【英语国际】日本出口企业关注新兴市场

Japanese companies from Toyota Motor Corp. to Canon Inc. are looking at poor people in emerging markets as potential consumers for the first time in a bid to find new, high-growth markets to offset the slump at home and in traditional markets in the U.S. and Europe.

'This represents a new frontier for the Japanese economy and industries,' Japan's powerful Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a February report which puts the market at 4 billion people and $5 trillion in sales last year. 'Innovations for conquering the frontier are expected to revitalize the Japanese economy as a whole.'

An 81-page report from the ministry and many of Japan's leading exporters about the opportunities in countries like China, Brazil, India and Vietnam is being passed around board rooms across Tokyo. It says Japanese companies can't just focus on rich countries and rich consumers. They have to start making more products that a consumer who makes less than $3,000 a year can afford.

Emerging markets make up a growing share of Japanese exports: The U.S.'s share of Japan's global exports slid to around 16% from 20% over the last three years while the percentage of Japan's exports that went to emerging markets including China, Brazil and India each rose by more than a quarter.

Even in areas where Japanese exports have usually done well -- electronics and automobiles -- Japanese companies are often beaten by brands from Korea and China, which have been more aggressive at wooing less affluent consumers.

In India, for example, Korean brands now dominate the consumer appliance and electronics markets. The LG Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. have grabbed as much as half of the television, refrigerator and air conditioner markets while Japanese brands such as Hitachi and Sony rarely get more than a 5% market share, according to data from researcher Euromonitor International.

Some Japanese companies have stumbled on the opportunity. Canon didn't understand why it was getting a surge in orders for its $50 home photo-printers in India. It discovered many were going to rural India. Village entrepreneurs were using the printers to start photo businesses, serving farmers who were willing to pay 50 cents to print the photos they had taken from their cell phones.

Canon is now reaching out to its potential new customers with a truck fleet that goes from town to town setting up mobile show rooms for Canon products. It gives wedding photography workshops to small town photographers. Canon's sales and staff in India have doubled in the last three years and it expects sales to hit $1 billion by 2015.

'Even the poorest person has to have photos of the wedding of his daughter,' said Alok Bharadwaj, Canon's senior vice president in India.

The broad new effort envisions Japanese companies reconsidering who they think of as customers and creating new products aimed at the so-called base of the income pyramid.

Still many Japanese companies have a long way to go. While Indian consumers are familiar with Nokia or Samsung, they are often untouched by Japanese companies global reputation for quality products.

'I can't even name anything from Japan,' said Mangala Bai, a 45-year-old maid from Mumbai. 'I have heard of Honda, they are those big, long cars on the road. I didn't know they were Japanese.'

从丰田汽车(Toyota Motor Corp.)到佳能(Canon Inc.)在内的日本企业首次把新兴市场中的穷人当作潜在消费者，努力发现新的高增长市场，以抵消日本和欧美传统市场下滑的影响。

Sanjit Das/Panos for The Wall Street Journal佳能在印度各地建立佳能产品的流动展览室。日本经济产业省在2月的一份报告中说，这是日本经济和各产业面临的新领域。该报告认为这一市场有40亿人口，去年销售额为5万亿美元。为赢得新市场而进行的创新料将使日本经济重新焕发活力。

日本经济产业省和日本许多重要出口商拿出的这份长达81页的报告在日本各企业的董事会流传，报告中提及中国、巴西、印度和越南等国家存在机会。报告称，日本企业不能只关注富裕国家和富有的消费者。他们必须要开始生产更多年收入不到3,000美元的消费者所能承受的产品。

新兴市场在日本出口中所占比例不断上升：过去三年美国在日本全球出口中所占比例从20%降至16%左右，而日本对中国、巴西和印度等新兴市场的出口增幅均超过25%.

即使在电子产品和汽车等日本出口通常不错的领域，日本企业现在也经常输给韩国和中国的品牌，这两个国家在吸引不太富裕的消费者方面动作更积极。

以印度为例，韩国品牌目前主导着该国消费电子和电子产品市场。根据研究机构Euromonitor International公布的数据，LG Corp.和三星电子（Samsung Electronics Co.）已至多占领了印度一半的电视、冰箱和空调市场，而日立（Hitachi）和索尼（Sony）等日本品牌只得到逾5%的市场份额。

一些日本企业无意中发现了这一商机。佳能一开始不理解其售价50美元的家用照片打印机为什么在印度订单大增，但后来发现许多打印机流向了印度农村。农民企业家正用这些打印机开始自己的相片生意，向那些愿意支付50美分把手机里的照片打印出来的农民提供服务。

Sanjit Das/Panos for The Wall Street Journal一名佳能公司的代表人员正在给印度本地居民演示新数码相机的功能。佳能派出一个卡车队从一个城镇开到另一个城镇，建立佳能产品的流动展览室，以此来接触潜在的新客户。佳能为小城镇摄影师举办结婚照培训班。过去三年佳能在印度的销售人员和普通员工增加了一倍，它预计在2015年前收入将达到10亿美元。

佳能驻印度高级副总裁巴拉华（Alok Bharadwaj）说，即使是最穷的人也得有自己女儿婚礼时的照片。

这一涉及领域广泛的最新举措让日本企业重新考虑谁是客户，并为那些所谓处于收入金字塔底部的人群生产新产品。

但许多日本企业还有很长的路要走。尽管印度消费者熟悉诺基亚（Nokia）或三星电子，但他们通常不知道日本企业以高质量产品著称的全球美誉。

孟买一位45岁的女佣Mangala Bai说，我甚至不能说出任何一项日本产品的名字，我听说过本田，它们是在路上跑的又大又长的轿车，但我不知道它们是日本产品。