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I liked this vlog more than you will probably!  It reminded me of my life in Tokyo - but I hope you get something from it as well!  It is about Coca-Cola Coffee.

I have a pricing story and clever invention that I observed while I was living in Japan on assignment as the Director of eMarketing for General Motors Japan.   The first story is about Coca-Cola and the second story is about watermelons.

One of the MARKETING stories that I always think about is something as simple as the Coca-Cola machines in Japan.

I think it was in the 1970's that the orange growers had an over-production of oranges and tried to sell their excess inventory all over the country.    They went to an American company located in Japan, Coca-Cola and asked them to consider taking some of their orange crop that year.  Coca-Cola was trying to become of the brand of choice then.  But, Coca-Cola explained that they did not make a orange juice / soda in Japan.  But trying to be part of the community they decided to help the farmers out.

Coca-Cola did start to produce an orange drink that was successful.  It turned out to be a win/win scenario.  And, the Japanese population were loyal to the Coca-Cola product from that point forward.  Pepsi did not have a chance.

Fast-forward to the time that I lived in Tokyo (1999-2001), I was amazed to see vending machines for Coca-Cola everywhere.  Even on the sidewalks in some of the 'subdivisions' in my own neighborhood. 

You know how sophisticated Japan is with electronics – right?  Well, their vending machines are able to CHANGE pricing based on the temperature outside. 

What I also found very interesting was that they have adjustable pricing in their vending machines.  As the daily temperature rises, so does the price.

 On a 70 degree day, you could buy a can of Coca-Cola for about $1 U.S.

On a 90 degree day, you would pay about $2 U.S.

Do you think this would work in the United States?

Another one of my favorite stories when I was living in Japan was around the square watermelons.  But, let’s first talk about the ‘pricing’ of melons and fruit in general in Japan.  Fruit is considered a wonderful gift there.  When someone is ill you would never give them flowers…you would give them fruit.  And the Japanese take great pride in their fruit.  It is grown to perfection.

I remember one day on my lunch hour I went to a close by grocery store to pick up an apple for lunch.  It was perfectly shaped and beautifully shined.  It was also the equivalent of $6 U.S.!    Then I looked at the melons in the store.  I did the conversion from yen to dollars and saw that they were anywhere from $60 - $100.  But, I have to say they were all ‘perfect’ from the outside.

I then noticed something very interesting.  The watermelons were square!  I wondered why and found this story online.  Per CiteHR Human Resource Management, "Japanese grocery stores had a problem. They are much smaller than their US counterparts and therefore don't have room to waste. Watermelons, big and round, wasted a lot of space. Most people would simply tell the grocery stores that watermelons grow round and there is nothing that can be done about it. That is how I would assume the vast majority of people would respond. But some Japanese farmers took a different approach. If the supermarkets wanted a square watermelon, they asked themselves, "How can we provide one?" It wasn't long before they invented the square watermelon.   The solution to the problem of round watermelons wasn't nearly as difficult to solve for those who didn't assume the problem was impossible to begin with and simply asked how it could be done. It turns out that all you need to do is place them into a square box when they are growing and the watermelon will take on the shape of the box. This made the grocery stores happy and had the added benefit that it was much easier and cost effective to ship the watermelons. Consumers also loved them because they took less space in their refrigerators which are much smaller than those in the US meaning that the growers could charge a premium price for them" (CiteHR Human Resource Management, 2010).  Now that is innovation!

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