Mother's Day in Japan is a fantastic chance for online retailers to make new sales. The NRF reports that spending on gifts surpassed previous records in 2022, totaling about $31.7 billion, with an all-time high per person of $245.76.
It goes without saying that there are plenty of opportunities for businesses with goods or services that would be appropriate to celebrate this holiday.
Mother's Day is without a doubt the day set aside for honoring and expressing our gratitude to everyone's first love, their moms.
The holiday is much more than just that, though. A marketer's fantasy, indeed. What originally began as a day to honor our moms has since evolved into a global marketing fest. How then can you, as a marketer, take advantage of the holiday? For some fun mother's day marketing suggestions, keep reading!
Outline
- Mother’s Day in Japan
- How Is Mother’s Day Celebrated in Japan?
- Top 4 common gift ideas to say "Happy mother's day" in Japan:
- What Shoppers are Spending on for Mother’s Day in Japan
- 7 Tips to Take Opportunity of This Japanese Mother’s Day
- Conclusion
Mother’s Day in Japan
Mother's Day, known as Haha no Hi (母 の 日) in Japanese, is also celebrated on the same date over the world, including the United States. A celebration in Japanese culture is a beautiful way to show appreciation for Japanese mothers.
It is commonly acknowledged that Empress Kojun, who served as Emperor Akihito, was born on March 6, the day the first Mother's Day celebration was held in Japan (the reigning monarch of Japan at the time). Some other reports suggest that Christian missionaries brought the holiday to the country around 1913.
The event later became fully established since the Imperial Women's Union was established in 1931. As the Japanese were barred from commemorating Western traditions during World War II (Second World War), this special celebration came to an abrupt end.
At least until 1949, when Mother's Day saw a revival following the end of the war. Mother's Day falls on May 14 this year since the date was changed to fall on the second Sunday of May.
It is now largely regarded as having been revived in Japan. This day is now widely celebrated by families, making it one of the busiest times of the year for eateries and retail establishments.
How Is Mother’s Day Celebrated in Japan?
Just like how this day is celebrated around the world, young Japanese children express their love and appreciation to their mum by spending time with their families and giving them presents.
So, in Japanese tradition, children often rise early, wish her a "happy mother's day" and give his or her mother a large bouquet of flowers on the second Sunday of May. The most widely used flowers in Japan are the red carnations, which represent the purity, sweetness, and endurance of mothers.
To celebrate mothers day (母 の 日), numerous businesses all over Japan put red carnations in their storefront windows. Despite not being native to Japan, carnations have come to symbolize Japanese society and culture.
Top 4 common gift ideas to say "Happy mother's day" in Japan:
Kanji (calligraphy art) prints
Lacquer jewelry boxes
Your mother can store her most valuable jewelry and trinkets in these elaborately decorated boxes, which are made of the finest Japanese lacquer.
Kokeshi dolls
Why not use a floral-themed kokeshi doll to go with your flowers?
Food
Many people in Japan celebrate Mother's Day by making a dish with eggs; their top three egg dishes are Oyakodon, Chawanmushi, and Tamagoyaki.
- Oyakodon: This chicken, egg, and rice dish is simple to prepare and delicious! The name literally translates to "parent and child donburi," which explains why this egg dish is so popular on Mother's Day. Check out this Oyakodon recipe to make this tasty chicken and egg dish for your mother.
- Chawanmushi: Literally translated, chawanmushi means ‘steamed food in a cup’ (chawan means teacup/rice bowl and mushi means steamed). This Japanese dish looks and tastes like a savoury egg custard and is flavoured with soy sauce, dashi and mirin.
- Tamagoyaki: This Japanese egg omelet is traditionally eaten at breakfast time.
What Shoppers are Spending on for Mother’s Day in Japan
According to research conducted by the National Retail Federation, these were the top gift categories for moms in 2022:
- Greeting cards (75%)
- Flowers (72%)
- Experiences (57%)
- Gift cards (52%)
- Clothing and accessories (45%)
7 Tips to Take Opportunity of This Japanese Mother’s Day
Create a Gift Guide
People will continue to rejoice and buy gifts for their mothers on this second Sunday in May, and this will not change. And they don’t want to just give a single carnation as usual. People want other gifts that are one-of-a-kind, creative, and personalized.
Why not create a gift guide for your target audience? It is not necessary to be of the items or services you offer. In fact, if you don't provide anything relevant, your store could be entirely made up of other people's products and services. The purpose of content marketing is to provide value to your target audience.
This guide can also be used to direct customers to other businesses, current partners, or possible new partners.
Gift guides are an excellent method to promote your products while also providing shoppers with much-needed ideas. They are also available in a variety of forms. For example, you might write a detailed blog post explaining your gift options and include links to your product listings.
Source: Vougue
Alternatively, you could make an infographic or mood board that serves as a visual guide to the hottest Mothers Day items. To drive more people to your website, you can even pin your infographic on Pinterest and share it on other social media platforms.
Just keep in mind to include both affordable and luxurious products for all price ranges and to target different types of moms in your guide.
Create a User-Generated Content (UGC) Campaign
The creativity and cost effectiveness of this holiday marketing concept makes it one of our favorites! Branded hashtags are used in UGC campaigns to allow consumers to return to your brand.
Have a look at some of the example campaigns from top successful companies:
Samsung: #TextsFromMom
In their #TextsFromMom campaign, Samsung adopted a lighthearted approach. The commercial begins with a video depicting how mothers misuse text messaging: "How do I hashtag your brother? ", as well as "#AreYouComingHomeForThanksgiving? are some instances
Customers could then use the hashtag #TextsFromMom to show off their mom's funniest texts for a chance to win a Samsung S6 edge. This campaign is a breath of fresh air for Mother's Day, when most marketers are appealing to consumers' emotional side - a well-executed move by Samsung.
#TextFromMom video on Youtube:
LG: #MomConfessions
With all of these UGC initiatives taking place around Mother's Day, there must be a flurry of social chats, right? Yes, and LG jumped on this with their #MomConfessions campaign.
Mothers were encouraged to share images via an LG-branded landing page, allowing LG to filter the published content. The ad got many award nominations when 35% of the submitted confessions were published on a huge billboard in Times Square.
A Fashion Brand: #WhatMomWore
When it comes to Mother's Day presents, jewelry is the best option. So it's no surprise that Pandora invested heavily in an emotive ad last year. The UK Pandora team urged customers to post images of themselves with their mothers using the hashtag #JustLikeMum, and one lucky person earned a 500 GBP shopping spree to celebrate with their mother.
The selfies were an excellent method to entice people who had not previously considered getting something Pandora for their mother to visit the website or store.
Source: Twitter
4. A Fashion Brand: #WhatMomWore
The hashtag "#WhatMomWore," which encourages your audience to dress up as their moms when they were younger, is an example of a Mother's Day user-generated content campaign for a clothing brand. If these campaigns are effective, they can significantly raise consumer awareness of your brand.
Additionally, these campaigns aren't advertising or product-focused. Because of this, they increase your customers' level of trust in you. What's best? Simply reposting the user-generated content is all that is required.
Host a Giveaway
Before the second Sunday of May, host an Instagram giveaway for a chance to win a present for mom. Participants in the competition can enter by utilizing a branded hashtag and/or tagging a friend in order to increase their following and reach.
One of the simplest ways to increase awareness of your Mothers Day promotions is to run a giveaway. Most audiences find them to be wildly popular, and they have the potential to go viral, sending a flood of customers to your online store.
Source: Haagen-Dazs
With a successful giveaway contest, you can:
- Raise brand awareness
- Grow your social media followers
- Promote your products and services
- Grow your email list
- Increase brand engagement
- And more
There are numerous ways to celebrate Mother's Day through an online contest.
For example, you could hold a photo contest and ask people to share their favorite photos with their moms in exchange for the chance to win a special prize.
Here are some more contest ideas to get you started:
- Run sweepstakes with a gift card as the prize to increase email subscribers.
- Invite readers to write a blog post in honor of their mother.
- Make a fun personality quiz to determine what kind of mother they are.
- Create a poll in which users can vote for their favorite Mothers Day gift.
- Create a Pinterest contest for the best Mothers Day themed Pinterest boards
To get the most out of a giveaway, host it on your online store. This enables you to send targeted traffic to your shop, increasing the likelihood that customers will explore the rest of your store and possibly make a purchase.
Giveaways are one-time promotional events that you can host on your own or in collaboration with a celebrity or influencer.
Offer Promotions
Most shoppers are aware that promotions and sales will be available in the run-up to major events throughout the year. Show them what they're looking for and offer them deals and coupons to help them save money.
Such promotions are an excellent way to encourage people to buy. Customers benefit from the discounts, and businesses benefit from increased revenue.
Source: Raffle Press
The most effective promotional campaigns have specific goals such as:
- Grow brand awareness
- Promote new products
- Reduce cart abandonment
- Grow your email list
You could even run a spin-to-win optin campaign to increase email subscribers and display your discount.
Create a Mother’s Day Product Page
Another excellent promotion idea is to create a special Mother's Day product page.
Analyze your products or services and consider how you can position them as mom-related presents. Then, create a page to highlight these products and encourage customers to purchase them.
People looking for presents will find it easier to find what they're looking for kudos to these dedicated pages. Furthermore, by removing unrelated products from the equation, you can use it to convert regular readers into shoppers.
If you have a Shopify store, PageFly makes creating high-converting landing pages for your eCommerce store a breeze.
With a wide variety of multipurpose landing page templates and a simple drag-and-drop builder, you can create stunning pages in under 30 minutes.
It includes everything you need to generate leads and close sales, such as:
- Call to Action buttons
- Opt-in forms
- Giveaways
- Testimonials
- Star ratings
- Countdown timers
- And more
You can also use PageFly's feature to give your Mothers Day page a separate URL from your existing online store.
Simply create a landing page on your current eCommerce store, enter your new domain name, and hit publish.
Connect Mother’s Day Ads to Focused Landing Pages
Without mentioning online advertising, no promotion idea is complete. Running advertisements for your marketing campaign will help you reach your target audience no matter where they are on the internet.
You can, for example, use Google Search Ads to target users who are looking for gift ideas in search engines. Run pay-per-click (PPC) ads on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube to reach your target audience.
But, when running an ad campaign, the most important thing to remember is to link it to a landing page.
Your ad is only a brief message on its own. With a landing page, however, users can click through to learn more about your promotion, increasing the likelihood that they will convert to paying customers.
Provide Free Shipping for Mother’s Day Gifts
You can offer free extras with Mother's Day gifts in addition to free shipping for specific products.
Shipping costs not only contribute to cart abandonment, but orders with free shipping encourage 93% of shoppers to purchase more than they had planned. So it makes sense to provide this service to boost sales around this occasion.
Add a banner or floating bar to your online store and link it to your Mother's Day product page to alert shoppers to your free shipping offer. Shoppers can then quickly click through and find what they need.
Source: Raffle Press
Conclusion
And there you have it!
We hope this article has provided you with a plethora of promotion ideas to help you grow your business during this exciting time. Most of these ideas can also be applied to other promotional events throughout the year.
While you're here, you might be interested in this article on the best promotional giveaway ideas for easily marketing your brand.
If you enjoyed this article, please follow us on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook for more giveaway guides and tutorials.
And happy mother's day to everyone!
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