This provides a detailed case study of TOKIQIL, a Japanese apparel brand that sells "puzzle T-shirts" which can only be purchased by solving a hidden riddle within a set time limit. It explains that TOKIQIL's success, marked by rapid ticket sell-outs and a high average customer spend of ¥25,000, is not due merely to the fun of puzzles but to a deep understanding of customer insights.

Specifically, the brand addresses the "unsatisfied needs" of puzzle enthusiasts who felt restricted by "spoiler-prohibition" rules and lacked a visual "symbol" to connect with fellow fans. By allowing the owners to discuss the puzzles and by creating a shared symbol through the apparel, TOKIQIL transformed the traditional, transient puzzle experience into one that is shareable, lasting, and community-building.

It highlights TOKIQIL as a prime example of generating significant value by identifying and solving deep, unarticulated customer pain points that the majority overlooked.

This explains trade marketing, defining it as the activity where manufacturers target retailers’ buyers and consumers (shoppers) to maximize sales at the point of purchase. Effective trade marketing hinges on discovering and addressing both buyer insights, which involve the buyer's unconscious motivations like whether a product is "desirable to sell" and "likely to sell," and shopper insights, which are the consumers' underlying motivations to purchase.

It presents the case of Kenvue's Listerine campaign as an excellent example, demonstrating how repositioning a product as beneficial for whole-body health successfully addressed the buyer's challenge of low mouthwash sales and appealed to the shopper's growing health consciousness, thereby increasing both category and adjacent product sales. Successful trade marketing requires building a selling story that aligns the product's value with the needs of both the retailer and the end-consumer to maximize availability and drive demand.

They examine Lenovo’s strategy for expanding its gaming PC market share in Japan by shifting focus beyond traditional, heavy users. This approach was driven by the recognition that an exclusive focus on core gamers leads to market saturation and inevitable customer attrition, necessitating the continuous acquisition of new users.

Lenovo achieved this by identifying emerging user segments, specifically those migrating from mobile gaming or valuing immersion over competition, and redefining its customer categories. Key initiatives included launching the "Lenovo LOQ" brand to target entry-level users and implementing extensive 24/7 support and AI optimization features to alleviate new users' psychological barriers surrounding PC usage and technical complexity.

The case study demonstrates how successful marketing involves creating an overall package of trust and support rather than relying solely on high product specifications.

They provide an in-depth book review of Ryo Asai's novel, In the Mega Church, focusing on how it illustrates the "light and shadow" of marketing in contemporary Japanese society.

This emphasizes that the book uses "oshi-katsu" (fandom activities) as a lens to explore themes of loneliness, the power of narrative, and the craving for connection in modern life. Specifically, the analysis details how the novel portrays "Church Marketing" techniques—which treat fan communities as religious organizations—used by idol management to foster deep immersion, devotion, and high consumption among fans.

Through the perspectives of three main characters (the marketer, the immersed fan, and the former fan who turns to conspiracy theories), the it argues that the novel offers a high-resolution psychological examination of why people seek belonging through narratives and the ethical implications of using engineered stories to manipulate them. The review suggests that the book is an essential read for marketers and non-fans alike for understanding the mechanics of passionate consumer engagement and its often-painful psychological cost.

They examine the successful market creation of Meiji Tofu-Style Yogurt, YOFU, by fundamentally redefining its usage scene.

YOFU was specifically engineered to be a non-traditional yogurt, with reduced acidity and a dense texture, enabling it to be consumed as a savory side dish with condiments like soy sauce during the evening meal. The strategy focuses on seizing the unmet need for a quick, nutritious, supplemental dish at dinner, where traditional yogurt was absent, effectively competing with options like tofu rather than other yogurts.

It highlights the importance of strategic retail placement in the tofu section and ensuring the product is convenient to use to successfully secure new customers in an already mature market.

They analyze the marketing success of Kao's Quickle Senmenbowl cleaner in Japan, attributing its popularity to an "Out of the box" approach that challenged industry norms. The product achieved massive initial sales because it addressed consumers' unarticulated problem of finding cleaning tedious, not just the visible issue of dirt.

Kao departed from traditional strategies by looking beyond conventional consumer surveys and existing target demographics (housewives) to focus on broader social and environmental shifts, such as the increase in household wash basins. Furthermore, the company redefined the product's value from strong cleaning power to the user experience of effortlessness, and expanded its retail placement to areas frequented by non-traditional cleaning customers like men and young people.

This case study demonstrates how moving outside established "boxes"—in research, targeting, value, and sales—is essential for creating new markets and achieving growth in mature categories.

This offers an overview of the book, The Art of Strategic "Push and Pull" in Business (titled Shobugan in Japanese), written by CyberAgent founder Susumu Fujita, detailing his philosophy on success in business and life.

It explains that the book distills Fujita's 27 years of experience into a business guide focused on the critical skill of "push and pull"—knowing when to aggressively pursue opportunities and when to strategically withdraw.

A major theme highlighted is that this judgment, often analogized to the game of Mahjong, determines nine-tenths of victory or defeat, with the importance of designing strategic retreats being emphasized over constant offense. Furthermore, it explores Fujita's core tenets for leadership, including the necessity of patience and perseverance, the danger of confusing luck with true ability, and the commitment to a thoroughly hands-on, user-focused approach (known as gemba shugi) to running his business.

This examines the relationship between globalism and anti-globalism, characterizing them not as mere oppositions but as a self-correcting, pendulum-like process where one movement’s excess inevitably prompts a push toward the other, leading to a spiral-shaped evolution of society.

This core concept of dynamic balance between "autonomy and dispersion" (globalism/freedom) and "centralization" (anti-globalism/order) is then applied as a universal principle to the field of marketing. Specifically, the it draws a direct parallel between this global sociopolitical cycle and the necessity of managing Brand Generated Content (BGC), representing centralized control, and User Generated Content (UGC), representing autonomous freedom.

The key takeaway is that successful brand management requires continuously detecting when BGC or UGC is becoming too dominant and flexibly adjusting the balance between them to maintain resilience and foster a synergy that integrates both recognition and trust.

This examines how the financial company Aiful successfully shifted its marketing strategy from simply using AI for efficiency to achieving co-creation with AI as a business growth partner.

Facing challenges where traditional advertising metrics like CPA did not lead to increased contract rates, Aiful, in partnership with Google and others, redefined its key performance indicator (KPI) to focus on high-quality users indicated by "brand name search lifts." The core of the new approach involved humans setting the strategic direction and forming hypotheses—such as grouping customers into 35 behavior clusters like "moving" or "fan activities" to identify signs of future funding needs—while AI handled the mass execution and optimization of the advertising campaigns. This collaboration, which resulted in a 2.7-fold increase in the target metric, emphasizes that human strategic design and contextual understanding are critical for enabling AI to maximize its strengths in data processing and rapid execution.

It concludes that the modern marketer's role must evolve into a "designer of business growth" who focuses on setting the right questions and strategies for AI.

This offers an analysis of the branding strategy observed at Junglia Okinawa, specifically exploring the application of its "Power Vacance!!" concept.

They note that while the main attractions and the "navigator" (staff) atmosphere successfully embody the brand's excitement and liberation, other elements like background music, food, and merchandise lack the same consistent theme. A core argument posits that successful branding requires the concept to be translated into every detail of the customer experience, ensuring that both the inner (staff behavior) and outer (physical elements) manifestations of the brand reinforce each other in a continuous cycle of consistency and transmission.

It defines branding as the activity of designing and implementing a unified conceptual world that imprints a sense of "brand distinctiveness" on the customer's memory.