Idols

Japan has an obsession with anything that's cute, which is directly reflected in their culture of music.

Idols are think of it as the Japanese equivalent of a pop

band except that most of the members of the so called band are not recruited (mainly) on their singing abilities but more to how they can perform and look 'cute' in general.

Now the term idol are not exclusively for music, they go on TV shows, show up in magazines, talk shows and they even have their own tv series.

Now for the purpose of this article, let's take a look at the recent craze in the idol scene.

Meet [b]AKB 48[/b]

no i'm serious, there's 48 of them

My good friend wikipedia here have a short history of them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AKB48 but to make things short they are an idol group that was formed in 2005 in a district inn Tokyo called Akihabara (hence the name AKB 48). From now the group have branched into 3 major groups (called team A, team K and Team B) and since its formation they have 3 other subgroups (SKE 48, SDN 48 and NMB 48).

How popular is this group? Their latest album (Sakura no ki ni narou) reported a whopping 655,000 copies on their first day of release! Talk about a lot of money into this.

But, how could such a group be so popular? Social media!

I'm sorry what?

Spoiler alert: blogs.

Other than the obvious marketing ploy such as making a deal with Sony Entertainment, and the other merchandising endeavor, blogs and forums played such a huge role in their spread of fanbase and popularity!

So let's put it this way, how can a Japan idol group can gain so much popularity outside of Japan?

A) Community and word of mouth

B) Forum creation so that like minded people can share their information

C) Idol having their own blogs to share their personal thought and flavour

D) All of the above

If you choose D then you just hatched a million dollar (or yen) idea.

Let's take a look at some example of these so called forums

http://stage48.net/forum/index.php

7326 members *wipes sweat off* that's a lot of members for such a subculture.

example of idol blog:

http://blog48.livejournal.com/1216268.html

As you can see AKB 48's strategy is to get you personally with the idol. Which fits their creed of 'idols you can meet' They made their members so personally in tune with all the fans so they can have a so called personal interactions with their favorite members!

Lesson to be learned

Obviously the product here are services and experience. In order for a brand or product to get in tune with their customers is to create an experience like no other. Each person can relate to the members of AKB48 personally by visiting their blogs and seeing their day to day activities. And they can share with other fans in forums or other personal blogs.

And whenever a new news is spread, the fans practically feed themselves. This shows a lot on how the correct usage of a social media can directly be responsible for the spread of an interest.

until next time!

-van

Opapi....?

Oh hey guys, I'm back.

I decided after thinking about it, making an interesting marketing blog looks like a pretty cool thing to do. And well, I know it's more for personal enjoyment more so than anything but eh, might as well keep the ball rolling.

I will dedicate most of the post recently about...well...Japan

So how does a half naked guy dancing and screaming 'opapi' sells so well in Japan.

And it's not just that one time occurrence, if you go to youtube and type either 'opapi' or yoshio you will find this guy doing the same antics of well...dancing and jumping around half naked.

Western Perspective

Well let's take a look at this in multiple ways, first of all let's take it in a western marketing perspective mainly what it says about the brand and what does it actually tell us about the brand.

You know what I lied, I'm still confused. So it's telling us that eating this pizza will give us the same vigor as this half naked man? If your target market is full of people with this kind of interest then well this is the correct way of marketing.

Oh but you're forgetting one thing. This is Japan we're talking about.

Japan Perspective

In Japan, apparently things like this sells. Crazy advertising is a commonplace in Japanese media advertising. In a country where crazy things are invented, half naked man jumping around is as accepted as repeatedly using the same word over over and over again in a repeated flurry of jiggly pudding.

Oh wait....

Now this is the part that I want to enlight my reader on this topic. I would like to introduce the term called moe marketing.

Moe?

Moe or a shortened version of the word moeru can be loosely translated as a burning feeling. Usually it means a visual or sound cue that can invoke a certain feeling in people - particularly the feeling of cute-ness and beauty.

After some research and talking with a capable person (my housemate), we came to a few interesting hypothesis about why this kind of behavior is dominating the Japanese market.

1. Japan's uptight work culture

In Japan, usually when you work, you will dedicate your life under one company until you retire. The company will take care of your family and all aspects of your life. When you sign a contract as Japanese working in a company the company will expect you to work there for the rest of your life.

In short the Japanese worker particularly the age group around 22 and above is always looking for something crazy that make them forget their miserable office life. And things such as these larger than life activities are apparently what raises the interest of the common Japanese people.

2. Eastern culture in general

Compared to the western culture, information is generally not the thing that the people seek. They seek a more emotional appeal in the advertising form. Something that they can immediately relate to, this involves using say maybe a cute mascot, catchy phrases, and catchy musics.

I realize this article is short and in dire need of research but I hope it has given some insight to the Japanese marketing attitudes as well as their consumers in general.

Next time's article: Idols!

Happy Exams People

To those taking this Electronic Marketing exam and any other university exams , I wish all of you the best of luck doing the exam. May you don't stuff up during the exams, and hope that your common sense works so that you can wing the exam.

Eat a hearty breakfast, don't sleep too late, and revise carefully.

As a food for thought, during these periods, you might notice advertisements that are 'exam based' . Like suddenly those "Red Bull Gives you Wings for Exams" advertising sounds more appealing than what it was months ago.

International Marketing - Or How an Instant Noodle Becomes So Famous Here

Recently I stumbled into an advertisement for an instant noodle brand when I was walking near the student lounge in Monash just the other day. Indomie - is the brand that I looked at. The advertisement, was showing a package of the instant noodle with exotic looking spices in the back and the heading "Why is Indomie so Good? Because it Uses Exotic Indonesian Spices" or something along that line.

The best meal you can get for less than 20 cents

A part of me giggled deep down inside because to the best knowledge of me, Indomie uses a lot of MSG - not necessarily a bad thing, but it makes the noodle so damn tasty. But what I'm just amazed is that how does an Indonesian brand became so famous all the way down here in Australia? I went down to Coles a few times and saw the noodles being sold there in sets of 5, as well as supermakets such as Woolsworths, and even 7/11.

Returning back to marketing 101, I think that when the marketers targeted the Australian market, they had an idea of the Indonesian student population in Melbourne that needed a quick, cheap and filling meal solution as well as giving them a taste home. I remember hearing stories of how my friend who came here were given usually a box or two of Indomie to eat.

But of course there are other brands that falls into this category, one that is brought down from their home countries into another country and received such familiarity. What I'm amazed is just that they can afford to have a billboard advertising in Australia, so that means that they have a large distribution center or even a local manufacturing of Indomie.

I guess the virtue to be taken out of this post is that in marketing a product to a new market, marketers should always embrace the value of home. Whenever I eat a packet of Indomie, I'm always reminded of those times where I am sitting in a stall next to a busy street in Jakarta, eating a warm indomie with a cold glass of iced tea. I guess my future career of marketing in Indonesia could be fruitful after all.

i Takeaway - The Takeaway of the Future

Recently I've stumbled upon this new iphone application, its called itakeaway.



The application is really simple, register your information and then you can order takeaway food from a registered merchant in the application.

The application can also list up your list of favorite foods, integrate google map to locate the closest restaurant to your place as well as securely linking your transaction to debit and credit cards. All this in the convenience of your palms. It is also the first iphone application that does so in the future.

The biggest problem with iphone application is, even though iphone has such a large penetration rate, it is not yet the premier telephone for people, in the sense that the large success rate of applications such as these is that it relies on the number of people connected on iphone.

While this application has recently launched in the Melbourne food and wine festival, engaging the correct target audience. It does fit a lot of gaps according to the chief inventor Tony Peter.

With the iTakeaway, it gives restaurants more place to advertise their products and services also giving them more penetration, awareness as well as coverage.

For me though, it will give me more reason to be lazier in take aways so I guess it's a win for me!

You're Flipping Me!

Quite recently, Big M announced their winning flavor of their competition to bring back old favorite flavors.

Out of a selection of a number of flavors, customers needs to choose one that they like the most and then Big M will bring back those flavors.

After some period of the competition, Big M finally announced 'Egg Flip' flavour to be the relaunched to the market for a limited time period.



For one, I have fallen victim to this marketing campaign, having no idea what Egg Flip means, thinking that its a strange hybrid of egg nog and milk, I decided to give this flavor a taste and surprisingly they're pretty good.

Big M uses advertising to create interest and uses retailers such as Coles and 7-11 specials on Egg flip flavor for customers to try it out (the first time I came to Coles to get it, it was sold out!)

They even have a Facebook fan page!



Quite a number of companies have been using competition as a way to involve themselves with customers and to give them a say on the company. One of the more recent competition was the Smith's flavor contest - where customers are given a chance to create a Smith's flavored chips and then the winner will be made into an actual product.



I personally think competition is a great idea, it involves the customers, and companies that are using it needs to manage so that customers know about it, as well as getting the idea across to generate interest.

Nintendo DS dating simulation game Company Takes Marketing into a whole different level

In my second installation of 'wtf Japan', I'm going to talk about how a company takes marketing into a new level of...weirdness.

Love Plus is a Nintendo DS love simulation game, you get to control the main character and strives to obtain one of the 3 main female characters as your girlfriend. This game has been a huge hit in Japan and even outside of Japan (to those who understand Japanese anyway, since the game is not translated).

In one of the scenes in the game, you take one of the girls to a hot springs resort to spend your weekend there. Konami, the creator of the game decides to contact the resort (its an actual resort) to provide a special package so that the players can bring their ds and spend their weekend there with their character.

The room is designed just like the one in the game, with all the entertainments in the game. Konami also promises that they will give special character sprites for the game as well as a slew of contents.

Now ignore the oh-my-god-wtf-you're-taking-your-ds-and-dating-it! comment and lets take a look at it from a marketing perspective.

Konami has identified that they have a core group of loyal customers and decided to give special treatment to them. Ensuring that those customers remain loyal and would just scoop out whatever crap that Konami decides to spout with their Love Plus game.

What is this, I don't even D:

I'd say its a brilliant marketing strategy, although personally, those people need to get a girlfriend.

Oh and the price? Only 39,800Yen (roughly 500 AUD)