DOING MAIL ORDER BUSINESS IN JAPAN: COMMON MISTAKES

MISTAKE NO. 1: LIMITED RESOURCES, NOT ENOUGH BUDGET

Japan's population is 125 million: that is 50% of US. Japan's GDP is 60% of the US figure. Japan's retail sales are 60% of the US retail sales. And Japan's catalog sales are 25% of the US figure and growing. It is NOT a small market.

It now takes US$1 million to build a profitable housefile in the US. Japan needs not cost quite so much, mainly because the higher margins amortize the list building activities faster. Nevertheless it cannot be done with small change left over at the end of your fiscal year. Treat the market seriously. Come with deep pockets and be ready to spend money (wisely).

MISTAKE NO. 2: "ALL JAPANESE READ ENGLISH"

Dont you believe it. If you do not make a genuine effort to target the Japanese consumer in THEIR language, the only customers you will get will be the few million able to read English. The rest--some 120 million, many of them mail order shoppers already--will be lost. Don't go for 5 million consumers when you can go an extra mile and target 125 million consumers!

MISTAKE NO. 3: "SAVED A GREAT DEAL ON THE COPY!"

1. There are no cheap solutions. Japanese is very expensive (rates of about $70-100 per standard page are about median). If you get a lower quote, be suspicious. Is your translator using translators who are not native Japanese speakers? Is he using machine translation? Both problems crop up often with disastrous results.
2. Translation is often NOT what you need in order to generate passable Japanese copy. Your translator may be a great financial-text or technical-text specialist but likely he has not sold a button in his life. You MUST use professional Japanese copywriters who are also fluent in English. Only such copywriters can communicate with you, understand your product and your business, and present/explain their work to you in your language. More importantly, only a biliungual copywriter can understand what your product/catalog is all about, what your target customer in Japan thinks and expects, and how to present it to him/her. If you speak only to translators, don't expect them to know a thing about product positioning, image, or attention grabbing headlines. Often, they won't know how to use the specific grammatical tenses which must be employed when selling to your custmers.
3. Above all, do not use part-time student labor to save money. They probably have no idea what they are doing.

MISTAKE NO. 4: "SAVED A GREAT DEAL ON THE ARTWORK!"

You should use professional Japanese graphic designers. The now-vertical-now-horizontal orientation of Japanese writing and the fact that Japanese books generally open from the right (rather than, like ours, from the left) mean that the Japanese eyeflow on the page is completely different from what your American designers will be used to.

Also, a Japanese graphic designer will understand how color schemes are perceived by the Japanese consumer, whether certain shapes and designs are attractive or offensive, how to lay out essential information in tables best understood by the natives. Be ready to see mascots, cartoon-like characters, and silly graphics. They are part of the Japanese modern culture. They often help sell your material.

But do supervise the graphic work. Japanese catalogs are notoriously poorly designed and the cadre of good mail order graphic designers for mail order (they do exists) is thin on the ground. Look for track record in the mail order field. Few graphic designers have one. The ones who do will be worth the money.

MISTAKE NO. 5: "THIS ADVERTISING MAKES NO SENSE!"

Be flexible and have an open mind when it comes to the choice of media. Generally, you should try in Japan whatever works for you elsewhere. But do listen to your Japanese media consulants, media buyers, and/or account executives. They do know a thing or two you may not. Life in Japan is very different from that in the US: people read a lot more and watch a lot less, they spend a lot more time outside of their homes (at work, in 3 hour daily commutes, out entertaining or shopping), they read magazine and newspaper formats you have not seen elsewhere and are exposed to types of advertising you may not have thought about: in train or in-the-taxi ads, and finally their choices, especially in electronic media, may be a lot more limited than in the US. Your best advertising medium may not be what you think it is. Have an open mind about this.

MISTAKE NO. 6: CAVALIER APPROACH TO MEDIA BUYING

1. Media in Japan are far more limited and advertisng money spend in Japan is in some years greater than in the US. Consequently the publishers and broadcasters can afford to be choosy--and they are not nice about it. Get used to it: in Japan THEY have the power, you are just an applicant.
2. Mail order still has a bad image in Japan and publishers are often held responsible for ripoffs perpetrated through advertising placed in their publications in Japan. Publishers therefore are skeptical about dopng business with mail order companies, especially ones they have never heard of. You will usually NOT be your publisher's first choice for that full color 3-rd page ad.
3. Media purchases in Japan are usually not written but VERBAL agreements. Expect to be bumped, delayed, or downgraded, especially if you are a new or a small advertiser. Very often there may be nothing your broker can do about this.
4. It takes a lot more time in Japan. Expect advance purchasing of as much as 3 months just to get into a daily newspaper.
5. Traffic is heaviest, leadtimes longest, and prices highest in four seasons: April (beginning of the fiscal year), October (beginning of fiscal second half), December and New Year holiday (year-end), and early May (the "Golden Week" holiday).It is hard to get ANY work done between April 25-May 7 ("Golden Week") and December 24-January 5 (New Year holiday).

MISTAKE NO. 7: "WE'LL JUST ASK THEM TO WRITE THEIR NAMES IN ENGLISH"

More often than not, they don't know how to. Have staff who can read/transcribe Japanese orders to english, or use a telemarketer to provide the service.

MISTAKE NO. 8: "I DONT HAVE TO EXPLAIN THIS, DO I?"

For many of your customers you may be the only mail order company they have ever done business with. Don't assume they know how mail of order works and understand common lingo. Many don't. You may think "satisfaction guarantee" is clear to all readers. But most will not know it means a money back guarantee.

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