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Shogakukan

A 1922 Company Looking for a 21st Century Solution

 Shogakukan

When a company has a niche offering, it's hard to determine the size of the potential audience. It can be even tougher to find out if they're willing to pay for it. This was the challenge for Shogakukan, established in 1922 and now Japan's third largest publishing house.

Along with books and magazines, Shogakukan's publications include 4,600 comics, which are known as "manga" in Japanese. They were about to launch Webmanga.com, a 3D Web site, but they had to learn more about its e-commerce potential.

Guerrilla Marketing Finds a Select Audience

After conducting market research into the manga fan sector, we helped them unearth a worldwide community with an underground identity. But we still had to answer the central question: Would they pay to see their favorite comics online?

To find out, we used guerrilla marketing techniques for reaching manga aficionados. This included site sponsorships, newsletters, and opt-in-email from manga sites based in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. And by spreading the word about Webmanga.com through message boards and other affinity clubs, we maximized Shogakukan's marketing budget while reaching the most relevant audience.

After creating audience-specific surveys, we used word-of-mouth to find survey participants. Shogakukan expected to reach only 500 survey participants - we reached approximately 7,000 participants worldwide. The survey results didn't only educate Shogakukan about their audiences, it also answered the critical question: Yes, they were very willing to pay for a 3D online manga site.

Shogakukan counted on e-Storm for:
  • Market Potential Analysis & Recommendations
  • Community Marketing & Research
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Copywriting
  • Survey Creation, Database Creation & Analysis