Clash of brands

It was probably only a question of time before it happened - NTT DoCoMo's cute mascot DoCoMoDake and the high-class design of its mobile payment service iD (including a drawing by nobody less than Leonardo Da Vinci) are showing up in the same advert.

Slim Queen Contest

Just after writing yesterday's entry on why Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty might be less successful in Japan than in other countries, I saw an ad for the Slim Queen Contest on the subway.

In this competition - held yearly by the company Slim Beauty House, a manufacturer of diet products - the woman with the most impressive dieting results is declared "Slim Queen". The photos shown here are the happy winners of last year's contest, who have made the effort to transform themselves into the ideal of a slim and beautiful woman and are now proudly receiving the recognition.

The underlying pattern - striving to fulfil an ideal - seems to be a very important part of the mindset of many Japanese women. Coupled with an equally prevalent optimism and a positive view of change and renewal, this means that Japanese women are much more likely to make efforts to conform to a generally held concept (and be proud of that achievement) than be proud of not conforming and therefore standing out.

Although one could argue that it is exactly this pressure to conform to a idealized concept of beauty that the Dove campaign mentioned below is trying to change, I believe that in Japan this way of thinking is much more deeply ingrained (and culturally reinforced) than in other countries, and for this reason the Campaign for Real Beauty will probably be only a limited success here.

Dove campaign in Yokohama

Unilever is trying to set the world record for the world's largest outside advertisment with this rooftop ad at the shopping center Pacifico Yokohama.

The company also offers some interesting insights from their research into Asian consumers' concept of beauty, which was done as part of the Campaign for Real Beauty which was also launched in Japan last year.

The responses of Japanese women are particularly interesting, as in many cases they go against the patterns established by those from other Asian countries. There is a very low satisfaction of women with their beauty and an even lower dissatisfaction with the (always incredibly stylized and cliched) way women are portrayed in Japanese media and advertising - which seems to imply that maybe Japanese women are not yet ready for the message of this campaign.

Aquarius Freestyle

Coca Cola Japan has just released Aquarius Freestyle, an isotonic drink for drinking after a workout, presumably opposed to the original Aquarius which is to be drunk during workout.

Ikea 4.5 Museum

Some photos of the Ikea 4.5 Museum in Aoyama.

Kagome Juice Bar

Kagome is promoting its new lineup of fruit and vegetable juices with this temporary juice bar in Shinjuku.

Shiseido

Shiseido has released Tsubaki, a new brand of haircare products for women. The name (tsubaki is the Japanese word for camellia) as well as the package design and branding (the slogan is "Japanese women are beautiful") strongly emphasize the idea of a distinctly Japanese idea of beauty.

Shiseido is clearly trying to beat Kao, which has been very successful with Ascience, a haircare brand developed for Asian hair and released in 2004. Shiseido now takes this concept a step further with a product especially formulated for Japanese hair. According to the press release, Shiseido has taken the following trends into account:

• The revival of Japanese tradition and culture, which is rediscovered and at the same time rearranged in a modern way
  
• The increasing importance of beautiful hair – especially color and gloss – for an overall beautiful appearance
  
• The diversification of hairstyles, away from calm, straight hair to light and flowing/moving hairstyles

Especially the first point is quite interesting seems to reflects a broader change in consumer preferences - from products which appear foreign and exotic towards those with a distinctly Japanese image, which in turn offer consumers the chance to affirm their own Japanese identity by buying and using these products.

Ikea comes to Japan (again)

Ikea will reenter the Japanese market after twenty years with the opening of a store outside Tokyo on April 24. For promotion, the company has set up a cluster of temporary showrooms in Aoyama. Dubbed Ikea 4.5 Museum, the rooms are 4.5 tatami mats in size (about 7 sqm., a common size especially in Tokyo). A nice concept, which also works to show that Ikea has adjusted its products' size to the generally small and often quite cluttered Japanese apartments.

Asahi

Lucky participants in Asahi's campaign for its Honnama can win a robot that takes over the ungrateful task of pouring the beer.

Pringles ad

Nice train ad from Pringles - hanging from the ceiling of the carriage, the poster contains a translucent package with some (original? plastic?) Pringles crisps in it.