Green tea flavor updates Ramune drinks

Written by: Rebecca Milner on April 25, 2008 at 3:05 pm | In Fashion & Lifestyle Trends | No Comments

Kimura Drink company has launched a, somewhat tame in comparison, new flavor to their unconventional “ramune” beverage line-up: green tea. “Ramune” is a beloved sweet lemon-lime flavored soft drink consumed mostly in the summer months in Japan.

The green tea flavor, made from Shizuoka prefectures’s famous tea, joins the already existing wasabi, curry, and annin doufu (Chinese-style sweet tofu dessert) flavored novelty drinks sold at Tokyu Hands.

According to the press release, the green tea meets sweet ramune was inspired by sweetened ice tea drinks popular outside of Japan. While Kimura’s drinks have in the past come in plastic PET bottles, the new green tea flavor (¥160) will come in the original ramune glass bottle, which fits in nicely with the retro trend still pervasive in Japan.

Last month we reported on CIC Co.’s instant fresh tea drinks that contain a capsule of fresh tea that is released into the bottle with a turn of the cap and it occurred to us later that this might be a riff on the original ramune bottles, which are opened by pushing a marble at the bottle’s mouth into the beverage.

In other do-it-yourself drink news, until the end of the month, Nihombashi Mitsukoshi will be offering packages of freeze dried fruits intended for adding to champagne. Created in collaboration with French chef Kiyomi Mikuni, who has a boutique in the department store’s food basement, the ¥840 kit contains strawberries, kiwi fruits, and apples, all grown in Japan.

With Japan’s week long Golden Week holiday just around the corner we are trying to decide if this champagne set was designed with picnics in the park or the shinkansen ride back to the countryside in mind.

Tags: beverage, Retro
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends, Press coverage

Japan’s best sellers (so far) for 2008

Written by: Rebecca Milner on April 23, 2008 at 2:53 pm | In Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends | 2 Comments

With 2008 already a quarter over (gasp!) the Nikkei Marketing Journal gives us a round-up of a few of the hit products so far this year. First up is the “Shower Clean Suits” from men’s apparel company Konaka. This wool suit is designed to be cleaned with just a hosing from the shower head, no detergent or ironing needed. The fabric is made from a special fiber with minute holes designed for quick evaporation, allowing it too dry quickly in a shaded corner of your room.

Not only is this suit incredibly convenient, but also cost effective, saving on pricey dry cleaning fees (which, due to the rising cost of oil, have increased 5-10% recently). Since the suit debuted in February, sales have doubled expectations and would-be Shower Clean Suit owners have been waiting listed.

Next on the list are food staples, of the non-prepackaged variety like meat and vegetables (or more specifically pork and cabbage). Following a health scare earlier this year, when a shipment of pre-packaged gyoza from China was discovered to contain unhealthy amount of pesticides, the idea of eating organic and home made food has jumped from the pages of earth mama magazines into the mass media and is making, at least for now, a real impact in what consumers are buying at major grocery chains around the country.

Compared to this time last year, the purchasing of (relatively) natural foodstuffs is up 3.7%.

We were hardly surprised by the next product, sugar-free beer, since hardly a conversation goes by without someone dropping the word “metabo,” the trendy contraction for metabolic syndrome that has become a catch-all phrase for anyone who could use a little trimming around the waste.

Kirin Zero, which was released this February sold one million cases in just 20 days, a number equivalent to a quarter of the projected sales for the whole year. Likewise Suntory Zero Nama has sold 700,000 cases in the first month since its March debut, exceeding expectations by 20%.

Rounding out the list is the NTT Docomo P905i model mobile phone, which has the capacity to stream a “One Seg” digital television signal to the handset’s three-inch screen.

From Panasonic Mobile Communications, the mobile phone wing of the company behind the popular Vieja TVs, the P905i has been Docomo’s best-selling phone for four months in a row.

Any predictions for the next three months?

Tags: beverage, Fashion, food, health, Mobile phones
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends, Press coverage

Starbucks and Kagome team up to say Be Juicy

Written by: Rebecca Milner on April 18, 2008 at 12:10 am | In Fashion & Lifestyle Trends | 1 Comment

In a country with a coffee vender on every corner (be it a café, convenience store, or vending machine), Starbucks has carved out a niche offering conspicuously sweet non-coffee drinks, like the Matcha Frappuccino. Their latest venture is the Be Juicy series, developed in collaboration with juice drink company Kagome and sold exclusively at the coffee chain. It seems like Kagome, the brand behind last year’s surprise hit, “Tomate” tomato flavored alcohol (made in collaboration with Asahi) is on a roll.

The 100% juice line-up includes sweet carrot and ginger, grape and raspberry, mango and orange, plus plain apple or orange for kids. Targeted towards the increasing number of health conscious men and women in their 20s and 30s, the campaign includes an animated video playing on Shibuya crossing’s famous Q Front building screen.

And at ¥270, the price is actually less than a cup of coffee, by ¥10 anyway. Remember to be health conscious and eco friendly and bring your own cup.

Tags: beverage, health
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends, Press coverage