Using Japanese to improve your EdTech marketing

I’m writing this from Tokyo. Strange opening line but bear with me…

After the pandemic, my wife and I needed a change after nearly 2 years in our terraced house. Rather than a long holiday, we embarked on a grand adventure and moved to Japan.

Oh, I forgot to mention my wife is half-Japanese! This story is 50% less crazy now.

On the theme of craziness, you’d think vending machines on every corner would top it here, but it’s not. It’s that Japan doesn’t speak English. Only 7-13% of the population speak fluent English, so here I am 2 years into learning Japanese.

The Japanese language has a specificity that is at times beautiful, and at other times is excruciating.

There is a word (Komorebi) for how the Autumn sunlight filters through the tree canopy to that particular ray of light, yet there are 5 different words for how I would say the pronoun “I” when introducing myself.

The reason is that Japanese is heavily context dependent and you develop a sense of ‘reading the air’ - matching your language to the thoughts of who you are speaking with in order to maintain harmony.

It sounds a little crazy until you think about it through the lens of marketing.

How well you match your messaging to your audience dictates a lot about your solution and its a big factor in why certain campaigns land well while others are a complete wash out.

Your messaging is words with your intention.

Segway into EdTech coming…

Let me illustrate this using the Big 3 MIS providers (in alphabetical order):

1. Arbor MIS

“A Better Way to Work”

Arbor’s messaging focuses predominately on collaboration and communication.

2. Bromcom MIS

“…supports your organisation to reach the next level”

Bromcom have a number of messages across their website. There isn’t a single strap line, but the general theme is around the advanced technological nature of their solution.

3. SIMS MIS

“Welcome to the future of school MIS”

SIMS are predominately drawing on their brand identity with schools and history in the sector. There is a lot of generalities on the site.

Who has the best messaging?

Arbor - not only is it saying something original (I haven’t seen this type of messaging from other suppliers), but it also reflects what schools are thinking about right now.

On Wednesday I shared the DfE Technology in School Survey. Of the perceived benefits from moving to a cloud system, improving collaboration ranked 2nd.

This won’t be chance. Arbor have done their research.

The marketing messaging from Bromcom and SIMS does not rank in this survey.

Arbor are ‘reading the air’ - learning about the expectations that schools have and using those to develop their marketing messaging. It’s not by luck that they’re the fastest growing MIS. It’s by design.

Try this process for yourself - speak to your schools and ask them what the biggest benefits have been from working with you.

If you want help on improving your marketing to generate more leads, book a free 30 minute call with me here.

As always, thanks for reading. I’m off to hit the Japanese textbooks!

Until next time

Jay