Here are the ins and outs of how advertising is done in Japan—a detailed, readable, fascinating report for Westerners and others who need a fast, hands-on explanation about how to reach Japanese consumers in their own land. Covering each sector of the industry and providing the knowledge that any Japanese account executive already has, Mooney explains the quirks of Japanese hard and soft sells, the use of foreign celebrities in Japanese advertising, and how copy is developed in Japanese. He also focuses on Japanese media and why it differs from media in the West. Astute marketers worldwide will find here the tools they need to get an edge on their counterparts elsewhere. Students of advertising, marketing, and international business will get a text they can use now—and a resource to keep throughout their careers.
Mooney makes clear that cultural norms must be respected when advertising to Japanese consumers. Despite what we've read about how Japanese society is changing, modernization is not Westernization. He also shows that while Japanese ads tend to be more subtle than Western advertising, there are still many that take a direct approach and what could even be called a hardsell approach, but this may not be recognized by Westerners unconversant in Japanese. Then too, Japanese media may look similar to Western media but they are actually quite different. They vary in circulation, coverage, subscriptions, and in other critical ways. What these differences are is essential to know if Westerners are to place their ads effectively in Japanese media and get the results they want. The book is organized by subjects; readers can jump from one to another without losing continuity. Each section begins with a short background explanation of the way in which the topic under discussion evolved—providing the all-important why of the topic as well as the how. It is the only work of its kind so far by one who not only works in the Japanese advertising industry, but who is also half-Japanese, half-American himself, and thus a book totally unbiased in its presentation and informed by a sensibility seldom found.
