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Idols Learning Marketing Lecture 3rd Session : Make People Realize Your Charm! What is an Effective Approach?

アイドルが学ぶマーケティング講座 第三講「魅力よ届け!効率の良いアプローチとは?」
Idols Learning Marketing Lecture 3rd Session : Make People Realize Your Charm! What is an Effective Approach?

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The idol industry is volatile and unpredictable. Currently, the need for idols to put their charm points out there by themselves is growing. We invited a management consultant lecturer for this project, challenging idols to learn about management theory and marketing techniques! Here’s what the first and the second lecture was like.
The first lecture : http://tokyogirlsupdate.com/idol-marketing-lecture-vol1-20150854482.html
The second lecture : http://tokyogirlsupdate.com/idol-marketing-lecture-vol2-20150855053.html

The teacher of this lecture
CuteStrategy (Twitter https://twitter.com/CuteStrategy)

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From left to right : Yufu Terashima, Saki Mori(UPUPGIRLS (KARI)), Nonoka Ishikawa(PIP), Miyu Sorai(PIP), Maika Hamano(PIP)

 

How should idols go about self-marketing?

Before, our students (idols) each came up with their own vision and goal. At last this is the last installment of our marketing course for idols, dealing with the theme of how to incorporate an effective approach for the vison by the best use of their individual personality, ability, knowledge, and appearance.

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Currently, most idols debut in an immature state. And as they mature, they field various demands from their fans, affiliated; agencies, friends and family, and so on. If an idol tries to do it all at once, and tries to excel at everything like singing, dancing, talking, and appearance, as a result of that they’ll become a mediocre idol. So in that regard, first it’s important for you to be self-aware of your own charms (strengths) and weaknesses.

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What are your charm points?

Let’s look at some points for coming up with your own charm points and recognizing them.

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Ms.Mori: “I can make friends with anyone! I’m not shy at all, and I have a lot of friends!”

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Saki Mori (UPUPGIRLS(KARI))

Ms.Mori is able to roughly connect with people, even when meeting them for the first time. It’s easier to recognize your own charm points when you classify individual characteristics into knowledge, ability, personality, and appearance, and it seems that Ms.Mori’s charm point is her strong ability towards communication.

Ms.Terashima: “It’s the same with yurukyara (local mascots), but the might of my appeal lies in loving the things I love!

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Yufu Terashima

Her feelings of Love! stem from her personality. In addition, Ms.Terashima is able to make good use of Twitter and other SNS and has the ability to communicate her feelings well.

Ms.Hamano: “I’m confident I’m more knowledgeable in fashion than other people.”

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Nonoka Ishikawa (Right), Miyu Sorai (Center), Maika Hamano (Left)

Ms.Sorai: “When it comes to baseball knowledge, if it’s about baseball knowledge, especially Chiba Lotte, I won’t lose to anyone!”

Having the knowledge about something more than anyone else can be a huge strength. As a characteristic, it easily leaves an impression.

Ms.Ishikawa: “I guess mine would be helping others?”

Here again we see we ideas very much like Ishikawa and her leader characteristics!

We’re sure all of you have many other hidden charm points as well. Through naming your dozens of charm points, you might be able to clearly define your own unique charm point.

And well, with your own charm points everyone also has their own weaknesses, too. But the truth is, it’s important to turn your weaknesses into charm points by capturing them in a positive light.

Ms.Hamano: “I’m not good at dancing at all, which is a worry of mine…”

Ms.Hamano put it in these words. However, just like I mentioned during the first lecture, as a necessary, essential value that the idol offers, their story of growth is very important. It’s okay not to be good at dancing, because just trying your best at it might get your more fan support than the members who were originally good at it.

Ms.Sorai: “The clothes I own are really unstylish.”

This kind of weakness can actually be changed into something funny. By completely accepting your weak points, they might become a regular topic that inspires laughter.

Ms.Ishikawa: “There are times I completely empathize with people, and get emotional with them.”

In Ms.Ishikawa’s case, she describes one of her strengths as a weakness. She loves helping others, and looks after the other members one by one, which might be why she completely emphasizes with them. But let’s not regard that as a weakness, and instead view it more positively as a strength.

Ms.Mori: “I can’t strongly say how I feel to others…”

There may be times when it’s necessary to give your personal opinion when it needs to be said, but because you’re working as a group, it’ s good for there to be many different types of girls in it. Up Up Girls (Kari), is an especially energetic idol group with a lot of guts. On one hand, you could say you’re conceding the characteristic of being able to clearly state your mind to the other members.

Ms.Terashima: “I guess I would have to say my visual…”

I don’t think so at all! How about we move on to the next topic.

 

How should idols go about making people realize their charm appeal?

So, up until this point, we’ve been looking at your charm points and weak points, so in order to make people realize your charms, first we have to think about who exactly we’re trying to show them to. There aren’t many people who are loved by millions of people all over the world, so it’s important to want to reach this specific kind of person! and narrow your aim.

Segmentation: Divide who is likely to realize your charm appeal by dividing into classes of race, area, gender, age, palatability, and so on

Targeting: From the market you’ve separated, determine the target that is most likely to receive your charm appeal

Just as a note, don’t forget to consider whether or not the people you are trying to get to realize your charms actually place value on them, and what kind of feelings people will embrace towards those charms with value. For those that don’t know their target! Please try to imagine your own fans. Whether those fans feel your charm and support your, or they have a specific preference, you should be able to tell something about them.

After learning about segmentation and targeting, in order to transform your charm points into a hook, I’d like all of you students to challenge multiplying your charm appeal.

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Ms.Mori: “Currenly I’ve been doing a weather girl job. Don’t you think weather girls have a ladylike image? The group I belong to, Up Up Girls (Kari), an active group that would do a concert at the top of Mt. Fuji. So a weather girl x something unheard of or the element of surprise would be interesting, I think.”

Ms.Mori with her calm looks, is completely different during concerts, and her dancing is active. Certainly that gap would seem effective.

Ms.Terashima: “I’ve already started on my I love yurukyara x SNS activity. By interacting with yurukyara and on the net, people who are fans of yurukyara will hop over to my Twitter!”

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Ms.Terashima is already an SNS expert?! By multiplying her special skills, she can greatly increase her fan base.

Ms.Hamano: “I want to try fashion x songwriting. Not only wearing cute clothing, my final goal is to create my own world so I’d like to try producing something in its entirety…”

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Ms.Sorai: “I can’t get away from baseball, so baseball x idol…? I graduated from the economic department, so how about baseball x economic knowledge x idol? It seems pretty difficult, though.”

Ms.Ishikawa: “I want to try filming an idol documentary as an idol. Idol x documentary… But I feel a little uncertain that I might have to rehash this.”

The fact that many members have an interest in working behind the scenes or completely producing something raises the “idols producing idols concept”, and is very PIP-like. However, in the situation there are many rivals who share your same charm appeal, it would appear necessary to try to additionally multiply your charm appeal or distinguish it.

So now that we’ve defined your charm appeal and targeting, now all that’s left is the approach! Let’s turn to the PDCA cycle and challenge ourselves even more!

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At this point, it’s only 15 minutes from the scheduled four and a half hour long lecture end time. However, because the girls weren’t very enthused, we’ve only covered half of the curriculum prepared. Because of that, our lecturer condensed the rest of what he wanted to say into 15 minutes.

 

How to build relationship with fans and industry staff

On top of acquiring popularity, an idol also needs support from fans and support from entertainment industry staff. Therefore it’s very important to understand fans and industry staff. Our lecturer explained what kind of people make up fans and industry staff, and how important it is to build a relationship with them. He also explained what process fans go through to become idol fans, as well as the important of the fan community and the influence of fans on other fans.

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Know about the media used to convey your charm appeal

When idols want to convey their charm appeal to fans, an understanding of the media is essential. For that purpose, the difference between mass media and social media was explained, and because word of mouth communication has been particularly important in recent years for conveying charm appeal, he also told us the importance of idols using social media on top of mass media.

 

Looking back on the course

Finally for this project, which was given over the course of three lectures, we asked our students to give their thoughts on the management and marketing theories that they learned.

Ms.Mori: “I think all idols should have to take this course! Currently, I think there are many idol girls that have their hands full with everything that’s in front of them… So for myself as well, I have to think about what I’m going to do for the future.”

Ms.Ishikawa: “I want to have a meeting with the other members in my group, and tell them all about what you taught me during this lecture. I made many discoveries where I felt that this would be a great way to convey it to them!”

Ms.Hamano: “Up until now, I probably was only able to paint the future vaguely. It made me realize how much I hadn’t included.”

Ms.Sorai: “I thought that there’s still so much left for me to study about the idol industry and about myself.”

Ms.Terashima: “Through this course, I was able to organize the things I normally think about and do, as well as the things I unconsciously do. I want to keep brushing up on the things I’ve been doing up until now, and make-up for the places I lack. Next time I hope to see everyone at my concert!”

Despite it being a lengthy period of time, we were impressed with everyone was actively taking notes and listening intently. This project was very well received by our students (idols), so if it’s also well received by all of our readers, we may offer up a sequel!

By all means, we ask all of you to keep supporting our idols, who are working hard to get closer to their dreams!

Related links:
Yufu Terashima official site : https://yufuterashima.com/
UPUPGIRLS (KARI) official site : http://www.upupgirlskakkokari.com/
PIP official site : http://platonics.jp/

The teacher of this lecture CuteStrategy
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CuteStrategy
Photo by Yasuhiro Okada
Translated by Jamie Koide

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Author
Risa Miyano

A student at Waseda University. I'm a big fan of J-Idol.

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