To cater to the "Kitna Deti Hai" crowd, there is already established products with established reputation of "Bahut accha mileage deti hai" from Hero, Honda, Bajaj and even TVS. Why on earth will a desi guy opt for a Yamaha if "Kitna Deti hai" is on his mind?


Why does anyone get a Yamaha?
For Speed, Performance.. or at least "the Image" of Speed & Performance.

As long as Yamaha sticks to the "image" of speed and performance and not directly try to please the primarily "kitna deti hai" crowd, it'll sell. Maybe not in great numbers but it'll sell like the way the R15 outsells the Crux.

sirjee the machines might change.. but the mentality won't.... not atleast for next 50 years.
here even you start riding a R15 at 50's

the general crowd comment is.. "these guys just wanna race and waste money and put lives to risk"

i hope some day this changes...

Yamaha unlike Honda has never targeted being No.1 in the market. There are more concerned with their image of being 'performance' oriented motorcycles. But even if these motorcycles don't sell in great numbers, they are expected to sell sufficiently to make the company profitable. Or else it will be time to wind up and go home. As the bottom line is the bottom line!

An interesting approach of being profitable without huge volumes is shown by Royal Enfield. They sell just about 1.1 lakh bikes a year, yet the margins are a good 14%. Infact so good, that they have helped double the share value of the parent Eicher Motors.

I am sure Yamaha will also want to target something similar, sell bikes with the correct image intact, yet make profits out of them. I doubt if they could make a dent in the commuter segment, even if they tried hard. Just not their forte. While something like the Ray/scooter market can be both profitable and maintain the desired image.

Agreed.

At the same time it is also true that the chances of Yamaha India to appeal to these crowd is very minimal. So why try?

Yamaha India has such a strong performance image associated with it.. its much more easier for them to appeal to a different set of customers rather than the ones that are only interested in "Kitna Deti Hai". The R15 and FZ is proof to that.


With the commuter crowd.. No Chance.

When they announced "no more bikes till 2014" I knew they chose the wrong path.
We are all were hoping for a more powerful bike from Yamaha and they disappointed us.
Bringing a good looking scooter is a good thing and there will be customers for a Yamaha scooter even if it's underpowered, overpriced, returns poor mileage..just like fz.
I knew fz is underpowered and overpriced still I bought it(fazer). Why? Because it is a Yamaha, it looks damn good, it handles good and most important 'its well put together and has good quality components'.

No matter how much they try nobody is gonna buy a 100cc commuter from Yamaha over Honda or bajaj.

I think Yamaha is starting to forget who they are



Sent from my WT19i

As the previous trend happened with Escort Yamaha converting in India Yamaha Motors Pvt. Ltd. they gambled with a bike like YZF R15 and that time there were hardly few bikes costing above a Lac. But the Gambled played up very well , as Yamaha got this bike exactly what they have been known for in world. Power, Performance and Style. But with the current trend where all the major motorcycle company coming to play with every segment, Yamaha did just one thing that Launched FZ, then a semi faired FZ (Fazer) and SZR. Then the only thing happened was cosmetic changes.
These Bikes which Yamaha has got into market since 2008 are great and very good. But then with people looking for different options they need atleast 2 new model every alternate year which is the minimum. Now this trend is not something which we want, but this is the trend which is being followed by all other Bike Manufacturers, and this is to survive in this competitive world.
I have been a Yamaha fan since childhood, and proud owner of 2 of the best Yamaha model in India. and I am very happy and satisfied with it. The quality, the performance, the affect of owning a Yamaha since 1998 has made me admire these beauty and fall in love with it. But in the end Yamaha does need to bring up more models and more variety.... I am just hoping for the best and keeping my fingers crossed, would not mind having few other Yammys in my stable