Daisuke Arayama

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Yakult: Success with “Yakult Ladies”
Daisuke Arayama
Last modified on December 9, 2015 at 8:16 pm
Yakult has built unique operating model with female salesforce called "Yakult Ladies". Its operating model is effective from wealthy neighborhood in developed countries to slum in developing countries.

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On December 14, 2015, Daisuke Arayama commented on Yakult: Success with “Yakult Ladies” :

Thanks for your comment! Your point is very interesting, and it might be true that Yakult is doing the education for other competitors, too. I don’t know how it works outside of Japan, but there are plenty of similar products which look and taste like Yakult in Japan. However, people continue buying Yakult! I think the trust has significant influence for the purchase decisions because people cannot actually see how the bacteria is working in their digestion system. In the case of skin care product, this might be different. People can see the effect by themselves, and easily understand whether similar but cheaper products are as effective as the product your sister is trying to sell.

On December 14, 2015, Daisuke Arayama commented on Yakult: Success with “Yakult Ladies” :

Thanks for your comment! At least in Japan, Yakult Ladies are regarded as the symbol of Yakult and function as the key differentiating factor from their competitors. Yakult’s business is globally dispersed, and their business model is considered one of the early success case for marketing BOP consumers in developing countries.

On December 14, 2015, Daisuke Arayama commented on Bonobos: Hybridizing the Digital and Physical Shopping Experience :

Great post! Bonobos’s operating model of combining e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores with “Ninja” is very unique, but totally makes sense to deal with the pain point of male apparel shopping. Although Bonobos seems to operate only in US so far, their business and operating model would work outside of US, as well, since they are addressing the problem all the men have, including me.

On December 14, 2015, Daisuke Arayama commented on Trader Joe’s: Food for Thought :

Thank you for the interesting article. My wife loves Trader Joe’s for the very reasons you mentioned, and I love Mango mochi icecream, too. Their products with unique design, combined with friendly staff, succeed in delivering great customer experience. It is surprising that their SKU is only 8% of industry average, and Trader Joe’s can still attracts customers. Trader Joe’s is a great example of how innovative business and operating model can create values, regardless of the attractiveness of industry itself.

On December 14, 2015, Daisuke Arayama commented on SpaceX: The Quest for Affordable Space Travel through Reusable Rocketry :

Great article! The story of Sapce X with cult-like culture and a very flat organizational structure remind me that of Valve in LEAD class. It seems these are the common characteristics of companies which succeed in attracting top engineers and creating innovation.

On December 13, 2015, Daisuke Arayama commented on Yakult: Success with “Yakult Ladies” :

Thank you for your comment! I think a part of reason for the effectiveness of female salesforce would be that women on average care more about the health condition of their family, so female salesforce can more easily connect to the concern of house wives who make purchase decisions for this kind of product.