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10 Facts You Should Know Before Marketing Your Products in Japan
1. Create Japan’s Messenger Giant “LINE” corporate account to reach big audience
Having 83 million users (more than 60% of all population) as of December 2019, LINE has been the biggest Messenger app in Japan. Similar to WhatsApp in Europe and the US, WeChat in China, or Facebook Messenger, LINE is an app for free calls and messages with variety of stamp selection including LINE’s original stamp collection. Its creative Stamp selections including Disney and Sanrio series has won Japanese people’s hearts. With its extensive game and music contents, app decorations and shopping, payment service “LINE pay” is also making life fun and easier for Japanese people.To open an official corporate account that enables you to reach audience by one on one communication, there are three plans: freemium that let you reach 1,000 people, light plan and standard plan that let you reach 15,000 people and 45,000 people respectively.
2. Reach your audience on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram based on your targeting
While LINE is the biggest messenger app in Japan with 83 million active users per month, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram follow after LINE. 45 million for Twitter, 33 million for Instagram and 26 million for Facebook. The generation with the highest share in population for LINE is teens as 83.2% in 2019. For Facebook, the generation with the highest share in population is both 30s and 50s, while the biggest population in actual number is 40s. The highest share of generation for Instagram is teens, while having almost the same active users across 20s to 40s. For Twitter, the highest generation is teens again while the active user numbers are bigger in 20s and 40s.
To reach your audience effectively, set your target and decide which social media to use.
3. Localize and use Japanese in your all marketing communications
Japan’s ranking in terms of English proficiency continued to be as lower as 49th on a list of 88 non-English-speaking countries and regions, according to a Swiss-based international language education organization, EF Education First. Although there are more and more English speakers and English signs in the cities, it is a must to have ads and landing page in Japanese to acquire Japanese people for your brand. To acquire higher reach on ads and convert clicks to purchase, it is a must to localize your contents.
4. Learn which hashtag is popular in your industry and be creative with Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji
Japanese language has 3 different characters – Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji, which makes hashtags more complicated and diverse. Any Kanji or Chinise characters can be written in Hiragana. Katakana is used for loanwords and onomatopoeia. Hiragana and Katakana are purely phonetic. So when you use Japanese hashtags, you need to be careful about how the hashtag is written, whether it’s in Kanji or Hiragana or Katakana or a combination of these as these can change the number of hashtags. For example, “海外 旅行 好 き な 人 と 繋 が り た い” which earns 383K tags means “I want to connect with people who like traveling overseas”. Searching for such specific and unique hashtag to the industry is crutial to reach your right audience effectively.
5. Consider using Japanese micro-influencers
Since many Japanese people are not familiar with English contents on social media, global top influencers are not as influential in Japan as they are outside of Japan. Instead, there are Japanese influencers who post almost only in Japanese. By not acquiring English audiences, most of them are smaller in scale, micro-influencers (10,000+ followers). To assess these Japanese influencers, you will need to see engagement rate and update frequency, not their follower numbers.
6. Be creative for localization
The strategic localization is a must for Japanese market. If you translate English directly into Japanese, it will probably not convey its original meaning anymore. Be creative on translating your marketing message into Japanese. When Intel introduced their brand in Japan, the copywriting “Intel Inside” was translated into “Intel, haitteru? (Is there an Intel inside?) ”. There is a rhyme added to the phrase. Also, when doing keyword research, be wary of the differences between using google.com and google.co.jp . If you sell cosmetic products and they are not medicated, there are regulations on ads that you need to be careful of;you cannot exagerate how skin will change beyond what cosmetic products can actually do.
7. Consider working with Japanese agency and trading companies
To work on the localization, collaboration with Japanese agency could be another idea. The companies and agencies in Japan know its own market situation and has domestic distribution channels. Most of successful forerign brands in Japan initially started out with agencies and trading companies. Top Japanese influencers are also belong to agencies.
8. Be mindful or high standard of hospitality in Japan
It is well known that Japan has a higher standard of hospitality or “Omotenashi” meaning caring from the bottom of heart, from which retail and travel industries have benefited for a long time. Showing your hospitality in your markeitng and branding communications can be a key to convert a customer to a royal customer.
9. Tokyo Olympics
As time passes by, we hear more about Tokyo Olympics and marketing activities in all sectors. While it is impossible to say this effect will last, what is for certain is that there will be a two-week period in 2021 when the entire world is focused on what is going on in Japan. Many companies are already trying to make the most of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To plan out campaigns around Tokyo Olympics can be another idea for your promotions. Since Olympics was postponed to 2021, there is more time for preparation.
10. Make the most out of public holidays and seasonal occasions
There are several holidays and seasonal occasion in Japan to keep your eyes on. Here are the most important ones: New Year’s Day (1st January), Valentine’s Day (14th February), White Day (14th March), Spring vacation and Hanami (Cherry blossom viewing), Start of Fiscal Year (1st April), Golden Week (End of April until 5th May), Obon holidays (13th-16th August for 2020), Silver Week (19th-22nd September) and Halloween and Christmas holidays. Also, many Japanese employees receive annual bonuses of nearly $ 3,000 in June, resulting in higher spending in luxury goods, leisure, and travel during summer.
