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Sending the right signals: in the Japanese consumer market, without the right marketing, even the most brilliant products and original ideas can fall flat on their face. J@pan Inc spoke to Kiyofumi Someya about marketing in Japan, and specifically of the hurdles facing small-medium enterprises.

Article Excerpt
Marketing in Japan

Last summer, a very strange product stood in the fridges of convenience stores across Japan for a period of about one month--cucumber Pepsi. Bloggers and media picked up on this curious item and it quickly emerged in headlines around the globe.

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Why did Pepsi pick Japan for this experiment? In many ways the convenience store is a microcosm of the Japanese market. A remarkable number of new products are tested on the shelves. Rather than manage one brand and one line,Japanese marketers tend to fire out new products at a much higher rate than in other commercial cultures. It is then up to the consumer's choices whether they pick up enough sales to survive: if they do they stay, if not they are removed.

Much is made of this when it comes to foreigners setting up in Japan but domestic companies find the process equally harsh and confusing. For new businesses and SMEs one of the biggest challenges can be that because of the volatile nature of the market, and the short margins allowed by stores to wholesalers to test out their products, expensive and all encompassing advertising campaigns are necessary if the product is to become popular. For those unable to afford the major ad agencies, Dentsu or Hakuhodo, becoming well known can be an unexpected and...

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