Trends in Japan - CScout Japan Blog

DecoChoco, custom chocolate straight from the game center

Written by: Rebecca Milner on December 27, 2008 at 1:59 am | In DIGITAL LIFE | 1 Comment

At the beginning of the year, we covered Tirol’s DecoChoco service, which encourages consumers to customize the packaging of these popular little chocolates with photos uploaded onto their PCs. Since the interface allows for decorating the photos with stamps and borders a la print club, we likened the service to the popular schoolgirl pastime of “purikura.” Now, however, Tirol has teamed up with innovative maker of print club machines Furyu, to offer the service directly from the arcade using actual print club photos.

Furyu print club machines offering the DecoChoco service have a function for users to input their mobile phone address (after the finishing decorative touches have been added). A text message is then sent to the indicated phone that contains a unique access link for a site where users can choose which of their prints to turn into candy wrappers and place an order. A set of 45 costs ¥2,362 and takes 2-3 weeks for delivery (no, delivery doesn’t usually take that long in Japan, these things are just really popular.)

Decorative print club stickers were emblematic of a whole generation of pre-mobile phone camera gyaru, but these days the clunky, stationary photo booths have a lot of competition as mobile phones allow users the same functions of print club and then some—meaning purikura needs to modernize or face extinction.

However what is perhaps more telling by this DecoChoco meets print club innovation is how it cuts out the PC, as the idea of going home and uploading the photos interrupts the immediate and social aspect of the experience. Since September, Tirol has offered its original PC-based DecoChoco service on mobile phones and with the print club element filling in for what the mobile is lacking (larger interface, increased decorating options, room for more than one user), the service is now finely tuned to meet the needs of the current generation of picture posing, chocolate chomping school girls (for whom, given their propensity for mobile phones, are just as likely to view the PC as clunky and stationary) .

Tags: FMCG, Purikura, Tirol, UGC
Category: DIGITAL LIFE
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives license

Chocotatsu campaign from Tirol

Written by: Rebecca Milner on September 26, 2008 at 12:28 pm | In MARKETING IDEAS | No Comments

With all of the 30th anniversary campaigns lately (space invaders, slime, to name a few), it would take a lot to catch our eye. Tirol must have been thinking just that when it launched its “Chocotatsu” campaign as a lead up to the 30th birthday of it’s iconic chocolate square next year. “Chocotatsu” merges the words “choco” (the common word for chocolate in Japan) and “kotatsu,” the traditional heated table that most Japanese households pull out for winter. True to its name, it is just that: a kotatsu in the guise of a Tirol chocolate square, the original coffee nougat variety to be exact.

300 lucky(?) winners will be chosen by lottery from applicants who send a postcard with the correct answers to a quiz about Tirol chocolate. All of the quiz answers (to questions like “how old will the Tirol chocolate square be next year?”) can be found on the campaign website. Another 10,000 winners will receive a “necobag,” an ecobag with a cat emblem (cat is “neko” in Japanese).

Individually sold Tirol chocolate are typically found near the cash register in convenience stores and are just about the only thing you can get for less than a dollar (¥21 to be exact). New seasonal flavors are constantly released, with recent years seeing upwards several new ones a month.