Culture is one of the key concepts in marketing and consumer behavior research. The relationship between culture and marketing is diverse: not only does culture influence marketing activities and consumer behavior, but marketing also creates culture/subculture and companies sell cultural contents and use culture in their marketing activities. This special issue presents four studies that focus on the diverse aspects of culture and marketing.

Pop culture has a huge impact on consumers’ lifestyles, attitudes, and behaviors. Due to development of the Internet and modern media, as well as new business models such as Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) in the culture industry, consumers have unprecedented easy access to a vast and diverse range of cultural products from different parts of the world. However, this multicultural reception of pop culture has yet to be adequately discussed in the marketing field. This study attempts to bridge this gap. After a brief review of literature on marketing/consumer behavior and tourism, a qualitative approach is used to investigate the relationship between pop culture reception and consumer behavior. Data were obtained through an interview survey conducted mainly in East and Southeast Asia. A comprehensive framework on pop culture reception and consumer behavior in the context of multiculturalism is presented and the prospects for future studies are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the historical development of Japanese restaurants in New York City (NYC). There are two main findings. First, the postwar expansion of Japanese companies into the US led to an increase in corporate demand for Japanese restaurants for entertaining their clients, which stimulated development of upscale Japanese restaurants. In some cases, Japanese companies directly invested in expanding Japanese restaurants into NYC. Second, the only Japanese cuisine known to Americans in the past was sukiyaki, tempura, and teriyaki, but through the efforts of various entrepreneurs, less well-known Japanese dishes such as sushi and ramen have become new icons of Japanese cuisine. More recently, Japanese cuisine has been further subdivided into a variety of restaurants, including izakaya (Japanese-style pub) and restaurants specializing in items such as yakitori (skewered chicken), curry rice, motsunabe (a hotpot dish with mainly beef or pork), karaage (fried chicken), okonomiyaki (Japanese savory pancake), and yoshoku (Western-influenced cooking). Because of this collective effort by entrepreneurs, NYC has achieved a diversification of Japanese cuisine not seen in any other part of the US.

Corporations have been supporting the arts in Japan for many years. However, recent attention has focused not only on funding, but also on cases in which companies themselves operate art places, in which art exists to support communities with stakeholders related to the art activities. Based on the assumption that companies can strengthen relationships with their stakeholders through art places, the purpose of this paper is to examine the roles of art places as media from the perspective of public relations. A review of previous studies of corporate support of the arts was performed, and then art places were categorized based on two criteria: ownership (owned/paid) and interactivity (high: interaction type; low: appreciation type). Further, their communication characteristics were organized in terms of duration, reach and depth, and content editorial rights. This analysis provides clues for companies seeking to build relationships with diverse stakeholders, and also demonstrates the significance for arts organizations of sharing opportunities to interact with funders.

The aim of this study is to examine consumer reactions to negative incidents of sponsorship contracts for sporting events. Specifically, the paper is an exploratory study of reactions to sponsors of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (which were actually held in 2021). Sponsorship corruption at the 2020 Olympics was pointed out in 2022, after which Twitter users posted negative comments about sponsorship companies. The paper examines this negative word-of-mouth consumer reaction on Twitter using the example of Olympic corruption, and especially the cases of Aoki and Kadokawa as Olympic sponsors involved in this corruption. The paper analyzes the common words that occurred in each period in response to negative incidents. The results show that once a negative incident occurs, there is no change in frequently used terms and negative words, regardless of whether the consumer reaction increases or decreases.

The concept of individual psychological ownership, or an individual’s sense of ownership toward an object, was proposed in the context of organizational theory in the early 2000s. Since then, this concept has been widely applied in marketing research, since it led to marketing outcomes such as increased purchase intention and willingness to pay for the product. In addition, the concept of collective psychological ownership—a group’s sense of ownership toward an object—was proposed outside the marketing field. It has been suggested that this concept may have different consequences from those of individual psychological ownership with regard to issues such as organizational effectiveness. However, there are few studies that attempt to apply this concept to the marketing field. This paper reviews studies on individual and collective psychological ownership and examines the possibility that collective psychological ownership may be applicable in marketing research on consumer community and experiential consumption.

This paper presents a literature review that organizes studies on secret consumption and evaluates their contributions and limitations, in order to consider directions for future research. Secret consumption is defined as “consumption with the intention of concealing information from others.” The paper particularly focuses on the notion of “secret,” which refers to the information itself that is intentionally concealed. The paper is structured as follows. First, studies are divided into three categories: “motives for secret consumption,” “effects of secret consumption on consumers” and “practical aspects of secret consumption,” and each of their contributions and limitations is summarized in turn. The following section addresses the conceptual confusion of “secret” as a challenge that may prevent overcoming the identified limitations in the literature review. More specifically, the paper argues for further theoretical development with regard to the need to distinguish between two sub-concepts of “secret”: “individual secret” and “collective secret.” Finally, the paper suggests directions for future research by making a distinction between these two sub-concepts.

The aim of this paper is to integrate ideas on consumer materialism in the context of recent changes in the consumption environment. These changes include development of digitalization, the spread of sharing and other forms of consumption that do not involve legal ownership of goods, and the prevalence of anti-materialistic values such as minimalism. Changes in the consumption environment are sometimes evaluated as a phenomenon symbolizing the weakening of materialism in the consumer society, which may be problematic due to its various harmful effects. This paper critically examines the optimistic view of weakening of materialism through a review of early studies on materialism and recent studies focusing on changes in the consumption environment. It then provides a perspective that uses the concept of materialism to better understand consumer behavior and the state of the current consumer society.

It has dawned on marketers that the senior market is not a single homogeneous segment, but a diverse group of consumers, and that marketing strategies should be tailored to this diversity. However, existing research has not provided a sufficient framework for capturing heterogeneity in the senior market. In this study, we used future time perspective (FTP) and future self-continuity (FSC) as indicators of diversity in the senior market and conducted an exploratory survey among senior women. The results showed that FTP had a negative impact on purchasing activity for non-consumable goods, while FSC had a positive impact. An interaction effect of FTP and FSC was also observed, indicating that the most active consumers were “senior women who have a strong connection with their future selves, but feel that their remaining time is not long.” On the contrary, “senior women who have a strong connection with their future selves and feel that their remaining time is long” tended to refrain from financial expenditures on the aforementioned goods.

In recent years, the environment surrounding companies and consumers has been markedly changed with advancement of technology. In particular, the evolution of AI-related technologies, especially machine learning, has enabled companies to collect and analyze big data, providing opportunities to create and communicate customer value. However, in today’s rapidly changing market, it is very difficult to acquire, analyze, and interpret data and link it appropriately to marketing. This paper introduces the efforts of REVISIO Inc. (REVISIO), a company that has achieved growth by acquiring unique data from households and providing companies with comprehensive services, including analysis and solutions. REVISIO collects TV commercial viewing data using proprietary methods and analyzes these data using proprietary metrics. This approach has gained the support of its clients; that is, advertising companies that place TV commercials. In this paper, we examine why REVISIO’s data were accepted by their clients by evaluating the factors behind the success of REVISIO based on interviews. The findings reveal that REVISIO’s marketing satisfies the 4As of the clients and that REVISIO’s efforts create value for their clients.

This is a case study of content marketing management in Japan. The mascot “Gunma-chan” has been widely used for publicity and promotion of Gunma Prefecture as a means to boost the local economy. Gunma businesses have worked “Gunma-chan” into the design of Gunma products to be sold throughout Japan. Currently, Gunma Prefecture is conducting a “Gunma-chan” strategic branding project to maximize the promotion and brand recognition of Gunma Prefecture. This initiative is based on the recent reforms promoted by Gunma Prefecture to improve the branding of the area. In this paper, we will 1) review the management of Gunma Prefecture’s “Gunma-chan” throughout its 26-year history, 2) discuss the current media strategy of Gunma Prefecture, and 3) analyze the “Gunma-chan” branding project. Based on this approach, we present the main points that should be considered in moving forward with the marketing strategy for goods that use the “Gunma-chan” image.