What is Manga (Cartoon) Marketing?

Manga marketing is a strategy in which companies and organizations use cartoon stories and characters to inform consumers while promoting their products and services, building their brands, and enhancing communication.

One of the key advantages of manga marketing is its combination of visual and verbal elements, making information easier for consumers to understand.

Additionally, cartoons—especially manga—are highly engaging and enjoyable to read, making them more likely to capture consumer interest. Since people can easily form emotional connections with cartoon characters, they are also more likely to develop positive feelings toward the promoted product or service.

Manga marketing can be implemented across various media, including print, websites, social media ads, and free webcomics.

The first step to effective manga marketing is creating content that aligns with the interests and needs of the target audience.

Manga in Advertising: Websites

Manga is often featured on website landing pages (LPs), as well as in other media such as movies, TV shows, and novels.

Integrating manga into a website can create a visually engaging and compelling experience for visitors, effectively conveying the landing page’s message.

Below are some examples of how manga is used in LPs.

Spot Financials

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SpotFinancials.com is a service provided by the Furudate Tax Accountant Office, featuring a cartoon on its landing page.

By presenting a problem and its solution, the cartoon effectively captures users' interest and encourages inquiries.

Cartoons also make it easier to illustrate challenges through engaging and easy-to-understand storytelling, allowing users to learn solutions in an enjoyable way.

Monex, Inc.

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Monex, Inc. incorporates cartoons on its landing pages to explain the procedures and precautions for opening an account in a clear and engaging way, particularly for beginners interested in stock investing.

Cartoons make complex investment concepts more accessible and engaging, helping users develop an interest in stock investment, which might otherwise seem daunting. Additionally, because cartoons are easier to remember than traditional text heavy advertising, they serve as an effective educational tool.

Even after users gain interest in investing, the cartoons continue to provide information on various investment options, allowing them to enjoy learning while advancing their investment knowledge.

Rakuten Card

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Rakuten Card, the companion app for Rakuten’s credit card service, features a cartoon-style catchphrase on its landing page.

The cartoon aligns with the catchphrase “Handy App for Household Budgeting” and effectively conveys the key features of the Rakuten Card application. It illustrates the app’s usage, functions, and benefits in a clear and engaging way, emphasizing its appeal to users.

Manga in Advertising: Social Media

In recent years, manga have become an increasingly popular marketing tool on social networking sites.

With their strong visual appeal and ability to leave a lasting impression, manga are an effective way to advertise products and services.

Below are some examples of how companies use manga in their social media marketing.

Asahi Breweries, Ltd.

Asahi Breweries uses a cartoon to illustrate the process of selecting and gifting its mid-year gift set.

Featuring the uniquely designed “World Heritage Design Can Set,” the cartoon helps highlight the product’s appeal. It portrays the joy and gratitude of both the gift giver and receiver, enhancing the emotional connection to the product.

MSG by Ajinomoto

Ajinomoto created a cartoon showcasing a scene where people enjoy its popular product, “The★Fried Rice.”

The cartoon emphasizes the product’s convenience and ease of preparation, making its benefits more relatable to the reader. It also captures the joy of sharing a meal with others, reinforcing the product’s appeal.

Taisho Pharmaceuticals

Taisho Pharmaceuticals uses a cartoon to promote their popular energy drink, Lipovitan Feel.

Since some product details on the packaging are printed in quite a small font, the cartoon helps present key features in a clear and engaging way. It depicts tired individuals who feel revitalized after drinking Lipovitan Feel, effectively conveying the product’s benefits.

Manga in Advertising: Explaining Products & Services

Companies like the insurance giant, Sony Assurance Inc., also use cartoons to advertise and explain their products and services.

Below is a description of how each company uses manga to get their message across:

Sony Assurance Inc.

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Sony Assurance Insurance Inc. uses a cartoon to explain their family coverage plan for car insurance.

Car insurance can be complex and difficult to understand, but through the use of cartoons, these concepts are made more accessible. The cartoon features visual elements within the storyline, with each character helping to explain their family coverage insurance.

This method makes it easier for viewers to grasp even the most complicated ideas.

Yamaha Corporation

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Yamaha Corporation uses cartoons to explain their digital pianos.

Product features can often be hard to convey clearly through text, but the cartoon presents them in a natural, easy-to-understand way.

The characters in the cartoon demonstrate the piano’s features in action, providing viewers with an intuitive understanding of how the product works and its benefits.

This visual storytelling approach effectively communicates the product's appeal.

LINE Corporation

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LINE Corporation, a leading communication platform in Asia, uses cartoons to explain its advertising services, which leverage the LINE calling service.

The characters in the cartoon demonstrate how LINE's advertising features work to create effective strategies, showcasing the platform's advantages in a fast-paced, engaging manga format.

Through these cartoons, viewers gain a clearer understanding of how to use and benefit from the advertising services.

These examples highlight how cartoons are used to promote and explain products and services. By adding visual elements and storytelling, cartoons make it easier to convey the appeal of a product or service.

5 Expected Benefits of Manga Marketing

As the above examples of use by various companies show, cartoons are a very effective marketing technique.

Here are five expected benefits of marketing with cartoons.

1. Ability to Create a Clear Persona

Manga marketing leverages the stories and characters of manga to create a clear persona of the target consumer.

Through manga, we can understand consumers’ tastes, interests, and lifestyles. When characters and stories resonate with them, it naturally sparks interest in the products and services being offered.

In addition, detailed characterization and backgrounds of cartoon characters can be used to craft a more specific target image, improving the accuracy of the marketing strategy. For instance, a brand may develop a character who represents their ideal customer, making it easier to tailor marketing efforts to that group.

2. Communicating Difficult Content in an Easy-to-Understand Manner

Cartoons are an excellent way to convey complex content in a more digestible format.

This can be particularly useful for specialized knowledge, technical information, or concise summaries of lengthy text.

The unique method of expression in manga and its imaginative worldview allow difficult themes and abstract concepts to be conveyed in a way that’s both engaging and easy to grasp.

3. Creating a Lasting Impression

Comic books are highly entertaining and capable of engaging readers. As a result, marketing through cartoons can leave a lasting impression on consumers.

In particular, emotional attachment to characters is easy to foster, which increases the likelihood that consumers will develop a positive view of the product or service.

Additionally, cartoons are easily shared and often have a "viral" effect. Because of their visual emphasis, they tend to catch the eye more easily, making them memorable and allowing the cartoon to stay in the consumer’s mind long after they've seen it.

4. Reaching New Demographics

Cartoons have the ability to reach a wide range of audiences, as there are few restrictions based on age, gender, or geography.

Moreover, because they are so entertaining and enjoyable, people who might not have been initially interested in the product or service may develop an interest through the manga.

Manga is also widely accessible online, via social networking services, and other digital platforms, making it easy to share and spread. This broad accessibility allows brands to tap into new segments of consumers that might otherwise remain untapped through traditional marketing methods.

5. Conveying a Lot of Information

Cartoons can convey a great deal of information in an easily understandable way by using distinct methods of expression.

Information is effectively communicated through illustrations, layout design, and the characters' expressions and actions.

Since cartoons emphasize visual elements over text, readers can absorb and retain information more easily.

Manga is also particularly useful for overcoming language barriers. Through illustrations and expressive techniques, it can convey information to readers from different language backgrounds, making it an ideal tool for international business and projects.

Summary

Marketing with cartoons is highly effective for creating clear personas, simplifying complex content, leaving a lasting impression, reaching new audiences, and conveying a significant amount of information.

Cartoons are becoming an increasingly important tool for engaging consumers and communicating products and services in an appealing way. Through utilizing visual elements and the power of storytelling, manga is shaping the way that brands communicate value to today’s consumer.