shows with our range of instruments.” Sehgal pointed out.
Under this model, one can automatically connect with the fan following of the popular artists both with international and local artists. The media also wants to cover artists who also acknowledge the fact that (a brand like) Yamaha is providing them numerous platforms to showcase their skills. We are yet to exploit this practice fully but we are here to stay and yield benefits from doing all sorts of market development activities, he said.
The endorsement model is in lieu of advertisement as the company’s target group- professional musicians and potential customers- are already aware of the brand.
“Yamaha is a well known brand and our instruments are affordable but not cheap. The average price of our keyboard is Rs 28,000 with prices starting at Rs 10,000. Our guitars start at Rs 5,000 and the average price is Rs 9,000. We would like to give customers value for money, but the 40 per cent tax on imported instruments makes it difficult,” Sehgal said.
The brand, which entered the Indian market in 2008 presently, has 460 channel partners (outlets). It plans to expand it to 700 dealerships/ outlets by 2013-14. The Indian market for Western Musical instruments including local players is between Rs 500- 700 crores and is growing at 20 per cent, depending on the exchange rate and global economic situation. There are over 2,000 outlets dealing in Western music instruments in India.
“We also have the Yamaha Music Mates, a school level initiative across Noida, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Delhi and Chennai. We plan to expand it in 2013 to more places including Lucknow, Guwahati, Cochin and central India like Ahmedabad,” he added.