Trend Spotting

From Inspiration to Innovation. CScout trendspotting and coolhunting.

CScout monitors and analyzes trends in international hotspots to inspire leading companies and agencies.

Our diverse network of trendscouts in the field allows us to tap into your target group trends before they emerge in the mainstream.

CScout is a strategic consultancy and market research agency, based in New York, Tokyo, London and Munich. Since 1997 CScout has been scanning trendsetting marketing, lifestyle and consumer technology bringing you custom-tailored reports, workshops and trend tours.
- from inspiration to innovation.

From abroad, Japan is often perceived as a country with an ancient culture that has been paired with ultra-modern technology, producing a somewhat strange and hard-to comprehend society of group-oriented workaholics dotted by the occasional shrill teenager and bespectacled manga nerd. Much coverage in foreign media is limited to one of these aspects, with articles explaining either the strangeness of Japan’s popular culture or the peculiar characteristics of its economy. But Japan has much more to offer.





One major aspect of Japan that is almost always ignored is its highly competitive domestic market for consumer goods, which results in extremely short product cycles (often 3 months or less) and new product launches that are accompanied by gigantic advertising campaigns.



As a result, Japan offers rich and unparalleled ideas and insights for both product development and the field of marketing and communication. Applied to their home markets, these ideas and insights could provide foreign companies with significant competitive advantage.



Japan offers particularly innovative ideas in the following categories:

* Target groups - how to develop and adjust products for a specific target group
* Target lifestyle - how to develop products for newly emerging lifestyles
* Innovation - how to develop products that consumers have been waiting for
* Marketing - how to create campaigns that cut through the clutter
* CRM - how to make sure customers are truly satisfied
* Technology - how to use technological innovation to gain competitive edge



Japan’s society is aging fast: By 2025, more than 30% of the population are going to be 65 or older. Japanese seniors are:

* The most affluent demographic in Japan
* Spending large sums on education, recreation, transport and communication





Japanese companies are stepping up their efforts to address the needs of this consumer group:

* Mobile phones especially designed for senior citizens
* Robot dolls to keep seniors living alone company
* Cars designed to allow safe driving by seniors





Women in their 20s and 30s are increasingly choosing the freedom of life as working singletons over marriage and motherhood, and are exerting their independence through consumption, buying items such as:

* Beverages or cigarettes developed especially for female consumers.
* Cars developed to take the preferences of female drivers into account





The Japanese approach to environmental awareness is focused not on consuming less (as for example in Germany) but embracing an environment-focused lifestyle based on consuming more and different (and often premium) products such as:

* A washing machine that works without water
* Furniture you can grow plants in
* A kitchen which includes space to cultivate vegetables and herbs





Both older Japanese facing retirement and young people are taking their health increasingly seriously and buy functional foods and other products with added health benefits. Recent examples include:

* Tea drinks which support the burning of body fat
* An oven that removes excess fat during the cooking process
* A pro-biotic yogurt drinks effective against pollen allergies





An interesting trend in recent years has been the rediscovery of traditional Japanese and Asian products. Companies have recognized this trend and introduced innovative products such as:

* A bottled drink containing green tea from Kyoto
* Shampoo developed especially for Japanese hair





Especially for FMCGs, the pace of product innovation is incredibly high. New models, flavors, and packages are released almost weekly, for example:

* Breakfast on the go with jellies
* Premium ice desert made from soymilk
* Packages developed for easier handling





In recent years, Japanese consumers have become much more demanding regarding beautiful and functional design. Among the innovations developed by Japanese designers are:

* A microwave oven with a handle made from beautiful wood
* A rather interestingly shaped humidifier
* A fridge to cool and store wine - with the capacity for exactly one bottle





Japan is a Mecca for electronics, and new products and gadgets appear on a daily basis - especially in mobile technology, where Japan is several years ahead of the US and Europe:

* Mobile phone design and functions
* Mobile payment and credit solutions
* Seamless integration of mobile phones in CRM and business models





Especially in Tokyo, consumers are bombarded almost constantly with advertising in its various forms. To cut through that background noise, Japanese companies and advertising agencies are forced to develop innovative campaigns such as:

* The world’s largest outdoor advert
* Adverts in subway tunnels which form an animated sequence watched through the window
* Temporary spaces and cafes promoting a brand