Democratizing luxury : name brands, advertising, and consumption in modern Japan / Annika A. Culver.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Culver, Annika A., 1975- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Branding (Marketing)--Japan--History--Case studies.

Branding (Marketing).

Marketing--Japan--History--Case studies.

Marketing.

Advertising--Japan--History--Case studies.

Advertising.

Consumers' preferences--Japan--History--Case studies.

Consumers' preferences.

Women consumers--Japan--History--Case studies.

Women consumers.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (417 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, 2024.

Summary:

"Democratizing Luxury explores the interplay between advertising and consumption in modern Japan by investigating how Japanese companies at key historical moments assigned value, or "luxury," to mass-produced products as an important business model. Japanese name-brand luxury evolved alongside a consumer society emerging in the late nineteenth century, with iconic companies whose names became associated with quality and style. At the same time, Western ideas of modernity merged with earlier artisanal ideals to create Japanese connotations of luxury for readily accessible products. Businesses manufactured items at all price points to increase consumer attainability, while starkly curtailing production for limited editions to augment desirability. Between the late nineteenth and twenty-first centuries, control over family disposable income transformed Japanese middle-class women into an important market. Growth of purchasing power among women corresponded with Japanese goods diffusing throughout the empire, and globally after the Asia-Pacific war (1931-1945). This book offers case studies that examine affordable luxury consumer items often advertised to women, including drinks, beauty products, fashion, and timepieces. Japanese companies have capitalized on affordable luxury since a flourishing domestic mercantile economy began in the Tokugawa period (1603-1868), showcasing brand-name shops, renowned artisans, and mass-produced woodblock prints by famous artists. In the late nineteenth century, personalized service expanded within department stores like Mitsukoshi, Shiseido¯ cosmetic counters, and designer boutiques. Shiseido¯ now globally markets invented traditions of omotenashi, Japanese "values" of hospitality expressed in purchasing and consuming its products. In postwar times, when a thriving democracy and middle-class were tied to greater disposable income and consumerism, companies rebuilt a growing consumer base among cautious shoppers: democratizing luxury at reasonable prices and maintaining business patterns of accessibility, high quality, and exemplary service. Nationalism amid economic success soon blended with myths of unique Japanese identity in a mass consumer society, suffused by commodity fetishism with widely available brand names. As the first comprehensive history of iconic Japanese name brands and their unique connotations of luxury and accessibility in modern Japan and elsewhere, Democratizing Luxury explores company histories and reveals strategies that lead customers to consume these alluring commodities"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Defining Luxury and Accessibility to Quality in Japan

Chapter One: Craftsmanship and Proto-branding in the Tokugawa Era

Chapter Two: Commodifying Western Modernity, New Japanese Corporations, and the Department Store

Chapter Three: Modern Girls and Salarymen Consuming the West

Chapter Four: Frugality, Patriotic Consumption, and the Military

Chapter Five: Consuming the Bright Life

Chapter Six: Consuming Japaneseness and Global Brand-Name Recognition

Chapter Seven: The Rise of "Cool Japan" and Japanese Luxury-Consuming Communities in the Virtual World

Conclusion: Nihon-shiki Commodity Fetishism

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Print version: Culver, Annika A. Democratizing Luxury

ISBN:

9780824896706

082489670X

9780824896713

0824896718

OCLC:

1410598421