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!