Subtle art of marketing

Ayumi, a Japanese shoe brand for elderly females, provides colourful designs and allows customers to customise their left and right shoe size when ordering. Meanwhile, Denka no Yamaguchi, an electric appliances retailer, offers special services to loyal customers such as feeding pet dogs or watering plants if a customer has to leave town. Ishizaka, a recycling factory, provides its environmentally friendly facilities to customers in order to connect with the community. These successful Japanese brands have a philosophy of offering special services that go beyond the product itself by not focusing only on sales.

These three cases are part of the column Makoto Marketing…