In The Fast Lane

Getting the right products to the right place and on time is a daunting challenge. For Yamaha Motor Europe (YME) reaching the right audience compounds this challenge. So when YME was faced with the task of launching a new motor scooter in Europe -- geared towards environmentally aware businesswomen -- the company knew it had to step outside of its core research capabilities to deliver the goods.

Data Collection Begins
YME markets and sells Yamaha motorcycles, as well as a variety of land vehicles and watercrafts, in 24 European countries. Under its tried-and-true research model, YME gauges its potential customers' reactions to its latest motorbike designs, through the Yamaha Design Cafe, an online portal that delivers interesting stories on Yamaha Motor's latest sports bikes geared toward YME's core audience -- sports bike enthusiasts. Accompanying the stories are links to surveys, which provide a cost-effective means of collecting consumer data. YME used SPSS' survey research tool mrInterview to develop and field the Design Cafe surveys. In the surveys, YME asks technical questions that only a well-informed bike rider would know, such as the differences between two-stroke and four-stroke engines. This approach ensures that YME is truly hearing from its target audience -- genuine motorbike enthusiasts. Hennes Fischer, YME's product planning consultant, used mrInterview -- a product within the company's Dimensions survey research technology platform -- to develop and field the Design Cafe surveys. Familiarity with SPSS products was one reason why Fischer chose the SPSS survey application.

"SPSS' mrInterview was the only software that gave me the flexibility to design a questionnaire offline; other versions forced you to compose questionnaires on the server," says Fischer. "Likewise, mrTranslate (another Dimensions offering) offered the best translation abilities and was the easiest to use -- a necessity since the majority of our research is multilingual."

YME saves time and reduces costs since the new product development team can now conduct focus groups with more specific information gathered by mrInterview beforehand; Web results also make some travel unnecessary. Beyond product planning, YME uses mrInterview to conduct internal research, asking dealers questions on a range of issues from logistics to product evaluation. These results are then shared with logistics personnel, who can help dealers address bike delivery and other issues.

Improved Evaluation Process
The Yamaha Design Cafe has already paid dividends as a new product evaluation tool. Recently, Yamaha Motor Corporation created an electric two-wheeler for the Japanese market (pictured). YME wanted to determine the product's potential in Europe, since the conventional European motorcycle customer doesn't tend to buy electric scooters. In only two weeks, the survey, which featured pictures of the bike, generated 2,000 responses from scooter lovers in France, Germany and Italy. The feedback helped YME's new product development team learn how Europeans would use the scooter and how much they were willing to pay for it. But the Design Cafe, it turns out, was not the ideal place to launch questionnaires for the scooter initiative.

"We placed banner ads on Web sites that target women and that are geared towards the environmentally minded," says Fischer. "The banners didn't ask opinions, instead they were out to get people interested in the product by allowing interested respondents to talk about mobility and the environment." During this juncture, the product was briefly introduced, and the YME Web site was mentioned.

The Results Speak
The results were encouraging and included interest from all countries. Another pleasant surprise was the female ratio -- nearly half as opposed to 10 percent in most other YME surveys. "These results encouraged us to look deeper," says Fischer. "We did some conventional research (focus groups) based on the Internet research. After that, the product was determined to be a suitable test product in Europe."

Today, a full year after testing the scooter, Yamaha says it will be ready to introduce the full range model this year. With technology as a key enabler, YME was able to deliver the right product to the right place at the right time. "It's extremely important to stay in touch with how our customers feel," says Fischer. "Thanks to mrInterview, we never feel out of the loop, which gives us confidence that we're always delivering a product that truly meets their expectations."