2011 Volume 45 Issue 4 Pages 4_52-4_76
This paper discusses issues related to the marketing strategy carried out by Nippon Gakki. In spite of numerous restrictions on sales, such as cost, size, and the need for periodical tuning and long training periods for users, the Japanese piano and organ market developed rapidly during the high economic growth period (1955-1973). What was behind the market expansion during this period? Mainly, it is attributed to three different factors: music education, credit sales, and the dealership system.
Modern music education using instruments only began in the postwar period. The Japanese government officially announced the new school curriculum guidelines in 1958, which clearly stated that ‘students have to play the organ in school music class.’ This new curriculum boosted the demand for keyboard instruments, especially organs (reed organs). Around the same time, Nippon Gakki tried to further expand the market by encouraging early childhood music education, through the Yamaha music school.
The second factor was the use of Yoyaku-hanbai (savings-type installment sales) which a Japanese sewing machine company created in the prewar period. This method was used by Nippon Gakki and Kawai Co. to enlarge the market to a wider income group. The third reason for the expansion was the dealership system of Nippon Gakki, which changed its system into a force that could achieve an ideal musical education, using the management resources of the dealership.
Nippon Gakki grasped the trend of the times to firmly gain a competitive advantage; furthermore it constructed a stable marketing channel which was reinforced by the synergy of the three factors mentioned above, in addition to the territory system, the dealer-support system and the evolving sales force organization. This resulted in Japan becoming the largest piano and organ producer and consumer in the world.
