Make It Happen!: Japanese Companies Need To Elevate Marketing As A Core Function To Succeed Outside Japan

For much of the twentieth century, engineering, sales, and quality products defined Japanese businesses and drove the country’s economic success. Today, deflation, an aging population, and a series of weak economic reforms have dealt a devastating blow to the national economy.

Signs of a Japanese resurgence, however, are there for those who know what to look for. One such person is Robert E. Peterson. A marketing consultant, Peterson came to Japan in 1982 to help Toyota build its international marketing strategy. He never left.

Peterson notes marketing lacks a core function in the Japanese business model. Positions such as chief marketing officers (CMO) simply do not exist in the typical business. As such, even though Japan has a strong and positive brand image internationally, the nation’s businesses lack the training to effectively market themselves to the international community.

Make It Happen! is both a challenge and primer to Japan’s corporate culture. Peterson applies his experience, training, and outsider’s eye to the problem of Japanese marketing, combining a thorough explanation of marketing basics with insights into how small to midsize businesses can develop their own marketing strategies to increas