Yamaha Acclaimed as Winners in the Japan Branding Awards 2020

Yamaha has set “develop closer ties with customers” as one of the key strategies of the three-year medium-term management plan that started in April 2019, and promoted brand appeal through the brand promise “Make Waves” throughout the group. In connection with this, Yamaha is working to create experiences that resonate with our customers. Yamaha also established a brand management system on a global level, conducted brand training, and produced content and corporate advertisements based on brand promises that were acclaimed highly for their widespread use in Japan and overseas.

“We are honored to receive this award,” commented Simon Oss, Brand Marketing Group Manager, Marketing Strategy Department, Yamaha Corporation. “We will continue to develop broader, deeper, and longer ties with our customers, and are committed to empower them to ‘Make Waves’ with their sound and music.”

Comments from the Judging Committee

Organizational development and internal involvement have been systematically and globally realized, including necessary stakeholders from the top management to production sites around the world. We especially appreciated the construction of systems and processes to ensure the realization of plans, such as the system established to put into practice as an actual experience to “reinforce customer interfaces and communicate brand appeal through brand promise” outlined in the medium-term management plan. Beyond slogans and VIs, a holistic approach from both inside and outside the Company is taken that recognizes comprehensive penetration of the brand promise concept, world view, messages, and content, that ranges from visuals and messages to service provision and experience creation. One of the major initiatives in 2020, the implementation of experience creation at the flagship store in Ginza is scheduled after the evaluation period for this award. This initiative holds great expectations for significantly strengthening direct experiences with customers.

*Japan Branding Award 2020: These awards were created in 2018 by Interbrand Japan Inc. to provide support for the further growth of corporations and organizations putting brand strategies in place. The award recognizes corporations, bodies, businesses, products, and services that conducted outstanding branding campaigns, highlighting the contents of those campaigns for providing an opportunity to broadly share those efforts.