The "Picky" Customers and Japanese Consumerism
There was a particular example often raised when people talk about how picky Japanese people can be regarding, well, everything they buy. The Kit-Kat chocolate bar, started in the US with one original flavor (um, chocolate) somehow morphed into 27+ different varieties over its decades of development in Japan. While the Kit-Kat bar remains the same and popular in the States, in Japan, flavors come and go as consumers magically get tired of them a few months after introduction. And Kit-Kat bars certainly isn't an exception. Everything from soft drinks to sausages always seemed to carry some extra ingredient that is not thought of even in their countries of origin. Food flavors comes in and goes out faster than fashion trends, leaving companies forced to constantly innovate their products. Now, if food flavors in Japan are like fashion trends elsewhere, you can bet that actual fashion trends have pretty much no comparison. Well, everyone is a fan of innovation. Better designed p