W. David Marx on the meaning of trends in the Japanese marketplace

December 22, 2007
By Ken Worsley

Anyone at all interested in marketing and Japan should already be aware of the Clast blog, which W. David Marx writes for the Diamond Agency. A piece published on December 12 concerning trends and trend identification in the Japanese marketplace is a must-read.

One point Marx makes concerning the recent phenomenon of keitaishousetsu, or novels meant to be displayed on mobile phones, is that the trend “says more about the constancy of promotional power in Japan than the innovation in content creation.”

I think this is spot on; if these novels were actually good, we’d be seeing them at the bookstores in paperback as well. The trend here has been promoted, and promoted in the right demographic. The medium and the story are not innovative in the least, just as the change to color film from black and white did not mean that writers wrote better or worse scripts for movies.

At any rate, the article is waiting to be read…

Filed Under Blogosphere, Marketing, Media