Japan Marketing News

UNIQLO unique enough for Europe?

Until recently, Japanese apparel basics powerhouse UNIQLO had opened shops in just four countries outside Japan: the US, UK, China and Korea. But according to Japanese news reports, the brand is now testing the waters of the European market with a concept shop that recently opened near Paris.

The store, which is located in the Les 4 Temps Shopping Mall of La Defense, is just 200 square meters in size, but will carry a range of representative items to gauge the response of fashion-sensitive French consumers.

According to UNIQLO'S Tsuyoshi Monden, the company expects to fare even better in France than it has in the US and UK "because of the high interest in Japan [amongst the French]."

We'll have to wait and see. Most of UNIQLO's products don't carry any particular Japanese aura (after all, they're designed in NY), but the brand could draw some interest amongst French youths thanks to the distinctive tube packaging and in-store displays it uses to market its extensive line of T-shirts.

Sparkling Christmas communications from PARCO

Here's a festive image from the special seasonal website being operated by Japanese retailer, PARCO. The copy reads "The day the world glitters most. PARCO Christmas." If you visit the site, click the "Creative" tab on the top page to view posters and a TV commercial promoting the company's 2007 Christmas campaign.

Nestlé launches original confectionery brand for Japan

Whaddaya know.

Last week Nestlé introduced a new confectionary snack that appears to have been developed here in the land of the rising sun.

Dr. Bean takes crunchy roasted soybeans and tiny wheat puffs and wraps them in white chocolate made with soy milk. I ran across the brand at a nearby convenience store and bought a pack out of curiosity. I could not find a similar Nestlé product outside Japan through a quick internet search. That, taken with the fact that it's made from soybeans, makes me believe this is one of those Japan-only brands. They're actually pretty tasty.

It's a bit of a mystery what Nestlé has in mind for Dr. Bean. The brand doesn't appear to be a positioned as "health" product—there's no mention of health or diet on the package. And neither does it seem to be skewed toward typical targets like kids or teenage girls.

At moment, Nestlé has given the brand only a bare bones presence on their website and there's no TV commercial posted either. Since competition for shelf space and share of voice is fierce this time of year, Nestlé may be biding its time before doing an all-out launch. We'll have to wait and see—maybe the company's mass media efforts will kick in early in the new year, or they're hoping to reach consumers through word-of-mouth vehicles like blogs.

Japanese retail exteriors, Christmas '07

Examples of how major Japanese retailers in the Shibuya district of Tokyo have decorated their exteriors for the 2007 Christmas season. From top to bottom, moving left to right: Shibuya Parco, Tokyu Department Store (Toyoko branch), Tokyu Department Store (main store), Shibuya 109 fashion building. Click the image for an enlarged view.

A machine that sucks, with a design that doesn't

In Japan we've seen limited editions of everything from apparel, handbags and sneakers, to potato chips, cars and beer. But this is the first time I've ever seen a limited edition vacuum cleaner.

Just leave it to two legendary designers, James Dyson and Issey Miyake, to come up with one.

This is the Dyson D16 Cordless Handheld, which was created to celebrate Issey Miyake's Wind Collection. According to the Dyson website, the inspiration for the collection was the "geometry and clean lines" of Dyson's engineering. Pretty cool.

You can get the whole scoop on the collection and the cleaner here.

Great Japanese print advertising: T-fal

The other day I was poking around the Internet when was stopped dead in my tracks by this Japanese print ad for Tefal cookware. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts I couldn't find a larger version and haven't been able to assess the copy. But the visual is so compelling that I thought I'd post it anyway.

Effective events: the "Big Shadow" project by Microsoft Japan

In Japan it's not unusual to come across outdoor street events promoting one brand or another. However, about a year ago, Microsoft Japan caused a bit of a sensation when it initiated the "Big Shadow" project in the Shibuya area of Tokyo. Shibuya is a part of town that's especially popular amongst people 15-35—ideal targets for the product spotlighted at the event, the Blue Dragon video game for the XBox 360.

In the game, the main character has control of a giant shadow that is able to fight and defeat enemies. To give people a sense of the game, Microsoft projected enormous shadow creatures on the wall of a building in a high traffic area, and passers by were invited to use their own shadows to interact with them. Simultaneously, Microsoft made it possible for people to access and control projected shadows from their computers at home—all in real time.

The event and website were awarded a gold medal in the interactive campaign category of the Tokyo Interactive Ad Awards for 2007. You can check out video from the event here.