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.
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
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