Countdown Clock from Sega Toys and other “study aids”

Just as soon as we posted about a few products targeting students studying for entrance exams, a whole flood of press releases for other examples came in. Most notable of the bunch is the “Countdown Clock” from Sega Toys. As the name suggests this little digital clock displays not only the current date and time but also the number of days (or minutes) until the BIG DAY. While the clock can obviously be used for other big days (a wedding, birth of a child etc), the current marketing is aimed at students anticipating entry exam day.

Case in point, on December 25th, when the clock officially goes on sale, the Countdown Clock website will feature “designer” covers created by a popular instructor at the Yoyogi Seminar (a well-known prep school) and students at Tokyo University (argued to be Japan’s best).

Other products intended to encourage or bring luck to students that we’ve noticed include: sakura (cherry blossom) scented laundry detergent (for luck) from Nissan Soap and a “tonkatsu” (fried pork cutlet) sauce from Bulldog called “Prayer for school success sesame ton-katsu”—“katsu” is a play on words as it means both “cutlet” and “to win,” and the character for the latter is used in the name. Bulldog is also quick to point out that pork contains vitamins B1 and B12, purported to defend against stress. Actually these two are probably for worked up mothers who feel they need to do more than make sure their kids study an extra five hours a day.

Meanwhile Glico’s Pocky snack has an interesting campaign called “Choose your fortune by Pocky.” Inside each box (marked with cherry blossoms) is a card with a QR code that, when read by a mobile phone, produces a fortune (hopefully for good luck). And Tirol Chocolate weighs in with “sakura mochi” flavored chocolates and another variety in packaging featuring the five yen coin (both symbols of good luck).

Of course the current recession means that fewer graduates will land choice jobs—all the more reason to study hard to get into a top university to better your chances. But no pressure or anything kids! Just grab a handful of those chocolates…

Tags: gadgets
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends

DoCoMo Style Series phone fashion collaborations

It’s ended on Christmas, but as Harajuku fashion hub Laforet was celebrating a Laforet Christmas, mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo was featuring itself alongside styles and brands that compliment its handsets the best.

The promotion was quite large, lasting a month and taking up the entrance of the busy department store to visually demonstrate how DoCoMo phones can intersect directly with the needs of fashion-conscious youth.

Using twelve color variations of different Style Series handsets, twelve mannequins were fully dressed, incorporating one item from the designated brand to best accompany the gadgetry.

Part mannequin fashion show, part sales promotion, the pieces were then lined up and around the store through the staircases. They advertised both the phones and the fashions equally as compliments to each other, rather than phone as accessory to fashion or the other way around. The phone IS fashion in this case.

It’s a great promotion, but this perfectly illustrates Digital Lifestyle, and why we’ve put such a huge focus on it in our research and innovation projects within the Trendpool. Gadgets are no longer about what they can do, but what people ARE doing with them and how they intersect with our lifestyles in real ways. Surely we can’t match phones to every outfit (yet), but how can we get there? How can this ideal be achieved cross-industry, say in automotive or FMCG?

Tags: Collaborations, Digital Lifestyle, Fashion, Harajuku, Marketing, Mobile
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends, Technology & Gadget Trends
Other categories: No categories

BEAMS TOKYO CULTuART aggregates Tokyo urban culture & art

If you wanted to sum up your city in one room without making it cluttered, what would you put in there? This is precisely the challenge that TOKYO CULTuART, a new project and shop from BEAMS in Harajuku, is taking on since its opening two weeks ago.

While their main business is design and apparel (ranging from casual to business to t-shirts), culture is also a valuable commodity, a point not lost on BEAMS RECORDS. CULTuArt is in the culture business, taking the best of Tokyo’s art and design scenes and letting it all play together, regardless of medium or genre.

Recently we were lucky enough to spend some time with Nagai-san, the General Manager of CULTuART and a mainstay at BEAMS for over two decades. According to Nagai, CULTuART is an aggregator of urban Tokyo, bringing its many faces and artists into one place that acts as both retail outlet and museum.

YAMANAYA pieces from famed figure-maker M1GO

From the Gundam figures of Akihabara to design books and prints found in Ueno, CULTuART spans the urban landscape of modern Made in Japan, shows it to the world, and makes it available to the masses all at once. The contents reflect the tastes of modern Japanese, but also those of its curator who values a piece’s cultural and aesthetic qualities at once.

The shop is decidedly down-to-earth in its sensibilities, but that doesn’t mean it comes with a small price tag. While Modoka Morikawa’s Peloqoon stuffed figures can go for around $150, one-of-a-kind pieces like the Doraemon stained-glass lamp from Pucci (seen in the slideshow) can exceed $7000. This is surely the nature of bringing in the best of the best, and makes it a great stop for both foreign and local visitors to get a solid overview of Tokyo culture and design in a very pop-culture kind of way.

Technology certainly has its place in CULTuART’s space as well. Aside from multiple Mac models open for use, they’ve also created a special browser-based application for iPhone and iPod Touch devices. Each item has its own number which, when clicked on, brings up detailed information about the piece and its artist in both Japanese and English. If you have one of the devices yourself, click here to browse on your own, and check out pieces like MODERHYTHM’s very cool CHUBU 01, pictured below.

Gadget-less customers can get loaners to use during their browsing time, but Nagai-san notes that devices integrated with the shopping experience are going to expand even more in the coming years, incorporating RFID and other technologies to better provide interactive information about the displays.

For the next step in its evolution, CULTuART is expanding to bring the best of Tokyo to other major cities around the world, though they haven’t made any firm plans yet as to where they’ll be going. Since they’re interested in spreading culture, a unique or unusual location (in our opinion anyway) would be far more interesting than the usual suspects.

However, the concept can work both ways as well, as many Japanese are increasingly travel-minded and appreciative of other cultures. TOKYO CULTuART would be interesting in Brooklyn, but how about a BROOKLYN CULTuART version in Paris or Cairo?

To visit for yourself, click for a map from Harajuku Station.

Tags: Art, Beams, Culture, design, Retail
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends

Hello Kitty sexy body fashion water bottles

We weren’t able to find anything online about these, but our recent trip to a Lawson convenience revealed these very cool Hello Kitty bottles. Aside from being rather ergonomic, the seemingly Gaultier-inspired sexy bottles are also sporting the latest in Kitty-chan fashion.

Of course, for 368 yen ($4), this is clearly water for cute-loving women over 30.

Tags: beverages, design, Fashion, FMCG, Hello Kitty
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends

Taspo rules bring retail back to tobacco

Last summer, the Japanese tobacco industry imposed a rather large burden on itself by requiring the use of Taspo (tobacco passport), an RFID identification and payment card, for adults to purchase tobacco from vending machines. While the cards require photo registration my mail, the benefit is that they can also act as cash for purchases much like PASMO, Nanaco, and other e-money.

However, despite heaps of money spent on Taspo awareness through flyers, advertising, and hands-on a marketing campaigns, most Japanese smokers aren’t signing up for the card. As a result, vending machines are losing revenue, smokers are frustrated, and convenience stores are happily picking up the slack.

While Japan has tobacco vending machines just about anywhere, rendering all of them inoperable to most of the public has driven the market back to retail. Japan used to be littered with tiny tobacco shops that sold its wares out of a small window, but these storefronts dwindled and were eventually replaced by vending machines. Now the shops are coming back, and brands are making it their new business to focus on making the shops look as spiffy as possible.

The shop above (on the left) is in Harajuku, and surrounded by what used to be busy vending machines. Now it has a brand new interior and exterior, plus staff inside to sell their wares. For marketers, this is a new opportunity to connect with customers in a way that they couldn’t with vending machines. New campaigns, free gifts, and other benefits are simple with small retail spaces.

Of course, this will all be contingent on where the government and tobacco industry go from here: Whether driver’s licenses are eventually allowed to be used at the machines, they relax the rules (unlikely), or if they reinforce an already ridiculous policy by requiring Taspo at retail locations as well.

Tags: RFID, Taspo, Tobacco, Vending Machines
Category: Marketing & Ad Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends, Fashion & Lifestyle Trends