marketing– tag –

Why are things going well with Milano Salone? I think one of the primal reasons must be the good environment in Milan in April. Comfortable weather, nice food, beautiful streetscapes, etc. Indeed, it's a trade show, and most people come there for business, but we're not always serious and don't focus only on our jobs. Entertainment is necessary even when we are at work.

Have you ever seen "jewelry ice?" It is completely different from drift ice, made of not sea water but fresh water, and so, it's highly transparent like a diamond. River water turns into ice on the surface at river mouth, and the ice pieces, before getting washed ashore, drift in the sea for a while, get rounded off, and are more brightly polished. According to Wikipedia, this natural phenomenon occurs only along the coast of a small town in Hokkaido even in all the wide world.

I analyze the success of the Convenience Gym, which found a million members by removing every possible barrier to exercise. Then, I examine the hit Men's Parasol, which succeeded by simply redefining the item's purpose. Both confirm Theodore Levitt's Principle: "Sell the hole, not the drill." I apply this to our craft by proposing to engrave family names on dining chairs—shifting the purpose from "comfort" to "making the place where family members return to." (The only downside: it risks making parents terribly sad after the kids fly the nest.)

I trace the origin of Japan's Galápagos Syndrome to a chocolate snack craze from my childhood, fueled by the hit-or-miss system for rare hologram stickers. This mentality evolved into Gacha (capsule toys). I analyze the genius marketing move that transformed this local craze into a global success: installing machines at airports to solve the universal problem of leftover JPY coins. This is the power of design—solving a logistics headache with empathy and turning a local habit into a global solution.

This theme would be a critical issue especially for the business suit industry. In Japan, the industry is in danger of extinction. As time passed, office clothing became more and more casual, and less and less people wore a business suit. I think the fundamental reason for the decline would be the fact that business suits are uncomfortable.

I know we have received a lot of benefit from innovation mostly made by courageous or reckless decision-makers, but sometimes I can't help feeling that the value of being the first penguin is overestimated because of its high-risk nature. Think about it for a second: Nobody knows if such innovations can make the world richer. I think it may be better to leave it to some weirdos like Elon Musk.

Do you notice anything peculiar in the above image of the big forest at the bottom of Mt. Fuji? It's moss. You can see a lot of moss on the ground. It grows on the surface of tree roots crawling on the ground. The forest soil is made of lava. The lava soil is so hard and well-drained that trees can't collect and keep water from their roots without moss.

Academically, the value of things is composed of three factors: rarity, utility, and timeliness. Let's put aside timeliness here because things get too complex. First of all, diamonds are no longer so useful at least in industrial activities because we can artificially make them. Let's rule out utility. Next, what about rarity? Do you still believe diamonds are rare?

If you wanna eat the best bread in Japan, you need to come to Hokkaido because it is the kingdom of the agricultural (wheat) and dairy (milk) industries in Japan. There are many well-known bakeries, and one of the major groups is bakeries opened by bakers breaking away from Maison Kayser.

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.