Japan, land of the happy clippers
Although Japanese culture embraces premium brands and high tech, Japanese consumers gladly redeem mass-distributed coupons in restaurants, convenience stores and fast food outlets. Few packaged goods brands use coupons in Japan now, so penetration is low and it makes sense for grocers and CPG marketers to offer coupons, too. (Low is a relative term. Catalina Marketing found targeted coupons in all categories reached 13.6 percent redemption in 2001 — 50-percent higher than the U.S. average.)
| Population of Japan | 127 million |
| Total number of households | 46.7 million |
| Avg. HHD expenditure/month | 308,692 yen |
| Avg. HHD size | 2.67 persons |
| Avg. trips to supermarket | 2.1 times per week |
| Source: Japanese Census and Catalina Marketing research | |
Coupon-related data is still limited, but firms such as Intage, much like AC Nielsen in the U.S., collect volumes of household data for marketers. Intage, for example, collects data from 11 million households using supermarket checkout scanners (all supermarkets and C-stores in Japan feature this technology). Catalina is working with three supermarket chains to distribute 20 million frequent-shopper cards within two years.
Japanese consumers embrace high technology. That’s good news for marketers who want to target promotional offers. It also lends more flexibility to couponing — shoppers are open to paperless coupons, Internet delivery, even offers sent to their PDAs.
Rachel Keener can be reached at Catalina Marketing via [email protected].
