First of all I would like to begin by saying that my hopes and prayers are with the victims of the recent devastating earthquake. The destructive force of the earthquake damaged Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant to the extent that radiations have been leaking out of the reactors. The news about the radiation worries millions of people worldwide and it certainly has an effect on people’s consumption of Japanese food. It is true that only 10 – 15% of all the meat in Japanese restaurants are imported from Japan and that all of them have been checked thoroughly for radiation. However, this doesn’t stop people from being paranoia and thus a decrease in demand for Japanese food is very likely – especially for sushi and sashimi.
The task for marketers of Japanese food is to restore consumers’ confidence as soon as possible before there is any permanent damage. One way they can do this is by combining the think and feel factor. Tackle the think factor by providing facts and figures that is logical and easy to understand; make sure that the general public understand about the safety procedure that importers have. By providing accurate and easy to understand information, consumers would feel more secure in going into Japanese restaurants and purchasing imported Japanese ingredients. In addition, it would also eliminate any rumours that would have an adverse effect.
Next is the feel factor. Marketers could use charity to help boost demand and sales; using campaigns such as every 5% of sales would go towards helping the victims in Japan. If people feel safe about their food, they would be more incline to support imported Japanese ingredients as they see it as being charitable. However, one thing that marketers have to keep in mind is ethics; they have to make sure that they are not taking advantage of other people’s misery.