European Olive Oil Promotion on the Japanese Market

EU olive oil exports towards Japan have been steadily growing in recent years, as Japanese people have shown an increasing appreciation for this product. However, when it comes to cooking, Japanese prefer other kinds of vegetable oils (such as soybean oil or grapeseed oil), olive oil being mainly used as a raw dressing for pastas and salads. This brings about a severe limit to olive oil consumption by Japanese people on a daily basis, mainly because of the competition coming from substitute goods. As a consequence, there’s a sort of “glass ceiling” to European olive oil exports towards this market.
On the other hand, Japanese people show a high appreciation for the safety and quality standards they connect with European branded food products, and the benefits in terms of balanced lifestyle coming from the Meditterranean Diet are widely acknowledged. 
Our project aims at improving European exports of olive oil towards Japan by boosting the individual consumption of olive oil by Japanese consumers and improving their awareness about its benefits and the many ways it can be fully integrated into Japanese daily food habits. Rather than trying to persuade Japanese people to adopt foreign olive oil-based culinary habits, our promotional campaign pursues the objective of convincing Japanese middle-class and senior consumers (especially women from both groups) that olive oil can be fully integrated into their daily eating, as a raw seasoning for pastas and salads but also as an ingredient for more complex culinary preparations. Our main goal is to induce more and more Japanese consumers to prefer European olive oil to its substitute competitors on a daily basis, thus pushing the above-mentioned “glass ceiling” up.
This objective will be achieved through a promotion and information programme that will include several campaigns, such as Public Relations Marketing, Digital Marketing, Face-To-Face promotion (both B2C and B2B).