Japan Marketing News

Tokyo pricing strategy conference to be held in September

If you're interested in improving your marketing expertise—especially on topics related to pricing—take note.

On September 4th and 5th, 2007, marcus evans will be holding a conference here in Tokyo focused on successful pricing strategies.

Featuring case studies and presentations by executives from leading firms such as Yahoo, Toyota, Matsushita, KAO, The Body Shop, Kagome, Mikimoto and several others, the event will shed light on the various strategies and tools these companies have been using to optimize customer retention and maximize profits.

Fourteen sessions covering a broad range of topics will be held during the two-day conference.

A sampling:

- Employing customer-generated media to to drive brand loyalty and establish premium brands.
- Implementing new marketing strategies for Japan's baby-boomer generation.
- Using value-based pricing to target LOHAS-oriented consumers.
- Key product and pricing strategies to target Japan's "new rich"
- Understanding consumer response to price changes.

The event looks like it could be useful for those in brand management, product planning, strategy, PR and advertising, as well as many other types of executives.

As I understand it, most of the conference will be held in Japanese, although a couple of the presentations will be given in English. These are all-day events, and will be held at the Century Hyatt in Shinjuku.

For more details on the event, including schedules, speakers, costs and registration, visit the conference website here.

Movie industry seeing a big shift in Japan?

The other day I received an inquiry related to the movie business in Japan, and this inspired me to take a peek at recent industry data. After punching some numbers into Excel, I came up with this graph*—which compares box office revenues in Japan earned in recent years from Japanese versus imported movies.

Uh oh. It appears that Hollywood may—at least for the moment—be in a bit of trouble.

In 2006, while the box office take from imported films dropped about 20%, revenues from local flicks were up over 30%. What's more, this appears to be part of a trend.

So, what's going on here?

The honest answer is that it's hard to say for sure without a close analyses of several factors.

However, I do have my theories which involve the following:

- Macro trends: societal, cultural, technological
- Industry infrastructure shifts
- Consumer tastes vs. content
- Advertising and communications issues

I can't elaborate on these further at the moment (too busy looking for my next gig). With luck I'll be able to return to this topic in a future post.

*Box office data from Motion Pictures Producers Association of Japan

** Need more information on this subject? Click here.

Market insight: indeed, size matters

Here's a little reminder to those of you out there who hope to sell household products in Japan: Japanese residences are small, so your product had better fit smoothly into Japanese homes—or it doesn't have a chance of succeeding.

By way of an extreme example, consider a typical American product—the kitchen dishwasher. Many Japanese kitchens don't have enough room for stove, let alone a dishwasher. So, until about five or six years ago dishwashers were rare in Japan—there just wasn't any place to put them.

But things change. These days, Japanese home appliance manufacturers have made quite a few models available. What's eye-opening about them is that they're nothing like an American-style dishwasher. Designed to address the Japanese space issue, almost all are meant to sit atop kitchen counters.

The item shown here is the Sharp QW-SC1 which is just 46 cm (18 inches) tall, weighs about 55 kg (121 pounds) and costs about ¥40,000 (about $330). As you can see, its holds the number of dishes and utensils that two people might use in consuming two typical Japanese-style meals. Granted, this is on the small side, even for Japanese dishwashers—but even the larger models are still only a few inches taller (some can fit twice as many items as this model thanks to greater depth, but they're still designed to fit on countertops).

Obviously, this issue of size extends to washing machines, furniture, household fixtures, and even packaged goods. If it's "American size" it will be nearly impossible to sell in Japan.

* Need more information on this subject? Click here.

How to survive and thrive in Japan

The fact that you're here is proof of your interest in the Japanese market.

I'm glad that you read Japan Marketing News. We do our best to deliver a range of information, news and analyses related to products, marketing and advertising in Japan.

However, no website can cover every category and every brand in detail.

If you want to survive and thrive in Japan, you need in-depth market intelligence.

The optimal approach is to conduct tailor-made research on the market, your competitors and the consumer. But this can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

What to do?

A good first step is to tap into publicly available sources. The problem is that most of this information is available only in Japanese, and only from sources that highly-experienced marketers know exist.

We can help.

We've handled information gathering and analyses for trusted international brands like Microsoft, COACH, Bruno Magli, and many others. We can do the same for you.

We can also help with marketing strategy, product localization issues, advertising production and partnerships.

For details, e-mail us.

* Need more information on this subject? Click here.

Need more?

Japan Marketing News is produced by Spark Productions, a boutique marketing consultancy and creative shop located in Tokyo. If you need more information on any subject featured on these pages (or anything else related to products and marketing in Japan), Spark Productions is available to handle research, consulting and marcom-related design and development projects.

Japanese consumers are amongst the most demanding in the world, and international brands commonly need to modify their business strategies, products and communications approaches to survive and thrive in the Japanese market. Determining the right way to do this takes experience and expertise. Spark Productions specializes in showing “outsiders” the way into Japanese hearts, and pocketbooks.

Think your brand can prosper in Japan without making changes? Learn from the experience of others. Here are just a few world-leading labels that have revamped their product lineups and/or communications programs for the Japanese market:

Nike, Frito-Lay, Land Rover, Levi's, Microsoft, Coach, McDonald's, P&G, Kit Kat, Coca-Cola, Le Sportsac, Minute Maid, Gravis, Adidas, Starbucks, KFC, Bulgari, Haagen Dazs, Maybelline, Salvatore Ferragamo, Kodak.

To learn more, contact Spark Productions.

Need references? Click here and see what CEOs and top executives of world-leading brands have to say about Spark Productions and its founder, Michael Fiorella.

SPARK PRODUCTIONS SERVICE LINEUP

Research and Analyses
- Guerilla research: tapping Japanese-language sources and networked experts
- Primary research: defining needs, selecting research companies, analyzing research results within the context of Japanese culture and customs
- Strategic orientation: the market, the consumer, the competition
- Brand diagnostics: what's wrong and right with your brand

Strategy and Business Development
- Segmentation and positioning issues
- Optimizing products for Japan
- Developing new products to meet special Japanese consumer needs
- Channel issues
- Pricing
- Maximizing media effectiveness in Japan
- Integrated branding
- After-service and the Japanese consumer
- PR issues
- Marketing strategy development and annual activities planning
- Strategic partnerships
- Market entry approaches

Creative
- Localization of international ad campaigns
- Development of integrated, Japan-only communications programs: ads, PR, collateral, events, and more
- Consulting and support to home market creative teams
- Ad hoc assignments: copywriting, photography, graphic design, website production, video, translation and localization work.