By ISAGANI DE CASTRO, JR.
abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak
Asian companies must emulate the innovativeness of Japan’s global brands if they want to continue to grow and expand market shares, marketing executives said.
In his speech on "Japannovation: Rocking the World!" at the World Marketing Conference Friday, Fumihiko Iwamoto, President of K&L Advertising Asia, said Japanese firms like Honda, Ricoh, JVC, Nikon have shown the importance of marketing innovation in a company’s success.
Iwamoto was one of the speakers on Asian Success Stories at the World Marketing Conference held June 19-20 at the SMX Convention Center, SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Iwamoto said Japan was engaged only in producing high-quality, affordable products, which "sold well without much marketing effort."
However, as consumer needs diversified and global competition intensified, it became necessary for Japanese firms to undertake creative marketing campaigns.
"Japanese manufacturers and marketers became more aware that products will no longer sell well unless the brands also have some kind of an emotional value that will make them stand out," Iwamoto said.
Japan cases
Iwamoto used several case studies to illustrate his case for marketing innovation.
Honda’s humanoid robot, Asimo, which "symbolizes high technology." "Honda is a leading ‘Japannovator,’ and quite successful in the global marketplace," Iwamoto said. "They are trying to show that the spirit of monozukuri is going farther ahead."
Monozukuri means "art of manufacturing."
Role of Celebrities
Another case is how Nikon changed from being a brand well-known only among professional photographers to a mass market brand.
Iwamoto, who helped market Nikon in Asia, said Nikon used to be burdened with the image of being "old fashioned, conservative, and not user-friendly."
With the shift from film cameras to digital cameras, he said Nikon chose to adopt innovative marketing strategies to be able to compete with new players like Sony and Panasonic.
Starting in 2006, Nikon used popular actors or actor-singers in Japan (Takuya Kimura), Korea (Rain), and Greater China, US (Ashton Kutscher) to change its image.
"Nikon solved this problem by using celebrities, to make the brand more appealing to a wider range of consumers. In choosing their celebrity endorsers, Nikon considered the chemistry and synergy between the Nikon brand and celebrity," Iwamoto said.
The result was an "instant impact on the market." He said the "Nikon brand came back to number one position in digital SLR sales in Japan with a market share of over 40% of the digital SLR camera market."
In China, "Nikon expanded the brand popularity among Chinese consumers and achieved a sales goals only after a couple of months," Iwamoto said.
Celebrity endorsers appeared in "as many consumer contacts as possible, from awareness-building stage until the last most important, decision-making stage, the point of purchase."
"By using celebrities, Nikon overcame its [image] problem of not being consumer-friendly and achieved great success," Iwamoto said.
San Miguel and Jet Li
Emily Abrera, regional chair of the McCann Worldgroup Asia, said in her speech on "Asian World Beaters" that celebrities work well in marketing campaigns because they "cut through the dense barriers of language and culture."
She cited the case of Jet Li’s advertisements for San Miguel Beer (SMB), a well-known Philippine brand. Because of the Jet Li ads for San Miguel Corp., SMB is now also known as a Hong Kong brand.
One ad shown frequently shown on Philippine television shows Jet Li doing a martial arts stunt to get bottles of San Miguel Beer and giving it to a woman in a bar. It ends with Li saying, "Great move, great beer."
As a result of this marketing innovation, Abrera said SMB now has an "Asian identity."
JVC’s football campaign
In the case of JVC or Victor Company of Japan, the first Japanese firm to introduce television, Iwamoto said the company is faced with an "inherent problem in the consumer electronics industry" where "products have short life cycles."
"In this climate of ever-changing product portfolio, an electronics consumer brand has difficulty to keep a consistent brand image in the market," he said.
JVC solved this problem through sports marketing. In 1982, it began sponsoring football clubs (e.g. Arsenal), the World Cup in Korea-Japan, Euro 2008. It also created an on-line game, Euro Ball, which can be accessed through its website, www.jvcfootball.com. Winners can get free football tickets.
"The football image is firmly planted in the corporate image of JVC," Iwamoto said. "Today, JVC remains active although the consumer electronics industry continues to be in a constant state of upheaval."
Ricoh’s environmental campaign
In the case of Ricoh, which used to have low-brand awareness, it used a marketing campaign in support of environmental causes to win over customers and make Ricoh a global brand.
Ricoh is now listed as one of the most sustainable companies in the world. During Earth Day, the firm turned off all its lights as a "gesture of commitment to environmental protection."
Today, Iwamoto said Ricoh has overtaken Fuji Xerox in the copier business.
Iwamoto said "there is really no stereotype innovation model."
"Every company tries to create its own innovation model to promote brand differentiation. Today, the Made-in-Japan or the monozukuri concept is no longer just for manufacturing high quality products as in the past," he said. "It’s also for achieving more and newer marketing successes through innovative ideas and latest technologies."
Be different
Hermawan Kartajaya, president of the World Marketing Association, said in his speech on "Repositioning Asia," that the key to marketing success is "positioning, differentiation, and branding."
He stressed the need for companies to "have differentiation" and to maintain it.
"Asians must be innovative to keep on rocking the world…Because if your competitor already caught up with your uniqueness and then you don’t have any uniqueness anymore, you will compete on price," Kartajaya said.
He cited the case of Harley Davidson motorcycles to show how important differentiation is.
Unlike the modern Japanese motorcycles, Kartajaya said Harley Davidson became a strong brand due to differentiation.
"In marketing, you don’t need to be better, you don’t need to be best. You just need to be unique. Remember differentiation. But you have to keep on innovating to be differentiated all the time, especially if it’s a dynamic landscape," he said.
Kartajaya said Japan’s success is partly due to being "always innovative" and through "mass collaboration with everybody so they can lower the price."
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