Coriander Popularity in Japan: Case study PAKUCI SISTERS

Abstract

          Coriander Boom (パクチーブーム), or the coriander trend in Japan originated in the second half of the 1990s. Coriander is used in many Asian dishes such as Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai food. Coriander trend in Japan has been transliterated from Thai language to Japanese language as pa-ku-chii (パクチー). Two restaurants specializing in coriander パクチー専門店  that played a key role in creating the coriander trend are Tokyo Pakuchii House (東京パクチーハウス) and GOGO Pakuchii（GOGOパクチー). The coriander trend reached its peak in 2016, when it was chosen as the best food of the year 2016. Shortly thereafter in 2018, the two coriander specialty restaurants closed down as a turning point from the coriander boom to the era when coriander became one of the eating cultures of Japanese people.
          The coriander specialty restaurant served as a model for their official strategy market in the Japanese coriander culture in daily life era is PAKUCI SISTERS. PAKUCI SISTERS used a marketing strategy by creating a brand for its products, adding value to the product, creating a variety of products, pricing aims at middle-class consumers as a target market, using a variety of distribution channels, using advertising and public
relations through various social media, including word of mouth of customers with viral marketing. PAKUCI SISTERS became a successful restaurant, aired on television programs locally and nationally. This article studies how coriander popularity occurs in Japan and how to marketing when popularity change to Japanese eating culture and still maintain that popularity.