Yamaha 2008 Annual Report Download - page 30

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28 Yamaha Corporation
High-Priority Initiatives
Priority Markets
During fiscal 2009, newly-established subsidiaries in Russia and
India will commence operations in an effort to encourage market
growth in these regions, while Yamaha will expand its presence
in emerging markets such as China, Eastern Europe, the Middle
East and Brazil. To accelerate the pace of marketing activities in
its priority markets, in April 2008 Yamaha launched a sales sub-
sidiary handling musical instruments and AV equipment in
Russia, and a similar subsidiary in India will commence opera-
tions in October 2008. In Europe, Yamaha consolidated its musi-
cal instrument and AV equipment sales subsidiaries in Germany,
France and the U.K. by the end of June 2008, and plans to
introduce a new price structure which reflects recent changes in
the European market. The consolidation of sales operations in
Western Europe is expected to improve efficiency, enhance sales
and marketing capabilities and boost revenues.
Priority Products
To address the ongoing polarization of the piano market, as well
as diversification in the retail industry, Yamaha is trying to develop
keyboard products which more accurately match consumer
demand in terms of quality, performance and price. Leveraging its
advanced technology, both in acoustic pianos and digital key-
boards, Yamaha is developing an extensive lineup of unique new
hybrid products which combine both acoustic and digital sound
as part of the Company’s “Total Piano Strategy.” Meanwhile, the
Company intends to upgrade the quality and features of acoustic
pianos, and to give its digital pianos a more favorable balance of
cost and performance. In the market for premium grand pianos,
Yamaha will work to strengthen its market presence by developing
the synergy between its own piano operations and those of
Bösendorfer, which Yamaha acquired in 2008.
Yamaha has a comparatively small share in the extremely
lucrative market for guitars, in which the Company expects new
opportunities for growth. Therefore, it is concentrating its man-
agement resources on efforts to develop appealing guitars dis-
tinctive to Yamaha. The electric acoustic guitar which merges
acoustic and digital technologies in a single instrument is already
attracting strong demand from the world’s largest guitar market,
North America. Yamaha will continue to pursue product develop-
ment efforts in this sector to further improve the quality of these
products, focusing on acoustic pick-ups, DSP* and other tech-
nologies which form the basis for an electric acoustic guitar.
Meanwhile, the Company is working aggressively, in cooperation
with Yamaha Artist Services Hollywood (a U.S. affiliate involved in
guitar and drum R&D), to develop relationships with musical
artists worldwide and seek their assistance in planning, develop-
ing and marketing products.
* Digital Signal Processor (Processing) (DSP) refers to general digital signal-processing
technologies developed by Yamaha, including various original technologies for
processing digital audio and music. Practical applications include sound field controls
in AV equipment, effects used in professional mixing consoles, sound-generating
chips in mobile phones and 3D sound technologies.
Digital piano ClavinovaTM
CVP-409
Electric acoustic guitar
APX500
Yamaha Music School in Shanghai (China)