onetheory: onepeace
I said I would perform an analysis on why VIZ did what it did and what it should do now, so here is that effort! I’m going to update this slowly and methodically, and you can follow along if you like, on this page! I’ll be updating my twitter every time I update this page, so be sure to follow if this interests you at all That’s enough of that, let’s begin now.
Set-Up: The date is 2/11/2012 and VIZ Media just stopped Mangastream from releasing Shonen JUMP scanlations. There has since been a ton of backlash. How should VIZ Media have handled this? What should VIZ Media do now? Remember, this is just my opinion as a gigantic JUMP fan and business student (who actually has access to a tiny bit of information not everybody does).
Table of Contents:
- The Current State of VIZ Media (2/12/2012)
- Why Fans Didn’t Need VIZ’s Product (2/12/2012)
- What They Should Have Done (2/12/2012)
- What They Should Do Now (2/12/2012)
- Since They Probably Won’t, What We Should Do Now (2/12/2012)
- In Conclusion (2/12/2012)
- Further Reading (continuous)
The Current State of VIZ Media (Hoovers Pro) – Updated, 11:07 AM 2/12/2012
To understand VIZ’s decision, we must first understand VIZ. According to Hoovers Pro, VIZ has 153 employees with estimated revenues of $15.10M. Their parent company, Shogakukan Inc., has estimated revenues of $1.36B and seems to have posted a net loss of $31.35M in their last audit year.
They’re entirely digital now so, I’m quickly assuming that the majority of their COGS are employee wages and site maintenance. Renting their San Francisco facility – a roughly 10,000 square foot office space in downtown San Francisco near the wharf – runs as much as $30/square foot/year, a relatively negligible $300k/year in rent. Regardless, average revenue per employee at VIZ is ($15.10M) / 153 employees = $98,692, as of their last audit year. I can’t ascertain precisely what year those numbers came from, because it’s not on Hoovers’ report.
Either way, I think you get my point: The parent company of VIZ is losing a lot of money, and VIZ itself is not making any money at all. This is obviously problematic due to how amazing the source material is – how is it possible that VIZ Media is only making $100k per employee with titles such as One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Hitman Reborn! and Hunter x Hunter?
If the reviews on Glassdoor are to be believed, VIZ is very much controlled by Shogakukan, and doesn’t have a lot of say in what it does and can do. So let’s stop hating on VIZ for this decision and try looking at it from their perspective. Their bosses are angry and losing money. They see pirating as the reason why they haven’t sold anything. They’ve been forced to lay off workers, multiple times.
But what should they have done? What should they do now?
At the very least, a well concerted PR effort and a prepared statement is/was owed to manga readers world wide. Is the lack of resources not letting VIZ do their job properly? Or do they just not care?
One thing is for sure: they need a better platform for distributing their manga properties. Gabe Newell of Valve (Steam) spoke about how they fought piracy in his 2009 DICE keynote speech. Here’s a transcript of that speech on IGN.com, and I’ll make sure to summarize the main points in this post as well. One big take away, though, is his notion that pirates are out competing publishers on price AND on service.
Why Fans Didn’t Need VIZ’s Product – Updated: 4:08 PM, 2/12/2012
And we’re back! Lowering the price aside (because VIZ is hurting), they still need to take care of its customer. When you’re losing on price and service, there’s no rational reason for any one to buy your product.. unless your branding is strong. I think it goes without saying that before all this (and especially after), VIZ’s brand equity is not where they need it to be. Here’s why:
An Undifferentiated Product
Full Disclosure: Commenter BASSEXE points out that VIZ will still print all the volumes in full force. I’m just leaving this up here for the sake of transparency. I do, however, still think that if someone purchases an online magazine that they should have access to it forever, but that’s for later in this post. As of April 2012, VIZ will no longer publish physical Shonen Jump volumes. Yes, print is dying, but this raises a gigantic concern: there is no longer ANY difference between what the scanlation community and VIZ can provide to manga readers. I personally enjoy having physical volumes – especially since if you actually do decide to purchase an issue of Shonen Jump Alpha, you only have access to it for 4 weeks!
An Inferior Product
Is this not incredibly confusing? In my opinion, the implied reason for the time-limit placement on purchases was to drive sales of physical JUMP volumes. That if you read it, liked it, but wanted it for keeps, that you could go out and buy it for yourself to enjoy for all eternity. But now that it’s gone, I don’t see any reason for the time-limit, other than to take your customers’ money. It’s not a good game to play with people who can read archived chapters free online and even download them if they so chose to.
The translations VIZ have been providing also had translation errors. It’s understandable that a few might slip by once in a while – even at a professional publishing company. But they sometimes went unfixed for days/weeks, whereas mangastream would change them within hours of being caught. I can only assume that the switch to digital has them feeling less accountable for their mistakes, because if you consistently publish and print errors, you’re gonna get a lot of crap. I guess if you do it online, it must not really matter.
A Slower Product
VIZ is currently around 2 to 3 weeks behind Japan in all its series. One thing that I must point out right now is that we will never legally get the same amount of service mangastream offered. The reason why is because mangastream actually got scans of chapters before they were supposed to release in Japan. But that doesn’t mean that they should be excused for not being up to date – they lost focus on the customer and how their customers interacted with their product.
If the manga community can get chapters earlier, faster, in high quality and for free, why on earth wouldn’t they do it? These writers are amazing. They are good at ending chapters on cliffhangers. Wednesday is both the best and worst day of the week because after I read a chapter, I know I have to wait seven very long days for the next one. It’s inexcusable not to be up to date, but that isn’t anything that VIZ can’t change if they really want this to work.
The Wrong Product
One of the things that absolutely fascinates me to no end is that companies don’t seem to do any market research what so ever. They decide on branding, decide on a position, and run with it until they fail. These are the traffic statistics for mangastream.com. This is an infographic that shows 88% of One Piece readers are adults. Why are you censoring your manga? For those of you who don’t care to interpret the data, manga is being read primarily by 18-30 year old, single males, who are either in or have graduated from college. I understand that you maybe want your target market to be kids because manga is cartoony, but look at the facts. You absolutely should not be censoring these artists’ life-works – they pour their hearts and souls in to these things. For you to change them through censorship, especially for people who won’t even be offended by it, is both unnecessary and wrong.
No Product At All
VIZ scanlates the so called Big 3: One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach. But what they don’t do is scan the insanely popular series Hunter x Hunter and Katekyo Hitman Reborn! (among others). I don’t know if the American readers know this, but in Japan, Naruto and Bleach aren’t even on the same planet as Hunter x Hunter and One Piece (okay, maybe Naruto is). They are widely considered the best mangas currently running, and as someone who is completely caught up to them, I absolutely agree.
But VIZ is focused only on the U.S. So much so that Shonen Jump Alpha isn’t even offered outside of America. How many fans just lost access to quality scans of their favorite series? Nobody in Europe and Australia (among others) has any other option but to find fan scanlation groups. VIZ has created a gigantic void and need in the market, and it won’t just sit there unfulfilled. It’s the nature of the internet – something they don’t quite seem to understand just yet.
I hope this gives us all, and VIZ, a small glimpse in to what it should be offering to be able to compete with scanlation groups on the internet. I hope this has been informative for everyone so far! I’m also having fun doing it, so I hope you guys are having at least a little bit of fun reading it. Please share it with your friends if you like it! Otherwise, until next time everybody
What VIZ Should Have Done - Updated: 9:50 PM, 2/12/2012
So while it’s helpful to have a sense for what VIZ needs to start offering in order to compete, it doesn’t really help us now because the decision has already been made. But what should they have done – both before the news broke of mangastream’s amputation and after? You are doomed to repeat yourself unless you learn from your past. Here’s what I’m learning from this entire debacle:
The Importance of Public Relations Cannot Be Overemphasized
Come on VIZ… This is an easy one. Your facebook page has 18,000 likes. Mangastream has almost 450,000. Did you seriously think you could do something like this and not expect some backlash? It just seems lazy and disrespectful. Yes, you have the license to publish JUMP in America, but you still have to take care of your customers. Where is the prepared statement? It should be smack-dab in the middle of VIZMedia.com’s home page. Where’s your official response to all the hate? The longer this lingers, the worse off you guys look. People have already begun making a meme.
You need to give some rationale. Ask people to empathize with you.. just do something! Because here’s a quick lesson from Public Relations 101: if you don’t say anything, people will start putting words in your mouth. It has been over 24 hours since mangastream made the announcement (which was a bad move – you need to control communication and reveal this yourselves) without a peep on your facebook or official web site. You’re losing your people by the hour. I don’t care if it’s the weekend – businesses run 24/7.
Prepare The Alternative
I hope that when you all are reading this that the message you’re taking away is not that VIZ was dumb and stupid and horrible for shutting mangastream down. On the contrary, it was entirely necessary, warranted and within their rights to do so. What I am arguing, though, is that VIZ should have been better prepared for this event, and handled it much more professionally.
VIZ isn’t currently offering a level of service close to what mangastream once did. If you’re going to take down the king, you better be ready to fill his shoes. As I stated earlier, none of us can really expect to get the same level of service as mangastream once provided. It does, however, need to be enough for us to forget that mangastream ever existed. Why doesn’t your non-Japanese audience have timely access to the latest chapter releases? A day behind the Japanese release wouldn’t be an issue at all – I promise you that. But a couple of weeks is too much. The internet calls, and it will get what it wants.
In summary, VIZ has provided a modest alternative to American fans and no alternative to everyone else. You can’t do this – especially as a business. There is a demand for your digital product outside the U.S. and you aren’t fighting for the resources/licenses to distribute it. You’re dead in the water. You aren’t even trying. Your fans feel neglected and others, completely ignored. It’s not sustainable. It’s not right.
What VIZ Should Do Now – Update: 11:01 PM, 2/12/2012
I don’t claim to know how VIZ works internally, and frankly, it doesn’t matter. Because what I care about, and what VIZ should care about, are the manga readers and the manga community. If you service your customers, they will support your effort and attention. So while I hesitate to repeat myself, I’m going to do so anyway because it’s my blog and my rules 
Make Everything Available
Translate everything and sell it to every one. People will pay for your product because the fact is, they have to. But what you can’t do is be unfair about your distribution and expect support from the ones being treated unfairly – especially if alternatives out there exist. I referenced it earlier but here it is again:
Develop the Platform That Will Help You Do It
Purchases should be permanent, and should update automatically, if errors are found. Chapters should release the day/a day after the Japanese release, if at all possible. If you insist on releasing both censored and uncensored versions, then this platform should be able to segment your releases based on age (easily done). The content should be viewable offline, and should continuously reward your fans for paying for the service. Here’s how you can do it:
Create a Digital Library – With a user interface so spectacular that people will be dying to show off their collections to their friends. Have people pay for upgrades to the library, and allow for personalization. This platform also needs to have room for people to comment on each others libraries, turning the entire experience social. Develop the mobile app for it too. It’s all common sense, this day and age.
Create a Digital Display Case – Partner with action figure makers like NamcoBandai, and develop codes redeemable for digital copies of the figures for anyone who purchases and imports them.
Manga Credits – Each one costs 50 cents to a dollar or whatever works for you. Whatever, I’m not a finance guy. Each credit should trade 1 to 1 for a weekly release, and 4 or 5 to 1 for a volume (again, not a finance guy, although I love math).
Accomplishments – Are you kidding? Do you know how successful XBOX has been with accomplishments? Through this platform, you should be rewarding people who complete collections and even rank them for others to see. This will be a huge sales driver, as well as increase user interaction. I can’t believe more companies don’t employ this strategy already. It’s a damn shame.
Trial Packs – A manga credit should trade 5 to 1 for a non-permanent manga trial, so people who want to catch up can catch up cheaply, and people who want to do some exploring can do so cheaply as well. I can’t believe I’m not getting paid by VIZ (or at least someone ) to come up with this stuff.
I don’t know if these ideas have already been brought up to VIZ already, but I can’t help but think they have (mostly because I’m young, and I know there are a lot of people out there way smarter than me). The fact is, even if VIZ wanted to employ all of these strategies, they might not have the resources to do so. We’ve already established that VIZ is hurting, and that they’re going after scanning groups to get some of it back. But VIZ, listen: you can’t expect to do this without creating more value for your customers. The value just isn’t there!
Since VIZ Probably Won’t, What We Should Do Now - Updated: 11:38 PM, 2/12/2012
How much would it cost for the manga community to buy the rights out from under VIZ? Or rather, how much would it cost for the manga community to purchase the rights to Hunter x Hunter and Hitman Reborn! only, using a new business model that we have developed as a crowd and community? By divesting the titles, VIZ would no longer be burdened with having to release translations of a couple series they weren’t paying attention to to begin with. Both the parent company and VIZ themselves will make money just for agreeing to the sale.
I want to reiterate that while I do not know how VIZ operates internally, I know how money operates externally. The plan: 450,000 mangastream fans, donating a dollar each (or more if you care to, because the majority won’t), in order to fund the development of the platform I just described, with the mangastream team at the helm. Now, granted they all have day jobs and I can’t pay them anything close to the $3000/day = $1M/year that they (supposedly) used to earn, I’m sure they can find it in their hearts to support the community that has so unwaveringly supported them these past two years.
Is it impossible? No. Because with enough visibility, someone will always be there to step up and help. Because that’s what a community does, and that’s the power of crowdsourcing talent. Nobody has ever done anything alone. All it takes is the commitment of the dedicated few, who have a dream, and a genuine passion for what they’re doing.
In Conclusion
I hope that one day, these mangaka’s works will be made available for everyone who wants to read them. VIZ can very much be apart of that dream, but first they need to stand up for themselves. They need to fight for the resources to develop a platform its customers want, or they need to get out of the way. If you feel the same way, share this article with your friends. Edit it, fix it, claim it as your own – I really don’t care. Just get the message out there. Because if we make this important and visible enough, VIZ and Shogakukan will listen. And it will all be because of a combined effort that started with you.
I hope you all had a good time reading my analysis! I’m seriously, seriously tired. I didn’t get to a lot of the school work I was supposed to, but ehhh… it was worth it In no way is this analysis complete or comprehensive, but my hope is it gives you all some ideas to think through on your own, while we all wait to see what happens within the next two weeks together. Have a great week! I hope to see you here again.
Further Reading
How Piracy Works – A Mr. Robert Boske shared with me on the facebook a great article written by the inventor of Minecraft on piracy.
Key Line: “Instead of just relying on guilt tripping pirates into buying, or wasting time and money trying to stop them, I can offer online-only services that actually add to the game experience.”
Valve Exec Explains How to Compete with Piracy – Great summary of Gabe Newell’s DICE 2009 speech.
Key Line: “Digital content is best viewed as a service, and not a product.” (Along with the rest of the second and third paragraphs)
Top Mangaka: “The Publishers Are The Ones Raping Us!” – A Ms. Kitty Sparkles shared with me on facebook a different take on what’s really going on between the mangaka and their publishers.
Publishers Fear Mangaka, Not Pirates – Again, the alternative view.
Kravmaga @ MHelpers forum – Insight from a mangastream team member.
The Paywall Debate – Noms_Tiem @ reddit shared this article on monetizing news in the digital era.
Awesome analysis right there. Waiting for more, already favorited.
Meanwhile, spreading the hate.
Posted by leokiko | February 13, 2012, 3:56 amnoo don’t spread hate! i don’t think it’ll get us anywhere. what will get us somewhere, though, is convincing viz/shogakukan that they need to change, and that viable alternatives are out there!
otherwise, thanks for the support
i’m happy to hear at least somebody out there thought it was alright 
Posted by nanallday | February 13, 2012, 8:37 amOne problem, bud.
“In my opinion, the implied reason for the time-limit placement on purchases was to drive sales of physical JUMP volumes. That if you read it, liked it, but wanted it for keeps, that you could go out and buy it for yourself to enjoy for all eternity. But now that it’s gone, I don’t see any reason for the time-limit, other than to screw your customers out of money.”
They’re only stopping the print versions of the magazine. All the graphic novels, the actual volumes, will still be printed in full force.
Posted by BassEXE | February 13, 2012, 4:07 amThanks Bass! I’m not gonna pretend I know everything because I really, really don’t. I appreciate the help! That’s why it’s up here
Posted by nanallday | February 13, 2012, 4:31 amNo problem. I completely agree that Viz is on the downturn, though. They should have done to MangaStream what the anime industry did to CrunchyRoll
Posted by BassEXE | February 13, 2012, 4:37 amHey, you should check out this post on mangahelper.com forums. One of mangastream’s translators posted their own opinions and a bit of insight into their side of things.
http://mangahelpers.com/forum/showthread.php/75222-MangaStream-dropping-all-VIZ-licensed-series?p=2782294&viewfull=1#post2782294
In short, they say that mangastream had some contacts at VIZ in which VIZ was willing to let them continue scanlating, however with the introduction of Alpha, they asked the owner of the site to remove those series; this was something the owner was prepared to do. She believes that people should support VIZ’s efforts, however she also doesn’t like that mangastream is being compared to aggregate websites like mangareader or mangafox which steal other people’s work and are just in it for ad revenue.
Posted by Xaveras | February 13, 2012, 8:20 amI just blogged a link to this on my tumblr page. I’ll be one of those people donating to the platform run by mangastream if your idea ever comes to fruition, and you can be sure it’ll be a hell of a lot more than one dollar.
Posted by sylveisaque | February 13, 2012, 8:34 amthanks sylveisaque!
i really appreciate the support. we’ll see. we’ll… see 
Posted by nanallday | February 13, 2012, 8:35 amAlso, I have some additional comments.
Re: Translations — VIZ’s translations have improved dramatically in the last five or six years. They have different translators for different series, however, and some may or may not be better than others. Different series also seem to have different criteria for translation (Nura for example retains a lot of Japanese terms and phrases compared to their other series).
Regarding WSJA, I have so far only seen one typo in the four issues they’ve released (including the free previews), which was a missing apostrophe in a chapter of Naruto. That’s pretty solid.
I’d also like to say that there seems to be a feeling among some fans that the official translations are “wrong” simply because they’re different from the scanlations they’ve been reading for years, which usually isn’t the true. One example is that VIZ translates “Kage Bunshin no Jutsu” as “Art of the Shadow Doppelganger” while many scanlators have historically translated it as “Shadow Clone no Jutsu” or something similar. The fact, however, is that Bunshin is the Japanese translation for Doppelganger — just visit the Japanese wikipedia article for Doppelgangers: “「分身」は、この項目へ転送されています。” — “‘Bunshin’ automatically redirects to this article.”
Re: Censorship — This is something that VIZ went back and forth on years ago, but as far as I can tell, they seem to have stopped censoring their manga, perhaps because televised anime edited for young audiences has lost momentum in the US and is less of a factor in manga sales?
At any rate, I haven’t seen any evidence of censorship in anything recent from them, and not in WSJA. In fact, their translation for their most recent chapter of One Piece included the words hell, damn, and piss, and there are overt references to death and murder.
Re: Popularity — As per the weekly reader poll results for Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan, the current most popular manga series in the magazine are, without a doubt, One Piece, Toriko, and Naruto. Those are almost always the top three (ordering varies from issue to issue) and almost never fall out of the top five.
Bakuman, Reborn, Gintama, Sket Dance, and Beelzebub are usually next in popularity, sometimes breaking into the top five and even top three, and shuffeling a lot from week to week. Bakuman, Reborn, and Gintama are the most consistently popular of that group.
Bleach, while popular internationally, has fallen in popularity in Japan, and is usually towards the bottom of the top 10.
Hunter X Hunter is usually in a similar position, very rarely breaking out of the middle of the pack in reader polls. However, despite doing poorly in reader polls (perhaps because of its frequent hiatuses), its tankobon sales are very good.
Nurarihyon usually jumps wildly from the top ten to the bottom ten depending on the ongoing events in the manga. However, it’s got a relatively new anime series and a new video game, so it’s got growing value as an intellectual property, which is likely why VIZ is interested in it.
Other series consistently linger towards the bottom of the pack, typically only breaking the top 10 when they get center colors.
Currently riding the bottom is ST&RS, which is around chapter 30 currently, and will probably not last too much longer before getting cancelled. The previous last place series was cancelled just recently.
Posted by Xaveras | February 13, 2012, 8:48 amwoah. thanks for the comments!
rere translations: i think the argument must be made that if the majority of manga readers have been reading “pirated” scans, that if you – as a business – truly intend to turn them in to subscribers, you must cater to the needs of the majority. that is, if everyone knows kage bunshin no jutsu as shadow clone no jutsu (btw, video games also translate it that way) that you should probably be translating it that way too
rere censorship: i 100% agree
i bring it up because it was historically present, and because the current branding of viz doesn’t seem like it’s targeted to the young adult audience. nevertheless, i have one piece volume 54 randomly in front of me and sadie chan looks about as uncensored as she is on mfox/share 
rere popularity: good call on hunter x hunter, but as you say, the frequent and long hiatuses have made it hard to fairly compare. the statement above definitely has some personal bias to it, but its one that all my friends who live in japan have consistently agreed with. the data does speak though!
Posted by nanallday | February 13, 2012, 9:14 amViz is just one of the many examples where things will get worse before they get any better. You can look at what’s happening with DC and Marvel comics as a good example of what will happen to the Manga industry before it starts moving in the right direction.
We’re already starting to get Hollywood movies of some of our favorite mangas but somehow video games, a considerably younger medium than Manga, have “beat us” to Hollywood (not that there is any pride in that). But when a medium transcends it’s own platform to bring you an experience on another one, it represents the growth and growing appeal.
What is more likely to happen is that Viz will file bankruptcy within a couple of years, the sooner the better, and their parent company will either give up publishing rights to the west altogether, and we can continue to enjoy our medium “freely”, or… some ray of light penetrates the thick skulls of people at Viz, and they realize that what they need is a good online distribution platform.
I really doubt the later will happen. But what we have ahead of us, will be a few of the darkest years for the manga industry, as Viz and other publishers will continue to crackdown on Manga distribution sites as their sales dwindle. Whether or not they realize that by closing Manga escalator’s/distributor’s sites they are shooting themselves on the foot and chest at the same time before they go bankrupt is what will determine how the outcome of all this.
Posted by Marco Jardim | February 13, 2012, 9:24 amawesome insight. i’m speechless and trust me, that’s rare
thanks for contributing man.
while i don’t want viz to go bankrupt, i completely agree that if something doesn’t change, it may very well happen.
Posted by nanallday | February 13, 2012, 9:31 amWell, if your hope is that the US manga and anime industry completely collapses (with thousands of people losing jobs and etc.) just so that you can get everything from fansubbers and scanlators without having to worry about paying for it, that’s on you.
However, people in Japan don’t get their manga and anime for free. Weekly Shonen Jump costs about 250 yen a week (about $3 a week in USD, adds up to $144 a year) and new tankobon cost about 500 yen (around $6 USD).
If you don’t think Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha is a “good online distribution platform”, I don’t know what is. It’s $1 an issue (120 pages) or $25 for a year subscription (48 issues). For now it’s only six series and there’s a two-week delay from Japanese newstands, but VIZ has stated that they want to try and shorten that gap and also increase the number of series they offer if it performs well.
Apart from carrying more series and releasing a bit faster, how could they possibly improve that? IMO, it’s the itunes of manga. That’s why I’ve chosen to fully support them (and I even used to be an editor for various scanlation groups).
Posted by Xaveras | February 13, 2012, 9:59 amDon’t give me that “thousands of people losing jobs” on your hands excuse. That’s a really cowardly and stupid excuse and it does not justify anything. Thousands of fishermen hunt endangered whales. If I’m against the extinction of whales does that make me a jerk? If I’m against the death of one of my favorite entertainment mediums does that make me a jerk? I want manga to be a good platform that rewards the publishers and the authors of my favorite titles, and I go out of my way to support it when they don’t want to give me their products in my country.
I’ve done more than my share of supporting the manga I like by importing a lot it to Europe. And they would not have gotten those sales if I hadn’t originally experienced them through a scanlator website.
But for my weekly dosage of the most current manga, I follow a scanlator’s release. Because it’s fast, free and convenient for me to do so, and more importantly, because there is no legal alternative to it.
If anything, publishers should be thanking scanlators for their work. I am 100% certain that manga sales will dwindle as they close scanlators websites.
The manga industry has some of the most dedicated fans, crazy enough to go visit a very foreign and expensive country. Crazy enough to purchase and cherish all kinds of merchandise (figures, keychains, posters). I’m sure most fans could afford to pay for their favorite manga chapters, if they were released in a promptly manner at a decent price, but right now paying customers are getting a worse product, that is less convenient to use, and they have to pay for it.
Posted by Marco Jardim | February 13, 2012, 10:43 amExcellent analysis; thoroughly enjoyed reading this. Although I do have some additional comments/recommendations I’d like to make.
The first is learning the culture you’re catering to. As you mentioned, Viz seem to be under the impression that we’re all kids living in a bubble. That’s incredibly generalised for a company that’s providing multiple products to multiple cultures around the globe. To take an example, Reborn uses phrases such as “Well if them’s the rules” or “wazzat!” (that’s not even English!! OTL) and replaces dad (to use the British equivalent) with “pop.” If someone is not a US citizen, then there is a risk (sometimes mild, others not) that the customer won’t fully understand the colloquialism used, particularly if English isn’t their first language. I know that Bleach, and I assume a few others, are handled better, but believing that a product aimed at one culture will cater to all is naive – this is even more important if said product is not one of most famous. If Viz are serious about providing a competitive service, then they need to take these things into consideration if and when they decide to pay attention to Europe, as well as the US.
The second solution I’d recommend is learning the product from the customer’s point of view. I’m not going to go into detail on this because you’ve already done the honours. I will, however, state that I recommend Viz actively finding out what their customers expect from a series. If you take a look at their Facebook and Twitter pages, you’ll see that there is barely any interaction between the company and its fans/followers. All they really do is tell you when something is released or ask shallow questions like “if you were an anime/manga character, who would you be?” In the long run, that isn’t going to help them understand *why* certain products fail/succeed or what their customers really want; I suspect that Viz mainly relies on statistical or financial data for this incomplete information. A forum on the main website or Facebook would be ideal for countering this problem for two reasons.
One, it allows customer interaction in an environment that they can monitor not only opinions, but also gather data on *who* reads what series. That kills two birds with one stone, and can also act as a platform for obtaining the rights for other series. The second reason is that it could help to pull people away from scanalations. A quick bit of researching on these scanalating groups tells you shows you that people *love* to talk about the latest chapter in a forum that is usually on the same website that they’ve read the chapter from, but they also tell you something else: spoilers. People *love* to read spoilers about a chapter that they’re going to read in a matter of hours. It gives them something to talk about, theorise and build up excitement/expectations for the chapter. One of Viz’s problems is that they just give you the chapter with little-to-no build-up, relying solely on the customer wanting more after reading the previous chapter. In some ways, this is one of the reasons why it is *essential* that Viz releases chapters, at the very latest, a day or so after the release in Japan. Not only does this help to prevent people from reading scans, but it also helps to give the Western marketplace a sense of inclusion in the excitement, which is something that both Shogakukan Inc. (as the parent company) and Viz are failing to do.
Thirdly is promotion. Since I don’t live in the US, I cannot comment on what promotion they do on TV, cinemas etc to get more people into manga/anime, or even inform their customers of what great new products they’ve got. Europe, on the other hand, does not appear to have any promotion, except for some trailers on the website homepage, or a few pages at the end of a volume. If you look at the various forums, twitters etc, you’ll find that the amount of people who say they got into manga either by word of mouth or via scans is phenomenal (and somewhat ironic). Instead of whining about copyright infringement, it would be more beneficial for Viz and Shogakukan Inc. act on this issue. One of the saddest things about the manga/anime industry is how closed off it is; in some ways, it’s almost exclusive to those who live in Asia. However, Viz have the means to change that in Western civilisation through active promotion to get both new and existing customers to buy their products (not necessarily those who already know about their existence), good PR (they still haven’t reacted to fans anger on their Facebook page; seems as though they’re just going to ignore it) and products/services that attest to their claims.
Fourth is the Internet, and actively embracing it instead of reacting to it. For a long time, it’s been clear that quite a lot of these companies are scared when it comes to the internet. Why? Because it creates an imbalance that rigid hierarchies cannot effectively counter very easily. In some ways, what they’ve done is too little, too late. Viz’s Shonen Jump Alpha, although is a step in the right direction, doesn’t appear to have a unique selling point. It’s presently limited to the US and Canada (hopefully, that’s only temporary, and they’re using the US market to test it), is late in comparison to scans, and does something that scans don’t: it costs money. That’s three key reasons why it hasn’t taken off yet, and will be something that Viz will never be able to overcome unless they find their USP, and inform their customer of it. Unfortunately, I can’t think of a solution to this since I have no idea what Viz’s USP would be (although, Viz, if you’re reading this, your USP for me would be the respectable continuation of Reborn! >:D And the provision of this service in Europe.).
However, it is clear that the building up their European website to cater to those in that market is essential. If you have a look at the European website, you’ll find that it’s rarely updated, is confused with what language it uses (e.g. they have job descriptions written in French but ask for applications to be written in English), and isn’t visably attractive. In fact, if anything, it’s boring and doesn’t make me (as a customer) want to come back to it again and again. Or even apply for a job. In other words, it’s very limited, and doesn’t have half the content that’s on the US – which is very important from a customer point of view – or even the usability. That’s almost an entire market wiped out, despite it apparently catering to those in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, which in itself sounds like too much for a single division.
The Internet is also a great platform for researching. Scan groups will have a list of series that they translate, and some even collect/provide statistical data on a) where their fanbase is from and b) which series are the most/least popular. Put that together with information Viz could easily collate from forums, art sites (eg deviantART and Pixiv), etc. and Viz can easily gather enough information to let them know why people like/dislike their products, how they can involve their customers (eg having an art competition where the winner(s) receive some epic prize from their (not Viz’s) favourite mangaka that they distribute for), where to sell their products (physical or otherwise), and what products to sell.
Above all, Viz Media should *not* just assume that, because they’re going more digital, their poor sales performance will suddenly turn around. Shonen Jump Alpha is a tool; if they’re serious about using it properly then they have to look at what others (ie scan groups) have done, and improve it. One way around this – until it really does take off – is to communicate with the scan groups. Controversial as it seems, if it’s one thing that these groups have gotten right, it’s how to tap into the mind of their customer and embrace it. What difficulties did they have? How did they overcome it? What would they suggest Viz do in order to tempt people away from reading scans to buying the product? If they’re serious about wanting to help the manga industry, I’m sure these groups would comply. In return, Viz could maybe work out a deal that would allow these groups to continue scanalating their works (for a share) until they’re at a stage where they can effectively compete. At that point, these groups would gradually stop and Viz would take over.
Oops. Did not mean to write the best part of an essay here. Apologies if this doesn’t make any sense or contains errors; turns out I’ve been writing this for around 4 1/2 hours straight.
Posted by Pixie_lips | February 13, 2012, 10:37 pmawesome! pixie here’s what i can’t agree with more:
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- asking the why questions, with social media as the medium
- the scanlator forum idea: makes me wonder how this might’ve turned out if viz decided only to shut down scanlators’ forums and asked them to release chapters only AFTER they’ve been released in japan
**** – spoilers idea: you’ve stumbled on to something REALLY AWESOME HERE! i’m serious – this is the exclusive content viz should be able to offer that nobody else should! confirmed, verified, from the source spoilers! pixie! i think you’ve just solved a huge problem for them. ****
- we most certainly agree that scans or at the very least spoilers must be provided the day of japan’s release. i think spoilers are a GREAT compromise, and have a very high value amongst viz’s fanbase
- very little promotion, but this mangastream event pretty much made them a household name (in households that read manga i suppose
- couldn’t agree with your thoughts about them lacking a usp more, and that they need to service fans worldwide
- i agree with your sentiment about scanning groups, and i don’t want to unjustly doubt any scanning groups’ benevolence. but mangastream’s announcement was anything but cordial. tough call :\ but a good one
lastly, i love the long essay. don’t worry, i’m a fast reader so it’s all more than welcome
i hope i spoke to a lot of the points you mentioned but i seriously do think that EXCLUSIVE SPOILERS can be a usp no scanlating group can possibly match! because as you say, the fans of these series love interacting with it. i mean just look at me – this blog is dedicated entirely to making theories on one piece which are mostly wrong, and i still love it.
if for whatever reason viz actually ends up reading this article or stumbling across your comment, they’d be absolutely crazy not to take in to account everything you’ve mentioned. thank you so much for your response! we’ll see what ends up happening together, eh
Posted by nanallday | February 13, 2012, 11:31 pmThank you! I was so worried I was rambling or something. ^^;
- Yes, asking why is very important, but it’s also really important to ask who, what, when, where, and how questions. Otherwise they risk having too much data on one area, but too little on the others; that can’t make for a good evaluation or contribute to a strategy.
- With regards to Viz only shutting down scanlators’ forums and asking for them to release after Japan’s, I don’t think this would work. Mainly because fans would just find somewhere else to talk about it, and also because that wouldn’t help Shonen Jump Alpha if everyone went to the scans. The only way it could possibly work is if the IP addresses in areas where Shonen Jump Alpha works were blocked to these sites. However, that would involve censuring an awful lot of websites, which sounds an awful lot like ACTA, SOPA, and PIPA.
- Yes, the beauty of official spoilers is that Funimation, Yen press etc can also include that in their marketing strategy. Playing the scan groups at their own game is something they should really be putting more effort into instead of whining about the figures.
- It did, but for entirely the wrong reasons, which is not good for Viz in the short (and possibly long) term. Then again, it seems that Viz really do not appear to care for their fans opinions if their Facebook is anything to go by; that’s incredibly bad PR considering this blew up at the start of the weekend. In this instance, the ball is in Viz’s court; let’s hope they don’t make a mess of things…
- True, I agree with you regarding Mangastream’s announcement but, on the other hand, they at least had one, which is more than what Viz have done. Ironically, despite it being written by someone who doesn’t do PR for a living (I assume; I don’t know what any of these people do), it’s invoked a high degree of customer loyalty and motivation, which is a great promotion tool.
What I loved about this article was that it was constructive criticism for what Viz should do now from a standalone point of view. I’ve read quite a few other blogs about this issue that are very divisive, and basically pit fan against fan against Viz, which is unconstructive. Plus, a lot of other writers seemed to focus too much on what Viz have done, and how there’s all these legal implications affecting their future goals. From a strategic point of view, that’s rather dangerous as it’s too vague, allows Viz the excuse of getting a bit lazy, and is also somewhat untrue if you take their European branch into consideration (else, what is it for? Because they don’t appear to do much…).
Essentially, the bottom line is that there’s a problem with Viz’s strategies, particularly in the PR department and division syncronisation. For instance, if you look for a mission statement, the closest you’ll get is Viz Kids supplying a paragraph stating what they do…. which is not a mission statement. Additionally, both the US and Europe divisions give little more than background information, and some contact details; again, none of that is a mission statement. Luckily for Viz, they don’t appear to be going all over the place (well, the US branch doesn’t) without a well set-out – and publicised – mission statement to guide their strategies, but it does call into question as to how things are done from an external perspective. As we’ve previously discussed, Viz have a problem communicating with their customers, which implies that they’ve forgotten one of their key stakeholders. Their lack of an official response to this whole issue illustrates that, and they don’t even keep their customers informed of their long term goals or even how they plan to achieve them. However, there is a way to counter this, and benefits too.
- One is to compile a *good* mission statement. It allows focus, let’s us know where they’re headed (or planning to head), and also lets the customer know about about them too (both new and existing). However, for this to be effective, there needs to be an overhaul of all Viz media homepages so that they’re consistent, easier to use, and, above all, transparent.
- Another is to be seen to actively respond to this entire ordeal. It doesn’t have to be an apology (actually, it shouldn’t be, unless they’re apologising for a slow response and customer dissatisfaction), but a well constructed statement that highlights what they can now do, and will do, as a result of this. Taking a positive stance (eg they’re going to restart the official translation of Hunter x Hunter and Reborn!), and acknowledging that their customer base brought these issues to their attention is a step in the right direction. Coupled with outlining what they’re planning to do, and how they’re going to do it in a specific timeframe, this has the potential to turn this entire mess into something immensely positive. For instance, due to customer dissatisfaction in Europe, Viz may well decide to build upon that brand to the point where it’s in line to also host Shonen Jump Alpha. Realistically, they could probably do that in around 2 years. The main hurdle, however, will be to persuade Shogakukan Inc. that doing all this is a very good idea, as opposed to forcing Viz into angering their fanbase through shutting down what is, for the most part, the only means to read these great mangas.
By the way, is there any way we could possibly inform Viz of these recommendations? Looking at both the European and American sites, there appears to be no email address; only a mailing address is supplied. D: Even their Facebook page doesn’t have a means to contact them, unless you want to create the longest comment in the world… And Twitter… They don’t appear to answer many follower questions/comments, so I’m uncertain if they’d do anything.
Speaking of Twitter, I saw that you requested to follow me? Unfortunately, Twitter is pretending that I don’t have any requests, so I can’t accept!! D:
You’re very welcome, and I can’t wait to see what happens next! o/
Posted by Pixie_lips | February 14, 2012, 8:18 pm