Having grown up in Europe – Orangina quickly became on of my favorite beverages and part of my daily routine. Its been a drink I’ve loved ever since I was a toddler since it was a beverage always present on my dinner during speical occasions. Orangina, with its many competitors, such as Coke and Pepsi, is not a particularily known brand in North America and Asia (although I did see it more in China when I visited Hong Kong last year than I have seen it around North America).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_WuWMgED4Y&feature=player_embedded
Ad Number 1, shows Richard Gere in France in 2012. The ad has been tailored to Japanese audience – as its captions are in Japanese language.
Recently, thanks to Orangina’s new ads which portray actor Richard Gere as a “hapless traveling salesman from an iconic series of Japanese films,” according to the Wall Street Journal‘s Real Time Japan blog, Orangina’s sales in Japan have skyrocketed since the ad quickly went viral and Orangina sold millions of cases in the first four days of the commercials debut according to a recent blog about Orangina on Brand Channel. I believe that the online marketing orangina used was indeed very effective since they tapped in to the consumer’s emotional appeals knowing that the Japanese love the character Tora-san, the lovable loser in Shochiku’s popular 48-film series of Japanese comedy movies – which was the diligent character Richard Gere played in the advertisement. The blog mentioned mentioned above said that “The heady mixture of a sentimental heartthrob playing a sentimental heartwarming role has so far proven to be the perfect recipe for uncorking Oranginas drink’s local market potential”. This is certainly a sign of very effective advertising and shows that tapping into the Japanese consumer market has indeed been very successful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_HMLj4HLes&feature=player_embedded
This video here depicts the character Tora-san that Richard Gere play’s!
Certainly Orangina’s adroit sales promotion has proven to be very effective in the new Japanese Market and I can only hope that Orangina is just as inventive with the North American Market as they were in the Japanese market so that in the future Orangina will be a well known product in the North American market.