世論 What Japan Thinks

With horizontal rain hammering on the window right now, it may seem rather unseasonal to look at a recent survey published by infoPLANT on the subject of ice cream, but the market even in the off season for ice cream seems rather strong. Over a week in the middle of January 8,653 people, 66.6% female, self-selected themselves to complete a survey available through the menuing system of NTT DoCoMo’s iMode.

I eat ice cream perhaps two or three times a month, but most of that is either as a fixed dessert item on a dinner menu, or as a small scoop accompanying a slice of cake. During the summer, once every few weeks we’ll buy a cone, and when we go to the theatre we usually buy a single-serving cup during the interval, but that’s about it.

And what is the correct English term for a single-serving cup/mini-pot of ice cream? Cup ice cream sounds awfully like a Japanese-invented term. You know you’ve been in Japan too long when you forget British-English and can only remember Japanese-English!

Q1: About how often do you usually buy ice cream? (Sample size=8,653)

	All	Male N=2,886	Female N=5,767
Almost every day	2.5%	2.0%	2.7%
Four or five times a week	2.4%	1.8%	2.8%
Twice or thrice a week	11.5%	10.6%	11.9%
Once a week	22.3%	21.7%	22.6%
Twice or thrice a month	32.3%	30.7%	33.2%
Once a month or less	27.8%	31.3%	26.0%
Don’t buy ice cream	1.2%	1.9%	0.8%

Q2: What kinds of ice cream do you usually buy? (Sample size=8,553, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=2,830	Female N=5,723
Single-serving cup ice cream	71.4%	68.7%	72.8%
Ice lolly	37.8%	34.8%	39.3%
Wafer sandwich	34.1%	31.6%	35.4%
Multi-pack ice cream	32.2%	23.9%	36.3%
Soft-serve ice cream	30.2%	31.9%	29.4%
Premium ice cream	27.6%	22.7%	30.0%
Ice cream cone	27.0%	24.9%	28.0%
Shaved ice	9.1%	10.7%	8.3%

Most of the above followed a trend of being more popular with younger people. The traditional shaved ice not suprisingly bucked the trend, as did premium ice cream, but with women only. However, for some reason soft-serve ice cream was tops with men over fifty, bucking a general trend of being more appealing to youth.

Q3: When buying ice cream, how do you select which to purchase? (Sample size=8,553, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=2,830	Female N=5,723
Flavour, taste	91.4%	87.0%	93.6%
Price	53.6%	46.9%	57.0%
New product	36.5%	27.9%	40.7%
Package design	28.2%	26.5%	29.1%
Quantity	26.0%	23.8%	27.1%
Maker	24.2%	23.7%	24.4%
Calories	7.7%	3.8%	9.7%
Nutritional information	3.0%	3.1%	3.0%
Other	3.1%	3.1%	3.1%

Maker was more important to older people, whereas the quantity, new products, and package design were more important for youth. Youth were also more price-sensitive. Young women, not surprisingly, were most concerned about calorific values.

Q4: How do you usually choose which ice cream to buy? (Sample size=8,553, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=2,830	Female N=5,723
Usually choose kinds that I’ve often bought before	57.7%	51.8%	60.7%
Will try out new products	45.9%	40.5%	48.5%
Buy different kinds depending on the season	28.2%	22.4%	31.1%
Often buy ones I’ve seen in advertisement	15.8%	12.9%	17.2%
Always the same type	15.5%	19.2%	13.7%
Always from the same maker	12.3%	14.3%	11.4%
Always the same flavours	6.9%	6.6%	7.0%
Always something different	8.0%	9.1%	7.4%