Tokyo through the eyes of a Japanese consumer

Over the next few issues of our newsletter, JMI would like to provide our overseas readers with a unique introduction to Tokyo's marketing environment - by lending you the eyes of a Japanese consumer for a day!

We are able to do this using JMI's Consumer Vision Goggles (CVG). CVG is technology that JMI has developed and uses to capture an individual's visual experience, as he or she moves through a marketing environment. For manufacturers and retailers CVG provides a realistic assessment of the visibility of their products and advertisements as actually seen by consumers in the marketplace - in stores or at outdoor locations such as transit points.

In our last newsletter we journeyed with our Japanese commuter on the Tokyo train system. In this issue we'll continue by showing the walk from the station to the office.

As you step outside in Tokyo the first thing you will notice is that the skyline is alive. As one visiting New Yorker recently said to us, "it's like the whole country is Times Square"! The clutter in Tokyo's streets can be varied, changing and screaming for your attention, left, right and center. Moreover, as in most markets, outdoor media is relatively under researched considering the budgets invested.

Clip 1

As you leave the station through the exit you'll need to pass your "Sony chip enabled" ticket through the electronic gate...

Clip 2

Hachiko is the major crossing encountered upon leaving Shibuya station. Glance upwards and you'll see giant television screens that provide a constant stream of news, advertising and music videos. When a big news story breaks, you'll see hordes of people standing and fixated on these screens... or it maybe its just the final bout of a sumo tournament or the latest "celebrity" engagement!

Clip 3

The "wrapping" of buses in Japan is a recent addition to the plethora of outdoor media. The cost of wrapping a bus can range from 2 to 10M yen (90K US$) per annum. These buses sell anything - foods, computers, holidays, Broadway shows in town... But more often than not they are stuck in traffic, becoming stationary billboards for the mass of surrounding pedestrians. Last year surface advertising was extended to some of the city's overland trains. Note that graffiti has never featured on Japanese trains in this ultra law-abiding society!

Clip 4

Office workers will tend top load up with food and drink between the station and office. An early morning caffeine hit can be picked up from the local Starbucks (or the abundant Starbucks look-alikes Excelsior, Doutor...). Alternatives are provided by local convenience stores and the vending machines that are encountered every few meters in Tokyo. Vending machine alleys provide complete range of hot and cold beverages and even alcohol (for the trip home!).

Clip 5

Stores tend to open at 10am and their fronts are usually a cluttered mass of promotions, flags, sales people and products displays. Unlike the West, where a product being placed in a basket in the front of the store drenched with bright POP materials may be considered the death knell of the brand, it is actually the treatment given to new releases and hot products in Japan - these are the crowd pullers in the mass market...

The outdoor media environment in Japan is dynamic and ever changing. And the boundaries are always being pushed back. Last year Adidas took outdoor media to a new dimension by creating "living" billboards.... At designated times two actors and a soccer ball were suspended by bungee cords onto a billboard to play soccer. This event attracted huge numbers to the point where the police had to conduct crowd and traffic control ... Great news for the brand!

We hope this quick overview and the video clips provide our overseas readers with an introduction, albeit superficial, to the outdoor media environment the Japan. And above all a sense of how hard brands need to battle, in this most urban of landscapes, to break through the clutter and get noticed.