Tobacco sales in the Japan duty free retail environment is extremely challenging, and promotions are often used to attract highly value-conscious consumers. This promotion tactic has become so commonplace amongst manufacturers that its impact and appeal for both consumers and retailers alike has diminished. Therefore, our challenge was to develop a cutting-edge gift item that would maximise the sales promotion potential, retailer negotiations and effective KENT brand appeal.

Target consumers of KENT display a preference for digital/electronic gadgets. In order to shake up their perception of 'yet another gift item', and to stimulate to their intellectual curiosity, we teamed up with a product designer, Hironao Tsuboi to create a truly innovative portable speaker from scratch, which manifests the brand identity of 'Modern, Stylish, and Innovative'. This speaker has no buttons. Users turn on/off the speaker and adjust the volume by plugging the 'VOL', and turning the knob. A truly unique portable-speaker nobody has ever experienced.

The development of an unprecedented premium novelty item contributed to the innovative and sophisticated brand image of KENT. The spirit of challenging new things was highly evaluated by tobacco stores compared to our competitors. It contributed to sales acquisition and merchandising implementation, resulting in 0.9% increase in brand share from the previous year.