An olympic business feat.

Yonex proves a model of international marketing

Every four years, the world gathers to celebrate human strength, grace and endurance with sports harking back to ancient times: track, gymnastics, wrestling, badminton. Yes, badminton, the game most Americans associate with backyard barbecues and family outings debuted this summer as an Olympic sport. And most of the top players wielded racquets made by Yonex Corp.

Yonex has acquired a lot of economic muscle in a sport not known for toughness. The company was the official supplier of the U.S. Olympic Badminton team and manufactured the official shuttlecock of the Barcelona Olympics. "The focus of the company was originally to be No. 1 in the world in the sport of badminton, which is no small achievement," explains Ken Delf, executive vice president of Yonex in Los Angeles.

Although few Americans would guess it, badminton is extremely popular, especially in Southeast Asia. In England and Denmark participation in the sport ranks second only to soccer. A total of 22 million badminton racquets were sold worldwide last year, compared with 12 million tennis racquets and 4 million squash racquets. Yonex dominates the badminton market with a 75 percent share.

Foundation of quality

Yonex was founded by Minoru Yoneyama in Tokyo 47 years ago. His business philosophy proved remarkably applicable to the present: make high quality products that succeed with technologically advanced design. His company's pioneering achievements include the introduction of the first aluminum badminton racquet and the first ultra-light racquet 1978.

Revolutionary racquets expanded the business. Yonex turned to tennis in the early 1970s, just as the sport's popularity took off, introducing an "isometric" or square-headed tennis racquet later in the decade. Superstar Billie Jean King was the first to use it. Today, pros like top-ranked Monica Seles bring Yonex with them when they are at center court.

With the tennis boom past its peak, golf is now the company's biggest growth area. The Far East is an especially promising new market, with dozens of courses being built in Japan, Thailand and Malaysia.

Focus on innovation

Yonex is building its share of the golf market by focusing its trademark innovation skills on club design. "Nine or 10 years ago when we got into golf, we were using the very latest technology in terms of graphite and advanced composites," Delf said. "We pioneered the wide-body, large-head concept with the A.D.X. 200, which essentially revolutionized the wood market."

Constant innovation and deft product targeting have won Yonex international recognition. The company's recent growth has averaged 20 percent a year and worldwide sales have grown to $260 million annually.

"At that rate, you nearly double every 3.6 years, and that's almost too fast," Delf says. "The key thing about our company is that, unlike virtually everybody else in the business, we make our own product in our own factories. We more or less pioneered the R & D side of our business to deliver a better product."

The tradition of innovation is being carried on in the United States by Ben Yoneyama, the founder's son, and the president of the company's U.S. subsidiary. Opened in 1983, the L.A. branch (actually located in Torrance) oversees the entire North American market. It has been the prime mover in making Yonex an international sports equipment powerhouse.

Reaching for potential

The Southern California location, near a major airport and the largest port in the United States, is perfect for international business. To realize its full international potential, however, Yonex needed direct links with its headquarters in Tokyo and its distributors, suppliers and customers worldwide. To establish these links, Yonex turned to AT&T.

AT&T and Yonex worked one-on-one to build a communications network. Carolyn Fowler, international sales manager for AT&T who assists Yonex, explains, "On our initial visit, the international account management team asked detailed questions about Yonex's business and customers, the markets they are in, what they are marketing and to whom."

Yonex's central concern was that its communications network provide immediate access to its customers, distributors and suppliers. After strategic consultations with AT&T's account management team, Yonex installed an AT&T System 25 -- the basic hardware linking Yonex to the AT&T services it needs to succeed.

Just as Yonex diversified its product mix to satisfy changing markets and new customers, it built the ideal long distance package from a variety of services, including AT&T Megacom(R) Wats, Megacom(R) 800 and Pro(R) Wats. The combination gives Yonex maximum flexibility in discount calling both internationally and within the United States.

Favorite service

Yonex's favorite service is probably the AT&T PRO(R)WATS Favorite Nation Option. With the PRO(R)WATS Favorite Nation Option, Yonex receives additional discounts on calls to the one country that it selected. With calls flying back and forth between Los Angeles and Tokyo, Yonex naturally chose Japan for the greatest savings.

"Yonex wants to focus on its business," Fowler says. "They don't want to be concerned with spending a lot of time, expense and effort to worrying about their long distance or creating a specialist within their company to do it."

With growth in its future, Yonex needed its telecommunications to keep pace with its ambitions. The package it has looks at Yonex's expansion to date and anticipates the direction of future growth. The necessary telecommunications will be added naturally, as part of a strategic business plan. "As they grow and develop markets, we're able to help them identify opportunities," Fowler says.

Many of these opportunities are revealed in the management reports AT&T prepares for Yonex, which review international calling volumes. With these reports, Yonex can pinpoint growth and decline in activity and can incorporate the information into its strategic planning.