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Found in Translation
Trying to jump-start a moribund brand? Take a cue from Kabuki theater.
by Paul F. Nunes and Stephen Dull
Paul F. Nunes (
) is an executive research fellow at Accenture’s Institute for High Performance Business in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he leads research on marketing strategy. Stephen Dull is a partner at Accenture and the global lead of the
company’s brand practice.
Westerners have sampled Eastern culture for centuries, but never like this. Look around. Sushi chefs are in suburban
grocers, selling smoked eel rolls right next to the rotisserie chicken and the chocolate éclairs. Anime-influenced cartoons
dominate children’s after-school and Saturday morning programming in the United States. Americans and Europeans are
ordering bottled green tea at Asian-style hotels, lining up for shiatsu at Japanese spas, and gobbling $3 billion worth of
herbal remedies a year.
Ironically, many Western companies are so busy exporting their iconic brands into Eastern markets—think of Starbucks and
Domino’s in China—they may not have noticed the shifting tastes at home.
Even Japanese companies have noticed the change and are jumping on the bandwagon. After decades of conscientiously
Westernizing their cars, Toyota and Nissan are now designing cars for export that are distinctly Japanese. New models and
concept cars, like Nissan’s Serenity, are taking their design cues from Japanese cherry blossoms, fans, paper screens, and
Kabuki theater. These new models aren’t intended to be novelty or niche products; they’re aimed right at the mainstream.
How can Western companies capitalize on this trend? They need to recognize that it’s perceived origin, not true nationality,
that creates brand value. Market research and academic studies support this conclusion, as do many real-world cases. Just
as Pillsbury’s Häagen-Dazs capitalized on its Scandinavian-sounding name, brands that evoke Asian culture and design can
exploit Westerners’ fascination with the East. Samurai Jack, a successful children’s cartoon in the United States, was created
by Genndy Tartakovsky, a Russian émigré to America. And consider the Asian imagery and ingredients listed on bottles of
SoBe teas and fruit juice blends. The manufacturer, South Beach Beverage Company, was founded in Norwalk, Connecticut,
by John Bello and Tom Schwalm and became a subsidiary of PepsiCo in 2001.
Ask yourself which of your brands could get a lift by incorporating Eastern features and whether your company has the skills
and resources to test some ideas. Some companies have proved adept at drawing on Western talent to exploit imagery from
the East. SoBe, for instance, relied on Berlin Productions of White Plains, New York, to create its gecko-like mascot Mr.
Green. And it was a Vietnamese-American from California, Nissan designer John Anthony Sauss, who came up with the idea
of incorporating traditional Japanese art into the design of the Serenity minivan.
Other companies may benefit by tapping into Asian design at the source. Both GM and Sweden’s Electrolux, for example,
have product design centers in Shanghai. These Asian-based operations primarily modify Western designs for sale in local
markets, but they may also prove valuable as the companies seek to incorporate Eastern influences into products destined
for Western markets.
If all this seems too anecdotal, consider that the value of Japan’s cultural exports—its films, video games, and music—was
$14 billion in 2002, the Wall Street Journal reports. That’s three times the value of the country’s exports of TVs. And recall
that last year Japan spirited away that most Western of prizes, an Academy Award for best animated feature. Wasabi-chip
cookies anyone?
Reprint Number F0405B
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