Yamaha Honors Winners Of 2012 Touchstone Sales Promotion

Sept. 19, 2012 - PRLog -- BUENA PARK, Calif. — Yamaha Keyboard Division recently honored Norman Landsberg, of Piedmont Piano Company; Jeffrey Tasch, of Grand Piano Haus, LLC; Ralph O'Neill, of O'Neill's Music House; David Strait, of Strait Music; James Tran, of Piano Distributors; Dan Shykind, of Downtown Piano Works; and Becky Jo Cooper, of SoCal Pianos, as the winners of its annual Touchstone Sales Promotion.

The web-based contest, open to all retail sales people employed by an authorized Yamaha Piano Dealer, enabled sales people to enter and track their sales online, using a points-based system associated with specific piano models. The program, which ran from March 1 through May 31, focused on AvantGrand, Disklavier, Silent and Acoustic piano product sales.

Yamaha congratulated each of the Grand Prize winners for their outstanding efforts and dedication to the Company with an all-expense paid, fully escorted trip to Japan, which took place August 5 to August 11. The prize comprised a round-trip airfare to Los Angeles, followed by travel to Tokyo, Hamamatsu, Kakegawa and Kyoto in Japan, which included Yamaha facility tours in each city. Sales people also enjoyed free overnight hotel accommodations, as well as meals. The total package was valued at approximately $3,000.

“Yamaha’s exceptional dealer base deserves to be both acknowledged and appreciated for their hard work all year round,” says Yamaha Keyboard Division Marketing Director Mark Anderson. “The Touchstone program is just one of many ways in which Yamaha showcases, celebrates and shows gratitude to its top performers.”

According to Anderson, Yamaha’s goal in developing this program was to continue to find meaningful ways to acknowledge and appreciate its top performers. Anderson was inspired to create the promotion by his father, a successful piano salesman with the Company who had won a similar trip to Japan himself for his efforts many years ago.

Norman Landsberg, general manager of the 30-year-old Piedmont Piano Company, has been servicing the San Francisco Bay Area, Northern California and beyond with associations with other branches of the family business. Jeff Tasch is the President of Grand Piano Haus, a small family owned company with an excellent track record of helping customers find the best possible piano for to suit their needs. Ralph O’Neill, general manager of O’Neill’s Music, has been a champion of pianists in the Baton Rouge area, opening the O’Neill’s Performance Space, sponsoring the O´Neill´s Monster Concert Program, and providing unique performance spaces for piano recitals.

David Strait manages the piano department at Austin’s premiere music retailer, which has consistently ranked in the top 10% of all music retailers nationwide. Dan Shykind has extensive experience in the music business, from managing the largest Piano retailer in the United States, to being named Vice President and Regional Manager, to currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Weinberg Center for the Arts, and on the Board of Advisors of the Frederick Gorilla magazine. An accomplished composer, pianist and keyboard player, James Tran, Regional Institutional Manager of Piano Distributors of Florida is a sought after technology consultant to institutional clientele, consulting on such products as Disklavier performance reproducing pianos and Clavinova digital piano labs. Becky Jo Cooper has been diligently representing Yamaha keyboard products as well in the nearly 20,000 square feet of pianos to available to select from at SoCal Pianos.

For more information, write Yamaha Corporation of America, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; e-mail infostation@yamaha.com, or visit www.4wrd.it/YAMAHAUSA.

-END-

About Yamaha
Yamaha Corporation of America (YCA) is one of the largest subsidiaries of Yamaha Corporation, Japan and offers a full line of award-winning musical instruments, sound reinforcement and home entertainment products to the U.S. market. Products include: Yamaha acoustic, digital and hybrid pianos, portable keyboards, guitars, acoustic and electronic drums, band and orchestral instruments, marching percussion products, synthesizers, professional digital and analog audio equipment, Steinberg recording products and Nexo commercial audio products, as well as AV receivers, amplifiers, Blu-ray/CD players, iPod docking systems, home-theater-in-a-box systems and its exclusive line of Digital Sound Projectors. YCA markets innovative, finely crafted technology and entertainment products and musical instruments targeted to the hobbyist, education, worship, professional music, installation and consumer markets.