Yamaha Faces New Profile for Younger Riders
Japan- from timesonline.co.uk- Things have been looking pretty good for Yamaha this year. High gas prices have driven record motorcycle sales and profits for the year. Yet the future is less sanguine for the motorcycle manufacturing giant. Japan itself, while representing only 10% of sales for the motorcycle division, is one of the few markets in the world where sales are shrinking.Yamaha sales within Japan have traditionally been driven by younger riders. Younger riders have been influenced by biker gangs. Besides the fading of biker gangs from the local scene, Japanese youth are increasingly warned off motorcycle purchases by parents who see them to be too dangerous. Independant of the parental input, Japanese youth have been trading off interest in motorcycles for interest in computers- internet and computer games. Finally, birthrates in the country have been falling for years, which means diminishing numbers of potential customers for the motorcycle maker.
Yamaha would like to increase sales by going after, well, boomers. Retirees in Japan are spinning out of their corporations at a high rate and they have disposable income. Company execs are hopeful that they can be evolved into a source for big sales.
TimesOnline article...
posted by Tony Wilkie @ 2:26 PM
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