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Softbank to offer Armani handset

Softbank announced yesterday that it intends to launch a new Samsung handset designed by Giorgio Armani. The unit has a 2.2 inch OEL screen and a 3 megapixel camera, and will be available in either black or white models. Softbank claims that while in use, the phone will create a “night view” image by turning on blue, green and red LED lights.

Given that few people actually look at their phones while using them, that seems like an odd selling point.

From images on the Softbank website, the handset actually appears to be quite a pedestrian model. The address book and mail functions don’t seem to offer anything different to the Softbank model I purchased in late 2006 to replace the J-Phone model that I could no longer solder together.

Although Softbank will most likely not make public the number of units sold, it would still be interesting to find out how well this partnership works out.

I LOHAS water now on sale in Japan - guess the producer

New products tend to come and go rather quickly at Japan’s convenience stores, especially in the case of soft drinks and instant ramen (and candies and seasonal alcoholic beverages and…you get the point). A few days ago I wandered into the local Lawson’s to be greeted with a 新発売 (newly on sale) product that surprised me a bit: I LOHAS （い・ろ・は・す） water.

LOHAS, of course, stands for “Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability,” and it is something of a dishonest, soulless marketing scam marketing demographic aimed at assuaging guilt amongst urban yuppie types self-labeled “green” consumers (whose actual consumption patterns and lifestyles tend to resemble anything but sustainability). Click the image for a full-size laugh view.

Of course, I LOHAS water is brought to you by Coca-Cola, that bastion of environmentally friendly, locally produced organic products that are so wonderful for your health. Seriously, LOHAS water: 520ml in a plastic bottle, versus turning on the tap at home. How long will this one stay on the shelves?

McHotDog prices cut by 30 yen, but still only on the breakfast menu

A couple of weeks ago, I pointed out an ad for the new McDonald’s McHotDog to a friend as we rode the Ginza Line in Tokyo. While it seemed to make sense for McDonald’s to sell hot dogs, what didn’t make sense what that they were listed as a breakfast item to be sold only until 10:30am.

We both thought this was a stupid idea - who the hell eats hot dogs before 11 o’clock in the morning? After all, they’re not exactly breakfast sausage. Earlier today, McDonald’s announced that it would cut the price of a McHotDog by 30 yen, to 190 yen - and that two can be bought for 330 yen. Are they not selling well? This would seem like a logical conclusion, but the Nikkei quotes a McDonald’s official as saying, “Because sales have been strong, we want to offer savings and attract more customers during breakfast hours.”

“Sales have been strong” is a vague statement at best. Is this official referring to overall sales? What about sales of the McHotDog itself? How much inventory has been purchased and needs to move? We don’t have those figures. The McHotDog is not being positioned as a seasonal or temporary item, so why the price cut after only being on the menu for three weeks?

The decision to put the hot dog on the breakfast menu appears to be a huge mistake and a massive deviation from the firm’s recent marketing successes, including the recent giveaway of folders that came with a purchase of a Quarter Pounder and featured members of Japan’s World Baseball Classic team. In the stands at the Tokyo Dome during the WBC, I saw hundreds of fans waving their McDonald’s folders during games, essentially giving McDonald’s more free advertising.

Will the McHotDog still be on the menu three months from now? Will McDonald’s take the obvious step and at least make it part of its lunchtime menu? Another story to follow.

Addendum: Hot dogs are usually called “doggu” in Japan and are very popular at coffee shops. Doutor sells a “German hot dog,” a “Hot dog with sauerkraut” and a “Hot dog with spicy caponata - Tomato and vegetable relish.” What’s interesting is that the heading on the menu is ホットドッグ (hot dog) in katakana, but each product is named ジャーマンドッグ (German Dog), ザワークラウトドッグ (Sauerkraut Dog) and ピリ辛カボナータドッグ　(Spicy Caponata Dog). Of course, Doutor sells them all day long.

By the way, if you’re an Italian speaker, please help me out with “caponata,” which I believe is “capunata” in Sicilian - I know this is a an eggplant-tomato dish with vinegar added, but I don’t think I’ve had it in that style before. The word seems more Spanish than Italian to me, and I imagine it having olives, capers and perhaps some seafood thrown in from its name - but I have no idea how to prepare it in the southern manner - does it differ from Naples to Palermo? If you have a recipe, I’d love to hear it (And if you could teach me how to prepare it I would be eternally grateful). I somehow doubt the word is related to “capo nato,” which means “born leader” in Italian, but sometimes I have to wonder.

Andy Warhol condoms for sale in Japan at Lawson convenience stores

I couldn’t make this up if I tried: Andy Warhol condoms are for sale at Lawson convenience stores (click the image for a larger view). I recently noticed the Warhol/Guinness cross-marketing campaign, and thought that was an odd match, but this goes one step further. My first thought was that the Warhol estate must be looking to make some easy money. A quick check on Google shows that one individual was suing the estate in 2007, claiming it is “manipulating the price of [Warhol’s] works.”

I don’t know what came of that lawsuit, but I would be interested to know if there are any other artists who have been used to market condoms, especially in Japan. Has anyone spoken with the Picasso or Kandinsky estates? I could see da Vinci condoms selling well, though I’m not sure if Van Gogh would be such a great fit.

McDonald’s Japan to surpass 500 billion yen in sales for first time in 2008

Just a few years ago, things were looking grim for McDonald’s Japan. A nasty price war back in 2000 helped lead to the departure of Burger King from the Japanese market (though Burger King has been resurrected), but took its toll on McDonald’s ability to profit heavily from economies of scale.

The tables have turned. Yesterday, McDonald’s Japan announced that it expects sales at its 3,754 Japan locations to top 500 billion yen for the first time ever in 2008. This would make 2008 the fifth consecutive year in which McDonald’s sales have risen. November sales were reported to have been 14.4% higher than a year ago. Read more

A missed opportunity: The new Tourism Agency, NPB and the Asia Series

The Japan Tourism Agency was formally established on October 1 of this year. Under the “Inbound Initiative” section of the new agency’s website, the goals of having 10 million foreign visitors come to Japan in 2010 and attracting more international conferences are listed.

This post is not meant to get too deep into the problems facing the Tourism Agency - the fact that the yen was strengthening just as it was established is sure to be a thorn in the side of anyone trying to attract international travelers to Japan. Rather, we’re simply going to quickly look at one event from this past week - the Asia Series. Read more

Sapporo Breweries to be Japan’s first firm to label products with their carbon footprint

In a move I’m deeply cynical of, Sapporo Breweries has announced plans to begin labeling its products with their “carbon footprint.” According to the Mainichi, Sapporo estimates that a 350 milliliter can of Black Label beer represents 161 grams of carbon emission, once grain output, fertilizers, transportation and the production and recycling of the aluminum can itself are taken into account. Read more

Shibuya’s Butlers Cafe makes CNN

Financial markets are closed today, so here’s the latest mass-media fluff piece to be done on Japan:

CNN is reporting on the “Butlers Cafe” staffed with western men in Shibuya with the sub-headline, “Japan’s women go ga-ga over a cafe filled with Western servers.” ¹

The two customers definitely could have played along and seemed a bit happier to be there.

¹ The headline itself is actually, “White man cafe in Tokyo.”

Butlers Cafe website

Apple’s iPhone goes on sale in Japan right now - Softbank makes a solid opening marketing move

It’s 7AM, and that means Apple’s 3G iPhone is going on sale at Softbank’s Omotesando location right now - but not until noon elsewhere. Am I posting from there? Heck no - I already have a phone, an iPod and two pockets, so I’m waiting for all the bugs to be worked out and for AU to start selling the thing.

There has been quite a bit of hoopla and discussion concerning the sale of the iPhone in Japan, and I think Softbank has made a brilliant marketing/PR decision in putting the iPhone on sale in Omotesando five hours before anywhere else in the country. First, this meant that the first iPhone bought in Japan would be bought in Omotesando, which is fashion culture center for the younger generation (or, perhaps better put, lies between Shibuya and Harajuku, the fashion culture centers for the younger generation). Read more

News Corp moving into Japan’s online advertising market

According to Tuesday’s Nikkei, News Corp has plans to enter Japan’s lucrative online advertising market. Back in April 2007, we reported that Dentsu claimed Japan’s online advertising market would experience “growth into a 750 billion yen plus market by 2011.”

Was Dentsu lowballing those numbers? In 2007, the online advertising market in Japan totaled about 600 billion yen. This was about a 24% increase over 2006. Dentsu’s report projected the market at 453.4 billion yen in 2007, with a jump over 600 billion yen happening in 2009.

News Corp’s operations will differ significantly from those of Google or Yahoo primarily in that they will not involve search-based ads. Rather, News Corp is looking to set up networks of sites that target similar demographics, and sell ads on behalf of webmasters who happen not to have a sales force at their disposal.

News Corp is looking to draw 10 billion yen annually in ad revenue from Japan within five years time.

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