The Dawning of the Age of the National

This week we start our “Marketing Sake Series.” Even readers who are not remotely involved in the selling of this beverage should find the following blog entries of interest. We can assure you that there is nothing hackneyed here. That’s not our style. 

From Heraclitus (540 BC-circa 480 BC), that ancient Greek philosopher who knew a thing or two about stepping into rivers, to Bob Dylan and his “The Times They Are a-Changin,’” we all know that change is inevitable. We live in the flux. I will argue in this entry that the bad times being experienced in the domestic sake market will pass away, and if the proper steps are taken in a timely manner, the results should become apparent sooner rather than later.  Indeed, this is the ideal time to implement changes in how sake is marketed to Japanese who do not purchase the beverage.

There is significant evidence to suggest that the publics in countries in which globalization is firmly entrenched—e.g., Western nations and Japan—are now reassessing the phenomenon and more clearly perceive its downside. As a result, they now hold the local in higher esteem than the global, which obviously has implications for marketing.

…Western consumers appear increasingly wary of the negative side effects of marketplace globalization that put a strain on many societies. They voice fears that ‘unfair competition destroys jobs at home,’….¹

There has been “a reorientation toward traditional national values.”²

Given such an atmosphere, it is reasonable to assume that brands closely identified with being global will be penalized in the marketplace, whereas those brands and by extension products that are perceived as national or local will be rewarded. Few would contest the assertion that NIHON-SHU IS QUINTESSENTIALLY JAPANESE.

Given this trend, which exhibits no evidence of abating, the time has come to develop strategies to make the drinking of sake in Japan as ubiquitous as the consumption of highballs.

There will be more on this next week.

¹Mandler, T. et al., “Brand Credibility and Marketplace Globalization: The Role of Perceived Brand Globalness and Localness,” Journal of International Business Studies, 52 (2021).

²Ibid.