NINE TAIL PRESS MARKETING PLAN

By Erin M. Koch

Executive SummaryJapanese Animation has been around since the 1960’s in Japan, but only became popular

in the U.S. in the late 1980’s and 1990’s. This once very small niche market has expanded

and become quite popular with teens and young adults. The following represents a

marketing plan to expand service to the increasing number of fans wanting more from the

Japanese production companies. While the Japanese publishing companies have provided

Anime with translations into English, they have been slow to respond to this budding

market in terms of Manga and Light Novels leaving fans wanting more. Nine Tails Press is

invested in providing increased Manga and Light Novels translations quicker and more

efficiently to fill this void. To better understand this plan, I wanted to provide some basic

definitions:

Manga: Comics (like our comic books) created and published in Japan. The medium includes works in a broad range of genres: action-adventure, comedy, detective, historical drama, mystery, romance, science fiction, and fantasy, etc.

Light Novels: These are written very similar to our novels. They are a written medium that may have some illustrations and tell stories that have a plot line that is more involved and longer. They primarily target a teens and young adults. The texts are often serialized in magazines before being published in book form.

Anime: Shortened term for Japanese animation. This can come in the form of movies, but is more likely to show up as T.V. series in Japan. While there are exceptions, most Anime is sourced from Manga and/or Light Novels. Most anime series are 12 to 13 episodes long (occasionally longer), but if they don’t get a “second season “ which many of them don’t, the “story” doesn’t have an appropriate ending leaving non-Japanese fans frustrated. (This is the void that Nine Tails Press has been created to fill.)

Torrent: Form of file sharing whereby fans share and download media content.

Product Overview

Nine Tails Press is a publisher of English translated Japanese Light Novels and Manga. The

company publishes Light Novel and Manga series that have Anime adaptations. The company also

publishes translated weekly and monthly Manga magazines from Japan. The goal of Nine Tails

Press is to get this type of Japanese media to the English speaking public as soon as possible so

that North American fans won’t be so far behind their Japanese counterparts. To do this, for

example, if a Manga series has 20 volumes released in Japan, instead of releasing them 4 or 5

volumes a year which is the rate at which current publishers release them, NTP (Nine Tails Press)

combines Manga volumes into a larger book so that 8 a year can be released. The NTP also does

this with Light Novels, but at a slower pace, because as novels, they are much longer and will not

be “combining” volumes as is being done with the Manga.

Situation Analysis

The problem with the current publishing situation is that because the translations are limited and

extremely slow, the fans currently “take things into their own hands” and do fan translations of

Manga chapters from Manga magazines and post them on the internet. This practice has been

dubbed “scanlations” because the English fan base wants to keep up with their Japanese

counterparts. Regarding the Light Novel situation, very few are published in the U.S, and because

they are so long, fan translations are unpredictable as fans are not always willing to do the

translations because it is so labor intensive. This leaves English speaking fans disappointed and

wanting.

Translation of Light Novels becomes important if the Anime is originally sourced from a Light Novel

series and not a Manga series. The reason for this has to do with the ability to actually continue

the story after the Anime finishes. Most Anime series do not get a second season and so if all the

fans are left with is a Manga series that just retells the story up to the TV series and get nothing

more, fans will be frustrated and left unsatisfied because there is no “closure” unless the original

Light Novel material is published.

This is why it is important to pay close attention to the type of media format that is being

published and it’s relation to the content.

Competitive AnalysisThe following are the companies that are currently publishing Manga and Light Novels in the West down below:

Detailed Target Market Description

While Japanese animation had been around for a long time, it only became introduced outside of

Japan in the mid to late 80’s and thus, only had a small niche of individuals outside of Japan were

actively interested. As the 90’s came, some Japanese animation began airing on American TV on

Cartoon Network, as a 3 hour block of time called Toonami. This caused this once small niche to

expand rapidly and brought forth an expanded interest in Japanese animation including additional

formats such as Manga. As a result of these changes, the current demographic grew to include

teenagers and young adults. Teenagers who have been introduced to Manga have turned into

Young Adults who continue their interest which has caused the market to expand exponentially.

As this phenomenon continues with a new generation of children being exposed on Cartoon

Network, turning into teenagers, and becoming young adults, it is expected that the market will

continue to expand.

According to the data obtained from Animelist.net, our current market will be focused on male

teens and young adults between the ages of 18-24 as they make up 67% of the demographic. In

terms of gender males are much more prevalent in the Otaku fandom with a majority of 70% while

only 30% are female. It should be noted that although we are going to be marketing to male teens

and young adults that does not mean that we will not try and also publish material that appeals to

female audiences. This next chart is from the Otaku Lounge Wordpress website which describes

the type of anime sourced media fans consume. By looking at the demographics of anime fans,

we can get a good idea about the kind of audience that buys products such as Manga and Light

Novels.

Manga, of course, makes up the large majority or sourced material as it has been in the market in

the states a lot longer than Light Novels have been. The fact that books are the second largest

source material shows that Light Novels are growing in terms of consumption in terms of social

media Anime, Manga, and Light Novels.

Nine Tail Press Goals•Increase Customer Loyalty and Overall Brand Health

•Increase Sales by 10%

Action Plan

Banner Ad

The Banner Ad will have the title of

Manga 20% off at 9 Tail Press Finished the Anime? Get the full

Story from where it all began!

This will be the Ads information

Below are the following sites that the NTP Ad could be placed:

The Anime News Network

The Anime News Network is an ideal site to advertise on as it is considered to be the leading

English news source with all things dealing with the Otaku subculture. This means that fans come

to get their news about upcoming releases in terms of new Anime series, products, reviews, and

interviews with industry producers, actors, J-Pop artists, etc.

Nayaa Torrent

This is a torrent site that deals mostly with Asian media. This is by far one of the most popular

media sharing sites on the internet. Thousands of fans flock to it every day looking for information

related to Anime, Manga, Light Novels, and Visual Novels. While there is some illegal downloading

of licensed material, a lot of it is imported media from Japan that is not licensed or available here.

Anime List

This is a popular site where thousands of fans make a list of the Anime they are watching and where they have discussions about the Anime episodes, Manga, and Light Novels with which they are involved.

Crunchyroll

This is one of the 3 major Anime streaming services in the U.S. In addition to Anime, they also provide Manga to users. This a great site to place Ads on because it is frequented by thousands of fans every day who are part of the Otaku fandom and would definitely be interested in our products.

Facebook

This is a site that is often full of English speaking Otaku fans. There are fan sites for shows and

Manga, etc. Knowing this, it would be a good location to try and place Ads because young people,

which is NTP’s primary demographic, use Facebook. Another plus is that Facebook will be sure

that NTP Ads will reach the specific demographic that NTP is aiming for as well as showing up on

mobile devices.

Social Media Campaign

The top social media sites we will be using for our marketing plan will be Twitter and Facebook.

Nine Tails Press has chosen Twitter and Facebook as these are the most widely used platforms that

fans use to connect with Anime, Manga, and Light Novel distributers. These two social media

platforms will be used to give fans the opportunity to ask questions and give feedback.

Twitter

Twitter accounts responsibilities include giving out news, information about sales, upcoming

release of Manga and Light Novel volumes, and contest announcements.

Facebook

Nine Tales Press Facebook page is responsible for giving out news updates, informing them about

sales, upcoming releases, and this is the location that will host the Fan Art Contest.

The Fan Art Contest will be used to show how much NTP cares about having fans contribute to the

company mission which is the promotion and love of Japanese media. The contest will consist of

fans turning in fan art connected to one the favorite licensed series that are offered at Nine Tails

Press. NTP will allow fans to vote on their favorite fan art which will then be published in that

specific series next volume. The fan that wins will receive a free copy of the next volume of the

series that the fan art was based on along with their name. This will promote fans involvement

with the series which can increase brand awareness and loyalty and lead to more sales.

Email Campaign

The Nine Tale Press email campaign will be a promotional newsletter. The newsletter will consist

of news of upcoming releases, contests, and sales that offer a 10%-20% coupon offer. When they

buy a volume, if they preorder the next volume, they will get 20% off their pre-ordered purchase

as a “thank you” for supporting Nine Tails Press and the continued publishing of Manga and Light

Novels.

Ways to Increase Customer Loyalty

Working with fan translators- After licensing a series Nine Tails Press plans to talk to the

moderators at Baka-Tsuki (Fan translation site for light novels) to see if it is possible to use some

of the fan translators work, so that all that all their hard translation work does not go to waste.

Doing this will allow us to potentially increase the speed of official light novel translations that

have already been read unofficially by the English speaking public. NTP, of course, will have an

editor go through the material to make sure that the fan translations are correct. NTP would pay

the fan translators based on the quality of the translation and the content used in the official

publications.

Taking Petitions into Consideration

If fans want a series licensed, they can send us a petition with a specific number of

individuals and if there are enough, Nine Tails Press may consider licensing it. There are

factors, however, to be considered in this matter such as licensing costs and the

willingness of the Japanese publisher to license the material. The petition, however, could

be used as evidence to help persuade the Japanese publisher to give a license if they are

unsure.

Website Features

Nine Tails Press will create a comments section under digital Manga chapters viewed on the

website. Doing this will be good for 2 reasons. Not only will it give NTP a way to sense customers

response to a series, but also will create a “community” on the website. To partake in this

community, fans will create their own account. This account will have the person’s profile and

digital library. When a fan buys a Manga volume on Amazon, they will be able to get a code that

be used to access to that volume on both their Kindle account and the Nine Tails Press website.