In May 2023, KOSÉ Corporation (KOSÉ) was facing three ominous factors in the Chinese market: declining sales due to weak consumer spending in China following a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases after Beijing ended its zero-COVID-19 policy, new regulations requiring beauty manufactures after January 2024 to label all ingredients that constituted more than 0.1 per cent of a product in descending order (thereby risking disclosing trade secrets), and Chinese consumers’ preferences shifting to local Chinese beauty manufacturers. About 30 per cent of KOSÉ’s net sales came from the Chinese market, where it focused on its major brands, Sekkisei and Decorté. Yet the market was becoming more saturated with giant European beauty manufactures and local enterprises. Should KOSÉ keep focusing on the Chinese market as its pillar strategy?
The Japanese sake market witnessed a 40-year decline, fueled by shifting consumer preferences and an aging customer base. Asahi Shuzo Co. Ltd. (Asahi Shuzo), a once-struggling brewery from Yamaguchi, defied the trend with the success of its singular brand of sake, Dassai. By 2022, under the leadership of the founder and chairperson of the company, Asahi Shuzo’s sales surpassed ¥ (yen) 16.5 billion, marking a phenomenal 165-fold increase since 1984. Expanding into 20 countries by 2016, the company aimed for a 50:50 revenue split between sales brought in from its Japanese market and sales brought from its overseas markets. In 2017, Asahi Shuzo’s president and fourth-generation owner embarked on a bold venture—to construct its first overseas brewery in New York. Initially estimated to cost ¥1 billion, by March 2023, due to delays related to COVID-19, the costs increased to ¥8 billion. The opening of the Dassai Blue Sake Brewery in New York in October 2023 raised questions about what the global market’s impact would be on Dassai as a premium sake brand. As the brewery in the United States became a reality, challenges and uncertainties unfolded, shaping the narrative of Dassai’s strategic evolution.
Yukimi Daifuku was an ice cream that had been sold exclusively during the winter season in Japan for almost four decades. Lotte Co., Ltd. (Lotte) entered the ice cream market thirty years after its major competitors, so the company strategically targeted the ice cream off-season, when other producers were not promoting their products. Lotte successfully grew the product’s sales, and Yukimi Daifuku became an iconic winter ice cream in Japan. However, the external environment surrounding Yukimi Daifuku had undergone significant changes, and in 2018, Lotte decided to sell the product year-round in order to boost availability and sales. Yukimi Daifuku saw sales momentum in 2019, but growth stalled in 2020. Without the benefits of its historical (and iconic) off-season position, Yukimi Daifuku faced the challenge of thriving in the competitive Japanese ice cream market. In addition, the patent on the product development process of Yukimi Daifuku was set to expire in March 2021. Without the iconic winter ice cream positioning and patent—the two key factors for their forty-year success—what were the next steps needed for the Yukimi Daifuku Branding Division for the product?
Fast Retailing Co. Ltd.’s UNIQLO brand (UNIQLO) was planning to relaunch +J, its collaboration with the legendary high-end designer Jil Sander in the fall of 2020; however, the COVID-19 pandemic began in March of that year, causing many consumers to spend less on clothes and more on essentials. Just like the first launch of the +J collection in 2009, this launch would once again happen during a global recession. The affordable street fashion brand faced a challenging decision regarding whether to reintroduce the higher-priced collaboration brand amidst this unprecedented situation.