With prices of many staples having risen or threatening to rise for the first time for a good number of years, Macromill Inc decided to investigate what the average consumer thought about instant ramen and other instant noodles.
Demographics
Over the 10th and 11th of October 2007 516 members of the Macromill Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female in each age group, with 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, and 25.0% in the fifties.
As there are no particularly good statistics to graph from this half of the survey, instead here’s a video of the Nissen Cup Noodle advertisements, done in an anime style with music by Hikari Utada:
With prices of many staples having risen or threatening to rise for the first time for a good number of years, Macromill Inc decided to investigate what the average consumer thought about instant ramen and other instant noodles.
Demographics
Over the 10th and 11th of October 2007 516 members of the Macromill Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female in each age group, with 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, and 25.0% in the fifties.
I think I’ve only ever once or twice eaten instant noodles in Japan; most of them are loaded with prawns, beef, salt and MSG, so I stay well clear of them! Looking at Q1, the one type I do recall eating was some sort of low calorie concoction that doesn’t feature on the list. However, it seems that most families do use them regularly, and always hold a few in stock for emergencies or days when they just can’t be bothered cooking.
If you want to find out how Cup Noodles are made, you can visit the Momofuku Ando Museum situated in Ikeda near Osaka and even make your own personalised unique ramen! Read the rest of this entry »
Recently goo Ranking, a Japan public opinion survey organisation, posted the results of a look at the political world from a rather interesting angle. The respondents were asked to choose their most good-looking world politician or leader in a poll conducted between the 25th and 27th of September 2007. Note that this poll drew its sample from the goo Research monitor pool, so there would be little or no opportunity for ballot stuffing. 100 points are awarded to the top vote-getter, and the other scores are the percentage of votes of the winner that each of the rest received. By sex, the votes were very similar, although Tony Blair won more female hearts than Shintaro Ishihara.
I find it surprising that Bill Clinton (or even Al Gore) doesn’t appear anywhere, however, and personally I’d have voted for Nelson Mandela, another curious omission. Read the rest of this entry »
japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted by Cross Marketing Inc into portable digital musics players. Note that this survey is concerned with just hard disk or memory-based specialised music players; CDs and MDs are excluded, as are mobile phones with music playback capabilities, and PDAs.
Demographics
Over the 24th and 25th of October 2007 300 members of Cross Marketing Inc’s online monitor pool who owned a portable digital music player successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample was male, 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.
I don’t really think there is much new in this survey, but I present it just as another data point that ilustrates Apple’s strength in the Japanese marketplace. Read the rest of this entry »
I don’t know if it’s seasonal or just that I’ve been prompted to recall them by translating this survey, but there does seem to have been rather a number of advertisements for premium beer on the television and in print these days. The survey that prompted this recall was on my MyVoice into premium beer.
Demographics
Over the first five days of October 2007 16,882 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 17% in their twenties, 40% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 16% in their fifties. Note that since the legal drinking age is 20, no teenagers took part in this survey.
The exact definition of “premium beer” is not discussed, but it is presumably based on price differentiation. Q3 lists the main beers that are considered to be premium. For me, Yebisu is the only one in the list I’d choose; Guinness, a brew I like back in the UK, is brewed under licence here and has a very unpleasant bitter, tarry aftertaste. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the strong images, or is it a stereotype, of Japanese businessmen, and one of the first points of etiquette many foreigners learn before coming to Japan, is the exchanging of business cards. To find out the truth behind this image, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into business card management tools.
Demographics
On the 23th of October 2007 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group employed in either the private or public sectors successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 82.2% of the sample was male, 11.8% were in their twenties, 42.0% in their thirties, 35.6% in their forties, 8.5% in their fifties, and 2.1% in their sixties.
This is one case where the makeup of the JR Tokai Express monitor pool may bias the results. As one of their main recruiting grounds is people riding the shinkansen, and replying to questionnaires awards points that can be exchanged for discounts on shinkansen tickets, they do attract frequent business travellers, and these travellers may be more likely to be sales people, thus more prone to be in situations where exchanging business cards is required. Read the rest of this entry »
As most Apple and iPhone watchers are aware, shortly after releasing the iPhone at $600 they dropped the price to $400, although they did give refund vouchers to many customers. The press thought little of it, although I did not see any statistics to suggest how the average US resident felt. To find out what the average Japanese person felt looking in from the outside, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into Apple’s brand image, and in this article focusing on the iPhone pricing.
Demographics
On the 25th of October 2007 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel employed in either the public or private sectores completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 81.8% of the sample was male, 9.4% were in their twenties, 40.9% in their thirties, 37.9% in their forties, 9.1% in their fifties, and 2.7% in their sixties.
As I have no intention of purchasing an iPhone myself, I can’t say I really felt much about their strategy, and given how many fanboys Apple seems to have, I couldn’t really understand the need to cut the price so early. Read the rest of this entry »
A constantly popular destination for Google searches is a survey from two years ago on QR Codes, the rather popular 2D square barcodes that appear all over the place and have been supported by almost every camera-equipped mobile phone for the last few years. To find out how usage patterns are today, let’s look at a recent survey from MyVoice into mobile phone QR Codes.
Demographics
Over the first five days of October 2007 17.091 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 16% in their twenties, 40% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 15% in their fifties.
The results here might be worth cross-referencing against last month’s survey, also from MyVoice, on mobile phone cameras.
Most of the QR codes I scan are from print advertisements, usually in the magazine that comes along with our mobile phone bill every month, and are shortcuts to web pages offering free downloads of various stuff. I do find them very convenient, but I’ve never seem a colour QR code bar in one article I read about them. Whether or not my phone can decode them, I do not know, although I suspect the answer is no. Read the rest of this entry »
With it being just about one full year since MNP, Mobile Number Portability, was introduced to Japan, japan.internet.com reported on goo Research’s 34th regular mobile phone upgrade needs survey, focusing on this MNP issue.
Demographics
Over the 15th and 16th of October 2007 exactly 1,000 mobile phone-using members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.5% of the sample was female, 1.8% in their teens, 19.3% in their twenties, 40.6% in their thirties, 24.2% in their forties, and 14.1% aged fifty or older.
Looking at the data from last year just before MNP was made available, around 18% said they would be interested in taking advantage of MNP, but Q2 shows that after a year less than 4% have actually done so. A similar question that may have been interesting to hear the answers to (or it may indeed have been asked, but not reported on) would be how many have changed provider but not used MNP. Read the rest of this entry »
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Recently goo Ranking, a Japan public opinion survey organisation, posted the results of a look at the political world from a rather interesting angle. The respondents were asked to choose their 
One of the strong images, or is it a stereotype, of Japanese businessmen, and one of the first points of etiquette many foreigners learn before coming to Japan, is the exchanging of business cards. To find out the truth behind this image, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into 
As most Apple and iPhone watchers are aware, shortly after releasing the iPhone at $600 they dropped the price to $400, although they did give refund vouchers to many customers. The press thought little of it, although I did not see any statistics to suggest how the average US resident felt. To find out what the average Japanese person felt looking in from the outside, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into 
A constantly popular destination for Google searches is a survey from two years ago on 
With it being just about one full year since MNP, Mobile Number Portability, was introduced to Japan, japan.internet.com reported on goo Research’s 
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