Celebrity Endorsement
“Yamaha Fiore” 2NE1 – Celebrity Endorsement
Celebrity endorsement is commonly used to market products, it is a strategy which gives a “face” to a brand, to which the consumers can relate and aspire to. Yamaha has decided to promote its Fiore scooter Thailand with widely popular Korean pop group 2NE1. Their strategy was to reach out to urban Thai’s who follow foreign trends, music and fashion. While many urban Thai’s certainly are fans of the Korean fashion and pop music it remains unclear as to what effect the campaign has had on the purchase decision making and increased market share if any; however the effort did position Yamaha’s scooters as a trendy and youthful.
Across European cities scooters are a very popular and low cost means of transportation. In Thailand, and a number of other emerging markets most consumers will aspire to owning their first car and will go to great lands to acquire one such as extending significant loans, whereas motorcycles/scooter are generally used and perceived as necessity for low income market segment. Furthermore, in Bangkok it is apparent that there are very few scooters being driven by the middle to upper market segment consumers, some of the reasons being as mentioned earlier and due to the traffic congestion and pollution which is considered to be dangerous to drive a scooter in.
Yamaha is one of Thailand’s largest motorcycle manufacturers with a market share of 26% - expecting to reach 30% in 2011 (Bangkok Post, May 5, 2008) and Honda leading with an impressive 68% (Bangkok Post, May 5, 2008) market share. A large portion of this is assigned to rural areas where people use scooter as common means for transportation whereas in urban areas people will rely on public transportation, own a car or other. The key challenge would remain in changing people’s (middle, upper segment) perception of using scooters as a way to commute, run errands or go to a nearby store rather than solely relying on using car most of the time.
Celebrity endorsement is commonly used to market products, it is a strategy which gives a “face” to a brand, to which the consumers can relate and aspire to. Yamaha has decided to promote its Fiore scooter Thailand with widely popular Korean pop group 2NE1. Their strategy was to reach out to urban Thai’s who follow foreign trends, music and fashion. While many urban Thai’s certainly are fans of the Korean fashion and pop music it remains unclear as to what effect the campaign has had on the purchase decision making and increased market share if any; however the effort did position Yamaha’s scooters as a trendy and youthful.
Across European cities scooters are a very popular and low cost means of transportation. In Thailand, and a number of other emerging markets most consumers will aspire to owning their first car and will go to great lands to acquire one such as extending significant loans, whereas motorcycles/scooter are generally used and perceived as necessity for low income market segment. Furthermore, in Bangkok it is apparent that there are very few scooters being driven by the middle to upper market segment consumers, some of the reasons being as mentioned earlier and due to the traffic congestion and pollution which is considered to be dangerous to drive a scooter in.
Yamaha is one of Thailand’s largest motorcycle manufacturers with a market share of 26% - expecting to reach 30% in 2011 (Bangkok Post, May 5, 2008) and Honda leading with an impressive 68% (Bangkok Post, May 5, 2008) market share. A large portion of this is assigned to rural areas where people use scooter as common means for transportation whereas in urban areas people will rely on public transportation, own a car or other. The key challenge would remain in changing people’s (middle, upper segment) perception of using scooters as a way to commute, run errands or go to a nearby store rather than solely relying on using car most of the time.