Marketing Japan:
Towards a Better Future
In the month of March 2011, Japan was struck hard by a natural disaster. This earthquake was known as the “Great East Japan Earthquake” which caused a tsunami (Euromonitor, 2013). Tourism in Japan was at a standstill for about year until 2012. During the year of 2011, Japanese people did not travel and “people refrained from leisure activities” (Euromonitor, 2013). About a year after the earthquake, tourism grew and there was “an increased desire to travel” (Euromonitor, 2013). The population of Japan is 128 million people, with a major city (Tokyo) which is home to 35 million people (Berger, 2010). According to Berger, Japan is “third in the world for money spent on research and development” (Berger, 2010). Along with research and development there are changes in consumer decisions. Japan’s consumer behavior changed after the tsunami. Japanese people sought to spend time with family and friends and a “desire to travel” per say (Euromonitor, 2013). This change in mindset supported tourism in Japan with an increase in inbound and outbound tourism (Euromonitor, 2013).
Advantages and Disadvantages of Japan
How does Japan differ from China or other Asian countries? One advantage of Japan is the ownership of airlines with low prices (Euromonitor, 2013). There are other countries with budget airlines. What makes Japan different? They are a competitive in the market focusing on their strengths. Their strengths include “competitive prices, safety and higher quality…service” (Euromonitor, 2013). This can relate to the topic of SWOT Analysis, focusing on ones strengths in the internal operating environment (Pike, 2008). This can also be referred to as “service differentiation (Pike, 2008). Th...
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...Pike, 2008). Identifying opportunities’ and threats is key to the success of the organization (opinion). The last step is to focus on future consumer wants and needs and to look towards “emerging megatrends” (qtd. in Pike, 2008).
References
Berger, A. (2010) Tourism in Japan: An Ethno-Semiotic Analysis. Retrieved from http://books.google.com
Coldren, C. (2006) Four Factors That Distinguish Services Marketing. marketingprofs.com. Retrieved February 26, 2014 from http://www.marketingprofs.com
Euromonitor. (2013). Travel and Tourism in Japan, September 16. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from Euromonitor Passport Database.
JNTO, (2010). New Tourism slogan for Japan. Retrieved February 26, 2014 from http://jnto.org.au/new-tourism-slogan-for-japan/
Pike, S. (2008). Destination Marketing: An Integrated Marketing Communication Approach. Great Britain: Routledge
During the time period between the 1850s and 1950s, Japan underwent massive changes politically, economically, and socially. Acknowledging the failure of isolation, Japan imitated the West in an attempt to modernize, however, still retaining its own identity. A reorganized and more centralized government allowed Japan to industrialize in half the time it took the nations of Western Europe. Industrialization provided Japan with the tools needed to transform itself from a half civilized and “backwards” society during isolation, to a dominating superpower during WWII.
The characteristics of a service are intangible, inseparable, perishable, heterogeneous and lack ownership. The marketing mix of a service is not perceptible and as the features of a service is distinctive to the features of a product, it has additional elements which are process, people and physical evidence.
Tsuzuki, Chushichi. The Pursuit of Power in Modern Japan, 1825-1995. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Questia. Web. 28 Apr. 2011.
Japan is one of the world’s leading trading nations, as measured by their exports. Its imports and exports totaled about $525 billion in 1990. Their main exports at the time, in terms of value, were iron and steel, passenger cars and electronic equipment. Petroleum was Japan’s chief import that accounted for 35 per cent of the total value of imports (World Book). Most of the time since the mid-1960s, Japan has had a favorable balance of trade-that is, the value of its exports has exceed the value of its imports. Japan maintained a favorable balance of trade by one, exporting manufactured products throughout the world at competitive prices and second, through restricting imports by means of various trade barriers, such as tariffs and quotas. Japan’s trade policies have contributed to unfavorable trade balances for countries that import large qualities of Japanese goods but face barriers to exporting their own goods to Japan. In an effort to reduce these barriers, a number of Japan’s trading partners began criticizing the country’s trade practices. To maintain good trade relations, Japan begun responding to these request. It reduced its exports of automobiles to the United States. It also relaxed restrictions on imports of U.S. food products, but U.S. officials still criticize the serious trade imbalance that remain in Japans favor. However, over the past five years from current date, Japan has shifted their ideology by seeking free trade agreements (FTA) with a number of countries. In doing so, Japan hopes to revitalize its economy as well as to compete with other major countries, like China for influence in Asia.
The Japanese Economy & nbsp;& nbsp;& nbsp;& nbsp;& nbsp; The prewar economy of Japan was a Socialist economy and the country was ruled by an emperor up to WW2 and after WW2 it started to lean towards a mixed market economy until what it is today, although its government is Socialist it is leaning towards a mixed market economy. & nbsp; The Japanese economy is a mixed economy that leans towards market, it is like this because almost all businesses are run by private corporations or people. and that is the market of the economy. And the reason that they are thriving and are so competitive is because of the trade tariffs and quotas that the government has in place. These regulations include heavy taxes on some products.
The “Top Challenge Trend” is likely that of “Faster Pace of Innovation” causing increased competition due to lower barrier of entry. (Carpenter, Bauer, & Erdogan, 2012) With the increase competitors from both major competitors like PepsiCo vs generic branding of sodas at cheaper rates. The market is flooded with new flavors and new competitors all the time.
Travel has increased throughout the years. According to World Tourism Organization travel has increased by 5% in 2013 with 1,087 million people traveling. This is an additional 52 million international travels from the previous year. This increase in travel has brought a very positive impact on many economies around the world and is predicted to continue to do so in the following years. In 2014 UNWTO believes international travel will continue to grow up to 4-4.5%. Throughout the world the places most influenced by the demand for tourism are Asia and the pacific, Africa, and Europe (World Tourism Organization UNWTO). This increase in travel has shown that more people have decided to immerse themselves into new experiences and cultures, and that travel companies believe that more and more people will begin and continue to travel.
Japan has very significant characteristics in terms of their economic power either in the Asia- Pacific region or around the world. After World War II the Japanese economy was deeply affected by shortages, inflation, and currency devaluation means that Japanese economy was bankrupt position. Therefore, Japan passed under the control of US in the post- Second World War period. From this point, economic transformation or recovery or development has started in Japan with the impacts of US and Japanese governments. Besides this economic aid, US also guided Japan in democratization and demilitarization whereas Japanese government had direct role dealing with those developments different from what happened in Germany at that time. What it means that is Japanese government had played interventionist role into economy. On the other hand, one of the significant reasons of why US needed to help former enemy is the fact that after the WWII was the beginning of the Cold War and Russian presence was in the region. That’s why US made their contribution in order to revive Japan.
Nowadays in the rea of globalization, according to the World Tourism Organization, “seven hundred million people travelled abroad in 2003”, and the number is estimated to increase to 1.6 billion by 2020. (International Labour Organization, 2005). Tourism is spreading in unusual places. A lot of people want to be in the midst of adventure. It is a vital source of revenues for the GDP of many countries. I partially agree that tourism hugely benefits the local community. This essay will discuss some of the economic, social and environment effect of tourism on the host community.
Cravens, D. W., & Piercy, N. F. (2009). Strategic marketing (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Located in Southeast Asia, Thailand has become a well-known destination to many travelers since the early stage of mass tourism. The boost of tourism in Thailand started with Vietnam War where Thailand became a popular destination for the rest and recreation of US military. Since then the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) was established as an official organization to promote the country’s tourism (McDowall & Wang, 2009). Despite a lot of world external factors negatively affected Thailand tourism such as Gulf War 1991, Asia Financial Crisis 1997, SARS 2003 and Tsunami 2004, the overall number of tourists was increasing due to the quick response of the government to the needs of tourism industry and the effect of targeted promotional campaigns (Zhang, Qu & Tavitiyaman, 2009). According to TAT (2014), the international tourist arrivals increased over 333 times from 0.08 million in 1960 to 26.7 million in 2013. And in the same period, tourism revenue rose from US$10 million to US$38 billion. Although Thailand hosted a significant number of tourists and gained a lot of revenue from tourism, Thailand also suffered from negative effects such as AIDS, negative image of sex tourism (Li & Zhang, 1997), degradation of the environment (Koont...
The Japan disaster was devastating, and it had an abundance of causes and effects. The nuclear disaster, the tsunami, and the earthquake were the causes of the disaster in Japan. In addition, the disaster had countless effects on the land and people in Japan. The disaster in Japan was as devastating and tragic as 9/11. Both events took a great number of lives and left their country shocked, but prepared them for anything similar that might happen in the future. Knowing the causes and effects of Japan’s disaster can prepare other people and countries around the world for a comparable disaster.
KOHLI, N. & KAUR, J. 2011. SERVICES MARKETING - WINNING AND CREATING CUSTOMERS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ICICI BANK. Asia Pacific Journal of Research in Business Management, 2.
Japan is a country with countless attraction and points of interest, whether its heritage, food, popular culture or dark tourism, Japan as a tourism destination can offer many things. Because of the saturation of culture there are many types of tourism which apply (Berger 2010). Cultural tourism, adventure, ecotourism, food and family tourism and even sex tourism to name a few and with the increasing relevance of Otaku1 culture in the western world, Japans popularity as a holiday destination has increased drastically. The popularity of Japanese tourism can largely be attributed to the growing cultural interest displayed by the visitors which means that cultural exploration is one of the more significant reasons of visitation.
The economy can be clearly identified as the most beneficial aspect of tourism. “According to recent statistics, tourism provides about 10% of the world’s income and employs almost one tenth of the world’s workforce” (Mirbabayev, 2007). In Australia alone, Tourism contributed $87.3 billion in 2012, and employed 908,434 (7.9%) people (Kookana & Duc Pham, 2013). Tourism is “one of the most profitable and rapidly developing industries in the world” (Popushoi, 2004). Every year the number of tourists increase dramatically and consequently the revenues from tourism will increase substantially.