How to develop a winning marketing strategy for Japan

May 9, 2024

Global companies across a wide range of business categories often ask what it takes to be successful in Japan. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach that can guarantee success, we’ve put together a few pillars below that are critical to accelerate your customer growth.

1. Build the right marketing team

Japan is a challenging market with distinct customer preferences, requiring a blend of marketing know-how and local perspective. Delivering growth in Japan is difficult without a team that understands your global strategy and also what’s required to be successful with your local customers. Companies often make the mistake of hiring only English speaking talent, rather than finding the right team for the project. Working with partners to support your marketing strategy development can help bridge this gap, bringing a combination of marketing capabilities and a Japanese speaking team that can communicate with the best local agencies.

2. Develop a deep understanding of your target customers (WHO)

Before launching a marketing campaign in Japan, it’s critical to develop the right customer strategy. Rather than taking the same approach as your home market, it’s essential to start from first principles and build your marketing strategy leveraging local customer and competitor insights. For both B2C and B2B domains, it’s incredibly valuable to begin with strategic customer research to inform your understanding of the market. Qualitative and quantitative research will allow you to get the combination of insights needed to create a compelling go-to-market strategy.

3. Craft a winning value proposition (WHAT)

While your product success overseas may be a strong indicator of potential success in Japan, your value proposition and messaging will likely need to be tailored based on local customer needs and expectations, which can differ dramatically from other markets such as the US, EMEA and Australia. It’s essential to develop an understanding of your unique value-add in the Japanese market, and figure out how to communicate this to your local customer base in a way that will resonate with their distinct business challenges, and differentiate versus the competition. Qualitative research and concept testing with your target customer segment in Japan can help to uncover the value proposition that will unlock growth in the local market.

4. Build a comprehensive go-to-market plan tailored to the Japanese market (HOW)

Once you have a clear customer strategy, it’s time to determine how to take your product to market and deliver a winning approach. Delivering a successful go-to-market strategy in Japan requires an understanding of the local media landscape, which varies substantially from the US or Europe. For B2C, there are local platforms for social media and entertainment, such as Line for messaging and AbemaTV for OTT streaming. For B2B, decision-makers can be reached via taxi ads, subway OOH and an extensive range of business magazines and news sites. Your local media plan should take into account the communication preferences of your local target customer segments. Moreover, your creative assets should be tailored to both the customer and channel you intend to leverage to deliver your messaging. Partnering with local agencies across creative, media and PR can be challenging, but experienced industry professionals can help you to provide strategic direction and get the result you are looking for.

5. Monitor and iterate

Launching a new marketing strategy in Japan can be a challenging process, and teams should celebrate their successes along the way; however, it’s important to stay focused on your Japan strategy over the medium-term. In a highly competitive environment for both B2C and B2B customers, you will likely need to adjust your product positioning, messaging and media plan as the market, customers and competitors evolve. It’s important to keep both your global and local management team involved on an ongoing basis. Establishing a framework to measure your marketing performance and tying this to your business KPIs is essential to delivering sustainable business growth. Local partners can help with ensuring you have the right methodology and tools to monitor and iterate on your plan.

Please contact us if you would like to discuss your specific business challenge in the Japanese market. We would be happy to offer our perspective.

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