Twisted View of Marketing in Japan

Award winners have been announced for this year’s “Consumers’ Tameninatta Advertising – For the consumers’ good Advertising” award.

I guess many of you may not know this award, but this year’s was already 49^th.

METI Award, say Grand Prix, went to Panasonic Nano-e’s newspaper ads, Toyo Exterior Support Rail (handrail)’s magazine ad, and Toshiba’s company ad on TV.  I could not find the first two on web, but found Toshiba’s light bulb CM on YouTube.

“1890, Japan’s first light bulb was made by Toshiba.  Since then, we have thrown lights over your house and your town.  Toshiba is planning to terminate production of incandescent lights、aiming at 2010.  As the first company to make light bulb, we wanted to be the first to make a decision not to make.  In the future, we shift our effort to produce energy saving lights such as Neo Pole Series (light-bulb style fluorescent lamp) and LED lamps.  Long and strong cherished hope to light bulb.  But, it is longer and stronger for the earth.  Toshiba.”

It seems quite popular CM.  It holds you to say “A-ha” at the end.

When I myself watched this on TV, I rushed to make a complete list of types of incandescent lights at home and bought a lot of them to stock.  I do not like fluorescent light.  Well, I know I should not have acted anti-eco way…  But, the advertising indeed made me re-act, and think “OK, after using up the stock, let me switch to LED”.  It is a good piece of advertising. 　Poor excuse...

So what is “mixed feeling and questions”?  There are a few.

To start with, I have a big “?” to its name of “Tameninatta - For consumers’ good” (while I am not confident if this is translating its original nuance).  It means the world is full of those advertising that are not for their good?  No?  It means it is selecting “the best” from good ones?  OK, I was chopping and playing on logic, I understand.  And there are plenty that are not necessarily targeting to consumers.  You are right.  Some are for shareholders, for recruiting, for supply chain, for internal communications, and there are others, too.  But, “Tameninatta – for their good” reads like looking down to them.  Oh, it is just a bad try of faultfinding?  Excuse me.

Fact is, when I was working for marketing/advertising in manufacturer, that receiving this award was a very big credit.  As it was consumer goods company, it was always fulfilling to see advertising making an impact to numbers, and when consumers told us “It’s a good commercial” or “It made me like the brand”, I felt that all the hard work had completely been paid off.  And if the award of “For consumers’ good” chooses my work, it is a big honor.  The biggest reward, because I suppose it must be selected based on research among lots of consumers.

What?  They do not choose that way?  What do you mean?

Let’s take a look at judges…  Final judges are university professors and reps from consumer organizations.  Looks reasonable, so far.  6 out of 12 are women.  Sounds thoughtful.

So, these people go through all the pieces of advertising, in addition to TV CM’s, where approx. 1,000 new spots are born a month, from newspaper, magazine, radio, and web.  Is it so?  Not.  It says they review applied ones.  I see.  And they have pre-screening, first…

If I look at the list of judges for pre-screening, it appears 7 out of 20 are college/university students and 4 are university lecturers, so it means more than half are from college/university.  What…  These pre-judges select about 600 from all the 3,500 applications.  He~~~~, what a hell…

“Mixed feeling” is, by the way, also coming from my observation that, while clients are in general very pleased and honored to get this award, somehow, Creatives often give “a bitter smile”.  Not all of them, off course.  I saw some showed great appreciation to it.

But, there seems something for “a bitter smile” in advertising industry.

It might be too much of my suspicion, but it seems to me “It may be a great award for consumers’ and clients’ good, but it is not always for Creatives’ good”.

Are they having doubt to its selection process?  It looks true, unlike other advertising awards, they indeed do not invite judges from advertising industry or creative field.

Or, because “It does not judge its artistic value as a piece of work”?  Well, advertising is not made for an artistic expression as a primary purpose, though.

Not going to that extreme, because “It does not evaluate its originality/novelty of advertising executions”?  I kinda understand that impression, vaguely though.

Or, because “It has some Dasai (not cool) impression/image”?  Yeah, I understand that.  What leaves that impression, then?

Taking a look at all the finalists, you may find some consistency across.  Maybe of same old dramatic devises/set-ups or cliché.  And, well although I cannot find exact word to describe this, I think there are quite a few “Preachy/Enlightenmentism (?)” stories, “Interfering” speaks, or “Hey, ain’t I doing my best to be good for society” type of telling.  Is this the reason for your bitter smile?  (At least, Panasonic’s works, a regular member of this award, are still on its Panasocic-like enlightenment tonality.)

OK.  Let me talk to some Creative guys soon.

“O.”

 Japanese people, most of whom do not use religious principles for their daily life, are not good at deciding/defining the way of life and behaviors according to principles, while they are very good at following rules or are quick in changing decision depending on context or situations.  Obviously, I am one of them, too, letting everything go is my way of living…

(Well, it begins with something not really about the Marketing, but bear with me for a moment.)

One day, say, you go to supermarket to buy coffee beans.

Then, you remember coffee sugar is running short so you are to buy that, too.

Question.

Where, which isle/shelf, do you think you can find coffee sugar?

(Maybe easy question for those who often go shopping and know the store very well.)

Answer:  Next to Miso and Salt, in most stores.  (Just in case, I went to 5 big supermarkets around.  No exception, all had it there.)

In general, you cannot find it on coffee/tea/cocoa shelf.

Baby diapers are sitting in the corner with menstrual pads, paper towels, and tissue papers, and baby food is located in the canned food isle.

If you shout at yourself, “OK, today, I will fix very nice pasta!” and go shopping, you will end up having to grab spaghetti next to dried Ramen noodles, pick up anchovies and olives sitting with canned Saba (fish) in Miso soup, select olive oil next to Japanese sesame oil, put dried pepper into your basket in front of Hidaka Konbu…  Off course, get fresh garlic from veges section.  Ah!  I need some cooking wine!  But you cannot locate it between cooking Sake and Mirin.  So you timidly ask store clerk, and he says “It is at the liquor section, (off course, don’t you know?)”  What?  I was there two seconds ago to buy some beer…  You would walk good hundreds of meters even in a small store.  If you are in big suburban store, you would have an intensive exercise.

By the way, many stores have “Store Percepts” or some sort, often found on the wall in the office in backyard, maybe above fax machine or next to a switchboard.  It says “We strive for customer centric management.  We always do our best to provide fun and convenient shopping for customers.”

And, dear customers are enjoying good exercise everyday.

What is it that makes this happen?  It is for efficient stock management for stores and wholesalers.  Store clerk is assigned to each section, so that one person looking after coffee section is not always same as one for sugar shelf.

It is not “customer centric” at all.  They design isles/shelves for shelf stock management, “store centric” thinking.

If their Store Principles say something, they should decide how they behave accordingly, otherwise it does not make sense.  Or, they should decide to put “Provide the lowest possible price through strict management of stock on shelf and backyard” or “Pursue profit improvement as a priority”, instead.

Excuse me, it gets very preachy.

Many companies and stores have statement/percept of purpose or principles, or some may have statement/story of founder’s wisdom/tips.  And in the world of brand marketing, they have Brand Equity, Brand Philosophy, or Brand Story.

Many successful brands with consistent brand images and sustained business indeed implement behaviors=marketing plans that are surprisingly faithful to their equity.  Louis Vuitton in any point in time keeps themselves very Louis Vuitton, yet always fashionable.  Haagen-Dazs has always been “indulgence of ice cream for matured” yet you can always find fun seasonal flavors.

But, like the story of supermarket in the beginning, a lot of brand philosophy have been put on the wall to get sun faded, left unused.  There are managers who think it is for sometime when they have time and money, but they have a lot more than that to coop with changes of the market and severe competition.  Or, some go after what customer says in research, swaying here and there.

At the same time, they always say they suffer from the lack of distinctive positioning, “Hey, all look the same!” just like many super market chains suffer.

There must be some good wisdom or intent in or behind the statement of company principles, founder’s words, brand equity, philosophy, or history.  Some lessons or laws that hold true still today.

So, put it off the wall and clean the dust, time to time.

There must be something good about applying “define what you do according to principles” not just to how you live but to how you manage your company or brand marketing.

Oh, any tips to do better shopping in supermarket?

Think about which wholesale industry is the product from, then you can find it quick.  Paper products are from paper wholesaler.  Dried food is from dried food wholesalers.  Cooking oil is coming from cooking oil wholesaler.

Phew…

“O.”

I am trying to update this Blog about once a week.

But some people may have noticed already that I started to have English version in parallel, which made me busy for translation for the past few days.  It’s been already more than 6 months since I had not used English.  My (English speaking) brain squeaks as if it is covered with full of rust…  Finally, writing of this topic gets me to catch up with Japanese version.

But why English pages?

(Like I wrote in my profile,) it is for very personal reason.  I do not want to lose English, but I do not have any chance to use it after I left the Company.  I must force myself to use it, or I cannot retain it.  Is there anyone coming to this Blog?  Can I retain this if very few people come to read?  Can’t promise anything now…

Today, it’ll be relatively small chat.

I like Sapporo Beer.  (That means Sapporo cannot become No.1?  Don’t know.  →　See this page.)

They are so “good at making good beer”, but somehow, so “bad at making good marketing”.  Indeed, it makes me like the brand more.  Recently, they launched a new beer brand with extremely high TV spending, which is a hotchpotch of many other brands’ promises.  For instance, it says 70% calories-off!  70%... half-done.  But, as it is from Sapporo, it must be that they wanted to sell tasty beer and to do so, 70% must have been the best balance…  They did it again.

Hang in there, Sapporo!  (I am not at all joking.  I mean it.)

In the premium beer segment, it gets super competitive, and Premium Molts (from Suntory) is doing very well.  YEBISU, historic leading brand in the segment, must hang in there now.  Particularly, in Kansai area I am living, it is quite hard to find beer from Sapporo other than YEBISU.  For Sapporo fans like me, Sapporo must fight hard to defend it.

From the YEBISU brand, they are now selling fall-limited seasonal flavor of “Amber-YEBISU”.  I like its package design so let me talk about it today.

It is a kind of design job that gives a designer headache.

“Communicate clearly that it is limited seasonal offer.”

“Must be obvious it is a part of YEBISU line.”

“But, make it clear it is different and special flavor.”

“Don’t lose premium look.”

“Of course, it must stand out in the store.”

“Don’t lose YEBISU-ness, and strengthen its total image.”

“Use the color (scheme) that connotes color of amber and flavor of it.”

You as a designer have to do them all.

But, this design did it well.

And I like it.

(Of course, I am in big favor of Sapporo, and YEBISU, and in fact I like the color they use.  And I am putting big big strategic question aside, if they should in the first place keep launching line extensions one after another, Black, Green, and White, and then Red, whereas the competitor, Premium Molts, is trying hard to steal its key color, Gold.)

Shade and touch of its crimson red are very nice on the can, and moreover, I love its design treatment of making them small.  It actually wipes out all the challenges above.

Look of seasonal offer and feel of premium can go together, so it might not have been a show stopper.  What it makes it great is their belief to their brand’s strength to decide to make the logo and trademark small.

Small looks premium/exclusive.  It is a common sense in people’s mind.  But it is a brave call in the marketing/merchandising world.  The idea would have got killed if they had one, only one from their management, raised question “It does not get attention on the shelf.”  End of the story.

But fortunately, they made it, and it works even harder as you can feel the color and quality of it.

Good job!

(I have to confess here that the taste of the Red YEBISU was not as great as the design to me, who prefer the Green YEBISU to the Gold YEBISU being a bit too sweet.  But, forget it.  I am a big fan of YEBISU anyways.)

I am hoping that it would be cool if they change the entire line package according to this upon a renewal for the next new year day.  With this selfish dream, I sipped YEBISU tonight, too.

“O.”

(This was written on Nov. 5, after the 5^th game of the Nippon Series.)

It’s just like that I have realized tonight how great it is to be Giants’ fan.

Or, what made Amuro and Bright such a long term team partners, to start with?

You have to excuse me bothering you with confusing beginning, today.

You might want to refer to my previous write-up about the NIKE’s event of sending a support ball to Darvish, where I had a discussion about capturing “XX Moment” to capture customer’s heart.  Then, Fukumari-san, a friend of mine, gave me some comment about it.  It in fact inspired another thinking/hypothesis so that I decided to bring up this topic again.

Simply said, why then capturing the “Moment” makes it possible to capture cutomer’s heart?

That is probably because sharing the “Moment” can get you all the way up to be a friend (or your girl/boy friend) on the spot, skipping other steps/procedures you normally have to go through.

This made me think that it can yield a chance to make a strong “bonding”, before you even talk about what your product or service can offer (in exchange of money), called benefit.

Or, as Fukumari-san wrote in her comment, friends who have “lived under the same roof”.

Think about your own close friends or a partner.

What made the relationship start and get sustained?  Was it because he/she, in turn of your friendship or love, gave you something to make you think “This relationship is worth”?

(Please do not say “Yes” here, or this story ends here…)

I guess there were some moments/situations in which you shared fun, pain, or regret.  (If not, Amuro had no reason to need Bright as a partner…  I like Bright-san, though.)

Now let’s go back to the arena of Marketing.  They say, (at least in the Company I used to work for), “Acceptance of the brand’s message becomes significantly heightened when the benefit of product or service is communicated in the context where need of the benefit or awareness of it is high.”

Well, too complicated?

Let me try to put it simple, though it may be too simple.  When you are dying for drink after hard exercise, if you happen to see advertising from a certain beverage brand, you would want to drink that brand, for example.

Many companies are trying hard to do this.

How about airing TV commercial when consumers are hungry?  Transit ad in commuting trains may be more effective than magazine ad.  And so on.  It makes sense, though.

Let me tell you.  I have had a big question to this theory for sometime.  I understand it, but somehow, my gut says “something wrong with it”.

Knowing it is a bit far-fetched argument, it could indicate “You can sell rescue rings with premium price on the spot where someone gets drawn, to the person and to people around.”

I may not have any other choice but buy the brand then, but I would not buy the brand again.  Because it leaves me a strong impression of “mean guy”.

I suppose mistake is coming from “high acceptance to benefit”.

It is not “benefit (what it does for you)” but “character (who the brand is)” of the product/service, that is put on the test in the situation/moment, isn’t it?

Then, it goes very well with analogy of sharing the “Moment” with friends/a partner.

“He(brand)’s a good guy, ‘cause he was there with me back then.  So he is my friend.  Don’t know what he can do for me, though.”

This is what I have been thinking for sometime.  This is what makes it possible to grab customer’s heart, when you capture the “Moment”.

OK, the next game is in Sapporo the day after tomorrow, obviously “away” for Giants, let’s brace ourselves to win.

“O.”

 (Originally written on Nov. 2, after the second game in Sapporo.)

“Not too long ago, I was working on projects in 6 months advance, and got praised if I do anything for 9 months ahead.  It is completely different now.”

Said Mr. T-Ura over lunch the other day, my ex-colleague who left the Company approximately same time with me, sort of “same batch”.  Unlike me doing nothing but housekeeping work as house-husband, he has been actively engaged to his new job for already 6 months, so it should be worth hearing what he has to say.

“Nippon Ham Fighters will go to the Nippon Championship Series (Japanese ‘World’ Series).  But Darvish may not be able to pitch for his damage.  They say, OK, then let’s cheer him up.  Do something for the series.  Well, it’s only a week away.  One week from a start of planning to implementing the plan…”

Now, I understand.  That is tough.

After all, he told me that NIKE decided to throw an event in a week, preparing a big 1.8m ball, putting it on a truck load, and driving from Tokyo to Sapporo.  (In addition, they put big photos onto the walls of their soon-to-open retail shop in Harajuku.)  The series has just started, and the ball with full of support messages arrived Sapporo.  It made it for the second game when Dravish made solid starting pitch.

Don’t know if this support worked or not, my Tokyo Giants lost the second game to him.  I don’t worry, I know Giants will win 3 straight games from tomorrow.

But why?

(Not why Giants lost the game, but) why did they have to do this event hurriedly in this short period?

That is because the sport is an entertainment to get excitement of “Witness the moment”.

Excitement of sport (watching) gets its highest peak exactly at the moment, and people are dying to witness it before them, or at least, to watch it live on TV.

Immediately after the peak “Moment”, the “Excitement” starts rapidly losing its freshness.

Fans love to watch evening sports news on the day (despite that they already knew the results), to remind them of the excitement, or to feel bad to miss the moment on live yet dreaming “How great the excitement was”.  It is not very fresh anymore, but it is still before expiration to feel the excitement.

Probably, last chance of smelling the excitement is morning papers.  They can talk about how good it was with their friends, and sharing is another event for them.  (The best is of course to drink beer or two over it at the night, though, they cannot always do so.)

By the time of lunch, it finally expires.

Some TV programs and magazines talk about player’s story behind the scene later, but it is no longer an “Excitement happened before your eyes”.

Sports marketing, marketing products or services related to sports, must capture this “Excitement of Witness the Moment”, or effects get much weakened.

“Darvish may not be able to pitch, but may be able to make it, people want him to.”

Then, NIKE had to invest despite the fact that there left only one week before the moment that may not happen.

I heard that NIKE in the past aired a TV spot to congrats a Major League team making it to the world series after years.  They developed the film from the last game and aired it within the same day of the final.

T-Ura-san taught me that they call it “Sports Moment” in NIKE.  They know it is a golden rule to make their marketing plans work hardest.  It looks like a very different dynamics from the categories where we two used to work.

But I believe there should be “Moment” unique to each category of product/service, although they might not be as sharp as sport’s.  Those brands who capture it should succeed to capture customer’s heart, I suppose.

It must be interesting exercise if you look for unique “XX Moment” in your category/brand.

The Series move to Tokyo Dome tomorrow.  Go for 3 straight wins and get Mr. Hara tossed in the air, before Darvish shows up again.

“O.”