How Yamaha Cambodia doubled its market share from a food festival

Background

In early 2017, Yamaha faced stiff competition in the Cambodian motorcycle market from the likes of Honda and Suzuki. They were about to launch a new model, the QBix and wanted to test market response. 

After a marketing consultation with The Idea Consultancy, Yamaha’s management team took a risk and joined Slaprea, Cambodia’s Biggest Food Festival for its very first event.

Shifting gears from Traditional to Modern Marketing 

Businesses in Cambodia are cautious by nature, tending towards strict top-down hierarchical structures with a small number of decision-makers at the top who favour traditional marketing methods.

So what convinced Yamaha’s management to join a food festival? 

Answer: Exclusivity and Numbers.

Know your target audience and where to find them 

Yamaha’s management team understood that over 12,000 people would attend Slaprea 2017, with an expected average spend of $10 per person. This placed all their targets at middle-income status. And the best part? Yamaha would be the only motor brand at the festival to build relationships with customers.

But this was only the beginning. Together with The Idea Consultancy, Yamaha applied marketing tactics and research at the event to build business strategy and influence at the festival.

Yamaha Marketing Tactics at Slaprea 2017

#1 Placement

Firstly, Yamaha displayed all of its existing models in Cambodia and brought catalogues of their motorbikes from other markets such as Thailand and Vietnam. They strategically placed their display booths at the entrance of the festival, next to the motorbike parking ensuring every festival goer to walk by their booth at least twice. “We knew where we had to be: right next to the motorbike parking,” said Rachana, Yamaha’s Marketing Manager. “We wanted people to consider upgrading their bikes as they were leaving.”

#2 Incentive & Research

Now they had the right location, Yamaha needed the right data. They mounted a 2 prong approach, segmented by audience: one targeting the 100+ vendors (B2B) and one for the 12,000+ festival visitors (B2C). 

Marketing to Consumers (B2C): Every festival goer who answered questions about Yamaha products was given a coupon worth $2. This tactic was wildly successful - the team met their KPI of 300 surveys in the first evening of the 2-day festival whilst promoting the brand. This tells us that a $2 cash incentive is still useful in Cambodia, although we may see this change with a growing middle class.

Marketing to Business (B2B): Yamaha built a positive relationship with the organizer, who then promoted Yamaha messaging to the 100+ vendors: “Yamaha’s $2 coupons injected cash into the economy of the festival for community and small businesses development so consider Yamaha for your next delivery vehicle!” At least 5 businesses were considering purchasing a new delivery motorbike at the time.

#3 Marketing Analysis

From the data collected at Slaprea, Yamaha developed its inventory and marketing strategy together for the rest of 2017 and 2018. The analysis of this data from the surveys led to the investment of their latest model - The Qbix. This quickly took the Phnom Penh market by storm in Q4 2017 onwards and nearly doubling their existing market share in the following quarters.

Lessons learned 

Marketing in Cambodia: Opportunities are everywhere, and true innovative thinking means taking an opportunity which other people aren’t doing. Yamaha’s decision to join a food festival meant they weren’t competing with other brands whilst efficiently using their sponsorship investment for both branding and research. Together with The Idea Consultancy and Slaprea, Yamaha was able to eliminate marketing and business assumptions and thus innovate an event sponsorship into a marketing and research activity to pivot their position in the market. 

Contact:

Galeno ChuaThe Idea Consultancy Co., Ltdmarket research, consult, research, food festival, slaprea, innovation, business, business strategy, Cambodia, customers, sales, market share, yamaha, yamaha cambodia, b2b, b2c, consumer insights, Market Analysis, modern marketing, social media, target audience, the idea consultancy, the idea, motorbikeComment