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Twitter, handy microblogging of 140 characters, can be combined with another communication channel of offline, is now used in an innovative way in a place in Tokyo, Japan that probably the developers of Twitter had never thought of.

1. How is Twitter used in what situation?

Twitter is displayed in an electronic bulletin board located in a large crossroads in Tokyo, owned and managed by a hair cut shop. 

Tweets range from news and staff member introduction of the shop to comments on the hot topic discussed in the society and media. 

2. What is the benefit of using Twitter in such a way and situation?

It allows many people accessible to the shop read the tweets, which is an extremely effective way of attracting current and potential customers.  Allowing people walking in the crossroads where the shop is located is of more ROI than allowing nationwide or worldwide online users who cannot come to the shop read blogs and tweets.

140 characters is optimum to read when people are waiting for the traffic light to turn to green from red, although the volume and content is greater in Japanese than in English due to the difference in the characteristics of the two languages.  People have nothing else to do when they are waiting for the traffic light to turn green from red so they would read the tweets thus the “reach” is extremely high and effective.

3. Is there any other organization(s) that use Twitter in a similar way?

Yes, there is.  It is a commercial facility used by multiple tenants in Tokyo, reported in a recent article on June 20 by a Japanese newspaper specialized in retailing industry.

When the facility opened in October last year, Twitter accounts for all tenants were created so that tweets of each tenant can be displayed in the electronic bulletin board of the facility.

4. How effective is the new use of Twitter by the other organization?

According to the administrator of the facility, this method allows far more information to be delivered to great number of target customers compared with simply tweeting online.

This is because of the two reasons.

The first is reaching greater number of targets.  The number of followers of the tenants is around 400 at the most.  But major department stores and others in the neighbourhood attract 13.36 million visitors per year (for the fiscal year ending March 2011), all of them are current or potential customers. 

The second is the fact that that still only a small proportion of the target customers still do not use Twitter.  Main target of the facility and the neighbourhood department stores are senior people and majority of such people still do not use Twitter.

5. What was the reason for coming up with such an idea/breakthrough?

It was the fact that the two cases are free from stereotype/fixed idea that blogs and Twitter is the tool used to online only.

It is true that characteristics of Twitter include real time, interactive and viral, and they are neglected in the two cases introduced above.  What was focused and leveraged is “very simply to tweet, even for extremely busy staff working in the shop floor”, and this was the critical requirement for the two cases.

As a result, in two cases, Twitter is used primarily to deliver information one-way which might be not what it was expected when it was first developed; however, the objective of reaching as many target audience to deliver information is achieved.

Resources:-

Twitter use can be combined with bulletin board function by displaying tweets on electronic bulletin board, to achieve an objective of reaching as many target audience to deliver information, although in this case Twitter is used primarily to deliver information one-way and interactivity and other characteristics of Twitter is neglected.  Such an innovative idea attributes to being free from stereotype/fixed idea that blogs and Twitter are used only online.Post originally published in Future Direction of Web 2.0 and Internet Marketing on 2011-07-18 06:06:55

The previous article Vol.65 – Web Equity Valuation in Japan – Model and Ranking outlined the Web Equity valuation model and the results of the ranking by Japan Brand Strategy based on a special article published in a recent Japanese business weekly magazine.

Based on the same article, the author would like to introduce what kind of corporate websites are raked high in “Sales Value”, one of the two constituents of Web Equity, together with possible 4 KFS (key factors for success) for high “Sales Value” in this article.

1. What is “Sales Value”?  How is it calculated?

“Sales Value” is how much the website contributed to sales generation among variety of media and communication channels that consumers access and refer in purchasing products and services.

This is calculated through the following 4 steps.

(1) Calculate what percentage of customers who purchased products and/or services used web site in their decision making.

(2) Calculate the degree (what percentage) the purchaser used the web site in their decision making.

(3) Multiply (1) and (2) to calculate effect of web site = average amount of information the purchaser used the web site in their decision making.

(4) Multiply (3) and marginal profit to calculate Sales Value.

2. Which company websites are ranked high up in Sales Value ranking?

It is mostly large companies of strong brands as the following.

3. What are some possible KFS for high Sales Value?

1) Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)

Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) in which strategically integrating all possible marketing communication tools and media, offline and offline, contributes to high Sales Value because it increases touch points with the customers.

In general, IMC is advanced in western countries, the U.S. in particular such as Fedex?On the other hand, Japan is far behind because departments in companies that are responsible for traditional offline media and the Internet are usually separated.

Many companies ranked high up in Sales Value rankings are innovators in IMC in Japan. 

2) Web contents with which consumers can enjoy virtual experience online

Web contents with which consumers can enjoy virtual experience online of products and services contribute to high Sales Value.  This is because it is a good approach to make consumers feel and understand the benefit of the products and services.

All Nippon Airways web content in which online consumers share their experiences of travelling is a good example.  This web content allows cabin attendants and travelers share guides, know-how and experiences of their trips/travels, which helps provoke demand of travelling.

The next good example of virtual experience web content is Panasonic’s LED content.  This allows consumers to find places in their homes where they can replace current lights with LED and make simulation of energy saving.  The result of the simulation can be posted on Twitter and Facebook to share with online friends.

Another good example is Nissan’s content called User Voice in which experiences of Nissan car owners are shared.  Voices and information can be displayed by types of cars.  Voices and information can also be carefully selected by setting requirements such as gender, age, number of car users and usage with a search function.

3) Proactive use of social media

Proactive use of social media also contributes to high Sales Value ranking because it promotes web users share information.

Companies such as All Nippon Airways (ANA) have been leveraging SNS.  Companies such as ANA and Nissan already have started leveraging Facebook.

UniQlo is the company that is often mentioned as innovator in leveraging Facebook in Japan.  It is ranked 20 in Sales Value ranking which is unexpected to the author who thought it would be higher up in the ranking; however, considering the business size with top 10 companies, it can be said that UniQlo’s website is highly contributing to generating sales. 

4. What is the case of Sales Value #1 website?

1) Overview of All Nippon Airways (ANA) website

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is ranked #1 for Sales Value and Web Equity.  Its Web Equity is 107,877 million yen with Sales Value of 89,692 million yen and Information Value of 18,185 million yen. 

The company has successfully developed its website as an important sales channel.  Its website now generates sales of approximately 400 billion yen per year with its 70% of its air flight business generated online. 

2) Online initiatives

The next challenge for ANA is strengthening online communication leveraging the Internet.  The following are some of the ongoing initiatives to achieve such objective.

(1) Facebook Page

The company opened its official Facebook Page this January.  Information and photos of cabin attendants, trips and events unique to ANA are posted one after another.  People who clicked “Like it!” totaled over 170,000 as of middle of August.

Immediate after the March 11 Japan disaster, considering victims, information related to the Japan disaster was posted such as information of relief services to Tohoku, re-opening of Sendai Airport and raising money for victims leveraging frequent flyer programme. 

(2) SNS content

SNS called Social Sky Park opened in June targeting members of ANA Frequent Flyer Club.  When members post on Twitter and Facebook regarding varieties of proposed topics, the post is also shared on the SNS.  The content is of user generation which is encouraged to be easily shared online.

(3) Globalization

ANA started globalization of their web initiative to provoke demand of overseas market.  The company first rolled its website in multiple languages and currencies to allow worldwide customer making reservation and payments online.

However, ANA’s awareness and brand is still rather low overseas.  Therefore, the company’s next challenge is raising its awareness and brand overseas leveraging such media as Facebook.

References:-

The web site of the weekly business magazine

http://dw.diamond.ne.jp/

Japan Brand Strategy – The web site of the brand strategy consultancy

http://japanbrand.jp/

Resources:-

Japanese company websites of high Sales Value are mostly of large companies with strong brand.  Some possible KFS for high Sales Value include Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC), web contents with which consumers can enjoy virtual experience online, and proactive use of social media such as Facebook Page, Twitter and SNS.  Globalization is also a challenge for many companies.Post originally published in Future Direction of Web 2.0 and Internet Marketing on 2011-09-17 06:39:37

Web Equity Ranking of companies in Japan was introduced in a special article published in a recent Japanese business weekly magazine.

The author would like to outline the Web Equity valuation model and the results of the ranking based on the article.

1. What is the background of the Web Equity Valuation efforts in Japan?

It is the fact that the value of Internet as a communication channel and advertising together with its degree of influence are increasing in Japan just like in western countries. 

For example, according to the survey result on advertising expenditure in Japan implemented by Dentsu http://www.dentsu.com/, the leading advertising agency in Japan, advertising expenditure of the 4 traditional media (TV, newspaper, radio and magazine) for 2010 was decrease by 1.9% from 2009 when it was increase by 9.6% for the online advertising.

This means greater needs of means to know ROI of the Internet and website from companies leveraging the Internet and websites in their business, marketing and communication.

Therefore, a leading branding consultancy in Japan called Japan Brand Strategy developed a model of Web Equity Valuation for BtoC companies and started to publish the ranking after valuating 200+ web sites of around 2004.

2. What is the overview of the valuation?

1) Scope

Valuation of how much a corporate web site of BtoC companies contributed to the business in a year (April 2010 – March 2011) was calculated.  Web sites of BtoB companies were excluded from the valuation.

2) Which corporate web sites

BtoC businesses were classified to 12 industries; electronics/machinery, IT/telecommunications, automobile/automotive, housing, entertainment/hobby related, foods and beverages, transport and leisure, retailers, finance and securities, energy and materials, toiletries and OTC drugs, and pharmaceutical. 

And total of 236 leading corporate web sites were selected from each industry. 

3) Data used

Data such as the following of each company was used in valuation.

-   Financial data ending March 2011: if end of fiscal year is different, latest financial data was used.

-   Result of online survey: implemented in July 2011, with 18,600 response

3. How valuation of Web Equity of each corporate web site performed?

“Sales Value” and “Information Value” of each corporate web site were calculated then the two were added together, as the Web Equity of the corporate web site. 

Web Equity = Sales Value + Information Value

1) Sales Value

Sales Value is valuation of how much the web site contributed to selling of the company’s products and services.

This was calculated through the following 4 steps.

(1) Calculate what percentage of customers who purchased products and/or services used web site in their decision making.

(2) Calculate the degree (what percentage) the purchaser used the web site in their decision making.

(3) Multiply (1) and (2) to calculate effect of web site = average amount of information the purchaser used the web site in their decision making.

(4) Multiply (3) and marginal profit to calculate Sales Value.

2) Information Value

Information Value is how much the corporate web site contributed to brand enhancement of the company and its products/services.

“Access Value” and “Behaviour Value” were calculated and then added together to calculate Information Value, 

(1) Access Value

Access Value is how much the online customer’s access to view the web site information contributed to brand enhancement of the company and its products/services.

This was calculated by multiplying PV (Page View) = number of pages of web sites viewed by value coefficient (unit value of a page set).

(2) Behaviour Value

Behaviour Value is how much online customer’s behaviour other than viewing pages such as applying for a campaign and requesting for pamphlets contributed to brand enhancement of the company and its products/services.

Number of behaviours such as membership registration and reading e-newsletters were selected.  

Then for each behaviour, number of people who took such behaviour was calculated which was multiplied by value coefficient (unit value of a behaviour).

4. What was the result?

The top 10 companies were the following.

To the author, the companies/brands that were ranked in top 50 all in at least one of the following.

(1) Strong corporate brand: e.g. Panasonic, Toyota, Sony, Honda, Nissan, Nomura Securities

(2) Strong product brand: e.g. NTT DoCoMo, Suntory, Kirin, Asahi, Coca Cola Japan, UniQlo

(3) Active in EC (Electronic Commerce): e.g. All Nippon Airways, Japan Travel Bureau, Japan Airlines, Japan Railways

(4) Leveraging SNS in their communication: e.g. Honda, UniQlo, All Nippon Airways, Suntory

(5) Leveraging Mobile: e.g. NTT DoCoMo, SoftBank Mobile, Tokyo Disney Resort

5. The author’s final thoughts

The Web Equity valuation model of Japan Brand Strategy may not be sufficiently refined from corporate finance perspective.  It is nothing like corporate valuation model (of NPV = Net Present Value and DCF = Discounted Cash Flow) or of brand valuation of InterBrand http://interbrand.com/. 

Also, only BtoC company web sites are valuated.  Many BtoB companies also leverage their web sites in their business and they cannot be disregarded.

Having said that, the result of the valuation and the ranking does provide us with some insights that help us coming up with clues what are required to enhance value of the web sites.

In one of her upcoming article the author would like to introduce some of the initiatives of the top ranking web sites that is assumed to made them to be of top ranking.

References:-

The web site of the weekly business magazine

http://dw.diamond.ne.jp/

Japan Brand Strategy – The web site of the brand strategy consultancy or

http://japanbrand.jp/

Resources:-

A Japanese Brand Strategy Consultancy developed a Web Equity valuation model from which it calculated value of corporate web sites of major BtoC companies.  Although the valuation is not necessarily refined as corporate and brand valuation model, it does provide us with some insights and help us understand what is required to enhance web equity.Post originally published in Future Direction of Web 2.0 and Internet Marketing on 2011-09-04 02:29:03

Facebook and Twitter have started to become popular among early adaptors in Japan in the last one or two years but LinkedIn has not and Google Plus (Google+) is not yet used even among IT experts even if they have created their account.

In this article, the author would like to outline the popularity of the four social media in Japan.

1. How are the four social media popular in Japan?

Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn status has been explained in the previous articles from Vol.45 throughout Vol.47 when the author summarized the social media situation in Japan to conclude 2010 and predicted the trend for 2011, which turned out to be quite true as in Vol.48 – 2011 Japan’s First Year of Social Media / SNS, which was based on a survey result about social media in Japan executed by a leading Japanese media.

In short, local leading SNS called Mixi and local blog called Ameba had been dominating Japan until the recent popularization of Twitter and Facebook.  LinkedIn remains unpopular among the majority of the Japanese, so is Google Plus (Google+) which is still unpopular even among majority of online marketers.

2. How is Twitter?

Twitter was the first global social media that became hot in the summer of 2010, when it was featured in a special article in a leading Japanese business magazine together with introduction of applications and celebrities already using Twitter.  Together with the localization (Japanese version) that was already available and the ease of use, Twitter immediately became hot among early adaptors including many popular politicians and companies/organizations as well as general public. 

There were some online marketers who had been giving seminars about leveraging Twitter but few seemed to blog and/or write a book about it.

3. How is Facebook?

Facebook had mostly been used by bilingual Japanese mostly to be connected with friends outside Japan but Facebook outbreak came in January 2011 when the movie “Social Networking” started in Japan and Facebook was featured in mass media.  This was when the author was convinced that “2011 will be the first year of SNS in Japan”.

Unlike Twitter, Facebook was immediately used by a few innovative companies in their marketing, which was featured in series of online articles of a leading Japanese business media.  This together with the movie was the advantage the Facebook had over Twitter. 

Now there are some online Japanese marketers who constantly blog and/or wrote a book about how to leverage Facebook in marketing.  Also, people who first started using Twitter (online marketers in particular) tend to prefer Facebook

4. How about LinkedIn?

Japanese people living in Japan who are on LinkedIn are mostly in HR/recruiting and IT industry and few are truly active, such as proactively networking, joining group discussions and leveraging Q&A function. 

This might attribute to the fact that online community was not really considered to be a platform for business networking, recruiting/job hunting and so forth in Japan.  Such perception is still minor in Japan although there is a sign that the situation might change in the future, as mentioned in the previous article Vol.63 – Social Recruiting: Cases and Future of Recruiting in Japan.

Having said that, the fact that Japanese version has not been available is also a primary reason for LinkedIn not being popular in Japan.  There was a news that Japanese version is to be rolled out this June but the roll out seems to be behind their original schedule.

5. How about Google Plus (Google+)?

Google+ is still very new yet grown rapidly in western countries (the U.S. in particular); however, it is still mostly unknown in Japan.  It was only in August that the author found one of the first online article posted by a leading Japanese media saying how it is growing dramatically in English speaking countries and its benefits that encompass benefits of Facebook and Twitter.

The author, although had the account and was invited from her non-Japanese Facebook friend soon after Google+ invitation was available in July, started to really use Google+ in August to immediately understand that even few Japanese IT experts in Japan are using and active on Google+ and it is only the real innovators that are posting updates and comments.  In fact, the author was extremely surprised that a online friend in IT industry (blogging in Japanese about Internet and social media) sent her a message on Twitter as a reply to her tweet saying about her Google+ blog article that he has created an Google+ account but has not yet understood the merits of Google+.  

This is why currently the author mainly uses Google+ to obtain up-to-date information about social media and Internet marketing information; therefore, includes in her circles basically English speaking influencers to follow and to friend with people strong in Internet marketing and technology, and not networking with Japanese people.

1. 6.     The author’s final thoughts

Facebook and Twitter that was successful in gaining popularity attributing to strategic use of media is likely to strengthen its popularity especially Facebook, which would contribute to making 2011 truly the first era of SNS/social media in Japan.  

The author believes in the potential of LinkedIn and Google+, which is why she has been writing some blog posts about LinkedIn and Google+ for her Japanese blog.  The fact that social media has been becoming popular in Japan is a positive factor for sure.  If they are strategically rolled out in Japan meeting local needs, marketed and promoted by an effective evangelist, they would surely be used by more Japanese people in Japan.

Resources:-

Twitter and Facebook have gained popularity attributing to how they were introduce by mass media and so forth 2011 is said to be the first era of SNS/social media in Japan, but LinkedIn and Google Plus (Google+) remains unpopular in Japan.  Twitter and Facebook popularity is likely to remain strong.  Regarding LinkedIn and Google+, if strategically rolled out meeting Japan local needs, and marketed and promoted by an effective evangelist, it is quite possible that they would be used by more Japanese people in Japan.Post originally published in Future Direction of Web 2.0 and Internet Marketing on 2011-08-20 04:12:58