Roy Kurian first reels off the numbers. Nearly 70 per cent of his customers for the R15 and FZ motorcycles are 18-30 years old. The same age group constitutes 80 per cent for the Ray scooter range, with a bulk of them being women.

“In short, we have a very strong connection with youngsters,” says the Vice-President of Yamaha Motor India Sales. The downside, though, is that there is not much of an emotional connect with families. It is precisely for this reason that the company has decided to target kids in the 5-12 age group to be part of a strategic marketing initiative.

Last Thursday, Yamaha launched its child safety programme with a mascot to boot. For those who expected to see the unveiling of a powerful bike, the large doll that monopolised the dais was a bit of an anticlimax.

This is Yamaha’s new mascot which will soon be seen across 300 schools in India during the course of this year. Kurian and his team worked for over a year on this exercise which is intended to highlight the importance of road safety to these school going kids. Given the targeted age profile, they would typically be in Grades 1-6.

“Children are very persuasive and, hence, powerful tools of communication within a family. It is our endeavour to highlight to them the importance of traffic signals and helmets in road safety as well as the dangers of speaking on the cell-phone while riding two-wheelers,” Kurian says.

Yamaha has eight trained instructors for this marathon exercise who will also use local help to drive home this message in different languages across schools in India. There will be audiovisual displays with the mascot (either live or a cut out) being part of the proceedings to ensure that interest levels are kept high. Each session for a specific age group is expected to last 30 minutes which translates into a whole day in a school.

Kurian says this is Yamaha’s way of highlighting the safety message in a country which is way ahead of the rest of the world in road deaths. The company is confident that the kids will carry this back home to their parents. The next step will involve the families coming to Yamaha dealerships where the children will get special stamps. Collecting a tally of stamps will eventually mean getting a “beautiful gift”.

According to Kurian, when these youngsters turn 18 and are ready to buy a two-wheeler, they will remember what tips Yamaha offered them on safety while in school. These memories could even prompt some of them to opt for the Japanese brand too as their first bike/scooter.

For the present, however, the company is guaranteed larger footfalls at its dealerships when these kids come along with their folks and check out the two-wheeler range on display. It will be interesting to see if these young children manage to cajole their parents into buying a scooter or motorcycle.

It is also this young population (of 5-12 years) which Yamaha has reached out to for the christening of its mascot. They can pitch in a name at a dealership over the next two weeks before the company announces the winner in early February.

>murali.gopalan@thehindu.co.in

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