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!