1. Background

There seems to be a lot of charms in Aomori, but they remain relatively unknown to foreign people. In other words, the good things of Aomori stay within Japan.

In fact, only about 20% of the people we interviewed in Singapore answered ‘’yes’’.

Our plan is to revitalize the local region through exporting the sweets, branding and inbounding. And, our target is Singapore, which has great Chances. Singapore draws a significant influx of people. That means we’ll have chances to let more people know.

It also has potential customers. Singapore has a robust economic and purchasing power, which means we’ll have more potential customers.

Based on these factors, we hypothesized that research in Singapore will give us solutions to regional revitalization.

 

2. Exporting

First approach is “shift the customer”. “Shift the customer to people with wealth using high-end sweets.”  We made a flavored apple pie, based on the advice from students of Singapore university. We have 5 flavors: yuzu, cassis, matcha, black tea, and rice cake, thanks to the great help with Komukai-Seika, in Rokunohe Town.

The main product of Aomori is apples, which accounts for 60% of the domestic market. Additionally, it’ll help apple farmers. And we can expect a stable supply of the material. As a pilot test, we sold apple pie at Shin Aomori Station. We found that even if the price was a little bit high, they would buy. To prove this, we did a lot of surveys about the size, price, and packaging in Singapore. The size had no problem, they are appropriate in size. As for the price, they responded the price was pretty fair even though we thought it expensive. For the design of the package, we found that we need larger letters of the package.

In conclusion, we need to change our fixed ide; “shifting from ordinary customers to generous customers.” With good quality, they’ll buy.

 

3. Branding

In branding, the key word is ‘’shift the knowledge.” The two most important things in branding are "educating consumers" and "constantly updating information."

What does branding mean in the first place? We believe that branding is about making people aware of, understand, and feel comfortable about the product or company through advertising. Namely, Instagram, line open chat, and email newsletters.

On Instagram, we posted traditional festivals, food, and tourist spots in Aomori in both English language and Japanese. We wanted more people to know good things about Aomori. So we are trying very hard to update the information on the web page.

It is very obvious “No new information, no repeaters. Latest information, more followers.” Therefore, it is important to always provide the latest information.

This is what we think “Shift the knowledge.”

 

4. Inbounding

For inbounding, the keyword is “Shift the style”.  We have taken an approach to increase the number of inbound tourists which stays low even after the pandemic.  We actually planned an inbound tour named ”Aomori Full Enjoy Tour”. After a lot of questionnaires on the street and a lecture from HIS, it was observed that the travel patterns of Singaporean are totally different from what we had expected.

・over-a-week stay

・private trips with huge family

・70% of visitors are frequent repeaters in local areas

・self-drive trip

・plenty of budget (250,000 yen in average)

・one and only local food

From these, two key ideas have emerged. One is “shift from reasonable trip to gorgeous trip”. Many Singaporeans spend a lot of money on good hotels and good food. Especially, traditional Japanese hotel styles like “ryokan” and delicious food of Aomori are very popular. Second is “self-drive style is very popular among Singaporeans.” They rent a car and move by themselves. They have no problem in moving from one place to another. We had thought we have a big disadvantage in public transportation, but not anymore. This is what we think of as “Shift the style”.

We have already made a realistic plan, some part of which HIS Singapore Branch is now reviewing and might be adopting in the future in their trip plan. Also, JTB in Singapore is distributing our original brochure in their branches. In inbounding, The most important thing we want to say is "Shift the Target."

 

5. Conclusion

In order to contribute to the revitalization of Aomori, it is necessary to adapt the methods based on the target consumers, knowledge, and style.

We need to break down the fixed concepts.

Special thanks to Kosuke Iida, Nico Cakes