MK 325 - Key Features of Japanese Marketing Strategy

The goal of this course is to help students appreciate the key features of Japanese marketing strategy. Japan’s success in the production of quality products and its ability to market them is almost legendary. The business communities in the world have recently witnessed Japan changing the conventional mode of its domestic market structure to a newly created one, where the diversified demands are satisfied with flexible suppliers overseas. This course introduces students to the Japan-related managerial concepts such as Keiretsu, Kaizen and to the logic of Japanese marketing strategies related to product, price, channel, and promotion/communication, while examining simultaneously standard marketing concepts and models such as PEST, SWOT, marketing mix (4Ps), BCG (Boston Consulting Group) growth share matrix, Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model, Value Net and Blue Ocean Strategy.

It also covers key features of Japanese internet-related business strategies along with American ones and global marketing management of Multi-National Enterprises (MNEs). Case studies to be used in the course revolve round recent hit products such as LINE (the most popular social media in Japan) along with Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, Convenience Stores, Toyota’s “Mirai” (Fuel Cell Vehicle), “Lexus” & “Prius,” Apple’s iPhone & iPad, NINTENDO DS, Wii and Switch, Fast Fashion (UNIQLO, ZARA, H&M and GAP),  luxury brand Louis Vuitton, J-pop music with AKB 48, etc. Finally, what kind of impact of ABENOMICS (New Economic Policy since 2012) has had on Japanese marketing strategies and consumer behaviors will be examined. Two course-related trips will complement classroom lectures/discussion.