Twisted View of Marketing in Japan

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.”

 (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.”

Wow, that's a big theme!  Do I have any answer to this big question of “What it takes to be No.1”?  Of course, not.  I just wanted to chat some tips or source of inspiration for it today.

As always, excuse me staring with my personal matter.  I do not like TOYOTA, Panasonic, NTT, and Asahi, all the leading brands/companies of Japan.  Only “regret” is WWAN of my mobile PC being NTT’s Docomo’s, but I believe it is the only one I have from these companies/brands.  For info, I was a big fan of NIKE in 80’s, but not any longer.  (I am not particular about computer, but I am supposed to be anti-WINDOWS probably, if I have to choose.  Fast is, not surprisingly, my very first computer in my life was Mac…)

Twisted way of thinking and leading life?  Yeah, the title of this blog says so.

I think I am “hard to be a use of No.1 brand” kinda person.

OK, then, you can think it the other way around.  Make your brand be disliked by me to be No.1?

Well, that is not very actionable.  Let me discuss this a bit differently to make the point clear.

Why do people like cars that are quite boring?

Why are people willing to pay for second hand innovations?

Why are people paying obviously high cost to get mediocre service from semi-government company?

Why do people like drinking sweet and foam-less beer despite, knowing its name “Super Dry”?

Why….

The “reason” is seemingly because they like “not having particular reason, but feels good”, versus people like me wanting clear “reason” for choices.

“Seems not bad”, “Don’t think too hard, it’s been that way”, “Not bothered to think about it”, “Not like to be asked ‘Why’ for my choice”, “I trust it, so I don’t have to get bothered”, etc.  Those are vague but solid reasons.  They are not conscious reasons for choice, but are “best conscious choice for not being forced to choose” in other words.

I think it is quite similar to “healthy conservatism” in (Japanese) political psychology.

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has recently been retaining high approval rate by people called “national citizen” because (ironically) these people with “healthy conservatism” are supporting the party.  They did not want to choose the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP – conservatives in Japan despite its name), resulting in DPJ’s historic win.  DPJ’s policies, and its vision of “Yu-Ai/ the spirit of fraternity” are well based on “healthy conservatism”.  Or said differently, policies are based on thinking that you do not have to be on the side of positive approval of them, but you are not clearly on the other side.

Well, this Blog is not the place to discuss politics.  Let’s go back to where we were.

If you are a manager of No.1 Brand, learn from big mistakes that the LDP committed.

Particularly, be careful if you are making “Unnecessary Change on your Equity/Images”.  Aren’t you committing to things that can turn off your customers with “healthy conservatism”?  Something like the Prime Minister Koizumi did.  It could give you “historic victory” short term, but don’t touch it.

Who are your “local farmers, construction industry, local post offices, and leaders of big industries”?  You better know them, who they are, and see of you are NOT doing anything wrong to turn them off.

If you are working on brands to be but not yet No.1, learn from the DPJ’s big success.

Is your vision/equity full of “fraternity” to embrace heart of users with “healthy conservatism”?   Being edgy won’t make you No.1.

Take a close look at your category’s No.1 brand.  Is it making any break down, like the LDP?  Or is there any chance to make the break-down happen?  “Healthy-conservative” people won’t choose you with substantive reason, so you better know if the time is with you.

Is your “manifesto” list up everything, vaguely promising things that you don’t know if you really can but you hope you can?  “Healthy-conservative” people do not demand “best” quality, but they are very keen if you can do things that any brands in the category should be able to.

And, to be No.1, you must be able to do very good job in providing the very category benefit/function/service, to be trusted to “lead the country (category)”.

Excuse me, It’s been quite abstract, this time.

At least, I can tell, Kao is dumping a gem into trash can, if they are milking “Revue” brand after buying Kanebo cosmetics.

“O.”