Marketing tips

October 11, 2022
October 13, 2022

Marketing Tips: How to Tell Good from Bad

We live from feeling to feeling Do you know how many decisions you make in a day? Including trivial ones, like blowing your nose or reading this article, for example. It is said to be about 35,000. Do you believe we can make such many decisions logically and rationally? Of course, not. It’s beyond our capacity. We make most (65%) of our daily decisions based on our emotions and biases. Making matters worse (for marketers to predict consumer behavior), we decide our daily actions seven seconds before we make up our minds according to John-Dylan Haynes, an eminent neuroscientist, as I wrote before. Behavioral economics to analyze and meet customer needs Nevertheless, in classical economics, people were defined as an economic man, who acts individually according to economic rationality. Apparently, the economic man was an imaginary creature like a unicorn. Thus, marketers were forced to fight a losing battle. However, […]

May 10, 2022
October 15, 2022

What is the Charm of Antiques? Why Do We Love Antiques?

It’s safe but boring just to praise classic things Do you like antiques or vintage stuff? There are many classic cars that I like, but I don’t like motor journalists or car critics who excessively praise classic cars. That’s because I think it’s a boring and too safe move, and believe professional critics should take a risk of evaluating new things without a solid reputation. Having said that, I like classic cars. I don’t know the clear definition of “classic cars,” but let’s say here they’re Japanese sports cars over 25 years. Now, their price is skyrocketing because of the 25-year rule of the US. The rule enables right-hand-drive cars produced more than 25 years ago to be registered in the US. Accordingly, more and more Japanese sports cars in my youth are going across the sea to the US. Nissan GT-R, Mazda RX-7, Toyota SUPRA, etc. are beyond the […]

April 26, 2022
October 13, 2022

Marketing Tips: How to Handle Customer Complaints to Enhance Loyalty

Customer complaints are going to sell Why is there no lamp in the freezer compartment of a fridge? Suitcase wheels should be replaceable! I believe you have this kind of small complaints a lot in your daily life. Most of them are too small to express, but they will corrode you inside little by little. In Japan, there’s a good service to recommend you. It’s a “complaint buying service center.” You can put complaints in writing and send them to the center. The AI rates the complaints in 50 points, and you can get Amazon gift cards according to the points. This is totally due to the technological advancement of AI, from character recognition to sentence recognition. If it were not for AI, the service couldn’t match financially. Positive small complaints move society forward If complaints are big enough, people would talk directly to commodity or service suppliers. On the […]

April 12, 2022
October 13, 2022

Marketing Tips on Product Naming: How to Name a Product

Once Google translation was just funny… I remove two eyes. No worries. I still keep them. The first sentence is one of the popular funny translation by Google for “I remove the second one” in Japanese. Seriously, it’s not only funny but also really good translation. I never imagined that before, but the translation made me realize the Japanese sentence could be understood that way by intonation. To tell the truth, I like to check such funny translation by Google because I can confirm the superiority of my translation skills over Google. However, I may not be able to keep chuckling to myself soon. The AI of the Google translation improves day by day at a terrific speed, and has already corrected most of the funny mistakes unfortunately. Phonetic effects are important for product naming AI progress is not limited to translation skills. I learn that AI can now develop […]

March 1, 2022
September 28, 2022

Oscar Wilde Said “Be Yourself” but We Don’t Even Know What We Like

We can’t even explain our own taste Why do we like what we like? This question has been always stuck in my head. For example, I like curry but don’t want to eat it every day. On the other hand, I eat cereal every morning, though I don’t like it very much. I watch YouTube videos of social science as much as those of animals, but I would only talk about the former if asked. I know this is simply due to my silly pride to make myself look smart, though. In this way, we don’t always do or express what we like, and sometimes lie about it even to ourselves. Our taste is so complicated and mysterious that we can’t explain in most cases. Our expressed intention is untrustworthy If you’re interested in this mystery, I’d like to recommend this book: “You May Also Like” by Tom Vanderbilt. The […]

December 14, 2021
October 13, 2022

Marketing Tips: How to Survive the World in the Era of Magic

Even now, many things are black-boxed to us Once upon a time, fortune-tellers, exorcists, or shaman offered prayers to forecast the weather, cure diseases, etc. That would look primitive, idyllic, and non-scientific to people today including me. Do you believe we are progressing compared with the past? I don’t know how Amazon knows my tastes, though I very often bought books as it recommends. I spend much time in using a PC and smartphone every day, but if they go weird even a little, the least I can do is just to curse and ask for help from a tech. What is the difference between the past and the present? As some sociologists have claimed for the couple of years, it seems the world is back to the era of magic. People want to see the process Most of the major restaurant chains employ a system called a “central kitchen.” […]

October 26, 2021
October 13, 2022

Marketing Tips: Dad Sneakers Are Back! Any Story in the Design?

To want to be unique is a desire we can’t resist The world’s top three makers of sports footwear are Nike, Adidas, and do you know what comes next? It’s Puma, though I thought it was New Balance. I like sneakers and buy at least one pair every season, but I’m getting tired of the above four makers, to be honest. “To want to be unique is a cliché, and that way of thinking itself is not unique.” This is what I knowingly wrote in the past article, but I have to admit I might like to have something different from others, subconsciously. This tendency seems to be especially true in Generation Z (people born after the late 90’s or early 2000’s). Sneakers now popular among them are “Dad sneakers.” Dad sneakers are good in design? If you don’t know what dad sneakers are like, you can find anywhere online […]

October 1, 2021
September 30, 2022

What Is a Company Mission? Now Is the Time to Re-Define Our Business

The reason why I don’t use food delivery service Uber Eats, Wolt, Foodpanda, etc. Food delivery businesses appear to be prosperous everywhere in the world. In addition, many restaurants have started to-go service, and accordingly, many people can enjoy professional meals at home. Have you ever tried such food delivery services or took out food? Me? Never. The repeated activity restrictions during the COVID have reduced the opportunity of eating out, but I don’t feel I need such services. Just the other day, I encountered an article about a restaurant that stopped delivery and to-go service. The article made me realize why I don’t use the food delivery services. Filling my stomach is not the main purpose to eat out “Our mission is providing a fun and satisfying experience, not just food.” The restaurant directors explained their decision like this. I think the reason is similar to the concept of […]

September 24, 2021
September 30, 2022

It’s a Convenient Truth: Logging for Wooden Furniture Is Eco-Friendly

More choices make us less happy I can always make prompt decisions. This is one of the few things I’m proud of in my abilities. The trick is always trying to narrow down choices. Some people (who love fashion, for example) may say “We enjoy matching outfits!” but it’s a rare example. As a psychologist, Barry Schwartz insists in his book “The Paradox of Choice,” more choices make us feel less happy for the three reasons. A sense of helplessness about not being able to make decisions; a bigger doubt in the correctness of choices; too high expectation for something perfectly matching the taste. Apparently, “more is less” is the truth of life. The apparel industry is the environmental pollution industry The reason why I use fashion in the above example is today’s topic is news from apparel industry. For your reference, the apparel industry is called the environmental pollution […]

May 28, 2021
October 7, 2022

Economic Psychology: Do You Know Why Expensive Goods Look Expensive?

Are we just tricked by price tags? Why do expensive goods look expensive, and vice versa in most cases? Do high price tags or brand names just hypnotize us into believing so? As writing here sometimes, I’m not interested in buying and owning material things but in investment somehow. My main battlefield is the stock market, but once I researched “watch investment.” At that time, I was so surprised at the price of super expensive watches. Such as Patek Philippe, Richard Mille, etc. Most of them are more than several million dollars. Of course, I immediately understood I was out of place, though. Today, I didn’t mean to raise the question whether the price of such super luxury things is appropriate or not. My interest developed at that time was discovering the factors that make things look the part. Necessity for a lot of time and effort to produce Even […]