Souvenirs in Kyoto
As a first step, improvement of the marketing strategy of souvenirs is very important, because “new” souvenirs are becoming more popular than “traditional” souvenirs in Kyoto. The traditional souvenirs are light and long-lasting, whereas the new souvenirs are heavy and fragile, and include fresh items such as fresh Japanese rice cakes or Japanese pickles.
This change occurred during Expo 70 in Osaka, and this tendency is shown in Table 1. According to this figure, Yatu-hashi, one of the most popular souvenir items in Kyoto, shifted from the baked type to the fresh type. Furthermore, at one time, Japanese pickles were not considered as souvenirs because they were very heavy and their freshness was very important, but recently they have been recognized as a typical souvenir in Kyoto. The most modern souvenirs in Kyoto are vegetables planted and grown in Kyoto, and are called Kyoto vegetables.
New products that have followed this are black Yatsu-hashi, which is made from black sesame, or green tea rolls, a cake roll with green tea powder. These new souvenirs are becoming very popular, but at the same time, they are imitated by competitors and are losing their originality. As a result, almost all souvenirs in Kyoto are involved in price competition and are losing profitability. This is a typical “red ocean” situation.
In contrast, for a brighter future of the souvenir market in Kyoto, “blue ocean” strategy should be adopted, because maintaining originality and profitability are key factors for the sustainable development of tourism in Kyoto. So, in this thesis, the possibility of blue ocean strategy in the souvenir market is surveyed.
The “red ocean” here is a concept proposed in Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant written by W. Chan Kim together with Renée Mauborgne. “Red ocean” and “blue ocean” are described as follows: