The news in Japan is dominated by headlines of economic malaise and political incompetence. Spending money frivolously is definitely not in fashion. SAVVY SPENDING is in. As such, the other two key elements in The Hunting! concept are “young women empowering themselves” and, less high-minded, “tracking down those must-have items at TGC!”  Must-haves this season will feature masculine images such as armor to promote “strong women”, according to a press release.

The event is organized by mobile fashion site GIRLSWALKER.COM and, as in previous years, the clothes worn by models in the show will be available for purchase immediately via the site. TGC released data from its own research that says Japanese in their late teens and early 20s it surveyed currently spend almost 100 minutes a day using the mobile Internet, 10 minutes more than a year ago. About 65% shopped online using their mobiles over the last year.

New this season is TOKYO GIRLS PARADE, a website where users can pull a fashion slot machine to create Nintendo Mii-like avatars dressed in random fashion looks from Tokyo. (The website is currently avaialable only in Japanese.)

Here’s a clip from last season’s TGC:

The new bottle holds 520ml of water, but weights just 12 grams when empty, or 40% less than other Coca-Cola PET bottles. The bottle, cap and even label weigh less. Over a year, that would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide produced in the manufacturing process by 3,000 tons, equivalent to the offset of a 950 hectare forest, according to the company.

For Japanese consumers, used to measuring their environmental impact in terms of the volume of waste they produce (always carefully separated into burnables, non-burnables and recyclables), the bottle creates a new disposal ritual to reinforce the “green” brand proposition (see video below). It can easily be twisted by hand to make it thin and easy to throw away, a “1-2-3″  action Coca-Cola Japan encourages consumer to follow in its marketing campaign:  1. buy (!), 2. drink, 3. remove-label-twist-and-discard.

Of course, the ritual still ends with discarding (a non-biodegradable object). However, the manufacturer has undeniable tapped into consumers willingness to take small steps toward “greening” their daily lives, but without making major sacrifices (Part Time Greens).

Not only that, Coca-Cola Japan is betting consumers are willing to pay a premium to be (or be seen as) green: ILOHAS retails in vending machines for 130 yen for a 520ml bottle, an 18% premium to other brands like Crystal Geyser. (As a launch campaign, the water retailed in convenience stores for 105 yen.)

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

A woman relaxes after a work out in a germanium bath.

The era when a sports gym could get by with an array of exercise machines and perhaps a pool is over in Japan, where people are taking a more holistic approach to wellness. Innovative sports clubs are responding with with an array of new services.

Bodies, a women-only fitness club with 20 locations around Japan, features relaxation stations where women can soak their arms and feet in hot water infused with germanium, a popular treatment claimed to boost the immune system and combat free radicals that speed the aging process.

Recently opened in the trendy Daikanyama area of Tokyo, known for its quaint cafes and fashion boutiques, is Athlonia, Japan’s first sports gear shop specializing in triathlon equipment. The shop recently launched a triathlon school, held in collaboration with fitness club chain Tipness, and an adjoining Hawaiian cafe selling dishes with healthy ingredients such as avocado and brown rice.

Bodies also started a women-only running club, a decision it took after talking to its members as well as users of ABC Cooking Schools. There is a running studio in Marunouchi, an area of Tokyo home to a large number of female office workers. Women pop into the studio to change, then run 5km around the nearby Imperial Palace grounds, then return to the studio for a shower.

The club, which is open to beginners, advises members on improving themselves on several levels through running, fashion and beauty. The club’s website features “Beauty Recipes” for do-it-yourself health drinks, as well as organizing tours to the Honolulu Marathon.

Contact us for our ethnographic research on women’s changing attitudes to wellness.

Students at Athlonia's triathlon school.

The campaign gives specific examples of when to drink Oranomin C

In a highly segmented and overcrowded marketplace, time-bereft consumers need to be spoon-fed if they are to understand what differentiates one product from another. This collaboration does just that for both Oronamin C energy drink and Navitime.

Otsuka Pharmaceutical organized direct marketing for businesspeople outside train stations in central Tokyo this month, handing out samples along with a detailed 8-page booklet designed like a personal notebook. The company helps consumers plan the product into their daily routine, such as before a business meeting, while waiting for a train, or to recharge during a work break.

The campaign, co-branded with Navitime, a GPS-based mobile maps and listings service. There are similar suggestions for incorporating Navitime into your routine too, such as to get to a meeting on time, planning a journey or looking for a restaurant.

Consumers can use a QR code to access a co-branded mobile website and sign up to receive regular mails on business lifestyle themes like “Work-Life Balance”, as well as a free two-week trial of the Navitime service.

The campaign also saw the drink sponsor this week’s R25 (a popular freepaper for men in their 20s), with a spot on the cover and a multi-page survey on how men handle various business situations.

Although Navitime and Otsuka offer two seemingly different products, they have come together to aggressively try and show comsumers that they empathise with and can support them through the challenges of the day at work.

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

Time to reward yourself with that new 24-inch iMac?

Recession fatigue is starting to show in the United States, where consumers are rewarding themselves by “trading up” items that play an important role in their daily lives, according to Boston Consulting Group (reported by WWD). In fact, marketers interested in this trend need only look to Japan to see how an extended downturn can actually boost sales of high-quality daily necessities.

The top ten list of “trade-up” items for the U.S. is dominated by what most people would consider 21st Century home necessities. No. 1 is the personal computer, and household electronics like home entertainment (5), kitchen appliances (8) and washers and dryers (9) also feature. At No. 2 is fresh fruits and vegetables, reflecting wellness trends as well as the basic importance of food, with other entries being meat (4), sit-down restaurants (7) and fish and seafood (10). The other entries are bedding (3) and automobiles (6). With the exception of restaurants, the list clearly shows the items consumers will start spending on first will be things that improve their daily lives and personal space.

A prolongued period of low growth in Japan bred innovation in small-ticket items, as consumers recalibrated their spending patterns

The changes in spending by Japanese a decade ago reflected their different priorities, with more emphasis on fashion (which doesn’t make Boston’s U.S. Top 10) and personal computers (mobile phones were always more useful here). However, the shifts in demand were similarly focused on improving consumers’ daily lives and, in the process, contributed to world-leading innovation in everything from functional home electronics and B2C mobile commerce to beverage flavors and cigarette packaging.

Contact us for details of ethnographic research and innovation programs to help your business anticipate consumers’ changing priorities.

Products such as this home grill kit are currently selling well in Japan.

At a time when retail sales in many sectors are falling, one area in which sales are actually rising is items that can be used for do-it-yourself activities at home. It seems that Japanese consumers are increasingly opting not to go out, but rather stay at home to practice self-enriching hobbies such as cooking with the family, making clothing, or growing food.

This home shiitake mushroom growing kit has become a surprise hit product.

Consumers are saving money by eating out less, but are also investing in near professional-grade kitchen tools, such as rice milling machines, high-tech rice cookers, fondue sets, and pressure cookers.  Kitchen appliance manufacturer Iwatani reports that sales in the last quarter of 2008 increased by 43% in the niche of home grills to make fried octopus and skewered chicken, foods which are usually available at outdoor food stands. Another hit product is a kit that allows users to grow shiitake mushrooms at home, suggesting that consumers want to have fun in the kitchen.

Other products that have been doing well, such as electric hair clippers, hair irons, and hair dyes seem to indicate consumers are giving up trips to the hair salon in favor of doing the job themselves at home. There is also a strong sense of self-improvement with this brand of at-home consumerism. One of the hit products of late 2008-early 2009 is the “Core Rhythms” series of exercise DVDs, which incorporate moves from Latin dancing into at-home work outs.

McDonald's Premium Roast Coffee sells for less than half the price of Starbucks.

McDonald’s Japan is experiencing brisk sales of its “Premium Roast Coffee.” The coffee is made from South American beans, and packaged in a sleekly designed cup with a black lid.

The launch was prompted by research showed that while coffee had mainly been ordered as a side item for meals at McDonald’s, in recent years more customers have been coming to McDonald’s only for coffee. To launch the product, new standardized coffee machines were installed in all locations, to insure that consumers had the same taste experience at all shops.

Premium Roast Coffee went on sale in February 2008, for 100 yen, and the price was raised to 120 yen in August of that year. A short size coffee at Starbucks, by comparison, costs 290 yen. 160 million cups of McDonald’s Premium Roast Coffee were sold by the end of 2008.

Since 2004, Panasonic has been selling a lineup of beauty appliances that generate nano-sized steam particles to moisturize facial skin, offering Japanese women an affordable way to replicate the beauty salon experience at home.

Recently, the company has released a new product that represents a paradigm shift not only in the beauty appliance category, but might have broader repercussions. It has launched a steamer that no longer requires users to sit in front of the machine like previous models. Instead, it can be used while sleeping, making it easy to use fro even the most time-pressed women. It also expands it benefits by delivering moisture to hair as well as facial skin.

Technological innovations aside, introducing a product that can be used while sleeping might well turn out to be a stroke of genius for the company, and could spark a broader trend for brands to stop competing for the busy and limited waking hours of consumers, and instead offer products that fulfill their function while consumers are sleeping.

A number of similar products have already appeared in the market. A small manufacturer has recently released a blanket that contains so-called moisture care silk and promises skin-care effects while sleeping, while another company has released fragrant sheets that can be attached to the pillow case.

Tokyo’s soundtrack can be seasonal, like the deafening cicada chirping in summer and the sweet potato vendor peddling his snacks in winter.

At other times, the soundtrack is plain infuriating, such as the incessantly beeping pedestrian crossings and loud “danger” message of reversing trucks on a quiet street.

Sound designer Yasuharu Ohkouchi.

Talented sound designer Yasuharu Ohkouchi was the one who turned our concept into reality.

After we recorded around 100 unique urban sounds (birdsongs in Yoyogi Park, the 5pm music telling children to go home, trains on the Yamanote Line, etc.), Yasuharu (Hal), layered these sounds to create a story of his own.

“The music starts with a young man arriving from Narita, riding the mainline train into Shibuya station, as the cherry blossom petals fall onto windows,” explains Hal.
Utilizing the skills of co-collaborating musician Jeff Wichmann, who sent samples original koto compositions from his base in Chicago, Hal added a classical element to the urban soundscape.

Musician Jeff Wichmann

Jeff is an experimental composer and musician who blends koto with trumpet and other instruments to form new sonic sculptures for use in performance, theater, advertising and design.
Jeff has collaborated with junkyard automobile shredders, dancers, electronics wizards, string telephone artists, Bavarian zither players, actors, rock bands and poets.
“For this project with Hal, using the Japanese koto and a certain surreal/wabisabi /Issa haiku perception, I attempted to express the figurative sounds of spring and fall in Tokyo. I tried to create sonic vignettes to mirror cascading sakura petals in the wind; rain drops on one’s umbrella and the sidewalk; fading leaves and echoes of summer memories. Within these audible sculptures are the emotions of hope in spring and beautiful sadness in fall,” explains Jeff.

Armed with a Mac, Pro Tools, KORG MTR and KORG Kaoss Pad, Hal manipulated and blended all the sounds together to create our Tokyo Soundtrack.

Hear the piece at:

Yasuharu Ohkouchi’s MySpace
Jeff Wichmann’s MySpace

Pasela karaoke parlors feature champagne and dining.

The Pasela chain of karaoke parlors, operated by Tokyo-based company Newton, have found a way to make money during off-peak singing hours during the day: hiring out the karaoke rooms as conference facilities.

Pasela karaoke parlors are now doubling as conference rooms.

Facilities include projectors, wireless internet connections, and whiteboards, thus catering to a new need among the growing number of companies who have started to downsize office space in order to cut costs. Rooms cost around 10,000 yen ($100) for one hour.

Pasela karaoke parlors are positioned as a luxury alternative to nation-wide chains, boasting chandeliers, champagne, and state-of-the-art karaoke machines.  Select locations in popular entertainment districts such as Shinjuku and Shibuya are billed as “Pasela Resorts.”  The Pasela Resort in Shinjuku, for example, features six floors of karaoke, dining, a Mexian-themed darts bar, a billiards hall, and a rental party space.

As Pasela Resorts are located in areas where many companies have offices and offer both dinning and entertainment, they are a popular location for “bonenkai,” end-of-year office parties always held outside of the office.

Learn more:
Pasela official homepage (Japanese)