Japan Marketing News

Effective Japanese TV commercials: 7 Eleven

Here's another Japanese TV spot that delivers tremendous emotional impact. It was aired along with a series of other ads that subtley, expertly conveyed the idea that 7 Eleven is more than just a store.

Throughout the campaign, the same female employee appears, and in each version she interacts with a different customer. What's remarkable is that in each one, neither she, nor the customer speaks more than a few syllables. Yet each contact speaks volumes: viewers come away feeling that 7 Eleven is so accessible and authentic that people interact with it the same way they would with a best friend, sometimes even becoming transformed in the process.

Here's the translation for this one:

Man: Um. . . .I'm looking for. . .some . . . courage.

Shop girl: There's some there.

Man: Where?

Shop girl: Inside you.

Man to companion: "Marry me!"

Companion: (nods yes)

Telop: What is 7 Eleven to you?

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Westerners might come away from this TV commercial wondering, "what on earth is going on here?"

The fact of the matter is that Japanese life can sometimes be so demanding, so hectic, and so rigid that at lot of people are probably craving something friendly and familiar and helpful. The old days when you knew and could get support from everyone on the block are long gone, but you can still find everthing you need, even warmth—at 7 Eleven.

Other executions from the same campaign can be seen on the 7 Eleven Japan website.

* Copyrights to the above TV commercial, and all others shown on this site, are the property of the organizations and creators which produced them.

g.u.tsy move for Fast Retailing?

Fast Retailing, owner of Japan's casual basics apparel powerhouse Uniqlo, expanded its brand portfolio on October 13th with the opening of the first "g.u." brand shop in Ichikawa City.

This is an interesting development, since Uniqlo previously held the crown as Japan's most accessible casual brand, and g.u. will also offer casual wear, but wear that is aimed at a different target, at about half the price.

Fast Retailing's original approach with Uniqlo was to "out-basic" and "out-value" the Gap by offering an narrower range of basics like t-shirts, jeans, jackets and socks, but in a wider array of colors, at much lower prices. The company also embarked on an aggressive channel strategy that led to the opening of some 800 Uniqlo locations in the first two or three years of operation. Needless to say, with its ability to offer decent-quality items at low prices, and greater store penetration throughout Japan, Uniqlo soon siphoned off much of the Gap's business.

Now, Fast Retailing is taking aim at the market from a completely different direction.

Apparently, faced with limited growth opportunities in basics, the company is going to try a Zara-like approach by quickly spotting trends and bringing products to market at a feverish pace. With g.u., prices will be about 30% lower than those at Uniqlo, but product selection will be about 1.5 times more, with the brand offering 800 s.k.u.s this season vs. just 500 for Uniqlo.

In other words, g.u. is going after Japan's fashion and trend-sensitive, early-adopting teens and twenty-somethings.

This is risky, since not only is g.u. targeting a very fickle consumer, it's doing so with razor-thin margins born of the need to carry so many s.k.u.s at such low prices.

In order to diminish risk and stay nimble, Fast Retailing has partnered with a number of wholesale clothing entities which will handle much of the product conception and design work—which will allow them to focus on store openings (with 50 shops slated for opening by spring '07) in order to reach critical mass as soon as possible.

Since Uniqlo does not have the ability to attract trendy consumers and no other company has sought to service these folks on such a scale, it would appear that there's an opportunity for a brand like g.u. in Japan. But with a business model that allows almost no funding to support broad communications programs, the brand needs to score big with trend leaders, hoping that they will pass the word on to all of their friends.

Otherwise, Fast Retailing may discover how fast some g.u.tsy moves can backfire.

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Cool Japanese TV Commercials: Starflyer

This ad from Japanese domestic airline Starflyer uses a cool graphical approach to convey that passengers can look forward to "new hospitality" when they fly with the company. The sound is a bit choppy on this YouTube version—for optimal quality, see the original on the Starflyer website.

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Wacky Japanese TV commercials: Namakatekin

Company: Sangaria
Brand: Namakatekin
Product Type: Tea

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NTT DoCoMo announces new cell phone models

If you're into gadgets and technology, take note. A couple of days ago NTT DoCoMo announced the introduction of 14 new cell phone models that are packed with entertainment features and improved mobile credit card functionality.

You can read a full press release here. For a summary of features offered by the various models, go here.

If you're a design nut (like me) and find that the features page leaves you desperate for better a sense of how each model looks, go here. It's a flash page that lets you click on the model name and see photo close-ups (it's in Japanese, but easy enough to navigate).

Of course, you have to take a lot of things into consideration when deciding whether to upgrade, but on design alone, I'm intrigued by the model shown bottom center (SH903iTV) that allows you to set your phone on your desk and watch TV. . .

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COACH: the Japan miracle

It was gratifying to see that the September 23 issue of Toyo Keizai (one of Japan's major business magazines) focused on the "Miracle of COACH" in its cover story.

When I first got involved with COACH as their official marketing advisor in Japan way back in 1998, they faced an array of marketing issues related to product, pricing, distribution, and advertising/PR.

But they had a few things on their side: a desire to get it right, good leadership and a vision that allowed for significant investment in Japan, good partners to support knowledge gaps and local implementation needs, and plenty of energy to address the broad array of issues that needed to be resolved to optimize performance in a very difficult (but high-potential) market.

To make a long story short, what COACH did exemplifies what it takes to succeed in Japan.

- Understand Japanese consumers.
You can't maximize sales to people you don't understand. Use every available tool to know your customer. Work with people who can guide you through the complexities of doing this in Japan. Then follow up on the insights!

- Get the product right.
Japanese consumers are amongst the most demanding in the world. Your current product lineup may not be optimized for Japan. Over a five year period, I both spearheaded and was involved with projects that resulted in a number of improved or new COACH products—which brought in tens of millions of dollars in incremental revenue. Moreover, two years before Coach launched its wildly successful Signature C line of products, COACH Japan CEO Ian Bickley and I proposed the introduction of a "signature collection" to meet the unmet needs of Japanese consumers. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been earned in Japan from such Japan-centric approaches. Get the product right!

Effective Japanese TV commercials: Kanebo Naive

In order to create additional consumer interest and to prevent viewer fatigue, Japanese manufacturers often simultaneously run multiple TV ads that are linked through a common story and characters. Kanebo, which is one of Japan's largest cosmetics and bodycare companies, is presently running such a campaign for its body soap brand Naive. It centers on the various members of a single family.

In the ads, Kanebo indirectly links its proposition of "pure and wholesome soap" to this clean-cut family, whose members energetically pursue dreams we can all identify with: the little boy wants to be a superhero, the sister wants to be dancer, the father wants to strike it rich, and the mother dreams of success as an inventor.

Naive is an everyday brand and the target is the typical housewife. Every mom is familiar with kinds of dreams kids and husbands have (to say nothing of her own) so the pursuit of dreams is a great way to emotionally connect with these gatekeepers. Kanebo's basic message is that it's good to pursue your dreams with vigor. Work hard, play hard, and work up a sweat in the process. Then clean yourself up with Kanebo's pure and wholesome soap, Naive.

Each execution is a slice of life highlighting one family member. All feature a clip where that member is sweating up a storm in pursuit of his or her dream. And each cuts directly from the sweat scene to one in the tub where the grime is being soaped off in a vigorous and satisfying way. The main copy reads "play well, wash well," and all of the commercials end with a shot of the entire range of Naive products overlaying one of the family shouting out the product name.

You can watch all of them here. (Wait for the clouds to come up and click the one containing the letters "CM.")

These commercials are clever in that every viewer realizes that not every dream is realistic and that the vigor in which people involve themselves in their dreams can sometimes be comical. But people chase dreams nonetheless, and this pursuit itself can be endearing. (For instance, the mother is working on a prototypically Goldbergian invention—a bicycle-powered device to beat the dust out of futons. It's totally quixotic, but who among us hasn't dreamed of developing a ground-breaking, yet totally unrealistic product?).

So we watch this family and smile. They're wholesome and endearing (might I say naive?) and in a way, they're just like every family we know. Consequently, on the emotional level, Kanebo succeeds in connecting directly with every Japanese housewife. In the commoditized world of soap products, this is a good first step.

* In Japanese, the word "naive" carries the nuance of "pure" or "wholesome," more so than "credulous."

* Copyrights to the above TV commercial, and all others shown on this site, are the property of the organizations and creators which produced them.

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