Japan Marketing News

"1 Seg" and video sharing amongst top content viewed by Japanese cell phone owners

No matter where you turn in the land of the rising sun, you see people staring into their cell phones. Just what are Japanese users doing, besides surfing the web, exchanging e-mail, and looking at photos and video they've shot?

Last month, NetAsia Research conducted a survey amongst 444 people in their teens, 20's and 30's (49.8% male, 50.2% female).

Amongst the questions:

Which of the following rich content do you look at on your cell phone? (Indicate all that apply)

Choices: "1 Seg" (One Seg) broadcasts, video sharing sites, anime, celebrity promotion videos, cell phone novels, cell phone comics.

The top three answers amongst all respondents?

1. "1 Seg" broadcasts (26.1%)
2. Video sharing sites (23.4%)
3. Cell phone novels (17.1%)

Interestingly, teen males and females differed significantly in their usage.

Top 2, male teens

1. "One Seg" (36.2%)
2. Video sharing (31.9%)

Top 2, female teens
1. Cell phone novels (50%)
2. Video sharing (36%)

Tasty recent brand launches in Japan

- The latest in Japan's never-ending stream of magazine launches came off the other day when the Japanese version of the popular Australian fashion journal RUSSH was released on October 27. RUSSH, which is only about three years old, distinguishes itself from other fashion publications by reporting almost exclusively on the lifestyle and fashion choices of models—an approach which is sure to appeal to Japan's celebrity and model conscious magazine readers. This is the first time RUSSH has published a localized version in a foreign market.

- Speaking of first time launches in foreign markets, Paris' wildly popular gelato purveyor DELIZIEFOLLIE is opening its first shop anywhere outside France tomorrow in Shibuya. DELIZIEFOLLIE was founded in Paris by Gaeta Pellegrino, whose family has been involved in the gelato industry for two centuries. Since the brand is new to Japan, we haven't had the chance to sample any of their frozen delights — but if they taste as good as they look on the the Japanese website, the lines here are likely to be as long as they are in Paris. DELIZIEFOLLIE is located in Shibuya on the first floor of the Parco Zerogate Building, which can be found on the street that runs between Seibu Department Stores' buildings A and B, as you proceed toward Tokyu Hands from the direction of JR Shibuya Station (or if you prefer, at the foot of Spain-zaka).

Top 5 Japanese Companies, Part IV (books & stationery)

So you're wondering which Japanese specialty stores earned the highest revenues last year in sales of books and stationery? The top five performers, according to numbers released by Nikkei earlier this year, were:

1) Kinokuniya
2) Maruzen
3) Yurindo
4) Bunkyodo
5) Junkudo Shoten

Japan product and retail news bites

Shampoos. Department stores. Potato chips. Books. These are just a few of the Japanese news topics that caught our eyes over the past few days.

- Nippon Unilever and P&G Japan—which used to rank second and third in Japan's shampoo category, but were knocked down a step each when Shiseido jumped into second place last summer thanks to spectacular Tsubaki sales—are about to go on the offensive. Supported by huge promotions budgets, the two companies are importing successful brands from other markets, with P&G introducing h&s on September 1, and Unilever coming out with the Dove Pro Age Series on August 27. Stay tuned.

- If you've noticed that there are fewer chips in your Japanese potato chips bag lately, it's because manufacturers like Calbee have reduced package volume from 90g to 85g. No, this isn't related to Japan's increased interest in healthier eating. Manafacturers have seen increased prices on imported potatoes—but rumor has it they've been reluctant to pass the cost on for fear of losing sales to much cheaper private brands at CVS stores and supermarkets. Solution? Reduce product volume.

- Japanese department store sales were up 5.5% in June vs. the same month last year, while CVS sales dropped 4.2% for the same period. It seems that department stores were able to bump up revenues by starting summer sales earlier than usual and CVS sales failed to reach 2006 levels because of an unusual surge last year when consumers scrambled to buy up cigarettes before new taxes on smokes kicked in.

- Rakuten books has contracted with the Family Mart convenience chain to provided order pickup and payment services at Family Mart stores. Consumers can place orders on the Rakuten website and specify the Family Mart branch where they want their books delivered. This may sound counterintuitive since Japan's delivery services are speedy and efficient—but it turns out that Japan's busy office workers are often not home to take deliveries. With this service, buyers can specify pickup at the most convenient Family Mart branch—be it near their office, home, or wherever. Seven Eleven Japan has offered a similar service for years through its associated book-selling service, but Family Mart and Rakuten were reluctant to compete before coming up with a more efficient delivery model than the market leader.

If you need more information on these or other subjects, please contact us by e-mail.

Exceptional Japanese print ads: Takarajima Bessatsu

Here's a clever bit of advertising for Bessatsu Takarajima, Takarajima Publishing's imprint that specializes in educational materials. It ran in 2004—which as you may recall—was the year bird flu panic was spreading in Asia.

The copy reads "The birds didn't know. Now, more than ever, knowledge will save you."

The ad won an Asahi Newspaper Advertising Prize in 2005. Click on the image for a better view.

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In Japan, comic rentals are no joke

In Japan, most entertainment content has been available to consumers in both retail and rental formats for a long time. Along with movies, it's quite easy to rent music CDs and video games in Japan.

However there is one very popular medium that has not been broadly available for rentals.

What am I talking about? Manga, or Japanese comic books.

But that's all about to change.

Starting on the first of February, an official agreement went into effect between the publishing and rental industries that clarifies the rules on royalty payments for rented items. So now companies can get into this business knowing exactly what they are expected to pay and without fear of copyright infringements.

Some of Japan's largest entertainment rental firms—notably companies like Tsutaya and GEO—have been preparing workable comic rental models for quite some time and are already testing the waters with various approaches. In particular, Tsutaya seems very serious, with plans to offer rentals at 100 shops nationwide by the end of this year.

It’s all about the high margins. Since comic books have a much lower wholesale unit cost than DVDs, they’re expected to be more profitable. How much consumers will have to pay will depend on where they get their comics. For now, companies offering rentals are generally charging fees from ¥60 to ¥100 per item for two to seven days.

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Exceptional Japanese print ads: Shincho Publishing

Here's a newspaper ad that won a prize in the 2005 Mainichi Design Awards. It's for a publishing company called Shinchosha.

The ad is tremendously simple but is difficult to explain without providing some linguistic background. In Japanese, quantities of various items are specified with "counters" that differ with the subject being discussed. For instance, if you're telling someone that you own three bottles of wine, you'd tell them you have san-bon. If you're telling them you have three pairs of shoes, you say you have san-soku. If you're explaining that you have three sheets of paper, you describe them as san-mai. In Japanese, san means "three." The suffixes in each of the previous examples are what clarify to the listener the type of item that you have three of.

Now, getting back to the ad, the headline says "I am _____ satsu," where in this case, the word satsu refers to a number of books. The reader, seeing this, will pause for a moment before the light goes off. Literally, it says "I am [blank number of] books." In other words, if the girl in the photo has 46 books stacked next to her, she's saying "I'm 46 books."

The cleverness of the copy is found in the fact that the stack of books can be looked at as kind of a growth chart (which it visually resembles).

The viewer of the ad—if he or she is an avid reader—gets it immediately. "I'm _____ books" is like saying "I'm _____ inches/centimeters tall."

On a subtle level, the ad challenges the viewer: We've read this many. How many books have you read?

In other words, the message is meant to promote reading. And since Shinchosha is a publishing company, they're hoping you'll buy their books.

Can you believe it took all of that to explain a three word headline?

Welcome to the crazy world of cross-cultural communication!

* Need more information on this subject? Click here.

** Check out other Mainichi Design Award winners here.