Twisted View of Marketing in Japan

On January 22, I went to the “livedoor” office to throw 2 events of seminar, workshop, or say, discussions.

It was for bloggers when I did this last time in livedoor, but it somehow impressed people from livedoor in the room.  They gave me another opportunity to do it for those in livedoor.

To this end, I ran one session about “What is Brand?” for those who missed it last time, and the other session about “What is Vision/Visioning” for all.

2 sessions in a row in the afternoon, 4.5 hours in total.  It must be hard work for them.  Thanks for active participation and discussions.

It was honor, but clearly pressure to me.  You see CEO and all the board members in the room before you, actively joining discussions and case studies.  (Was livedoor running business all right?  At least, the board room was empty then.)  Again, thank you.

First half was about “What makes brand a brand”, my original speech/case discussion that “You can understand essence of brand marketing in one hour”.  In it, I often use two Japanese word of “Kakun and Noren” (which I cannot translate well, let’s say “company principle/philosophy” and “signboard”) to understand conceptual building blocks of brand equity.  In the party after the session, I heard many livedoor people already using the concept/term like “It must be your Noren” or “I would not think it is the best way to put it as Kakun”.

Second half was in fact not exactly about brand marketing.  It was about “Vision”.  The word is used very often and casually.  But many do not know what it really is.  So, the session was to re-define what Vision is, and use it as a skill to think and communicate.  Discussion was heated than I expected.  It seemed timely topic for the company.  The word “Vision” was also popular word in the party.

These words were popular in the party, but can “Kakun”, “Noren”, and “Vision” be on everyone’s lips in livedoor next week onward?  I hope them to be.

(For those who attended the seminar, when you have a few minutes, please visit this topic in this blog.  It must be nice follow-up reading to things we discussed in the seminars.)

“O.”

It was not my intention at all but I came to realize, upon several peoples comments/questions, that there is no mention about my name in this blog.

So, let me introduce myself.  My name is Shinsuke Okamoto.

I’ve been using “O.” or “お。” as my signature for long, regardless it is formal or private, that I am using it in this blog, too.

I do not get into my profile as you can find a very long one on the left.

By the way, I am living in Kobe, (or in Sasayama, sometimes).

I draw this picture myself, using paint accessory in Windows, but some of those who know me well tell me that the picture projects much better image.  Sigh.

Anyways, it’s been 3 months already since I started this blog to serve you as fun “time-killing” readings.  There seem quite a few people come and read (at least for Japanese version).  It is encouraging or stimulating when I see some comments/discussions over Twitter or mails to me.  Thank you.

Can you please help me improve contents of this blog?

I need your questions/comments/challenges/”How do you see/read this?”.

(Well, many already told me that I always write too long…  I know.  And I am working on it, believe or not.)

It may be easy for you to use the comment section underneath (click コメント（０）).  Or you can tweet to me on Twitter.  If your writing can become longer for them, you can tell me your mail address thru the comment section or Twitter, then I will write to you.

I do not think I can give answers to all of your questions fast, but I do promise I will respond to you with my “perspectives”.

Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu (Thank you for your help in advance).

“O.”

Yesterday, October 29, I joined a seminar by Senden Kaigi as a guest speaker.

It made me feel like I was on edge, unexpectedly.

Being a speaker or a trainer has been a big part of my job for years, so that I did not expect to feel that way.  But it was very different that every listener/trainee is first-to-meet, everyone has different background, level of experience, and has a different kind of work.

Among others, what made it tough to me was difference between this group and group of people I had dealt with in my previous job.  When I was working in the US invested company, key task of presenter was to control lots of questions and comments from audience, and to communicate what is supposed to be communicated within given hours.  On the contrary, when you get your first meeting with all the Japanese people, challenge for presenter comes to deal with silence, though I anticipated it.  You are very lucky if anyone ask any question.  It is very hard to read their face to know their reaction.  If you ask the audience “So, how do you understand?”, you see entire classroom looking down on their desk, hearing noise that suddenly people start writing something on paper in the complete silence.

I was, I have to say, quite nervous, standing in the silence.

I think I know this.  It reminds me of a high school class…

Well, I should not say “Japanese are…” to blame on audience.  Content and delivery of my presentation had something to be improved.

(Later, when I chatted with some of them over smoking outside, and read feedback sheet, I became a bit less tensed, “Phew, they in fact understood and enjoyed my presentation”, though.)

This one day seminar by Senden Kaigi was to discuss “Rules and tips for Ad/SP Agencies to get their proposals approved by clients”, targeting to mid-small sized Agencies (I mean, not big ones like D and HH), to reveal insights of how clients want Agencies to present their proposals.

Main trainer was Mr. Yasuhiro Yamamoto, CEO of Business Value Creations, who (flawlessly and professionally) provided comprehensive training to cover all the areas and elements from approaching to client, organizing presentations, and summarizing discussions.  Then, I (in faltering and trembling manner) discussed only one tip to make any creative presentation clear and concise.

What is the tip?

Well, I cannot tell you here.

But it is all about “Hey, you think you are making clear sense to your clients, but they do not understand your presentations as well as you want them to.  Try hard to make it much clearer.” and it seemed quite eye-opening to the audience.

Agency people talk to themselves, “How come clients do not understand what I am telling this hard?”

Whereas, client people sigh, “Why do they have to present it in hard to understand and vague way?”

There exist lots of this type of sad dis-communication, much more than you think.

(If you are facing the similar issue, please write to me!)

In any case, I learned that I have to re-polish my presentation skills.

It is an irony if I make bad presentation to make a point that “You should make your presentation clearer!”

The seminar made me think over my skills.

Dear attendees, thank you for staying with me to go through my presentation.

“O.”

After reading the very long Profile on the left side of this Blog, you would still have this question.

“ETOJIYA” is a name of my Company, “ETOJIYA Corporation”.

It is Marketing-one-stop-shop, or I want it to be that someday.

Yeah, I understand that, but why the hell it is named as “ETOJIYA”?

Ah, you are asking source of or meaning of the name.

“E” is a "picture" in Japanese.  It means picture or painting, art direction, and something like vision/dream.

“Ji” is a "word".  It could mean words/sentence, copy writing, and strategy or statement.

“To” is "and", to make connections between these two.

“Ya” simply means "store/house".

Also it is a play on word to be “A-to-Z Ya”, dealing with anything I can.

So, it expresses my passion of “As long as it has something to do with Marketing, I will be sitting next to you to help you from A to Z.”

Well, that is what I selfishly believe, but people around me always say it sounds like a name of a bar or a Soba restaurant.

But, they never forget to add “And it goes very well with who you are, “O.”-san.”

I take it as a compliment, though.

“O.”