The Search for Meaning

Kay Tan
Kay Tan
Jul 25, 2017 · 3 min read

How Brands in Japan can find a voice through Creativity

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

— Antoine De Saint-Exupéry (The Little Prince)

The curious case of Japan

Japan has long been a craftsmanship heaven, known for being culturally rich in arts and beauty, as displayed by its intricate architecture, woodcraft, washi(paper-making) and more. Japan’s products are carefully crafted to perfection with traditional handed-down technique, reliable technology and workmanship.

With its rich history, it is hard to think that Japan has a struggle with creativity.

In an Adobe survey called “State of Create” conducted across 5 countries, including Japan. Japan is regarded as the most creative country except by Japanese. What this means is that while the world places Japan in high regards in terms of creativity, Japanese themselves do not think of themselves as creative.

Indeed, Japan is a case of contradiction, at odds with the world. Where digital book sales are on the rise globally, traditional books are still thriving in Japan, where most people have moved to Google, Japanese are still on Yahoo.

The contradictory views and culture of Japan is what’s making it seem creative to its counterparts in the world. This is probably also why, in a rapidly changing market, Japan often seems to be on its own trend, and on its own terms.

For example, creative advertorials in Japan are often filled with information to the brim, laden with strong direct connections to sales, because that is the most straightforward way to see the positive effects of companies’ marketing.

Constant bombardment of information and direct links to sales seem to reassure both consumers and advertorial stakeholders, as this process is what they are used to. Information overload assures consumers that they have all that they need to know about the product or services. It also assures the stakeholders that they have everything they need to attract consumers out there.

And it is a problem.

The constant overload of information will eventually backfire, as people get savvier in filtering away noise with better technology. Standard creative advertorials are usually not trustworthy in the eyes of consumers, and are therefore, unable to stand out from those of competitors.

Truth be told, there will not be a lot of differences between products by your brand and those of your competitors to the eyes of your consumers, unless you are truly one of a kind. Since we know that brand awareness plays an important role on choice of product, and a lot of major brands are recognisable to the majority of consumers, what makes one brand stand out more from another?

In the recent decade, with the rise of social sharing, brands have become more than just something people recognise. They now serve the purpose of self-expression of their beliefs and values.

Positioning your brand may have no direct conversion to sales, but it is the secret push towards sales. When you position and present your brand values well, it creates an honest, open and inclusive discussion on what your company advocates and stands for. On the occasion that consumers can identify with the brand’s value (brand affinity), the brand gains retention and loyalty.

This is what that makes your brand stand out from its competitors.

Switch away from your crazy and wacky commercials that are overdone and overused; it probably works better overseas where crazy and wacky is priced in its rarity. How about this rare beast - Meaning.

Probably it is high time for Japanese brands to talk the walk and walk the talk.

This is an article written for my previous company that did not make it to publish and now publishing it with minor edits in my private capacity. Thank you to Evelyn Tokuyama for editing this piece.

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