I am publishing a book titled 'Sales Map' that summarizes 20 tips that influence sales!! (→ Full introduction released)

(Updated November 22, 2024)
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I have decided to publish a book for the first time in a while. It has been 8 years since my last book publication, and 10 years since my last solo work.

The theme is 'Sales,' and the title is 'Sales Map'.

The background for wanting to write this book is that in my over 20 years of involvement in corporate marketing, I still see many workplaces where exchanges like 'So, if we do that, how much will it sell?' (Voice of field staff: If I knew that, I'd tell you...), 'The campaign failed, so that's why it didn't sell!' (Voice of field staff: It's true that the campaign failed, but that's not the only reason it didn't sell...), or 'XX is a hot topic (it's trending), so please proceed with plans for our company to execute it too' (Voice of field staff: I don't think that's the issue with our product...) are happening everywhere. This has been a problem I have personally felt for many years, wanting to help those who are struggling and feeling frustrated, or those who are worried because they don't know what the right answer is.

Sales should not be determined 'only' by advertising, PR, or sales promotion. The ultimate goal is to increase sales (to have customers buy), and whether it is digital or physical, advertising or PR, branding or (though it's not a good word) harvesting, these are all means, not the end.

Also, there is a deeply rooted 'impossible game' where 'sales,' an indicator with extremely low resolution for identifying causes (it is extremely difficult to identify what caused something to sell or not sell), is set as the KGI (Key Goal Indicator), and people try to 'directly' connect sales with KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) such as impressions and engagement.

My career in marketing has involved working in product development such as research and concept development, store productivity analysis, and shelf allocation (in-store merchandising) support in the first half, and in the second half, I have been engaged in marketing communication work centered on the digital domain related to the internet and social media.

Through that, I have come to realize that there are countless factors that influence sales, and that for a new product to be released into the world, placed on store shelves, bought by customers, and bought repeatedly, it involves a long timeline, many departments and their associated budgets, and the work of a vast number of people.

Marketing communication, which is the job of 'conveying' represented by advertising, PR, and sales promotion, is of course important. However, sales are not determined 'only' by a company's marketing communication. It is time to reach a state where those working in the field of marketing practice can talk about the 'areas and scope achievable by the department, team, and individual efforts they belong to' using a common language across the entire department and team. I want to clear away the clouds of frustration as much as possible. This feeling, almost like a sense of mission, is what motivated me to write this book.

On the other hand, writing about 'sales,' a theme that is too huge and represents 'corporate management itself,' was very daunting. I trembled at the thought that I might receive many scolding voices saying things like, 'These aren't the only factors that influence sales,' 'Your perspective is narrow,' 'Your thinking is shallow,' or 'Who are you?' and 'Why are you acting so high and mighty talking about 'sales'?'... and 'You don't understand anything,' 'That's completely wrong.'

In fact, when I started writing, I realized there are countless factors (explanatory variables) that influence the sales (objective variable) of large companies, and I almost gave up many times thinking, 'It's impossible to take everything and structure it!'

There are countless explanatory variables. Even just looking at advertising, there is advertising done for medium- to long-term branding and advertising aimed at capturing manifest needs. It seems impossible to take all objective variables and explain them.

Furthermore, there is 'recall' and 'recognition' (= output) that exist before sales, and there is also advertising and PR as input that influence the 'recall' and 'recognition' that are output. This is not a conversation on the same layer. No matter how I organize it, it becomes a multi-dimensional story, and I cannot create a perfect two-dimensional structure diagram. Even if I did, it might be full of points for criticism. It is scary to put that out into the world...

But I wanted to write it, so I did (laughs).

Naturally, sales are too deep. It is not a theme that can be carried by my own experience and life, which is far from being an omniscient and omnipotent god. That is precisely why I hope that this book will serve as a catalyst for the knowledge and know-how of many people to be reorganized, and that by raising the 'resolution of factors influencing sales' step by step, it will make the work of those struggling in the field of marketing practice a little easier.

My introduction and excuses have become long, but I wrote about these thoughts in the 'Introduction' of this book as well. I will release the full text, so please read it if you would like.

'Sales Map' ▶ Introduction

'It sold because the commercial was good!' 'It didn't sell because the product was bad.' Conversations that guess the factors behind good or bad sales are happening everywhere, not just among marketers. The reasons why something sold, and why it didn't sell, seem to be various: product power, price, distribution power, brand power, advertising and promotion, PR, sales promotion, buzz, word-of-mouth, influencers, the existence of competitors, and the economy. What is true and what is a lie?

I don't know why it's not selling

The purpose of this book is to approach these mysteries and decode them as a map, so that you can increase your sales in the shortest possible distance.

Suppose you opened a bakery in a corner of a residential area a little away from a small station. What factors would affect your sales? What would make sales go up if they were good? Let's list them as they come to mind.

Factors affecting sales of a local bakery

・Good taste
・Product assortment that meets the needs of local residents
・Appropriate in-store inventory (frequent sell-outs reduce repeat visits)
・Affordable prices
・A location that is easy to visit
・Easy-to-understand signage
・An open exterior and appropriate lighting
・Presence of a parking lot and ease of parking
・Cleanliness of the store
・Pleasant customer service
・Flyers and direct mail
・Stamp cards
・Utilization of LINE, Twitter, and Instagram
・High-rated reviews on Google Maps or Tabelog
・PR exposure in magazines and web media
・Few and distant competitors (since the trade area is small, distance is fine)
・Sunny weather (rain reduces foot traffic)
・Optimal temperature (if it's too hot, bread won't sell)

There are probably many others, but these are the major influencing factors. In this way, in the case of a local bakery, there is not much overlap between each factor, and the number of factors is not that large. Therefore, when sales go up, or when sales do not go up as expected, it is relatively easy to identify what the factor is and what the cause is.

If the cause can be identified, you just need to make an effort to strengthen the factors that increased sales and improve the factors that did not. The flow of identifying the cause and then implementing measures to improve or strengthen it is simple.

The complexity of large corporations

However, when it comes to large corporations, the story is completely different. There is a long history. There is a brand. There are many product items, and there are both good and bad memories of a vast number of customers who have purchased products in the past. In addition to long-selling standard products, new products are released incessantly, and many advertisements, PR, and sales promotion measures are deployed simultaneously. Competitors are also numerous and strong.

Since people won't buy if they don't know about it, we run TV commercials and internet ads to improve awareness. Since people won't buy even if they know about it if they aren't interested, we stimulate interest through article tie-ups and content marketing.

Since people won't buy if they don't know what kind of product it is even if they are interested, we create a brand site to appeal to the product's features to promote understanding. Since people won't buy even if they understand the product features if they don't like it, we hire popular celebrities or entertainers for TV commercials to increase favorability, or focus on corporate public relations to promote our social contribution activities.

Since people won't buy even if they want to if the product isn't on the store shelf, we engage in sales activities with retail headquarters buyers and stores across the country to get them to stock our products. Since sales change depending on the position, height, and number of items displayed on the shelf, we make detailed sales proposals in line with the retail store's 52-week merchandising (MD) plan. Furthermore, to provide the final push for purchase, we implement in-store promotions such as end-cap displays and discounts. Along with these, store prices also change rapidly.

Even if they buy it on a trial basis, they won't buy it next time if they don't like it, so we also focus on product development and improvement. And we invest a large amount of R&D expenses in technical development for that purpose. To respond politely to customer inquiries, we outsource customer consultation services to an external vendor with a huge call center. On the other hand, no matter how much effort we make, if a competitor makes more management efforts and achieves results, we will lose relatively. If the economy or world situation is bad, it won't sell as much as expected, and sales will fluctuate depending on the weather and temperature. Now, how can we identify the cause of why it sold (or why it didn't sell)? ([Figure 1])

[Figure 1] Reasons for sales

Objective variables and explanatory variables

As described, many factors are intertwined in the sales of large corporations. And to increase sales, each company has multiple departments taking numerous measures simultaneously.

In this case, factors that influence sales, such as product strength and advertising, are explanatory variables, and the sales generated as a result are the objective variable.

The sales of large corporations are influenced by a vast number of explanatory variables. This is the factor that makes marketing effectiveness measurement and ROI verification for large corporations difficult. However, since we cannot just say we won't (or can't) measure effectiveness because it's unclear, each company makes efforts to quantitatively measure how much advertising, PR, and sales promotion contributed to sales growth.

On the other hand, I have heard a joke like this.

A business manager at a certain company received reports from various departments such as the business division, advertising department, and marketing department. Each department head proudly reported with quantitative data that all the new products and advertisements carried out that fiscal year were 'hits,' but the business manager frowned and said this.

"That's strange... if your reports are true, our company's sales should be three times higher."

In this way, various companies, business divisions, advertising departments, and marketing departments tend to overestimate and report that their own efforts and measures have improved sales. As a result, business managers who evaluate the whole and allocate budgets continue to be in a situation where they do not know what is working and what is not.

Therefore, this book challenges the conventional logical process of "how the implemented measures contributed to sales improvement" and instead attempts to structure the factors using the opposite process: clarifying what factors (explanatory variables) cause sales (objective variable) to fluctuate (Figure 2).

[Figure 2] Structuring of explanatory variables that influence sales

The 20 explanatory variables covered in this book do not exist or function independently; they are interrelated and influence sales.

Therefore, I thought it was important to explain each explanatory variable independently while clearly showing which explanatory variables are linked in close proximity to one another.

The purpose and goal of this book

The purpose of this book is to clarify the structure of the main factors that influence sales, providing a "map" so that readers do not get lost and can reach their destination in the shortest possible distance.

Imagine this. When heading to a destination you are visiting for the first time, what if there were no Google Maps? What if the very concept of a map did not exist? You would likely never reach your destination. Maps have the following benefits:

・Useful for grasping the whole picture
・Can confirm the direction from your current location to the destination
・Can understand the distance and route to the destination
・Can understand the shortest distance to the destination
・Can select the optimal means of transportation
・Can predict obstacles to the destination

Marketing is the sum of all activities that keep a business aligned with changes in the market environment in order to generate sustainable sales. Because of this, the field is incredibly vast, and each area is deep. Perhaps that is why, even though there are textbooks and blueprints for individual areas, a map of overall sales has never existed until now.

I will explain the details in each chapter, but [Figure 3] is the overall picture of this book, the sales map. These factors influence each other and cause sales to fluctuate.

[Figure 3] The Sales Map

Once you have a map, you will be fine. You will be able to figure out where you are in relation to your destination, what is going well and what is not, and what the shortest route to your destination might be. You will be able to develop sound strategies.

Target audience and how to read this book

The primary readers of this book are those belonging to business divisions, advertising, PR, and marketing departments of large companies (manufacturers, retail chains, service industries, and the restaurant industry) that handle B2C products, as well as sales professionals on the front lines of "sales," and those who support them at advertising agencies, PR firms, consulting firms, and various other support vendors. It should also be useful for students and business professionals thinking about finding employment or changing jobs in the aforementioned industries.

In the advertising, PR, and marketing industries, "buzzwords" are born one after another. Because media and seminar titles are lined with phrases like "XX is already old! Next is XX!," you, the reader holding this book, may also be driven by a constant sense of urgency to work on "something new." You might be struggling with your daily work, not really understanding the reasons why things sell or why they don't, what is correct and what is incorrect, or what you should do and what you don't need to do.

It is a bit late, but let me introduce myself. My area of expertise is marketing. For the past 20 years or more, I have been involved in supporting the advertising, PR, and marketing operations of large companies.

In the first half of my career, I experienced marketing research, concept development, product development such as naming and package design, support for wide-area distribution for manufacturers (strengthening the proposal sales capabilities of sales staff in in-store merchandising), and shelf-space productivity analysis. In the second half of my career, I founded my current company, Tribal Media House, in 2007, and have been engaged in marketing communications such as word-of-mouth marketing, viral promotion, social media, and strategic PR.

My career has been shaped by gaining experience in analog, traditional marketing in the first half, and in digital areas like the internet and social media in the second half. Because I am not someone who has spent a long time in only one area, I thought I might be able to grasp the various explanatory variables that influence sales objectively, neutrally, and from a bird's-eye view.

Furthermore, through my 17 years of experience working in marketing in the 'place closest to the consumer'—social media—since 2005, when the buzzword Web 2.0 was born, I have been painfully made aware that 'sales,' or in other words, activities that encourage 'customers to want to buy' and 'getting them to buy,' are influenced by a vast number of factors that interact with each other, sometimes working and sometimes not.

This book does not provide instant know-how like 'If you do X, anyone can easily start selling from today!' Rather, its main focus is to help you understand that such convenient magic wands do not exist in this world.

There are already many excellent textbooks on strategy and marketing theory, as well as specialized books that summarize practical know-how regarding advertising, PR, and more. Each covers problem setting, solutions, approaches, user-friendly schemes and frameworks, and success stories for specific domains or themes.

On the other hand, while specialized books are optimal for learning a single theme, they have the drawback that understanding the 'overall picture' and the 'connections between themes,' as well as the 'connection between individual themes' for practical application in daily work, depends on the reader's level of understanding and effort. This book aims to solve that problem.

In this book, I take up 20 explanatory variables (or 19, to be precise, excluding effectiveness measurement) that have a major impact on sales. Of course, there are more explanatory variables than that, but due to space limitations, I have narrowed them down to major themes. The amount of information explained in each chapter is far less than in specialized books. This is because the explanation of individual themes is limited to the 'minimum necessary amount of information' to understand the 'overall picture' and the 'relationships between each theme' regarding 'how to create sales in the coming era.'

Also, because I wanted to be a compass that shows the 'direction' of 'which way should I go?' in a 'vast, foggy forest' where the resolution for identifying the causes of 'sales' is extremely low, no difficult mathematical formulas that simulate sales in detail appear in this book.

The purpose of this book is strictly to 'roughly grasp the overall picture of the factors that influence sales.' Readers who wish to delve deeper into each theme should pick up specialized books on those respective themes after finishing this book. And when you find it difficult to understand the 'positioning' of the work you are doing in your daily tasks, I hope you will return to this book someday. There is nothing that would make me happier as an author than for you to use it in that way.

The title of this book is 'The Map of Sales,' and it explains the structure of factors that influence sales, but I am not a teacher or a researcher. Nor am I a practitioner who has been engaged in marketing at an actual B2C company. The fact that I was able to learn marketing that is useful in practical field work is due to nothing other than the benefits gained from the large amount of high-quality know-how accumulated by predecessors in papers and books, and the valuable experience of facing many clients and working together to solve difficult problems.

This book is a compilation of what I have summarized as a 'framework common to the marketing work of many people,' not only by reading many specialized books but also by using several frameworks that I created by thinking through various phenomena myself and the insights of those active in the industry in client practice.

From here, we will finally enter the explanation of the map of sales. Columbus, who is said to have been the first to reach the American waters during the Age of Discovery, was successful not only as a navigator but also as a first-class mapmaker. It can be said that he succeeded in his difficult voyage because he had a precise map that he had created himself.

I hope that this book will become a map for the reader's marketing work and provide hints for effectively and efficiently improving sales.

May 2022
Noriyuki Ikeda

[Table of Contents]

Orientation: 'How to Read the Map'
Map 1: Sales and Products/Services
Map 2: Sales and Sales Floors
Map 3: Sales and Recall
Map 4: Sales and Favorability
Map 5: Sales and Word of Mouth
Map 6: Sales and Social Media
Map 7: Sales and Owned Media
Map 8: Sales and Influencers
Map 9: Sales and Brands
Map 10: Sales and Loyal Customers
Map 11: Sales and Purpose
Map 12: Sales and Advertising
Map 13: Sales and PR
Map 14: Sales and Sales Staff
Map 15: Sales and In-Store Promotion
Map 16: Sales and Trends
Map 17: Sales and Younger Generations
Map 18: Sales and External Environmental Factors
Map 19: Sales and Price
Map 20: Sales and Effectiveness Measurement

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When there is a hit product, we tend to look for the 'main factor for winning,' thinking, 'This measure was the one that worked!' But in reality, behind that hit are people who worked hard on basic and applied research, people who thought of the product concept, people in charge of research, people who designed the product including cost calculation and specifications, people in purchasing, factories, and production management who manufactured the prototypes and products, people in the business division and nationwide bases who worked up a sweat proposing sales to buyers at retail headquarters and store managers across the country to get the product on shelves in retail chains nationwide, people who thought of the advertising, people who thought of the PR, people who operated events, people in charge of owned media and SNS—countless people are involved. And, of course, the customers who have become value co-creators instead of just consumers are also involved.

The culmination of the work and activities that those many people worked so hard on is 'sales,' and it should never be concluded that 'it sold because the measure I worked hard on worked!' or 'it didn't sell because of your lack of effort!'

I hope that this book will serve as an opportunity for the full picture of the 'vast, foggy forest' of sales to become a little clearer.

The publication date is Monday, 6/20. Reservations are available here!! m(_ _)m

Postscript: Thanks to everyone's support, I was able to reach number 1 in the Amazon Marketing & Sales General Books category ranking (though I think it's a momentary gust of wind)! I am overwhelmed... Thank you!!

And in February 2022, I released the Evoked Set survey conducted on a total of 15,000 people! It contains interesting content, so please take a look!

If you want to know more about the structure of the brain (memory), please take a look at this as well.

(Added on January 4, 2024)

As a sister book to 'Sales Map', I am publishing a book I poured my heart into, 'Marketing "Connecting" Thinking Techniques', which connects the dots, lines, and planes of marketing. It will be published on January 17, 2024.

If 'Sales Map' is a book that explains the causal structure of sales from a broad perspective, 'Marketing "Connecting" Thinking Techniques' is a book that is "more practical and strategy-oriented," explaining "what each measure can and cannot do" based on a marketing funnel map.

If you read them as a set of two, I am sure that the dots, lines, and planes will connect. Please check them out if you like!

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Our company (Tribal Media House) provides an online free learning service called "MARPS" (with Ikeda fully committed) to support marketers in "knowing → understanding → being able to do" and to realize the growth and career advancement of marketers. Just by registering as a member, you can use all the content from Ikeda and gorgeous guests for free. It is packed with learning programs that help solve problems that tend to occur in the field for marketing personnel! Please check the link below to see what kind of learning programs we offer. We are waiting for those who want to learn marketing "systematically"!

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I also post various things on Twitter (please follow me ♡)