Apple Computer's amazing iMac has been a smash hit worldwide, and especially in style- and size-conscious Japan. Houses and apartments tend to be small by Western standards, and a compact computer fits rather nicely.

A tip for marketing products to the Japanese: don't underestimate the size and cute factors. A mobile phone that is a few grams heavier than the competition will fail miserably--just ask Nokia, who concentrated on features rather than size and has captured very little of the Japanese market so far. And for a testament to the cute factor, you need go no further than the iMac display at the T-Zone computer store. Throngs of young ladies pet the iMac like a little animal, remark with a high-pitched "Kawaii!" ("Oh, how cute!"), and buy one on the spot.

Yes, style over functionality is sometimes the better business tack (though the iMac epitomizes both), and the marketeers at Apple know this--the computer screens are telling us all about "Estilo."

And the innovative (for the computer industry) marketing of style has paid off: Apple's market share in Japan for the desktop market more than doubled in the space of a year to 18%.

Copyright © 1999 by Ed Kaspar
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