Basic marketing considerations

Rich marketing is basically about how do I get access to the customers with a higher media exclusivity, how do I influence opinion leaders (to start BUZZ) and how do I create a two-way communication system (a meaningful, long-term relationship) with my customers. Further to be considered are the influence of the HNWI market on the normal market and how to change the product segmentation and customer segmentation while at the same time staying true to the brand values.
Creating an effective strategy might include the use of different channels. In Japan, the business models of the companies who do cater to the needs of companies doing business with the rich, do not necessarily exclude each other. All of the presented solutions offer a way to gain access to HNWI customers or mass affluents, but do so using different channels and reaching different customers segments. Interviews conducted with each if the companies basically revealed one common feature upon which all of them could agree, there is still huge potential in the market for HNWIs in Japan which could be tapped by both foreign luxury companies as well as by Japanese corporations. Using the right channels might mean the difference between sucess and failure or missing the chance to tap new customer segments that were not targeted before.
In Japan there are further considerations to go with this, for a foreign company. How do I have to adjust my product considering packaging and promotion in Japan (higher standards, different values), also information about the core competitors strategies and their access to FYS databases has to be considered (which channels do they use, what events, buzz strategies, if at all, do they employ). The access to opinion leaders in Japan is an asset that builds up over time and therefore is something that you cant access without help. Over time, a meaningful relationship with your customers and a future oriented marketing method means to build up not only a functioning database of customers and would-be customers but also a network of opinion leaders, artists, creative people and instruments (environments) where you can interact with them (like the Art Gaia Club), a marketing environment or an environmental marketing tool. CSR plays an extensive role in this as people tend to freqeunt such club-marketing clubs more frequently when the reason to be there is personal and not connected to the purchasing of any products (clear pull-approach).
Its a battle about getting access and providing the best tools to gain it. HNWIs are not reached directly. Two things are important, getting access and executing this in a creative way. Communication instead of plain product marketing. For big players in the field the question is with which companies to form partnerships to get benefits and access to HNIWs, and also collaboration advantages. Smaller companies have to deal with issues like product placement and adjustment, bigger corporations with issues as how marketing is executed to transport the brand image and its values. Indirect ways are important, pull marketing strategies.
The potential is high and the money not yet spend. To become part of peoples lives, is not only meaningful but essential. Especially in an environment like Japan where social networking is of such a big relevance, contacts on the Japanese site are essential, so foreign companies need to establish a network of SNS, connections, feedback (permanent), and fresh imputs. Working together with educational institutions can be as important a trend sensor as the usual marketing instruments.
One important last thing to consider-the language barrier leads to interesting constellations. Do not think that information is something readily available in Japan. Especially in the premium sector, where there are many corporations in the field that have to execute communication back to their home bases, information is often secular and not transferred immediately or perfectly to other sources. On the other side, working with smaller corporations can be of an advantage considering the transfer of information, the permanent information flow within the big giants like Dentsu or Hakuhodo. Premium customers are competing against marketing and advertising budgets of about 5-10 times their size and are allocated ressources accordingly. Using innovative techniques can be a way out of this dilemma.
Sources are predominantly not translated into English and the other way around. The education system in Japan leads to this situation. (see McVeigh 2003/2005, Matthews 2004, McCreery 2000 and Sugitomo 2003). Companies need a good strategy and help to overcome these marketing difficulties.
Basically, the difficulties in the Japanese market are not so difficult to overcome. The trick is to overcome them by the right use of market intelligence and professional local help. To know which players are really performing the desired role in a professional way is also essential (the Japanese market is not more closed, only in the labor market. For a disadvantage to be of any meaning it has to be discriminatory to the foreigners and not be present in the European markets for the Japanese).
Finally, the change in the market and a change in which manner marketing is perceived and the relationship with the customer has changed in the information age, what has to be changed by companies universally, not only in the HNWI business, is a shift from a one-way relationship of a producer of goods and the consumer, towards a two-way communication, a meaningful relationship. Luxury producers and companies in the premium segment will find out that relationships with rich people and their best customers in Japan are by the most part one-way relationships with no communication, where products are consumed for the perceived brand value, the image and prestige they confer in a world where not only status symbols but also symbols that show the belonging to a certain social strata or group are consumed because of an image that is generated among the consumers themselves, without either party able to influence this perception on a direct communicative way. Creating communication channels, establishing blogs and using different channels for advertising and buzz-marketing is something that has to be done in nearly all segments, not only in the high premium segment. The difference is the measures required for accessing the customers with a higher income bracket or higher lifetime value. They demand more and are in many ways immune to normal marketing channels. So the changing environment in the information age as well as the changing consumer bahviour have created a double challenge for luxury companies and companies in the premium segment. First the adjustment towards communicative tools and channels and the the realization that these channels are different in the premium market, more exclusive and sometimes blocked for direct access.
In Japan then, the realization has to be, on top of that, that some of those access points are simply blocked from foreigners. This might be more true in some segments than in others but the general trend is that the higher the level in which to market operates, the more sophisticated the approach has to be and the more market intelligence is required. Market intelligence that can most of the time only be provided by companies long enough in the field to make the necessary connections and to be in acceptable social positions. Enlisting those companies help and kowing how to evaluate their services, by doing own research in social sciences in Japan, can mean the difference between successfully adapting to the changed paramenters or to loose market share to competitors that transformed this intelligence into appropriate measures.