Entrepreneur Association of Tokyo
"Learn from Innovative Marketers"

Atsuko Morimoto is a founder of AM Associates, a consulting company focused on Marketing & Communications, offering services such as IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications), including Acquisition, Customer Relationship & Loyalty Marketing and Branding.

Prior to establishing AM Associates, Morimoto managed global clients such as American Express, IBM, Unilever and Dell to name a few, at major international advertising agencies (Vice President at Dentsu Wunderman, Ogilvy & Mather, Grey Advertising). She served as the Vice-chair of Direct Marketing Committee at ACCJ (American Chamber of Commerce in Japan) for two years. Attendees at the November 1, 2006 Entrepreneur Association of Tokyo presentation heard three case studies of corporations, two of which Morimoto has worked with, and the different approaches used from problem solving to innovative marketing strategy were outlined.

Customer Satisfaction and Change in Communications
Ask yourself, what are the driving factors that will make my company successful?

Your customers may hold the key – they are after all, who you are selling to. It may sound like a broken record to constantly reiterate ‘Listen to your customers’ but sometimes entrepreneurs get caught up with how they want the company to be operating or viewed they lose sight of what the customer needs are.

Innovative Ideas + Customer Voice = Satisfaction

In the past there was an emphasis on mass communications, but the recent trend is more and more towards integrating One-to-One communications with mass media communications.

Case Study 1: Shiseido
Branding and Reorganization
Shiseido cosmetics as a corporation is regarded as somewhat conservative in Japan and is referred to as ‘The sleeping lion.’ Shiseido has been the number one leading Brand in the cosmetics arena but fell short in the hair care market and was ranked 3rd or 4th last three years. Toiletries made up only about 9.6% of their total sales, why were other Brands doing better? How could Shiseido compete more competitively to widen their market share?

Strategy of focusing on Core Brand in each category played a major role. The market was changing and so should their image. Tsubaki (means camellia in Japanese) hair care was launched this year. To address current market needs Shiseido changed their strategy. It created a new hair care market, with the Brand message “The black hair of Japanese women is beautiful. “Japanese well known female personalities and ordinary working women were featured in the advertising campaign, supported by the J Pop band SMAP’s song “Dear Woman.” All these culminated into a winning campaign. Its annual advertising budget is expected to be \5 billlion, but within only 5 months from its launch, Tsubaki reached their projected annual sales of \10 billion which translates to about 40 million bottles per year.

Definition of a genuine Brand for Shiseido:
Sense of absolute reliability and assurance
Commanding presence
Adoration and pride

Case Study 2: Saishunkan
Direct Marketer Focusing on One Brand and Seeking Customer Satisfaction
Saishunkan is a direct marketer of skincare products based in Kumamoto, Kyushu. There are 7 products in their ‘Domohorn Wrinkle’ skincare range with over 150 all natural ingredients in the formula based on both Chinese and Western medicine. With this staple line, their business is based on customer service, satisfaction and repeat business.

Saishunkan uses symbolism in a unique and innovative way. They place an empty seat in the center of their office as a symbol of their customer. They use the image of the three wise monkeys ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ for smooth communications & better understanding, no sectionalism. There is a mirror in front of call center workers so they can watch their body language while speaking on the phone. All of this sounds a little esoteric and abstract when you first hear it but it works for them.

Customer complaints are dealt within 10 minutes of the initial call. There are 120 lines that take 7,000-8,000 inbound calls a day by 500 telemarketing communicators. Inbound ratio vs. outbound is 86%.) They seek a LIFETIME relationship with their customers. Their customer satisfaction is not based on procedure manuals.

Sales figures:
¥80 million a day in sales/average
¥24.2 billion a year (fiscal year ending 2005)

Learn from mistakes: Balance between “push” and “pull.”
In the beginning, the ‘hard sell’ approach was employed to outbound calls: Sales were generated but suffered from high return rate later.

Case Study 3: Harlequin Romance.
Strategic Collaboration to Enhance Brand Values
Harlequin Romance (love stories with happy ending) and Hibiya Kadan Florists strategically worked on joint promotions to share core values of their Brands. Their target audience is quite similar; core customers are women in the 30s-50s, who are selective and have own lifestyle. Their collaboration enhances Brand values of both parties. Loyal Harlequin readers on average purchase 12 books a month. The top designer of Hibiya Kadan helped replace the traditional covers of a man & a woman in some series with flower arrangement photos. In turn, Hibiya Kadan and its designer’s name were publicized as a credit on the cover page. This Spring Romance promotion was well-accepted by the loyal readers. The coupons in the books were redeemable to get flower arrangement gifts featuring the image of each love story. In subsequent to the Spring Romance promotions of the book covers, Harlequin club members were exclusively invited to the joint Talk Show of that top flower designer. Such kind of continued efforts strengthen building relationship with core customers.

Key to Success: Business Strategy Elements
Product and Service
Sales channel
Customers
Marketing & Communications with “innovative ideas”
Resources (both financial & human resources)
Strong leadership

All these driving factors should be in balance.

Resources
“Being Direct” Lester Wunderman
“Confessions of an Advertising Man” David Ogilvy