2013 Volume 59 Issue 3 Pages 291-309
In recent years, the progress of genuine products and the diversification of consumption have resulted in increasing attention toward regional brands and local brand creation. A regional brand is built to promote the maintenance and development of industrial regions. However, in recent years, local industry research has been both declining and insufficient, and the effect of the regional brand remains ambiguous. This paper examines the towel-making industry in the Imabari region, Ehime prefecture, which has been actively working to create a regional brand since the early 2000s. The author examines whether a regional brand results in the market superiority, and whether it could be a contributing factor to the maintenance of industrial regions. To break away from the wholesale-dependent structure that compels enterprises to handle licensed production, enterprises in the Imabari region created a regional brand. Investigation of Imabari region points to the success of the regional brand movement in terms of heightened consumer recognition in addition to reduced dependency on wholesalers, expansion and diversification of distribution channels, and establishment of regular consumers. The Imabari region has witnessed production changes, such as the overseas transfer of manufacturing, the integration of production, restructuring in the division of labor, and the application of both training programs and technical internship training programs for foreigners, since the 1980s. These production changes have improved quality and reduced production costs of the region, relating closely to the creation of the regional brand movement. However, strategies of some enterprises go against the properties of the regional brand. Consequently, the regional brand does not work evenly across all enterprises.
