Key points to meet expectations of Japanese
consumers, often said to be difficult to please, are outlined in the previous
post 5 Product Requirements to Meet Japanese Consumer Needs.
There is one more critical point in
developing and marketing products to Japanese consumers in success, especially
in BtoC businesses.
That is, “something new”.
This is why in the Japanese market there
are varieties of products coming out so frequently, with different design,
colour, functions/features and so forth.
This is not only in fashion industry which
products need to align with the seasons, nor consumer electronics, mobile
phones and smart phones. This is also
for fast foods, beverages, sweets and snacks, and menus in popular
restaurants.
Companies in Japan, both Japanese and
multi-nationals operating in Japan, make much investment in almost every season
in order to meet needs of Japanese consumer needs, who constantly expect “something
new”.
Also, there are some products such as
sweets only sold in a particular region; in Japanese we call them 地域限定品. This is a tactic to provoke
tourists to buy the products and such products turn out to be great souvenirs.
1.Sweets
and snacks
When it is spring and strawberries are in
their high season, there are variety of new sweets and snacks of “strawberry-flavoured”
sweets, snacks and cakes being commercialized for a limited time. Also March 3 is Girl’s Day and May 5 is Boy’s
Day, and products associated with the days usually come out.
In summer, it might be of water melon and “summer
orange”, popular in Yamaguchi prefecture.
And every summer we have variety of new summer cold desserts coming out
which are sold at super markets, convenience shops, cafes and restaurants.
And in autumn, peaches, Japanese pears,
grapes, Japanese persimmon and chest nuts are in their high season, and new
products using them are commercialized.
In winter, products associated with
Christmas and New Year comes out.
Products associated with Christmas tend to be something western and
products associated with New Year tend to be something Japanese.
2.Fast
foods
McDonalds, not only have Japanese taste
burger called Teriyaki as one of their regular menu, develops new products
almost every season which are sold for only a limited time.
Previously they commercialized a very
simple burger with low price which was named “100 JPY burger”, and also a
product which they added a small toy for foods targeting small children. Some fast food shops do campaigns making
alliances with entertainment companies.
In summer they had commercialized a burger
using avocado.
And recently many fast food shops have been
using mushrooms, one of the foods in high season in autumn, in commercializing
new products for autumn. The attached
photo is of McDonalds, using mushrooms with theme of Moon-Viewing 月見, the Japanese tradition on September 15.
3.Pizzas
and lunches sold in convenience stores
Mushrooms are also used in commercializing
autumn products among pizza shops. The
attached photo is of a pizza delivery flyer in which they feature their new “autumn”
product named “Autumn Premium Quarter Four” with mushroom topping, to be sold
until November 16.
Autumn is also when Tricholoma Matsutake (a
kind of mushroom we get in autumn, with great odor, and expensive) is in high
season. Matsutake mushrooms are used in
commercializing new portable lunches (in Japanese called Obentoお弁当) and sold in convenience stores and supermarkets for a limited time,
as well as appearing in menus in high class restaurants.
Bamboo shoots are obtained in spring and
are used in a very similar way as Matsutake mushrooms in commercializing new
products of lunches in convenience stores and super markets as well as commercializing
new cuisines in restaurants.
Crabs and giant pacific oysters are in
their high seasons in winter. Pizza
shops often commercialize new products using crabs as their topping. Lunches sold in convenience stores in
particular sometimes feature crabs and oysters for their new products in
winter.
4.Beer
Summer is when people enjoy beer the most,
and “beer gardens” enjoying cold beer chilled in refrigerators outdoors as well
as indoors is a major entertainment in Japan.
So in summer, all Japanese beer companies usually commercialize new
products. They usually differentiate by
taste, how it is felt when drinking (beer going down the throat) and so forth.
This year “premium” was a key word or
concept in beer companies developing and commercializing new beers like the one
in the photo.
There was also a beer company that
partnered with Seven Eleven a convenience store company, and a tourism company
in promoting their products. The author
received a coupon of the new beer from the tourism company she used in going on
a vacation with which she could buy the new beer at a Seven Eleven store near
her house during the time specified on the coupon.
Beer companies also commercialize new
products in winter, developing products with appropriate naming and new can or
beer label suitable for winter.
5.Menus
in restaurants
Combining the above approaches, as a few
examples already given above, restaurants often develop new seasonal cuisine to
make their menu a little different every season.
The most distinct ones are probably found
in summer, autumn and winter.
In summer, they commercialize many cold
cuisines like cold noodles like thin wheat noodles, cold noodle (topped with
egg, roast pork, bean sprouts, tomato, and cucumber), cold soba or buckwheat
noodle called ざるそば and cold ◾wheat noodle called ざるうどん and even cold spaghetti.
In summer they would also have cold
desserts in their menus.
In autumn, high class restaurants and
hotels would commercialize Matsutake Kaiseki, Japanese full course using
Matsutake mushrooms. We call them 秋の味覚, literal translation is “great autumn food”. Hotels with hot spring public baths or Onsen 温泉often commercialize a package product of Matsutake mushroom full
course lunch or dinner with hot spring bathing services.
In winter, similar Japanese full course
cuisines and package products using crabs and oysters called 冬の味覚 (literal translation is “great winter food”) are commercialized at
high class restaurants and hotels.
When Japan is blessed with 4 distinct
seasons, it is a requirement to commercialize products fully leveraging what we
are blessed in each season in order to successfully commercialize products
meeting Japanese consumers.
