marketing

It's been out for a while now, but if you haven't seen it, you might want to check out my column in Japan Inc. - entitled 'Business Break'.

It's basically a wrap-up of new, interesting and innovative business news from Japan. It's a little internet/tech heavy at present, but I hope to have a little more balance in the next one.

Had a browse through the JR East in-carriage shopping catalogue on the weekend. While containing more or less the same kind of er... crap that you find in western shopping catalogues, a couple of uniquely Japanese (perhaps) items grabbed my attention.

First there is the triangular cushion that makes sitting in the 'Seiza' position more comfortable. 'Seiza' literally means 'correct sitting position'. This involves sitting with bent knees with your feet under your bottom. If you don't think that is a particularly painful way to sit for long periods of time, perhaps you should ask these guys.



The second is the 'Desk Pillow'. This is pretty self explanatory, but beggars the question - if you are that tired, why don't you just go home? The seiza cushion also deifies logic to an extent. Instead of making it more comfortable to sit in the seiza position, why not just change your sitting position? The reason of course is that Japanese society/culture necessitates that people put up with the particular behaviour. That said, I'm not sure if the desk cushion will catch on!

Just when you thought it was insane to queue for hours and hours to buy doughnuts, how about queuing for hours to buy doughnuts then lugging six boxes of them for five hours on the train up to Hirosaki in Aomori prefecture?! On a recent visit to said place, I spotted the family below. There's actually another bag hidden that is the same size as the one you can see - almost half their baggage was doughnuts!



Along with queuing for hours for each ride at Tokyo Disney, it would seem that queuing at Krispy Kreme is now also an essential part of the Tokyo experience for visitors to the big city.

This did get me thinking though. After watching the excellent Canadian documentary 'The Corporation' and in particular a piece about 'undercover marketing', it struck me that it could actually make good sense for a company to PAY PEOPLE TO QUEUE! In Japan, long, long queues are recognised as a sign of the success and popularity of a store. Perhaps in contrast to the west, queues attract people rather than put them off. So, paying 200 students 800yen an hour to queue up outside my store for 8 hours a day, for two days, would only cost about 2.5 million yen. Hopefully, after two days, the paid queuers would be replaced by the real article and suddenly I'd be generating huge free publicity.

According to Trans Pacific Radio, one hour long waits still persist at Krispy Kreme's Shinjuku branch. It would be appropriate to finish with a quote from Homer Simpson 'Hmmm... Donuts', but I don't actually like them so that would be insincere.

Ooh - it's been more than two months since my last entry. Despite my best intentions, I've let this blog go the same way as my balcony garden. In fact the spammy trackbacks and comments I've been getting are perhaps the online equivalent of the horde of cockroaches that has colonised my pot plants.

Time to pull out some weeds.

The weather in Tokyo at the moment is atrociously hot. But a blog post about the weather would be well... probably only slightly less interesting than this blog! So I thought I'd feature these insanely expensive drinks that seem to pop-up at Starbucks and its various clones at this time of year. If you thought their coffee was expensive, one of these slushies will set you back between 440-540yen!! I guess if the need is there and people want it bad enough, you can charge what you want. Did I mention it was hot?

By the way, the title of this post refers to the flash animation on the Japan site of the Evil Empire itself.

Although I am somewhat accustomed to the logic defying bureaucratic practices that one so often encounters in Japan, sometimes I just come across something that makes me want to resort to doing something really mean - like kicking one of those little fashion-accessory dogs - but I digress.

Although I bought a JAL ticket, today I will fly on an Air New Zealand plane from Narita to Auckland. Nothing remarkable about that - the flight has been a JAL/Air NZ code share for years, and the ticket was actually significantly cheaper through JAL than through the price-gouging Air New Zealand. The problem came when I made a special meal request.

As I don't eat meat - and I can't stand the beans and nuts vegetarian options that so many airlines offer, I always request the 'Seafood' option. Upon informing my travel agent, I was informed that the 'Seafood' option was not available. OK... right let's check the Air NZ web site - there it is under special meal options - 'Seafood'. So of course I proceeded to write a (slightly) smug email to my travel agent with a link to the aforementioned page. Soon after, I received a reply "Even though it's an Air NZ plane, JAL does not have 'Seafood' as an option". Hang on - even though it's the same plane, and Air NZ passengers will have the option of getting a seafood meal, I booked through JAL so I can't?!?

Hmmm... beans and nuts. I can't wait!

A Tsukuba University affiliated company called Cyberdyne has developed a robotic suit that has been dubbed HAL - 5 for Hybrid Assistive Limb. Professor Sankai, the developer, is obviously not a fan of 2001: A Space Odyssey. If they're planning to sell it outside of Japan, they might have to come up with a new moniker.

For the record, the unit weighs 23KG, can operate for 2 hours and 40 minutes before it needs a recharge and can be rented for between 70,000 to 170,000yen per month. Apparently it is mainly used at present for rehabilitation According to Sankai, they currently have orders for 600 units and in the long term they are aiming for a retail price of around 500,000yen.

This week's Terrie's Take tell's a sordid tale of the demise of Lado - a mid sized English conversation school in Tokyo.

It just goes to show, to survive in a competitive market like this, you either have to:

1. Have a defendable competitive advantage
2. Have loads of cash to take on the promotional might of the big boys, or
3. Differentiate

It seems that Lado didn't do any of these - with some dodgy direct marketing thrown in to make things worse.

With the biggest player (Nova) and perhaps the fastest growing company (Gaba) both having amongst the worst pay and conditions for teachers, there is downwards pressure on salaries in this sector. Conversely, it would seem from anecdotal evidence that the demand for such jobs amongst native speakers has fallen - meaning that more and more speakers of English as a second language are finding their way into the narrow cubicles of these schools. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - but it does indicate a general dropping of standards and perhaps further potential damage to the already fragile reputation of the big 'Eikaiwas'.

This month marks the 1st anniversary since the opening of Omotesando Hills. Although it has a few interesting aspects (personally I like the sound and light design), compared to the iconic Dojun apartments that preceeded Omotesando Hills, the current development detracts from the overall appeal of the neighbourhood (unless you really must have another handbag).

The least inspiring feature of the whole development is the wall-like facade that runs for more than a hundred metres along Omotesando. Tellingly, there are no photographs of the facade anywhere on the web site - only artistic and conceptual renderings.

The interior is worth have quick wander through. The shops were so uninspiring though that I am unable to recall a single one. Probably handbags - apparently you can't have too many.

Spotted this in the subway a couple of days ago. These guys obviously get good money for these promo gigs in Japan but surely they don't think they can stop the images leaking out of Japan?

The interesting thing is, while everyone in the west sniggers 'Sell out!' in Japan it's probably a good career move. In fact the whole concept of selling out is a bit alien to most Japanese - which is refreshing in a way. In Japan you can be a complete sell-out without getting all neurotic about not looking like a sell-out!

I wouldn't buy a hybrid off Leonardo DiCaprio - it may be fuel efficient but it's still a car. On yer bike Leo!

Early last week, a rather nasty piece of xenophobia entitled 'Gaijin Hanzai Ura Fairu' (Underground Foreigner Crime Files) went on sale with national distribution through such mainstream outlets as Family Mart, Amazon Japan and an online affiliate of 7 Eleven.

If you want to know more about what was in the 'mook' - a magazine/book, check out tireless foreigners rights advocate Arudo Debito's blog or Japanprobe.

Although the publication raises a lot of questions, the most remarkable thing is that an organised campaign by foreign residents led to it's withdrawal and a couched apology from Family Mart (even though Amazon continues to hold-out). Following the various blogs it was interesting to see the standard corporate responses to the initial complaints and then the rapid change when they realised the scale of what they were dealing with and the potential damage to their reputation and sales.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that the foreign community in Japan has launched a rapid, co-ordinated and ultimately successful campaign to influence a national retailer. Lacking a critical mass, (according to the latest edition of Metropolis, Oizumi town in Yamanashi has the highest percentage of foreign residents with a mere 15%) it has been difficult for foreign residents to influence the communities in which they live. However, with the popularity, speed and ease of communication afforded by blogs, we could be seeing the birth of an influential foreign voice - both as a powerful consumer block and as an agent for change in Japanese society.

Interesting how something so negative can inadvertently lead to something so positive!

I was a little surprised to read on the BBC website that the new iPhone is Apple's first foray into the mobile phone market.

Apple would probably rather you forget, but does anyone else remember the 'Rockr'? Proof that Apple comes up with it's fair share of turkeys too.

I'm not convinced with the iPhone either. I'm careful with my mobile but I drop it about once every six months or so. Given the reputation for iPods to spit the dummy when they are dropped, I'd like to see how that nice big screen would respond to falling out of a pocket onto a subway platform.

There is an interesting article on the Economist Shopping and philosophy (that has unfortunately disappeared behind the subscription wall) which looks at the similarities in the result of liberal free market economics and the world that the post-modernist philosophers envisaged in the 1950s and 1960s.

The article draws parallels between the post modernist ideas of a fragmented society and permanent revolution and the hyper niched, constantly changing market created by the wired, consumerist, globalised society in which we live.

The writer also observes the appropriation of the counter culture by modern marketers. With brands such as Nike employing rebellious anti-establishment attitudes in their advertising, the author states that "... capitalism [now] employs the critique that was designed to destroy it". The amazing thing isn't that this appropriation has occurred but rather that now we don't even blink an eyelid when it happens - it's so accepted that it has managed to bypass our collective bullshit detectors. Or perhaps that's just me.

Although 'rebellion' has always been exploited in some way, it seems that it is now just another weapon of the corporate marketer.

On a similar vein, although brands have long been a part of gang identification, this article about violence related to clothing brands puts an interesting perspective on things.

Time to put my money where my mouth is. In a previous post, I criticised the judges of the JFTC Essay Competition (which included former Managing Director of Sony - Dr. Iwao Nakatani) for choosing such a poor entry as the winning essay.

To add some perspective to the criticism, I am posting my entry. Even if you are not actively interested in this field, I hope you find it an interesting read.

You can open it in PDF and HTML versions. I would have liked a little more time to smooth out the creases but anyway - feedback is welcomed!

-- edit --

[cringe]just noticed my incomplete referencing![/cringe]