Breaking Through—working With Japanese Creatives

The creative and customer service has caught in the middle. Throughout the world, where advertising is done, their fights are legendary. Japan is no exception. On one side are the seers and shamans whose quest for new and original lead in directions that seem pretty crazy. In its relentless search for something new, creative not to probe the limits of sense and taste are not doing the job for their clients should be demanding. In advertising, job No. 1 is the impact, and safe too often is boring? Is dead. On the other side are the makers and guardians of corporate policy. Administrators on the client side must verify and check again to make sure the ads are in line with the marketing strategy and consistent with the brand and corporate image. Their nightmare is going too far, causing a scandal that damaged the activity for which they are responsible. The problem for both parties is to maintain the fight and that included the use of the tensions generated by the power of creating the ads more effective. When the creative and clients share a common language and culture, the response is quite difficult. Where are the creative and Japanese customers are not, the difficulties may seem overwhelming. My point here, however, is one of hope. With patience, cunning and the right preparation, can be overcome. In what follows, we will look first at the typical process by which creative Japanese and their non-Japanese customers know to others. (Knowing where you are in this process is vital to deal effectively with problems that arise.) We will discuss below some of the ways in which differences in language and culture that the problems worse. Finally, when the picture is dark indeed, will offer a few suggestions for solutions and prevent problems before they occur. Passage of the #@!!#%&!! to the listings that meet often begins here. An alien arrives marketing manager in Japan. The agency assigned a creative team to work on their own. He is new to Japan. They are new to working with non-Japanese. If he works for a major multinational company, which comes equipped with clear guidelines for good corporate advertising. His new creative team is eager to show his "How is this done in Japan." Both are disillusioned quickly. He is upset by his apparent inability to get to ideas that are in line with business strategies and present them so they (and their bosses back home) is convincing. For his part, the Japanese creative team is fuming. "Not the stupid Gaijin realize that this is Japan!" What the foreign manager who asked top flight creative work they have done for the Japanese customers. It may seem that instead of what we got were the fans who do not know your business at all. For their part, whether they are high-flying creative? And, especially if they work for a large agency? They see themselves, quite appropriately, as members of an elite. "Not this stupid Gaijin know who is speaking?" If the team members are real primadonnas, its momentum at the moment is to get out. "I do not have to put up with this! Finding someone to do it. " And, if they are high-flying, yes, they can get away with it. First-class creative talent is so rare in Japan as elsewhere, and those who have it are pampered. Yes, the foreign administrator can find people that are easier to work with. The results are rarely exciting. Phase two is when the team did not walk away. Instead of its members to realize that hope is Gaijin rikutsuppoi, ie logical in a nasty, rigid, narrow-minded sort of way. "OK," they say. "Shiyou ga nai" (It can not be helped), we will do it his way. At this point, beginning, in fact, work to rule. The result is to check the list of advertising. Meets the criteria established by corporate guidelines. In a simplistic, mechanical way that fits the corporate strategy. In general, is less exciting, often simply boring. The ideal, of course, is to reach the third stage. In this case, the creative team has learned and accepted the limits imposed by corporate strategy, but is fired and the production of great ideas inside them. They have learned that working with a foreign client is remarkably like writing haiku, where you only have seventeen syllables, your employer is fixed, and, oh yes, you must include the words appropriate for the season. The frame is rigid, obsessive demands, the enormous challenge. The possibilities are endless. When ideas and emotions merge at precisely the right image, the result is interesting advertising. The problem, of course, is getting there. The language and culture stand in the way. Language, is an issue. When you live and work in Japan, which will soon come to realize the terrible truth of Jackson Huddleston of the introduction to Gaijin Kaisha: Running a business for Foreign Affairs of Japan. Too many foreign companies have the attitude, "We're not paying to go there and learn a language. We are paying to do a job. " Why did not realize that language is part of a job? Any CEO aliens in the United States to go to work without reading the Wall Street Journal? I doubt it. Every day in Japan, 99 percent of CEOs foreigners coming to work without knowing what is at present the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the leading economic newspaper in Japan. Nor can I understand that television news, advertisements, or social commentary. Who would run a business in the United States without knowing English, or a company in Paris, without knowing French, and without being able to communicate with employees in their native language? Is it ignorance or arrogance that we believe that companies can operate successfully as illiterates in the second largest economy in the world? Huddleston is talking to CEOs. For its marketing managers, whose job is effective communication in the Japanese language, the problem is, in any case, worse. Consider some examples: A Manager has finally decided that the only way to get the publicity campaign he wants is to inform the Japanese creative agency directly. His material is carefully organized, and its presentation is overwhelming. Then he asks questions. If the fate that may have one or two. It becomes a point of asking "Do you understand?" "Yes, they say. "Yes, we understand," is what he thought it said. "Yes, we are listening," is all that really said. He then is understandably angry, when the agency the next budget is wildly out of line with what he thought were the clear who gave them. Manager B has opted for an indirect approach. She has spoken to his Japanese staff and given them the job of informing the agency. They have met with the agency's account service people, who have then gone to the agency to inform creative. She, too, is justifiably angry when the agency presentation seems wildly out of strategy. In general my sympathies are with the Administrator of A. The indirect approach adopted by the Manager B ensures that the translation problems are compounded because every one of those involved in the chain tries to communicate what they think heard. (The often-stated preference for the Japanese non-verbal communication often results in missing details, some of which are vital points. To prevent this from happening is one of the main functions of what may seem to foreigners to administrators is the endless meetings at which nothing much is done, but confirming what has been said before). I suspect, however, that Manager A simply said too much, too fast. His presentation style is perfect for the heads you need to go home please. It was, however, deceived about the reason he had heard the questions, more often than not, came from executives has chosen to work with him because they "speak their language." If he had imagined himself hearing the same presentation in Japanese, getting only a rough summary of what you said in your own language, have realized that much of what he meant, although it might very well have been said Indeed, it was not heard by those to whom he was talking about. It should also be aware that the way in which he made his presentation created, in effect, a classroom situation. And in Japanese schools of one thing that is certainly not learn to question the master. C Manager for all this is history. The agency has come with what seems to be plausible ideas, perhaps not perfect, but possible. His problem now is to choose between them. Since he himself does not read Japanese, is forced to rely on translations in making their judgments. But what in fact is the true relationship between the translation and dubbing Japanese approved for publication? The Japanese copy can be wonderful, inept translation. The opposite is also possible. If the agency employs a translator who is a native speaker of the language in which the translation is done and is also a good writer, the translation may be more interesting than the original Japanese. Japan is the brilliant editor? Or has gone too far? Is what he has written for the audience to whom is he talking about? Or boring, offensive, or worse? Who is going to say? That is the crisis. The agency will make every effort to sell his creative product. Let the buyer beware. It seems only natural then to the administrator of foreigners to depend on its Japanese staff. But what if your staff and the agency agree? What if his staff agree among themselves? An experienced manager I know ruefully said that given the Japanese title of a Japanese and 10, is sure to hear 20 opinions. And the skills you need to choose between them is more aware of the culture of that language in itself. Culture, what are we talking about? Culture is what we take for granted. Therein lies the problem. When a person does not make assumptions shared by the other, there is potential for conflict. In the case of foreigners and manager of the Japanese creative team, the root of the problem is often what one assumes the other known and therefore not bother to explain? So that others can understand. Finding that way is the key to work together seamlessly. On the outside of the manager, there's nothing more frustrating than hearing people say, "But this is Japan." In a conflict situation "Japan" is a word that literally means "you do not understand, can not be understood. Shut up and do what I want you to do. " And no manager worthy of the name should be let out to anybody with that. The question is how to counter the claim without all angry and make the situation worse. The place to begin is to ask yourself, 'What is this "Japan" are we talking about? What is it that is being taken for granted by them that I do not understand yet? "It is possible that the answer lies somewhere in JAPANOLOGY, in the relentless spate of articles and books that scholars and journalists write about Japan, or in the comments that "Japan, from their hands" and to give the newcomers. There's a lot of value here. Knowing, for example, that "sauce" is in fried foods, but not in sushi can save him from ruin a good meal and shame itself in front of Japanese colleagues. Knowing that promotion to the Kach (section chief) is a key step in a Japanese manager of the race can help you make sense of a recent commercial for beer. Knowing that Japan is a "vertical society" in which the group to which a person is likely to be more important for him to share some expertise with members of other groups of lights Japanese relations. The examples are endless, and precisely because they are so exotic that attracts the attention of foreigners when they begin to think of Japan. They are sometimes only of interest to creative what we're trying to do. That become significant only when someone thinks he has found a new spin on something that has to common sense. The creative Japanese sentence more often reflects a sense of what is fashionable and trendy, not only in Japan but, more often than not, in the international world of fashion, film and music to which he or she is very much in tune. As much as other Japanese, Japanese creative devour information about the latest trends. And its appetite is very pleased by the media whose uniformity is surprising. This last point is of vital importance. The result is a constantly moving wave of common knowledge that is typically months or years before the Japanologists efforts to capture what is happening in Japan. If the administrator of foreigners had time, as well as language skills to match what is happening, he would also have to share the knowledge. He, too, would have a sense of what is and what is happening outside. Negotiating with the fact that he is not one of its most pressing problems. Their problems can be compounded by the age of the population that is working. In Japan as in other parts of the world, the generation gap is growing. The aging of the companies warriors who rebuilt Japan after World War II grew up in a world different from that of their children and grandchildren. A man in his fifty can remember their first drink of Coca-Cola, a gift of a GI. For him a Coca-Cola is primarily an American drink. A woman in her twenties grew up with vending machines for Coca-Cola through their elementary school. She was pleasantly surprised when traveling abroad to find that Americans drink Coca-Cola, too. That same man remembers when German car were a peak of almost unattainable perfection of the automobile. His son has grown into a world where the Japanese cars set quality standards, and some already offer lists of features. "Very well," the foreign manager said: "I can not wait to know these things. Everything depends on you, the agency, to tell what is happening here. And your presentations? You call these presentations! "First, let's remember what we learned. There is much that is common to assume knowledge. It is not common knowledge to you, but it is, or at least assume that it is, for others, namely Japanese customers. It might be worthwhile to reflect, too, what effects had 80 in Japanese advertising. The economy was booming. Worldwide sales were rising. People who play their hunches, tried things, he had a good time. The disciplines necessary to build an image and cling to market share is not much in evidence. When you need to persuade people who do not have the glorious freedom to choose what you feel like that when you need carefully planned presentations. Who were these people? In the search for solutions First, forget about who is to blame. The question is how to reach the third stage and develop a working relationship that produces a lot of publicity for one of the major world markets. The blame does not help. Do not ask questions. Yes, you're busy. Yes, seems to have much, much longer to achieve the results that you want to be back home. At least for the first year or two that is probably inevitable. The question is how to make effective use of all that it takes more time. Resign yourself moving slowly? Done, but every step counts. If you are not going to ask you questions, you can ask them questions. Ask around. Why that term? What color? That gesture? Why a woman rather than a man? Why do not young? Older? Bigger? Minor? You can win a lot of respect shown by an artisan of concern for the details. By challenging assumptions, we can find out, finally, what they are. You also can form little by little people to give it more of the information you need. Useful Japanese phrases to listen. One of the best, that is, "Mou sukoshi, nanika ... ... hoshii ...," is, "I'm not sure what just, but I want something a little more." It is a gentle but very effective way to show dissatisfaction and motivate people to think again. Above all? Be very specific about the manner of presentation you want to see. Better yet give an example, on paper, a model that can work with the team. These are your assumptions, a part of their corporate culture that can be taken for granted. For them can be foreign. Therefore, not only give them the model. Go over with them, step by step. And do not assume that "Yes (we hear)" means "Yes (we understand)." Their patience is tested. A stage can be terrible, depressing phase two. Reaching the third stage will be the sweetest.
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