Obata-san would like to better understand the difficulties foreigners in Japan have with figuring out the best sake to drink, and also which websites are most important to foreigners living in Japan. I look forward to discussing this with all of you tomorrow!
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Dear Philip,
I have a favor.
Will you please ask your students the following ?
I would like to know where on the internet are they checking the information and news about sake or/and food ?
Japanese consumers use rakuten shop and yahoo shop so much.
For foreigners who live Japan….which sites are they checking when they want to buy or check something related to sake??
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Japan Team 1 (old files) conducted an online survey to know foreigners’ online purchasing behavior in Japan . A total of 61 people participated in the 10 day online survey. The following is the key summary:
ReplyDelete1. Respondents like Japan for its mobile & electronic devices, culture, food and traveling.
2. Website language preference for foreigners is English.
3. Almost all of the respondents use Google and Yahoo for the search engine.
4. Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, Rakuten, and Kakaku are the popular online shopping sites among respondents.
5. The types of commodity they usually buy through internet include mobile and electronic devices, camera, books, and clothes.
6. Most respondents prefer to buy products via internet because of more options available, price and ease of use.
7. Most of the respondents claimed that they have not purchased any alcoholic beverages online.
8. Wine and Beer are more popular compared to Sake, when it comes to the respondents’ alcoholic beverage preference.
9. There are many occasions when people buy Sake, but in most times they drink sake when they are dining in restaurant, holding festival, presenting gift (omiyage).
10. The main reasons why people buy Sake, is they want to present sake as a gift/omiyage; to throw a party or celebration event; or simply just as a self-relaxation (enjoy oneself).
11. Half of the respondents claimed that they will buy something else to go along when they buy sake.
Kakaku, Rakuten, Amazon and eBay if I am not able to find what I want on the first 3 sites.
ReplyDeleteSake is all about experience, so I do not use Internet to get information about it or order some. I might still go online to check which one is the best, but that's it.
I prefer asking advice to Japanese nationals, which makes sense if I am living in Japan.
I participated in this survey too. For me I would prefer Amazon & eBay.
ReplyDeleteFrom the survey, One reason we assumed as the lack of preference in buying alchoholic beverages, is that 'may be its due to the lack of security attached with those beverage sites' and also ít could be due to people's preference in expereincing several brands at the shop itself'.
But among all the responses, one thing that we realized was that the foreigners' awareness about different Sake types were very less. Language appeared as a main barrier to them.
Overall results were gathered from foreigners within and outside of IUJ, to ensure the accuracy of results & to broaden the survey to capture both long-term & short-term foreigners.
In my opinion, most of customers who like to search for Sake's information would come from search engine such as Google or Yahoo. So the best way to attract the customers is advertising through these search engine.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think that advertising through website will only slightly create brand awareness because I believe brand awareness will be best created by experiencing the product! I would like to assume that target customer for Obata Shuzo is executive expat living in Japan.(According from your information) So, if I were them, I would ask a waiter for the best Sake in a premium restaurant.
Therefore, the way to solve a problem of understanding the difficulties foreigners in Japan have with figuring out the best sake to drink should be implement through distribution channel strategy not a website. Nevertheless, website will be a complementary strategy to help achieving goal.
I think the top 20 of Alexa rank sites (Global and Japan) including search engine and social media are one way to communicate with customer and prospective customer. But if we go to those site there are so many sakes that will confusing (Rakuten - 12,811 results, Kakaku 2,316 results, Amazon Japan - 169 results from 31 brand). Interestingly in Amazon.com there is no sake sold, only books and cups to drink sake. Social media can also one media to promote sake, in Facebook there is one sake results that has 5238 fans.
ReplyDeleteThe challenge is how to find the right media with the right customers. Foreigner usually search something base on their previous experience. If they already live in Japan does this behavior change?
1. Baticrom (www.baticrom.com)
ReplyDelete2. Asian Shops
3. Indojin.com
Its might be easy to collaborate with these parties to promote osake