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Moving Forward

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 10:38:54 +0000

Five by Fifty will conduct a survey of 500 Japanese consumers April 2-3, 2011 to ascertain how the ongoing crises are affecting sentiment. The goal is to provide our clients with signposts into how this series of tragic events is changing consumers’ outlook and spending patterns, enabling them to effectively asses how their own businesses can recover and contribute to the Japanese economy.

The “Moving Forward” report will also be useful to companies interested in how large-scale disasters with uncertain outcomes affect consumer sentiment in an industrialized economy and help with scenario planning.

Jump to pricing.

Because the situation remains fluid, the report aims to provide signposts, rather than false or premature conclusions. Key sections of the study will be repeated in May and June so that clients can track changes in sentiment to see whether they are temporary or permanent. Other sections will be updated to take into account changing events as they unfold. If the time is right, we will also conduct an in-depth qualitative study over the summer to solidify our findings.

The first study (April 2-3) will use the following methodology:
A quantitative survey of 500 respondents conducted online
50% in the Kanto area; 50% in Kansai (around Osaka) to ascertain how the crises are affecting not only the capital but also another significant economic area.
A balanced demographic spread: 50/50 male/female, and approximately even coverage of three age groups teens/twenties; 30s-40s; and 50+

The questions will be designed to gather insights in five areas:

Confidence & Outlook: When do respondents believe their lives will return to a situation akin to normalcy?
Saving vs. Spending: How are consumers using their disposable income, and do they have plans to save more? (This will exclude essentials that we know are being purchased more than normal.)
Footpaths: Where are consumers spending their free time, and how have power and transport issues affected consumer paths and where they spend their disposable income?
Areas of uncertainty: What is consumers’ primary source of concern influencing their lifestyle patterns and spending? Food contamination, transport disruption, blackouts, something else? The answer will allow clients to effectively react to events as they unfold over the coming weeks. (This area of questioning will be handled with utmost sensitivity.)
Media sources: Where are consumers getting their information and how is that influencing their sentiment? This section will be replaced in May and June depending on events.

This report will paint a broad outline of perceptions in lifestyle changes and expectations of how these may change amid a fluid and confusing situation. Our goal is that the report will act as the foundation for more specific research at the appropriate time.

Date of Research
April 2-3
May 14-15
June 11-12

Publication date
Monday, April 11
Monday, May 23
June 11-12

JPY Price
JPY200,000
JPY200,000
JPY200,000

USD Price
USD 2,500
USD 2,500
USD 2,500

Discount*
Three reports:
JPY350,000 or
USD 4,200

* Discount available until April 29; payment required in advance online by credit card, or via bank transfer, after acceptance of rights agreement and terms of distribution.

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Details and pricing of the later in-depth qualitative research will be released at the appropriate time. Clients who have previously purchased all three reports will be eligible for a 30% discount, and the right to purchase a category for the qualitative research. This right will be offered on a first-come basis.

Five by Fifty is able to conduct industry-specific qualitative studies of a similar size after April 11. Studies normally take approximately 2 to 3 weeks to complete. Please contact our research manager, Aaron Toussaint for details and a quotation or call 03-3797-1141.

For the full press release, please see here.

Testimonials

Sun, 17 Oct 2010 06:18:28 +0000

“I call Five By Fifty ‘My World Trend Eye’. Their total brand evaluation ability is excellent. Five by Fifty watches the world wide market and picks up on trends and goods and finds out the common values of consumers. Asahi finds hints of new products from the ideas which Five by Fifty has reported on for us.”
Jiro Shimizu, General Manager, Product Strategy Department, Liquor Sales & Marketing, Asahi Breweries, Ltd, Japan.

“I have been working with Five by Fifty for some time now, and they are a very useful innovation partner to have on our team. They have a very good approach to front end innovation, using more modern and relevant consumer centric methods to gain insights and ideas. Additionally, they have great cross industry knowledge and a useful network to call upon.”
Kevin Blick, Senior Group Innovation Manager, BAT Japan

“Working with Five by Fifty is like having the key to the city. Their insight into the incredibly diverse music, fashion, nightlife and retail scenes provides a competitive edge in understanding the cultural code of Japan.”
Tom Jarrold, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Communications at Armani Exchange

“Five By Fifty provided us with a great review of ʻWhat quality means in Japanʼ. Very insightful, full of great examples and really applicable to our business.”
Victor Misawa, Vice President Marketing – NEA, Unilever Japan Customer Marketing K.K.

“We are still buzzing from our time in Japan. Five by Fifty were very organized in their approach to designing our itinerary and then refining it further by demanding more detail from us on what our aim was, followed up by phone calls. You wouldnʼt believe the amount of companies who do not bother to find out exactly what it is the client is after and just put something together thinking it will suffice. Our days were planned and well structured but with the opportunity at any time to be flexible and change.”
Sonia Currie, Project Manager, Wagamama Ltd, UK

“Five by Fifty have their finger on the pulse of Japanese consumer insight. They work hard to identify emerging trends in this fast-moving market. We’ve been lucky to have them involved in some of our work in Japan.”
Christopher Ruane, Inventor, What If? Innovation, China

“We all enjoyed the marketing visit, it was well arranged, very impressive and an unforgettable experience for us. We also liked your presentation on packaging and products, which was closely linked to consumer needs. Thank you for your great work.”
Kristen Anderson, Lisa Zhou & Rachel Lu, Coca-Cola Beverages, China

Consumer Intelligence

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 05:44:50 +0000

Date: Ongoing
Location: Pan-region
Client: Various
Brief: Provide intelligence about new product launches and market analysis that assists clients develop NPD, supply chain and marketing strategies to grow their businesses in Asia Pacific and beyond.

Bespoke Reports

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 05:48:15 +0000

Date: 2009-2010
Location: Pan-region
Client: Tokyo-based beverage manufacturer
Brief: Provide intelligence reports analyzing the beverage markets of specific Asian economies to support client strategy to boost sales outside of home market.

Trend Forecasting

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 05:38:18 +0000

Date: Spring/Summer 2010 (ongoing)
Location: Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing
Client: Global beverage manufacturer
Brief: Find economic- and demographic-driven consumer trends in China and Japan, supported by in-depth market analysis, with explicit implications for the global beverage market in several other specific global markets

5x53 Home page

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:24:40 +0000

INTAPAC provides insight into marketing, packaging innovation, retail trends, consumer behavior and analysis on new fast moving consumer product launches in the world’s fastest growing Asian markets.

A new innovation tool from Five by Fifty, Asia’s leading trend forecasting and consumer research agency, INTAPAC tracks game-changing products released in Japan, Korea, China and other Asian markets. INTAPAC helps you analyze where markets are moving through its dedicated online news service delivering competitive intelligence on the latest products and trends which shape markets, shake up the retail landscape, and offer relevant new insight into approaches to branding, manufacturing, and advertising that can be used reapplied globally. INTAPAC offers 24/7 tracking and knowledge at your fingertips, at a truly affordable price.

INTAPAC features:

SEVEN CHANNELS, LAUNCHING WITH BEVERAGES & PACKAGING
HAND-PICKED DAILY PRODUCT LAUNCHES INCLUDING VITAL STATISTICS & ANALYSIS
MONTHLY IN-DEPTH REPORTS AND TREND DIRECTION FOR STRATEGY
CROSS-CATEGORY INSPIRATION
HIGH-QUALITY PRODUCT AND CAMPAIGN IMAGES/VIDEOS
AFFORDABLE ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES
INTUITIVE SEARCH FUNCTION

LEARN MORE! »

Positioning your company at the beginning of the innovation process is vital for sustained future growth.

Five by Fifty discover consumer insights and use them to assist our clients innovate in new product development, packaging and distribution, branding and communication.

We work with Fortune 500, Nikkei Fortune 500 and privately owned global client companies at the Front End of the innovation wheel to inspire, develop and create next generation products and services.

Working collaboratively with our clients, we tap into our skilled network of renowned product designers, futurists and creatives – and of course ourselves, a talented and experienced team of innovators, to inspire the next big thing.

We bring ideas to life by using a range of proprietary methodology honed over years of hands-on client experience. We take a bespoke approach to each and every project depending on the extent and needs of each client goal.

Our particular specialties include new product development (NPD) workshops that we hold anywhere in the world. We are also known for our global and country specific trend and consumer forecasting reports, in addition to our analysis and market tracking that we do both locally and internationally.

One of our favorite activities is taking our clients on market immersions that we dub ‘Urban Safaris’. Think of these as hands-on market research, ultimately more educational and inspiring than a Power Point presentation.

We also run educational seminars that focus on practical innovation training to introduce a culture of innovation to companies embracing new change.

Throw in the fact we are also experienced ethnographers and routinely execute consumer research and concept testing, and what this means for our clients is a holistic approach to workable innovation – or fresh and marketable ideas through to development.

“Five By Fifty provided us with a great review of ‘What quality means in Japan’.
Very insightful, full of great examples and really applicable to our business.”
Victor Misawa, Vice President Marketing – NEA, Unilever Japan Customer Marketing K.K.

“We all enjoyed the marketing visit, it was well arranged, very impressive and an unforgettable experience for us.
We also liked your presentation on packaging and products, which was closely linked to consumer needs. Thank you for your great work.”
Kristen Anderson, Lisa Zhou & Rachel Lu, Coca-Cola Beverages, China

“If there is a city in the world you need a special key for it is Tokyo. A key to unlock trends of tomorrow – and most importantly the right key to open all the right doors.
Five By Fifty has shown an amazing ability to both identify the right keys and open the right doors – and time after time surprise me with their extraordinary exciting discoveries. It is an invaluable service anyone aspiring for new ideas and inspiration simply shouldn’t live without.”
Martin Lindstrom, Best-selling author of Buyology – Truth and Lies About Why We Buy

“Through an in-depth understanding of the Japanese society’s underlying shaping forces and an up-to-date knowledge of the latest consumer trends, Five by Fifty is owning the Rosetta Stone that makes it possible to translate Japanese innovation into meaningful opportunities for overseas markets. Interacting with Five by Fifty just makes the exposure to the Japanese consumer goods universe lots more fascinating and insightful”.
Jerome Pellaud, Global Director Exploratory Product Development, ABInBev

“Our visit to Tokyo was productive, and the people from Five by Fifty were very professional and kind. The industry connections we met through Five by Fifty were helpful in improving our distribution and marketing knowledge.”
Francesca Meiners, Product Manager, LIUJO JEANS, Italy

Our name, Five by Fifty, is inspired by the statistic that there will be an estimated five billion people living in Asia by 2050. That’s a lot of consumers living in one region – in fact it will be close to 60% of the world’s population. Each and every one of Asia’s burgeoning inhabitants harbours aspirations, hopes and desires. These ‘Five by Fifty’ have emerging wealth to spend on new products and services to fuel these dreams. We take advantage of the fact we are headquartered in Tokyo, the world’s seedbed of innovation. Just a quick glance out of our office window* is enough to inspire us all.

Come over and look for yourself!

Freebies Go Premium

Sun, 24 May 2009 13:47:14 +0000

Model anime characters, tea samples, hand towels and snacks have all been given away as gifts with purchase of beverages over the past 12 months, but one current freebie collaboration looks particularly savvy, having generated significant online chatter.

Suntory has been giving away a series of eight mini-goods by product designer Amadana with its Boss Silky Black coffee. Targeting design-smart businessmen in their 30s, the all-black and metal products include a USB memory drive cover, a tape measure, a “multi case” the size of an iPhone, a pen holder, a money clip, a bookmark, a “cord reel” for keeping headphone cords neatly in a suit pocket and a memo stand.

Amadana is a brand of luxury household appliances that have a modernist design aesthetic that has grown from niche to mainstream in a short time. Its product lineup includes everything from coffee makers and music systems to paper shredders and mobile phone handsets.

A quick look online shows the collaboration has spawned more than 70,000 blog posts so far this month, with comments suggesting that consumers actively bought BOSS Silky Black in order to collect the Amadana products.

To find out how Five by Fifty helps its clients innovate in the beverage sector, contact us.

Savvy Searchers

Thu, 21 May 2009 02:49:25 +0000

Purchasing sensitivity among Japanese consumers has changed over the last two recessions, with the driver switching from “price” to “savvy”.

“What’s different this time is that consumers aren’t simply looking only for low prices, they’re being more selective and hunting for higher quality and more fashionable products,” according to economist Teruhiko Mano. And analysis of Internet search data bears this out.

A review of keywords that experienced a surge on Yahoo! Japan in May leads to several sites that allow people to save on normally high-price items. (Of course, flu fears and the usual celebrity and sports news also featured heavily.)

Searches soared for “5.5 million yen house,” a keyword used by real estate agency Aqura Home for a new service offering made-to-order houses for 5.5 million yen, around US$55,000.

In mid-May, there was a huge volume of searches for sisyokukai.jp a new service that promotes new restaurants. Users receive discounts of 50-80% for meals in exchange for providing feedback to the restaurants, who are trying to perfect their service.

This week, there has been a large number of searches for “kane no tamago service,” which introduces consumers to apprentice nail artists and hairdressers, who provide manicures and cuts for large discounts or even free.

One luxury item that did enjoy increased search interest was the Segway, as the transport device is rumored to soon become legal on the streets of Yokohama.

Recession-Bred Art

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:57:19 +0000

An exhibition at Tokyo’s Hara Museum of Contemporary Art will document the works of several Japanese artists who came of age in the late 1990s and early 2000s, an era of economic stagnation in Japan, offering a glimpse inside the creative minds of a recession-ready generation.

The exhibition, curated by art critic Midori Matsui, will feature some 30 drawings, paintings and video works by 14 “Micropop” artists. Matsui coined the word “Micropop” to describe the mindset of a new generation of Japanese artists who, the museum says, “rearrange fragments of information and knowledge to give new meaning to the outmoded and banal.”

According to the museum, the exhibition, Winter Garden, “reflects a harsh environment of economic recession and political instability in which artists use cheap materials and simple methods to break down existing structures and uncover the beauty that lies dormant within everyday things. [It explores] a world characterized by increasing uniformity spurred by globalization and individuals faced with the need to find meaning in their own lives.”

Makiko Kudo, "might fly at night" (Copyright: Makiko Kudo/Tomio Koyama Gallery)

Winter Garden: The Exploration of the Micropop Imagination in Contemporary Japanese Art is at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art May 23-June 20, 2009. See www.haramuseum.or.jp for details.

The Tie Loosens at Japan Inc.

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 05:10:54 +0000

Japanese workers in their 20s place greater value on informal methods of communication with their coworkers, such as on the sports field or at the bar, rather than across the conference room, according to a survey conducted by Mori Building that confirms the generation-driven shift toward informality.

Japanese office workers in their 20s prefer communicating on the sports field.

Mori Building, a Tokyo-based property developer, manages offices occupied by several leading Japanese and international companies such as Rakuten, TV Asahi, Yahoo! Japan and Goldman Sachs. Participants in the survey were readers of Office Life News, a free magazine distributed to people working in Mori offices.

The survey found that 85% workers in their 20s see such “informal communication” as important. By comparison, only 24% of workers over the age of 50 responded that it is “important”, with 47% seeing it as “somewhat important.”

New recruits at an admission ceremony for Toyota. Casual Friday is still a dream for most corporate employees.

Workers in their 20s stated they value communicating with coworkers outside of the office because they can “get new information” (59%), and because it can “improve the work atmosphere in the office” (34%). 70% of workers in their 20s said they would like to increase opportunities to informal communication with coworkers.

Mori Building has begun organizing activities to give workers a chance to meet up outside of the office, such as the “Mori Cup” a soccer tournament for teams of people working in Mori Offices.