{"id":68325,"date":"2018-03-01T16:39:11","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T22:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=68325"},"modified":"2018-03-01T16:39:11","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T22:39:11","slug":"japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan’s top e-retailer hopes sports sponsorships increase U.S. awareness"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brian Baker<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

When the defending NBA Champion Golden State Warriors arrive for practice, they arrive at the Rakuten Performance Center in Oakland. When they put on their game jerseys, they put on a jersey with a Rakuten logo.<\/p>\n

In Spain, FC Barcelona, one of the world\u2019s most recognizable soccer teams, also wears the Rakuten name across its uniform. <\/p>\n

These sponsorships have not come cheap for the Japanese e-commerce giant–each reportedly running into the tens of millions–but the company hopes they will help it reach a more global audience. <\/p>\n

Rakuten Inc. was founded in 1997 by Hiroshi Mikitani, a graduate of Harvard Business School, who grew the company to more than \u00a5944 billion in sales during 2017, or about $8.8 billion.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The company got its start as a marketplace for independent retailers to sell goods online, but has used acquisitions as a way to grow into new product areas and geographies. <\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s declining population has forced the Tokyo-based company to think globally if it wants to keep growing. In 2010, Rakuten purchased U.S.-based Buy.com for $250 million as a way to establish a presence in the U.S. Four years later it added rebate site Ebates.com to its portfolio. <\/p>\n

Despite the acquisitions, Rakuten remained relatively unknown outside of Japan. The company recently made the decision to rebrand the websites using the Rakuten name.<\/p>\n

In November 2016, Rakuten announced the sponsorship deal with FC Barcelona, for \u20ac55 million a year according to the Financial Times. <\/p>\n

Less than a year later, it announced the agreement to sponsor the Warriors uniform, for $20 million annually, ESPN reported. The deal included a 2.5-inch patch on the team\u2019s jersey and naming rights to the practice facility. The agreement was almost twice as expensive as the NBA\u2019s next highest jersey sponsorship between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., according to ESPN. <\/p>\n

Critics might question whether sponsorships like these make sense considering their cost and distance from Rakuten\u2019s home market. J.P. Morgan analyst Haruka Mori cited the costs of the Warriors and Barcelona agreements as limits to profit growth in a December note to clients.<\/p>\n

Tom Collinger, an associate professor at Northwestern University who specializes in marketing, says that companies should think about building awareness in an integrated way. \u201cThese are not investments to drive immediate sales,\u201d he said in an email. While sponsorships should not dominate a company\u2019s advertising plan, Collinger argues, they can be a part of building awareness.<\/p>\n

Rakuten\u2019s advertising strategy differs from that of other e-commerce companies, notably Amazon.com Inc., which built its business without spending large sums on traditional advertising. Collinger notes that Amazon offered an innovative website and superior customer experience that allowed it to attract customers quickly. <\/p>\n

Rakuten is in the difficult position of competing with Amazon which last year booked $177.9 billion in sales, including $11.9 billion in Japan. David Weiss, a partner at Chicago-based retail consulting firm McMillan Doolittle LLP, is skeptical of whether Rakuten can compete with Amazon in the U.S. \u201cAt present, Rakuten doesn\u2019t have the brand awareness, niche offering, or easy-to-shop experience that would capture new customers in the US for everyday items in an easy way,\u201d he said in an email. <\/p>\n

In January, Rakuten joined forces with Walmart Inc. to sell groceries online in Japan and e-books and audiobooks in the U.S. Revenue in Rakuten\u2019s Americas segment grew 23 percent to \u00a5148.8 billion in 2017, or about $1.4 billion. Its Americas segment accounts for about 16 percent of total sales. <\/p>\n

For Rakuten and its global ambitions, building awareness is an important first step. \u201cNobody knows about Rakuten in the U.S.,\u201d said Mikitani during a press conference announcing the deal with the Warriors last September. \u201cWhen we heard about the opportunity, it was a no-brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: The Rakuten logo is featured on a Warriors jersey at a Nike store in Tokyo, Japan. Feb. 16, 2018. (Brian Baker\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brian Baker Medill Reports When the defending NBA Champion Golden State Warriors arrive for practice, they arrive at the Rakuten Performance Center in Oakland. When they put on their game jerseys, they put on a jersey with a Rakuten logo. In Spain, FC Barcelona, one of the world\u2019s most recognizable soccer teams, also wears […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":441,"featured_media":68326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3987],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-winter-2018"],"yoast_head":"\nJapan's top e-retailer hopes sports sponsorships increase U.S. awareness - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Japan's top e-retailer hopes sports sponsorships increase U.S. awareness - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Brian Baker Medill Reports When the defending NBA Champion Golden State Warriors arrive for practice, they arrive at the Rakuten Performance Center in Oakland. When they put on their game jerseys, they put on a jersey with a Rakuten logo. In Spain, FC Barcelona, one of the world\u2019s most recognizable soccer teams, also wears […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-01T22:39:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/03\/Rakuten-e1519941585197.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"825\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"brianbaker2018\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"brianbaker2018\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/\",\"name\":\"Japan's top e-retailer hopes sports sponsorships increase U.S. awareness - Medill Reports Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/03\/Rakuten-e1519941585197.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-01T22:39:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/9e7c7a9d12aeafd21a86d33d71f14ef9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/03\/Rakuten-e1519941585197.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/03\/Rakuten-e1519941585197.jpg\",\"width\":1100,\"height\":825},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Japan’s top e-retailer hopes sports sponsorships increase U.S. awareness\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\",\"name\":\"Medill Reports Chicago\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/9e7c7a9d12aeafd21a86d33d71f14ef9\",\"name\":\"brianbaker2018\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88a7d9aee244110830f7e21dcf7755a4c2f7b9a8925124b935c7b384d79107f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88a7d9aee244110830f7e21dcf7755a4c2f7b9a8925124b935c7b384d79107f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"brianbaker2018\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/brianbaker2018\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Japan's top e-retailer hopes sports sponsorships increase U.S. awareness - Medill Reports Chicago","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Japan's top e-retailer hopes sports sponsorships increase U.S. awareness - Medill Reports Chicago","og_description":"By Brian Baker Medill Reports When the defending NBA Champion Golden State Warriors arrive for practice, they arrive at the Rakuten Performance Center in Oakland. When they put on their game jerseys, they put on a jersey with a Rakuten logo. In Spain, FC Barcelona, one of the world\u2019s most recognizable soccer teams, also wears […]","og_url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/","og_site_name":"Medill Reports Chicago","article_published_time":"2018-03-01T22:39:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1100,"height":825,"url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/03\/Rakuten-e1519941585197.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"brianbaker2018","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"brianbaker2018","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/","name":"Japan's top e-retailer hopes sports sponsorships increase U.S. awareness - Medill Reports Chicago","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/03\/Rakuten-e1519941585197.jpg","datePublished":"2018-03-01T22:39:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/9e7c7a9d12aeafd21a86d33d71f14ef9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/03\/Rakuten-e1519941585197.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/03\/Rakuten-e1519941585197.jpg","width":1100,"height":825},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/japans-top-e-retailer-hopes-sports-sponsorships-increase-u-s-awareness\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Japan’s top e-retailer hopes sports sponsorships increase U.S. awareness"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/","name":"Medill Reports Chicago","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/9e7c7a9d12aeafd21a86d33d71f14ef9","name":"brianbaker2018","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88a7d9aee244110830f7e21dcf7755a4c2f7b9a8925124b935c7b384d79107f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88a7d9aee244110830f7e21dcf7755a4c2f7b9a8925124b935c7b384d79107f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"brianbaker2018"},"url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/brianbaker2018\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/441"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}