Yamaha Motor Australia has gradually introduced its bLU cRU initiative throughout 2016, placing a heavy emphasis on it with its factory-supported teams and now with the wider motorcycling community. MotoOnline.com.au caught up with Yamaha’s national sales supervisor Matthew Ferry this week to explain what the bLU cRU is about and what we can expect to see in the future.

Image: Jeremy Hammer (Foremost Media).

Tell us about the bLU cRU concept and how it began?

bLU cRU is a great way for Yamaha Motor Australia to wrap-up and showcase our blue and white world activities and events and put them under one easy to access communication umbrella. We want to inform our sports model customers of all activities that match their interest, not just activities that reflect their current ride. We recognise that owners may have two or more products in different categories or they may have family members with other products. Obviously, retail is important to us, but we want to offer more than just a sales experience, we want to inspire and motivate our customers with activities and events designed to keep them coming back and to create a customer for life. We are in the process of developing a micro-site for our customers so we can continue to grow the bLU cRU community of like-minded people.

What’s it mean for Yamaha riders and enthusiasts?

They’ll become part of a community and learn about all events and activities that they may be interested in. These include training and education based events, so they can continually improve their skills, riding events like track days, and road, trail and adventure rides so they can enjoy their product, and of course, racing sits at the top and encompasses entry level right up to the aspirational elite category.

A key part of getting the bLU cRU brand out there, even before it was officially launched, was via Yamaha’s factory race teams. They’re obviously a major part of the program?

Correct, one of our first points to create awareness was to get our key race teams on board. All of our motocross/supercross [teams] – CDR, Serco, DPH Motorsport, Yamalube Racing – and road racing – YRT – are a great platform for us to get the bLU cRU message out there, not forgetting the R3 Cup that offers cost effective entry-level racing. Our race teams and riders are the key to inspiring the bLU cRU. Lots of our customers look up to these guys so they are a really important communication tool. Yamaha riders from Valentino Rossi down are key to our branding message by differentiating us from other manufacturers, so giving our customers a good reason to buy Yamaha. Race teams will always form a key part of the entire bLU cRU program.

Source: Supplied.

And it’s not just motocross, off-road, road racing or any singular discipline. bLU cRU spreads right across Yamaha’s brand, whether it’s competition or not, correct?

The product categories that fall under the bLU cRU umbrella of activities and events include our Dream Starter range (fun bikes and entry level off-road), Downright Dirty (competition off-road enduro, motocross, sports ATV and sports ROV), Safari Rally (adventure touring) and Grand Prix (Supersport R series). Whenever there is an event that falls under any of these model groups, it will be part of bLU cRU. It’s not only racing, it could be a recreational ride event, a dealer show, rider training, a trail bike rally and so on. Our aim has always been to offer a model for every customer in a step-up structure allowing riders to seamlessly progress as skills develop.

Dealerships appear to be getting right behind it as well…

You’re right, the dealer is the most important party in any bLU cRU activation that takes place. They have the day-to-day relationship with our customers and provide them with the constant service and support. In time we’d like to see Yamaha dealers create their own bLU cRU events for customers.

What are some of the bLU cRU events you can tell us about that we can look forward to in 2017?

We introduced bLU cRU at the 2016 Sunny Corner Trail Bike Ride – the event was a major success and it was great to be involved with so many of our customers. This is an event we will continue to support. AUS-X Open was another event this year where we showcased our bLU cRU display to nearly 30,000 customers over the course of the weekend. The product display was all about aspiration with our fun bikes, YZ250F, WR450F and Chad Reed-inspired two-stroke. We are still finalising our calendar for next year, but expect to see our bLU cRU rolling roadshow display at the Phillip Island round of the Superbike World Championship (WSBK) in February. On top of this, we will have a number of dealer events, product launches, racing events, rider training, etc, that will fall under bLU cRU all around the country.