Role Play (Marketing Behavior Class) - Essay Example

Traditionally, men in Japan assume the role of breadwinner. According to Imamura (1990), the traditional family in Japan manifests “strict gender-based role division with a patriarchal head and a hierarchy by birth” (p. 1). A major change in the familial structure occurred in the late 1950s with the creation of the so-called salaryman family, defined as a “type of family consisted of a wage-earning husband who worked outside the home, his wife and his children… The husband’s primary role is that of breadwinner, and he was gone for long hours six days a week, leaving the management of the household to his wife’s hand” (Imamura, 1990, p. 2). The Product that I have chosen to market to the Japanese is leather shoes for men.

It was indicated in Countries and Their Cultures (2011) that “most men join a company directly after graduating from high school (for nonprofessional jobs) or college (for professional jobs). The ideal is to remain with the same company until retirement around age sixty” (Countries: Employment, 2011, par. 1). The leather shoes for men will be durable yet affordable shoes for working and professional men; however it will have the comfort of a sneaker. I plan to conduct a venture between the athletic shoe manufacturer Nike and the designer shoe company Salvatore Feragammo.

Feragammo will be the primary manufacturer; however Nike will contribute when developing the shoe and will be used for various purposes. Some of the material used will be the same that Nike uses in the production of their athletic shoes. The retail price will be about $400 (U.S.) obviously, the target market will be a men, aged 24-49 years old with a high disposable income. I selected this as a product to market to the Japanese because the subculture of Asians is more likely to be affluent (Lindquist & Sirgy, 2003).

“Understanding nationally based subcultures helps marketers to respond to changes in behavior and attitude as subcultures are assimilated into the larger culture and identify the types of products that are most likely to appeal to each subculture” (Lindquist & Sirgy, 2003). Further, the statistics on men’s income published in World Mapper (2006) reveal that “the greatest inequality between men and women is in Southeast Asia where men earn five times more than women on the average” (p. 1). Through the report, Japan ranked number 6 from among the countries with men earning the highest annual average income of $11981from among the Asian nations.

This supports the fact that men, as breadwinners, has the capacity to earn more and possess great purchasing power in terms of deciding which personal products and items he plans to use. Japanese are also attracted to novelty items. “The trend is called otakuism, literally an obsession with novelty” (Madden, 2005). Since my high fashioned leather shoes cum sneaker is new, innovative and trendy, I thought there could be no better opportunity to offer it to contemporary professional Japanese men, who has a high disposable income, loves fashionable yet sporty products!

I thought the best way to advertise and promote my product is to use the Internet, print and billboard media. I would most likely advertise in print magazines like Number, Weekly Asahi Geino and Japanese Sports Magazine; all of which are distributed in Japan. Billboards would be in high traffic areas and the Internet advertisements would be directed towards working men who belong to e-mail lists for high end department stores comparable to Nordstrom, Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus. Overall, I think the Japanese have a society very similar to that of the United States.

Their habit culturally and traditionally is what separates them and makes them very unique. I think that this product could also be marketed in the U.S. as well. Professional men here are very interested in self-indulgent products too. It would be interesting to see the results of this scenario. References Countries and Their Cultures. (2011). Japanese. Retrieved 31 May 2011. Imamura, A.E. (1990). “The Japanese Family.” Asia Society, pp. 7 – 17. Retrieved 31 May 2011. < http://www.exeas.

org/resources/pdf/japanese-family-imamura.pdf> World Mapper. (2006). Men’s Income. Retrived 31 May 2011. < http://www.worldmapper.org/posters/worldmapper_map148_ver5.pdf>