The Kumamon boom: It’s all about engaging

晚上9:44 by Lesley Liu 0 Comments A⁺ a^-

Source: http://www.fujisankei.com/video_library/event/kumamon-in-newyork.php

As an Asian girl, I tend to say “wow! This is so cute! ” to, well, basically everything, but Kumamon is something that I actually find really adorable.

In 2010, Kumamon was created to promote tourism in Kyushu, Japan. Kyushu is a region in southern Japan that was recently connected by bullet train to Osaka, a major city in central Japan. Kumamon was developed to commemorate the completion of this project. He is the mascot of Kumamoto Prefecture, and he is also the first mascot to get a job in local government as a sales manager. His job is to find all the little surprises around the Kumamoto Prefecture and to share them with people around the world. Right, he works like a real person.

The Non-Traditional Mascot

Kumamon is unlike normal mascots, which are created for temporary campaigns and only appear at a press conference, waving hands and taking pictures. Unlike those one-dimensional mascots, Kumamon has his own personality. He is naughty and curious about everything. He looks silly but not the annoying type. I think that’s why he is so popular, but even though he is popular, he still acts warmly and sincerely to everyone he meets.

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Posted by 蘇膺中 on Friday, September 18, 2015

See how cute he is? Now you know why Asian girls are crazy about Kumamon.

The Little Secrets of Developing a Successful Mascot

Kumamon creates incredibly high PR results. Within three years, Kumamon has become the most popular mascot in Japan, even higher than Hello Kitty and Mickey Mouse. Without charging any copyright for using the Kumamon character on merchandise, Kumamon generated over ¥1320 billion (over 10 billion USD) in the two years prior to 2014, according to Bank of Japan (reference the wikipedia-Kumamon ). Some people have tried to analyze the key reasons why Kumamon is so successful. The team behind him is not even a PR or marketing specialist. Then how do they make it happen?

First, good storytelling. The marketing team constantly creates buzz about Kumamon. In September 2010, before Kumamon launched, Kumamon secretly visited Osaka. When people in Osaka saw a black cute bear walking on the street, they wondered, “What exactly is this creature?” A month later, they finally knew that this black bear was the chief of the prefectural government's sales department. Later that year, Kumamoto Government asked people to help them find Kumamon and bring him back. Kumamon was having so much fun in Osaka that he “abandoned” his job. Suddenly, people in Japan started to talk and chase this silly black bear.

Second, do it for the long term. Rome wasn't built in a day. Instead, we have to keep working on it. The marketing team knows this very well so they don’t just hold a single launching campaign. Since 2010, the year Kumamon was introduced, the marketing team has intensively promoted Kumamon as a brand for five years. Earlier this year, Ikuo Kabashima, the current governor of Kumamoto Prefecture carried out the healthy city idea by pointing out that Kumamon is overweight. They launched a series of clips in which Kumamon led people in the 4U Method (Dancercise) and Kumamon also started to participate in all kind of sport events.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/kumamotodiary.en

A few months later, it turned out that Kumamon didn’t lose any weight and still had his round belly. Ikuo Kabashima was so angry that Kumamon got demoted for being too fat. That sounds really ridiculous, right? But people in Japan really felt sad about it and they kept begging for Kumamon to regain his position. Kumamon officially became the sweetheart of the Japanese people.

Third, social media is essential. Kumamon’s social media platform is constantly being updated. All the pictures and short videos engage foreigner fans who cannot understand Japanese well. They also align international fans by launching English Facebook page and Chinese official name. Kumamon is very active on Twitter. He shares his work schedule everyday and the little surprises he finds about Kumamoto Prefecture. Sometimes he makes mistakes in front of camera, but he feels bad afterward just as we would. He even tweeted about it!

Not only posting the routine jobs, but Kumamon also engages in all kind of events online such as ice bucket challenge.

How long it would lasting?

Sometime I worry about how long Kumamon would lasting since there’s only a group people who works not just for building Kumamon’s brand but also other government stuffs? What if one day there’s no more available staffs to support the Kumamon project or the new governor of Kumamoto Prefecture comes up and stop doing such an innovative project? But since Kumamon is already build a strong image in most people’s mind, we can simply cross our fingers and appreciate all the little joys that Kumamon bring to us!