Thoughts about Ayumi's Marketing Strategy

[GSC89]

Well, while browsing through wikipedia the history of various jpop artists, I've come to a conclusion that the reason for Ayumi's rise to popularity years back then was alot due to her PVs.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that she thrived during an era where she had the stamina to come out a single every month(or two I forgot) and that kept her fans constantly interested for new releases.

Her vocals has definitely improved alot since her early songs (the songs on GUILTY were far far much better than say Loveppears), so what was the cause of her decline in sales? Even with losing one ear she was able to produce music at least twice better than the songs that made her popular in the first place?

At first, I thought that maybe she was hindered by age in a music industry where people look for "young" and "trendy" icons.

One thing I noticed though. The JPOP singer Utada Hikaru (hikki as popularized by her fans) has PVs that were nowhere near Ayumi PVs (and singers like Namie Amuro or Kumi or any other japanese singer for that matter). If you watched her PVs you would know what I mean -_-. (Hikari, Kiss & Cry comes into mind)

Even without attractive PVs to promote her music she was pulling a very impressive record of sales. I don't believe that the vocals were the reason for it at all. Sales figures was never an indicator of how good the music was.

First Love, the top selling Japanese album in history certainly did not achieve its status through the vocals alone. Ditto with the single Flavor of Life. It's the marketing.

Her PVs suggested that they had horrendously low budget. However, one cannot help but notice that her success with singles is largely due in part of tie-ins. (e.g Hana Yori Dango 2, Majo no Jouken, Kingdom Hearts, various other anime series)

Can this be a possible marketing strategy for Ayumi's marketing team to consider? How does getting drama and movie tie-ins for songs work anyway =/?

Thoughts?

[jonneh]

I don't really know much about all that stuff, but, I do know Ayumi has done other things. The very first song I ever heard from Ayu was on a video game called "Thousand Arms". It was an RPG for the Playstation, I think. The song was "Depend on You". The next song I ever heard from her was in the anime Inuyasha - she does "Dearest" as one of the ending themes. Also, now her song "Secret" is being featured in a new film. =)

[Halla]

Ayu probably has more marketing that Hikki overall. both have PV's in heavy rotation, but Hikki does barely any tv whereas Ayu does all the biggest music shows and specials.

Ayu also has a huge presence in fashion. She's on the cover of all the biggest fashion magazines in japan so many times. Vivi , Cawaii , Scawaii etc and even a couple of Vogue Nippon editorials.

so IMO there's nothing wrong with the Ayu's recent sales (or lack of, according to some ...) and certainly the promotion is not the problem.

[Not~Yet]

Originally Posted by jonneh

I don't really know much about all that stuff, but, I do know Ayumi has done other things. The very first song I ever heard from Ayu was on a video game called "Thousand Arms". It was an RPG for the Playstation, I think. The song was "Depend on You". The next song I ever heard from her was in the anime Inuyasha - she does "Dearest" as one of the ending themes. Also, now her song "Secret" is being featured in a new film. =)

I'm also pretty sure that rainy day and Startin' were featured on some video game. Heaven --- Shinobi movie. Born to Be --- winter olympics. And fated --- Kaidan... So besides the heavy promotion she also has songs featuring a movie etc once in a while even now. I'd just guess that her sales ain't so good because people download lots of music illegally more now and don't really care to buy so much CDs and such.

Her musical style also has changed quite a bit so even if that makes some new fans, old fans who in example liked her LOVEppears and I am... songs won't all like GUILTY and Secret.

And also since she's such a big star and shown everywhere it can get tiring and people start listening to less famous "rising" stars with a fresh style of music.

I.e. I don't really like any "big" (pop) stars around here in my country.

[CHE.R.RY]

I think one of the reason Ayu's popularity (and I know someone is gonna have something to say about this), which was something Foxxy_Fuyumi brought to light in another thread, is for the simple fact that Ayu releases TOO much TOO often...as opposed to Utada who releases things every now and then. Maybe it's just becoming too much for the Japanese public and they're getting tired of her material. Ayu does release singles/albums at a very rapid pace, even if it's not quite as often as she used to. It's a little puzzling, but I really think it has to do with Ayu's excessive releases, which just to let you know does not bother me in the least
I'm just saying that Ayu's crazy music + rapid releases might be getting a little old to the Japanese public, but talk about lack of loyalty to your favorite artist :/

But there is another theory I have...maybe it's Ayu's new recent style of music? Lately, her music has been more rock-involved and has taken on darker sounds to it, which if you look at her past sales on A BEST 2 -BLACK- (which is said to feature more dark songs than A BEST 2 -WHITE- that features the lighter and happy songs) there is a slight difference in the sales.

A BEST 2 -BLACK-
http://wiki.theppn.org/A_Best_2_-Black-
*Notice it actually reached #2.

A BEST 2 -WHITE-
http://wiki.theppn.org/A_Best_2_-White-
*Notice this reached #1.

Also, glitter/fated sold better than talkin' 2 myself/decision...

So who knows? It could be a variety of things causing Ayu's sales to drop. She certainly has an interesting marketing strategy.

[Milox]

You came to the conclusion that it is because of her PVs? Seriously?

She has alot of crappy PVs. The PVs actually have very little to do with why she became so sucessful.

3 simple things:

1.- Lyrics

2.- Fashion

3.- Tie-Ins

Her lyrics were the reason why she is known so much, her lyrics are usually very personal and in some times they share thoughts and feelings that many people have. Those were reflected in the teenagers of japan back then. Thanks to the huge popularity of her persona she was able to make herself even more popular due to everyone wanting to imitate her, therefore every company wanted to use her image for their products. Of course, Avex took advantage of this and gaved permission of her image and they would use her songs on the countless CMs she has done.

Japan has alot of artists, and everyday there seems to be a new one coming up. Ayu was in pretty much every important product and company, therefore the promotion was huge.

The problem with Ayu's "decline" is that her audience has "grown up" and while her music has matured somewhat, she is in an odd place where her older fans are either still with her or have "moved on" to other things. But she isn't really making "new fans".


On the Utada thing, Lyrics are also one of her stronges assets. Hikki doesn't has horrendous PVs like you say, some are even better than Ayu's. Also Hikki is very popular due to her fluent english/japanese, her mother was a popular singer aswell. Had good promotion fromt the start. And perhaps most importantly, she is like nothing else out there, making her a completly fresh and new artist since day 1.
The fact that FoL got insane sales could be because of many things: 1.- was her first real single after quite a while, making it a very anticipated song. 2.- was a good song 3.- had one of the best tie-ins in her entire career

But honestly, her sales aren't that far from Ayu's if you take into consideration that Ayu releases so much in so little time unlike Hikki

[sugarbasil]

I really don't think it has anything to do with PVs. I can't say why she became popular necessarily, besides people just liking her music; but I can give some reasons that I've heard 1st hand from people in Japan as to why her popularity went down.

1. She produced popish-trancey music during the height of that music era. That attributed to her popularity (she was the best of the best of that kind of music), but then her music style changed, and people didn't like it. They fell in love with her poppy music, not her rockish music. I remember someone telling me, "I don't know what she thinks she's doing. That's not who she is." It's sort of like people not liking Koda Kumi anymore because they want her sexy music and image, not her cute stuff now.

2. As someone already said, her over abundance of releases also probably contributed to it. The more people see her the more they get sick of her, especially nowadays. She's not popular anymore (at least...not as popular), so they don't want to see some old wash-up all over the place. You have no idea how many times I heard from people in Japan that she should just retire already, and that she's "old."

[ImpactBreaker]

I think the lyrics most likely contributed the most. Over the years, her ideas have ran out, and her lyrics have become recyclal after recyclal. They used to have a meaning to japanese people, but nowadays, they've probably gotten sick of them.

There were extra factors: themed covers, interesting PVs, her fashion sense. But all those probably got old to japanese ppl as well.

[edgefusion]

I think Utada Hikaru is a lot more of a genuine and likable person than Ayumi Hamasaki. Ayu (I feel) has this weird, fake and diva-ish image she puts out to her fans which gets very tiring after seeing it for so long. Hikki seems just plain natural and normal.

[ComatoseBunnySnatcher]

Yeah... Ayu has said she fakes her persona, so I'm guessing that's a factor.

[CHE.R.RY]

Originally Posted by Nippon

Yeah... Ayu has said she fakes her persona, so I'm guessing that's a factor.

Well...she didn't actually say she fakes her persona that she presents to her fans. She just said that there's the Ayumi Hamasaki that the fans know, and then there's the other Ayumi Hamasaki that she knows personally -it went something like that.

[everlastingRAINBOW]

Originally Posted by Nippon

Yeah... Ayu has said she fakes her persona, so I'm guessing that's a factor.

0.o

[ImpactBreaker]

I think things like that "ayu_ready?" crap helped in a way to make japanese ppl a little sick of ayu. I'm glad it doesn't exist anymore

[CHE.R.RY]

^ I never got to watch the show. What was so bad about it if you don't mind me asking?

[sugarbasil]

^^Haha. I always just saw it as if Britney Spears or Madonna got their own show. If that happened, I'd just be like, "Jesus christ, she's awesome and all, but she doesn't need her own show." :/ I think that alone would make anyone hate the person. >_<

[bluegie]

Just remember one thing: no one will be on top forever.

How often you see an artist still sell like crazy after 5 or 6 years in Japan? You see that B'z, KinKi Kids, Mr. Children, ayu, etc., they do have continuous no. 1 on singles (and probly albums). But are their cds the best selling ones? The answer is no. They just get no. 1 everytime because their statues keep them from big competitors. Just look at B'z, who have 40 consecutive no. 1s; and KK, they never get a no. 2 single. If you throw KAT-TUN vs. B'z, I'm pretty sure that the young boy groups will break B'z no.1 streak. B'z last single can't even get over 250K in overall.

So the point is, whatever they did to make them really popular in the beginning, fans will be gone eventually, because fans and artists dun share the same feelings or point of view as time goes on.

And something I need to say as I'm one of those older fans (can't say I'm one of the oldest, since I wasn't into ayu till LOVEppears), I love her old music more than her current ones. I must admit that her idea are not as innovative as before (e.g., how many times do you hear "Boku tachi wa" in her songs? Voyage, Marionette, Together When..). And I feel that she should use some new composers/arrangements instead.

PVs did have a bit of contribution to her early success. I enjoy her older pvs because there were plots inside.


And last but not the least, hikki do have good pvs. Kiriya trilogy (FINAL DISTANCE, traveling, SAKURA DOROPPUSU), Be My Last, Keep Tryin', COLORS, etc.

[Coelacanth]

Yet I have a feeling, if Ayu left the limelight and slowed her releases down even more, her sales still wouldn't recover. It's a lose-lose situation really. I think in a Japanese performer's case it would be better to be known and somewhat disliked than completely forgotten.

I think Ayu's success involved many different factors, the same that apply to most successful pop acts.

I think timing was key in Ayu's case. They define that particular era of Japanese pop music. She wrote her own lyrics.. very well might I add. Her melodies were top-notch. I believe that DAI is the most important composer in her career, and possibly one of the largest contributors to her success. It's pretty safe to say that without DAI she would not be at the same level she's at today. He was responsible for a large amount of the 'classics' like Boys & Girls, SEASONS, Trauma, Fly high - plus all the songs worked on with CREA - independent, Dearest, HANABI, July 1st. Lyrics by Ayu and melody by DAI is a powerhouse combination. BLUE BIRD, arguably her last 'successful' single further proves that.

Charisma and fashion sense, like others have said definitely contributed a lot. Charisma in particular, I think is something she may lack lately. She seems a little more reserved in most TV appearances, as opposed to when she had her own show. Also, I'm not sure about the whole idea of being marketed as Japan's 'diva'. While I agree, there's nobody else in Japan that can quite pull it off, it's getting to be a bit much for my personal tastes. The big 20 kg dresses, $2 million PV's, glitzy/glammy album covers... Lately, I'd rather have a single cover of her dressed like a homeless person sitting on a street corner with graffiti in the background. And I swear, I probably wouldn't complain. I just kind of need something from her to reassure me that she's a human being, if that makes any sense.

[ayumisrael]

Originally Posted by Nippon

Yeah... Ayu has said she fakes her persona, so I'm guessing that's a factor.

I have to say, wtf!? When did she say such a thing? If she would really say it there would be a whole drama/scandal like kumi's.

Though ayu fills full huge arenas (even in Hong Kong and Shanghai) in no time, that one of the things that's still means you're very popular.

Everyone always seem to look about sales of CDs (which aren't bad, selling more than half a million for an album) and forgetting about ayu's successful and popular tours.

[bluegie]

well said Coelacanth.

Her older lyrics were very well written. DAI + ayu did create lots of popular songs back then. The thing is.. she's already out from her dark teenage period... so can't expect her to write things to attract current young generations. Also, I hope she's finding someone else to compose her music, not even DAI. Probly her current lyrics ain't that bad, except her music arrangement are practically the same. Electric guitar must be there, electric piano should be there, her band should be there. It's like getting old. She could have using trance/dance music or something other than rock every time.

And yes I think she's a bit more reserved lately.

Your last point is really innovative. That would surely attract general public if she really dressed like a (beautiful) homeless person..

[Bashumaru]

I don't know but it seems Utada has MUCH more marketing than Ayu, I mean look at her wiki page for Heart Station (the album) theres like a lot on promotion. Then look at Ayu's GUILTY, there isn't much about promotion and the only thing that I can think of that counted as promotion was those magazine covers which she does for all her albums, then the 1 PV that was on MTV and the TV appearances and those posters in Shibuya. It sounds like a lot but if you look at Heart Station's promotion, its not that much.