When I found this article on the Internet, I was really surprised because this little boy is a CEO of his own business. Can you believe it?

 

 His name is Cory. He is now 11 years old but started his business when he was only 9 years old. “Mr. Cory’s Cookies”- it is the name of his shop. As the name suggests, he produces many kinds of cookies to his customers. In New York City, he has becoming popular among New Yorker these days.

Why did he start this business? Actually, he just wanted to help his mother at the first. At 2009, his family moved to state of New Jersey from New York. he was bored to go to his school by using school bus and decided to buy a car to his mother. So, he opened a very small shop to sell hot cocoa to local people to raise money. After that, he also started to sell lemonades and cookies. That products became famous through word of mouth because of its deliciousness. He only uses natural and organic ingredients to make cookies. Also he was particular about homemade producing. These are the reason why it attracted a lot of people’s attention in New York because it fits with New Yorker’s needs who prefer organic and healthy foods. In addition to this, he makes recipes, chooses and buys all of the materials by himself. As a result, he got tons of repeaters of his natural and homemade cookies.

 

His fashionable and stylish appearance is another reason why his business succeeded. Although he is a small kid, his styling looks like a fashion model. Based on his motto- “Presentation is the key to success.”-he usually wears a plain grass, formal jacket and pants, and it became a trademark of him. For instance, he answered in an interview like this. “A suit, pocket square, and a classic watch! If you have that, you are good to go.” This is the answer of this question, “What fashion items do you think to need for men?” Well, I cannot believe what he said, but one thing is certain that Mr. Cory is not an ordinary kid. Now, A lot of people especially women visit his shop to take picture with him and talk.

 

A lot of readers who do not know about him will think that his parents are very rich and that is the reason why he could do his own business, but it is not. His parents do not suggest him about his business, products and also clothes at all.

Unfortunately, he had claimed by someone about his products to health supervisors, so once he had to quit the business. He was really disappointed about this, however, they helped him so that he could make cookies again. They advised him to reconsider managing his business according to the business law, after that he could restart his business again. Now, his mother are helping him to do what he cannot do by himself such as endorsing a check and cooking in a special kitchen. If he does these things, it is illegal in United States.

 He started to collaborate local shops in New Jersey such as banks, hospitals, companies, and beauty salons to do some fun events, and that made great success to his business.

In the future, he wants to use his money for the donation which is for young entrepreneur who has a talent of business but does not have enough money to make action. I am going to go to New York this summer, so I want to visit his shop and try some his original cookies.  

Official website of Mr. Cory's Cookies

Awuzie, A. (2014, August 7). Meet The Most Stylish 9-Year-Old CEO In America. Retrieved April 28, 2016, from http://styleblazer.com/313432/mr-corys-cookies/

社長は9歳の男の子！NYで人気の“ヘルシーな”クッキー屋さん. (2014, August 27). Retrieved April 28, 2016, from http://isuta.jp/24890/ 

 I guess a lot of people especially Japanese have an experience to eat Nissin’s Cup noodle at least once. Nissin Foods Holdings Co., Ltd, which is one of the most famous food company in Japan, are now attracting people’s great attentions in Japan because of a television commercial they made.

In this advertisement, many famous persons in Japan such as a comedian, singer and composer appear as a professor of “Obaka’s university.” In Japanese, the word Obaka means silly or fool. Each of them has various reasons why they became famous such as a person who did ghostwriter. There is a woman who used to be a member of a popular idol group of Japan, and she had an affair. She also appears in this commercial, and that is why there being too many complaints. Although her gossip is a few years ago, people still tend to show displeasure or anger to her when media use her as an advertising model. (By the way, I think Japanese people are too strict to the immorality of famous person such as artist, sports player, and announcer especially for women.)

To respond too many complaints, Nissin stopped to broadcast the television commercial. In addition to this, they even written an apology about it and uploaded on their official homepage. Responding to it, a lot of people said that Nissin will decrease the sales greatly because using her damage their company image. However, after that, they increase the sales of their new products very well, as a result. After they launched the new noodle and within three days, it ranked in to the top five of instant noodles ranking in Japan. Even in some shops, there are out of stocks. It was reported from many convenience stores in Japan.

When I read this news on the Internet, I thought this is obviously Flaming. As was to be expected, there are a lot of comments which complains that it was perfectly planned to turn a profit.

 One people concerned in advertisement mentioned about it like this. “Despite her, there are still noted people appear in the advertisement, but there are no effect if nobody see it. Recently in Japan, many people watch TV program later by recording it. (So they often skip the advertisement.) So we need to make people have a strong curiosity about the commercial on TV.”

 In another words, Nissin may originally anticipated the flames. The advertise movie was already deleted, but it fueled people’s curiosity more. A lot of people who heard about the flaming commercial may search it on the Internet to watch, somehow. In the progress of the net surfing, they would see tons of information about the new products. And then, people get unconscious notion that is an appealing new tastes of cup noodles. After that, they may go to grocery stores and get some of it.

In addition to these facts, Nissin did not delete the commercial which was uploaded by individuals although they deleted an official one on YouTube. So it is probably true that Nissin aimed the Flaming to promote their new products, or whether it is true or not, we are recognized that the strong brand image of Nissin through this uproar.

For me, I do not like Flaming...because it makes me feel bad and there are always someone who hurt their minds, like the woman appeared in the commercial. On the other hand, sometimes it is risky but effective to increase profits if company succeed to make a buzz like this.  

カップヌードル爆売れ……矢口真里を利用し尽くした日清の“悪魔のシナリオ”ついに完結!! (2016, April 21). Retrieved April 20, 2016, from http://www.excite.co.jp/News/entertainment_g/20160419/Cyzo_201604_post_20024.html

日清カップヌードル新商品、「CM中止」で売り上げ好調　「矢口が出なければもっと売れてた」とネットの声. (2016, April 18). Retrieved April 23, 2016, from http://www.j-cast.com/2016/04/18264417.html?p=2

　

 As you know, Japan is a country of frequency earthquakes. There is no end to the number of earthquakes occurred in Japan. For instance, the great east Japan earthquake is still fresh in our memory. It stroked five years ago, but a lot of people in Hukushima prefecture are suffering even now. Some of them are still living in temporary houses, and searching for missing person. This huge quake affected to several nuclear power plants and high levels of radiation have been detected. It also caused a fire in an electrical transformer at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power station. It is the first time that an earthquake has caused such serious troubles at a nuclear plant in Japan. In addition to this, just a few days ago, there was a large earthquake in Kumamoto prefecture where is the south side of Japan. Now, many local people in Kumamoto are struggling because of losing their houses, hundreds of aftershocks, and insufficient daily necessaries. By the way, my grandparents and a lot of relatives are living in Kumamoto, so I was really upset when I knew about it, and called them again and again. (They are all safe, fortunately.)

 　

 Thus, we have to get along with earthquakes as long as we live in Japan. And regardless to say, every time earthquakes effect to our economy and markets heavily. This time I want to show some trends in business and a success example.  

  First, the products and services which relate to save energy, protect people from damage of earthquakes and support victims of the disaster are usually sold a lot by reflecting needs of consumers. This trend is relatively easy for us to imagine. Then, how about this? A research in America showed an interesting outcome. According to the investigation about luxury brands conducted by McKinsey & Company, many of consumers avoid to spend money too much to extravagance after the great east earthquake in Japan.

The targets of the survey are twenty companies which produce luxury products and develop in Japan. About two thirds of them decreased March sales more than 10% compared with the sales of last year. “It is shameful to show off the luxury items to everyone.” The half of customers answered like this in the survey after such a big disaster, and this doubled from last year more than 24%.

Needless to say, every high brand companies were suffered to increase profits. For example, Louis Vuitton closed their shops for about a week at March as they received the damage of the great east Japan earthquake. Also, COACH declared that they had a financial loss for about twenty million dollars at their financial report.

However, one company could success to increase its sales in spite of unfavorable circumstances. It is Loewe, which was established at 1846 in Spain. They fixed their profits at a high level of 11% increase from the year earlier month. Why their products sold well in a mood of self-restraint although it is expensive more than the competitive?

 One of the notable reason is “sustainability”, which is the key word of consuming after the great east Japan earthquake. If we buy cheap products which attach greater importance to trend of design than to quality, we can enjoy it but easy to be bored. Some people buy it a lot in every seasons. On the other hand, high brands such as Loewe value the premium, and the image applied to the needs of consumers who demand the sense of security. Also these brands are usually good at after purchase services and fixing. People who damaged by the disaster may have a desire which can satisfy with a sense of security by buying those products. In another words, the terrible earthquake and various damages to Japanese people arouse the feeling of guilty to consume too much, and it connected to buy high-quality products which can use for a long time even though it is expensive. Many consumers start to be attracted lifetime value of brand products more than just appearance and cheapness.

Now, it passed only three days after the earthquake in Kumamoto had happened. I want to watch what trend will occur in this time. But before that, I will do what I can do to the people who are still suffering in Kumamoto as possible as I can.

 　

Fujita, Y. (2011, July 4). 震災後のマーケティング-アフター311の社会をどう読むか-. Retrieved April 17, 2016, from http://www.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/column/20110630/276047/

Do you know this character? His name is Kumamon. He is an official mascot character of Kumamoto prefecture in Japan. 

 Recently, these kinds of characters are called “Yuru-chara” in Japan, and they are becoming really popular and famous. In such a competitive situation, he is remarkably popular.

Yuru is the word comes from Yurui, it is an adjective and means loose. Chara is taken from character, an English word. Basically, Yuru-chara is defined like this. “Yuru-chara are mascot characters created by local governments and organizations to revitalize their communities and businesses.” (Hamamatsu-syoten, 2010)

We have 47 prefectures in Japan. So it is not too much to say that there are more than 47 mascot characters of each prefectures. However he got first prize in competition of Yuru-chara in 2011. That is not all. For example, his official account of twitter are followed by more than three hundred thousand people. His movie on YouTube has been seen over two million times. In the investment of recognition of mascot characters, Kumamon was placed as third prize, next to Hello Kitty and Mickey Mouse in Japan. Why did he become so famous? His success is not a coincidence. These are an elaborate marketing strategy of Kumamon. Their slogan is, “Make people surprise, always.”

For the first, they used social media such as Twitter and blog well to promote Kumamoto prefecture by using Kumamon. Their purpose was to make a buzz to publicity in Japan. In concrete method, Kumamon appeared and disappeared suddenly at a lot of famous places for tourism, and then uploaded it on social media to appeal it. While making use of SNS, Kumamon also passed out ten thousands of his business cards to people directly. In each of the business card, a QR code which is connected to his blog was recorded on it. They also made unique movie series of Kumamon and published it on YouTube. On the other hand, they also made 50 patterns of posters as a PR activity to scatter the topics and posted it in many station yards. They also made trains jacked by Kumamon. As you can see from these pictures, trains are covered with the illustration of Kumamon. He also appealed in a local TV program, not in Kumamoto where his birth place.

As for second, he was collaborated with food companies to promote local specialties in Kumamoto prefecture such as Dekopon (Tangerine) and milk. He greatly dedicated to increase the publicity of agricultural, forestry and fishery products from Kumamoto and that is why he could get the affection from civil of Kumamoto.

 To gain more attention of Kumamon, a prefecture governor of Kumamoto decided to make usage of illustration of Kumamon free. Growth was promoted due to this greatly. A lot of companies which produce household goods, small candies, stuffed animals, clothes and so on.

 In concrete, the economic effects brought by the tactic are about a hundred twenty four billion yen. Also the publicity effects are over nine billion yen among two years. Still now, it goes on year after year.

 A prefecture governor of Kumamoto has four factor which measures how much the civil of Kumamoto feels satisfaction of happiness; Economy, Pride, Security and Hope. And he believes that Kumamon are dedicated to this through a lot of activities to promote Kumamoto prefecture. For instance, he was published in The Wall Street Journal. He often interacts with children by visiting elementary schools and doing traffic warden in Kumamoto city. In another words, he make people of Kumamoto happy.

 Now he is considering to improvement the value of Kumamon’s brand loyalty more. As a contents of the activities, Kumamon collaborated with many famous products all over the world; MINI, the high brand of car in England and Baccarat in France.

 Hence, Kumamon made a difference from other Yuru-chara by promoting his local place by unique way. My mother and grandmother are from Kumamoto and they say they are proud of Kumamon so much. I think his successful story are very interesting and am looking forward to seeing his next step. 

 Naruto, M. (2014, February 16). くまモンにみる熊本県のブランド戦略. Retrieved April 9, 2016, from http://www.rieti.go.jp/jp/events/bbl/14021401.html
 

 These days, I have been dreaming about traveling to Portland, Oregon at the next vacation. To be honest, it is just because I want to eat this unique and cute doughnuts.

Have you ever seen this before? These novel doughnuts are sold at “voodoo doughnuts”, and it became the biggest doughnuts chain of west coasts in United States, not only in Portland in a twinkling after the store opened. How do they success? At the first day which it was opened, they sold 3000 dollars in a day and the amount of sold is keep stabilizing at about 4000 dollars. Now they have many stores in Colorado and Taiwan.

The official home page of Voodoo doughnuts

This time I want to focus on why and how this products made such a big hit not only in Portland but other states in America and Asia.

 For the first, all of the doughnuts they make are very unique. As you can see, there are doll shaped one, colorful topping on colorful creams, beacons on a sweetened cream doughnuts, and so on. The number of its kinds is countless.  

 Since it not only the tastes good but they provide a lot of surprising services to their customers. For instance, they open their store at 10p.m. and close at 10a.m. That is, they open their store for 24 hours a day. “Cat daddy” who is an owner of the Voodoo doughnuts said that he had been wanted to start a doughnuts shop which open for a whole day because he want to eat doughnuts after the work at midnight.

               

“Our store is like a circus.” Said cat daddy. He wants to make it difference from any other doughnuts shop by using a lot of unique strategies. Let me give some examples.

                     

1.     Two eating contests

Both of them are eating fast competition, and the rule is simple. The first one is “Tex-ass challenge.” If someone can eat this big doughnut within eighty seconds, he/she can get doughnuts for free. It accept challenger anytime. Another one is “Fist Friday eating contest.” It is opened at once in a month at every first Friday at midnight, and you need sign up. You need to eat some doughnuts within 5 minuets.

               

2.     Cheap doughnuts in a big bucket

On a problem of safety, the doughnuts which passed 8 hours after it was made are ruled to throw away. However, Cat daddy taught it is a waste, so he decided to sell those products for cheap price, and put it into a big bucket. As you can see from this picture, it is still big even the size is small. There are about thirty to thirty-five doughnuts in a small size and sold as eight dollars. The big size is include forty to forty-five and it is just 10 dollars. Now it became very popular for the party.

                 

3.     Doughnuts in a coffin

This is a limited version, but they also sell doughnuts in a coffin. Orders pour in when the Halloween season comes every years.

                 

4.     Wedding campaign

Customers can have a wedding ceremony in the shop! They make very cheap and original doughnuts for couples instead of expensive wedding cake.

                  

 “Of course it is to be expected to provide delicious doughnuts, but circus is more important. If customers experienced something fun, they will tell it to their family, friends, and so on, and that will be the best advertisement.” Cat daddy told so. Hence they attach importance to provide unique experience which is an added value in their shop as he mentioned above. Now they are also planning to expand their business to Japan. If it comes to my home country, I would definitely like to go Voodoo doughnut and eat their unique doughnuts someday.  

M. (2016, March 13). ヴードゥー・ドーナツのキャットダディに聞く　ヘンテコ・ドーナツショップができるまで. Retrieved April 3, 2016, from http://noren3.com/interview/voodoo-doughnut3/

When I was in Japan, I had often used the public transportation to go to school, cities, and trips. As you know, Japan is a small country-America is about twenty five times as large as Japan-therefore it developed so that people can go everywhere. I had lived in country side since I was born, so it took about one hours and half one way to go to junior college by using a train and a bus every day. My uncle who lives in the suburbs of Tokyo spends two hours and half to go to his workplace every morning. The first thing that hits me when I ride on such a transportation is colorful and lively advertisement posters hung in a train and a bus. As I mentioned above, a lot of Japanese people like me and my uncle spend long times in public transportations, so it is important to make advertisements impressive and memorable in order to differentiate from others. This time, I want to introduce a unique and interesting transit advertisements.

Do you know this character? He is called “Duffy” which is a official character of Disney. This is an advertisement hung in women only train of Toukyuu Toyoko line. It looks like the real stuffed animal rather than advertisement, isn’t it ? This is obviously targetting women to increase the number ofvisitors of Tokyo Disney Resort.

What do you think when you see this transit ad?

A lot of people may think that this is an advertisement of kitchen wares such as a turner, ladle, kitchen ｋnife and so on. However, it is not. This is for the fiftieth anniversary of the cooking TV program in Japan. Also, it looks like a real kitchen ware but it is just a paper. The train runs Yamanote line.

This is called “Ema” in Japanese, which is a kind of wish board. We usually write a wish on it and hung it in temples. Also it is famous for the symbol of taking an examination to enter the university. This is advertimenet of the company to provide educational matterial for mainly from junior to high school students in Japan. And the train is Keisei Electoric Railawy in Kyoto. Kyoto is famous for academic city because there are a lot of famous and high revel univrsities.  

How about this? This is an advertisement of “Pretz” which is Japanese snack made by Ezaki Glico corporation in 2014. And this man who holds the stick in his mouth are a very popular actor in Japan. This was set on a subway in Chiyoda line in Tokyo.

From now on, I want to introduce transit ad which I saw it for real.

This is an ad of medicine for stomach. Depends on the degree to see it, it looks Skelton or just the actor. By the way, I really like him so whenever I found it on the train to go to my junior college, I stared it.

Sadako on the truck

　This is an advertisement of new horror movie in Japan. This movie series are very famous among Japanese. When I saw this in scramble intersection at the Fukuoka City, I was really surprised because the car played the music of its movie. I remembered that everyone who was in there looked surprised.

I think it is interesting to think about who are targeting by these unique transit advertisement. For instance, the second one which is the cerebration of the commemorates of the cookery TV program were put on subway line of Yamanote, in Tokyo. From that fact, we can consider that there are a lot of women who feed their family or husband lives near from Yamanote line and use it. Likewise, from the third one, we can guess that there are many students live in Kyoto and use train for going to their school or college. So the company see them as potential customers so appeal them by using Ema. When I notice this possibility, my way to see the advertisement were changed. I want to pay attention to these ad as who they are targeting when I have opportunities to ride on in America.  

Fairy tale in Japan and TV commercial

When we watch TV programs, also we watch tons of TV commercial at the same time. When I was in Japan, I used to watch TV almost every day since I was a child. From now on, I want to introduce some of my favorite broadcasting advertisements and its trend and tendency in Japan. For the first, just take a look this promotional video.

Pepsi×Momotaro

This is an advertisement of Pepsi, one of the most famous brand of carbonated drink all over the world. It’s just like a movie of Hollywood, isn’t it? That is quite natural - this commercial movie won the first prize of ACC which is the abbreviation of all Japan radio and television commercial confederation. Actually, the story based on a famous fairy tale of Japan which is “Momo-taro” (Peach Boy). It is very familiar for us because a lot of Japanese were brought up by being read this story by parents when they were a small child. Also, I think this commercial movie is very unique because it is just the last few seconds which appear the product, Pepsi. Whenever it is broadcasted on TV, I end up looking without thinking. Like me, a lot of people especially for young generations, became fans of this commercial because it is cool.

The concept of the new promotion is, “Compete someone who is stronger than you.” This phrase calls up the suggestion of Coca-Cola which is the strong competitive of them in the market.

It is interesting, but these days in Japanese advertising, many companies use Momotaro and other characters who are the hero of Japanese fairy tales with such a good impression of Pepsi’s CM for public as a start. Let me give some examples.  

Au×Momotaro, Kintaro and Urashimataro

This is the advertisement movie of KDDI which is known as one of the three best companies in cellphone industry in Japan. There are not only Momotaro but also other major characters of fairy tale such as a princess, devil, and animals. This is composed as one series of the story, so audience are curious to know the next story which is as same as Pepsi’s although the impression are very comical than that. I like the way of the characters of fairy tale talking because it is sounds like the modern and young people in Japan, it is funny. And this advertisement come in a slamming first place in the ranking of positive feeling for public in TV commercial in Japan, 2015.

Then, why these companies use the characters of fairy tale for their TV commercials?
For the first reason, it is because of the effect of bad times in Japan. They want to save money as much as possible. If they use major characters such as famous animation characters, it cause a royalty of patent right. In Japan, the average cost to make TV commercials are about thirty million yen and most of them do not have money to use for it.

As for second, this may the primary reason about this, Momotaro and other characters of old fairy tale are very popular amongst many people regardless of age and gender. Especially for Momotaro, he appeals all tastes because we are familiar with him since our childhood as I mentioned before. Also it means that we all know the story of Momotaro without explain, so we have an image for him as a hero of justice and most of Japanese like that kind of poetic justice story. Therefore, the company can give a good impression to public easily. (To put explanation about the story simply, he was born from momo which means peach in Japanese and kill the evil giant with a dog, monkey, and bird.) Hence, it is easy for the company to make a story regard to the original story of Momotaro.

By the way, there are more movies which use characters of fairy tale except for these. Check out when you get a chance and find the difference with the commercials as I mentioned above. They use same characters but the impression are difference from each advertisement, and I think it is interesting.

Insurance company and Urashimataro

Softbank and Momotaro...this looks like a provocation for KDDI?

 

Nakanishi, M. (2015, August 22). CMによく桃太郎が登場するのは何故？　広告業界のとある「事情」. Retrieved March 13, 2016, from http://www.jprime.jp/tv_net/tv/17216