Developing a new brand positioning for Yamaha Motors Europe

Yamaha Motors Europeis a motorized vehicle-producing company which was facing a decline in sales results for its motorcycles, all terrain vehicles and outboard engines. The brand had lost its appeal to consumers and failed to differentiate itself from competitors, becoming yet another Japanese motorcycle brand.

What did we do?

InSites Consulting installed a mind shift at Yamaha by approaching the issue across all product categories rather than per category, which is how it was done in the past. A new segmentation was developed that stretched across categories; for each segment, a profile bible was provided. Once the most promising segments were identified, quantitative research allowed us to determine new branding opportunities. Once these were installed, the evolution of the brand image was tracked over time, in one efficient study across all segments and products.

The results

Yamaha Motors Europe has successfully developed a new positioning that has been endorsed by all the marketing and product teams. In each new campaign, the segment bibles and positioning materials are an obligatory resource and in briefings to external partners, they are added as crucial pointers for creative execution.