Japan Marketing News

Cell phone commerce growing rapidly in Japan

Figures from a recent Japanese government survey show that commerce conducted through mobile phones in Japan is expanding at a very healthy pace. According to the report, sales of goods and services were up 27%, while total revenues, which include both sales accrued from goods and services and fee-based content, expanded by 23%.

Apple iPhone coming to Japan on July 11

Interested in the iPhone in Japan?

From an Apple press release that went out yesterday:

Softbank (SBM) and Apple® today announced that the highly anticipated iPhone™ 3G will be available in Japan on July 11. iPhone 3G combines all the revolutionary features of iPhone with 3G networking that is twice as fast* as the first generation iPhone, built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs the hundreds of third party applications already built with the recently released iPhone SDK.

Read the press release in its entirety here.

Previous Japan Marketing News post on the iPhone in Japan here.

Shochiku takes the Next step in movie promotion

It's not at all unusual for movie studios to build buzz for forthcoming films by holding movie screenings. What is unusual—but may in the future become commonplace—is to conduct some of those screenings virtually.

One company that's already dabbling in this area is Japan's Shochiku Studio. Wanting to generate excitement for the Hollywood action thriller Next (starring Nicholas Cage) which it is distributing, Shochiku has announced that it will premiere the film to a select audience to be chosen by lottery—and that the film will be shown to them by transmission to their cell phones!

It turns out that the gimmick serves a couple of purposes. First, the studio hopes that the cutting-edge promotion will generate plenty of anticipatory chat on social networking sites and blogs, and second, that it will draw attention to additional cell phone video content that's available through Dogado, a Shochiku subsidiary that specializes in producing full-length, made-for-cellphone movies and other content (ex. see Clearness).

Given the recent proliferation of 1-seg equipped cell phones with high resolution displays, and the introduction of fixed price, unlimited bandwidth usage packages by cell carriers, a number of companies have been working on new video-for-cell phone offerings. We're only going to see more experimentation of this type going forward, and it's fine by me since I'm about to pick up one of the latest portable handsets myself.

By the way, the keitai premiere of Next will be held on April 21. The movie opens in Japanese theaters at the end of the month.

Best selling Japanese cell phones

According to some data recently collected at one of Japan's largest big-box electronics retailers, the two best-selling Japanese cell phones at present are the DOCOMO 905i, and the W61CA from au (above ad). Each of their websites features plenty of images to give you an idea of how they look and what features they have. Check them out here: W61CA DOCOMO 905i.

Disney Mobile: a Cinderella start, but. . .

You may recall that last November I mentioned that Disney had announced its intention to enter the Japanese cell phone market with branded handsets and content, piggybacking on services provided by Softbank.

Well, Disney Mobile launched a couple of weeks ago with an approach that is, at least in some respects, nicely thought out. Recognizing that Japanese female consumers often combine class with cute, the company took the high road with handset design, opting for an exterior that at first glance recalls the logo patterns of luxury handbags, but up close reveals the silhouette of the world's most famous mouse. At the same time, on the software side, the company has provided loads of free content that allows hard-core aficionados to Disney-fy their screens (and outgoing mail) to their heart's content.

Nonetheless, it's not immediately clear how well Disney Mobile will do in the long run. According to an article in the Nikkei Ryutsu Shinbun, the handsets flew off shelves during the first week, but sales have fallen off considerably in recent days.

The problem?

Effective Japanese TV ads: LG FOMA L704i

Sensuality and elegance.

This Japanese TV ad for the FOMA L704i from LG has them both in spades. Shot in high contrast black and white, the spot combines sexy models, slow motion photography and enticing red accents in a way that's going to get noticed, especially by those in their teens, 20's and 30's.

The commercial has just one line of Japanese copy which in English might be captured with the phrase "A sensation you cannot forget." Unfortunately, many Japanese ad agencies don't consult professional English-speaking copywriters when they use English in their communications materials. On the L704i website, they've taken the Japanese and translated it word for word as "This finger remembers the chocolate." So much for elegance.*

* Naturally this is from the perspective of English speakers, who are decidedly not the main target.

Disney to enter Japan's cell phone market

On November 12, Disney Japan and Softbank announced that they will be partnering on a new venture to introduce Disney branded cell phone service, handsets, and content into the Japanese market in spring 2008.

This is an interesting development inasmuch as Disney has stated it plans to discontinue its cell phone operations in the US by the end of this year. It's also a landmark in the way the business will be operated in Japan. Rather than set up its own infrastructure, Disney will be leasing a portion of the Softbank network. Apparently, this is the first time anybody has organized a cell phone service in Japan based on a MVNO reseller model. The companies will jointly develop content and handsets and the business will be operated under the name "Disney Mobile."

Given the ever-present popularity of things cute in Japan, and the broad appreciation for all things Disney, the idea of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck phones and services is certainly feasible, perhaps more so than in any other country. After all, it is not at all unusual to see Japanese adults carrying Disney-branded bank cards or office supplies, and many Japanese are already using Disney phone straps and downloading Disney mobile content to their existing DoCoMo and au phones.