Account Planning Group Japan ( APGJ )

Representative: Professor Yasuhiko Kobayashi, PhD

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• Vice-president, Japan Academy of Advertising
• Professor of integrated marketing communications, Graduate School of Business, Aoyama Gakuin University
• Adjunct Professor , Integrated Marketing Communications department, Northwestern University
• Visiting Professor, Department of Advertising, University of Texas-Austin
• Lecturer, Graduate School of commerce, Waseda University

Member: Marketing practitioners in:

• Advertising agencies
• Advertisers
• Media companies

Account Planning Group Japan ( APGJ ) is:

• A non-profitable organization which is in cooperation with APG-UK, APG-US, and APGs in other countries

Mission of APGJ is:

• To improve the skill of marketing communication planning among the business practitioners

Domain of APGJ is:

• To research, develop and share knowledge ( methodologies, techniques, skills and insights ) of marketing communication planning

Philosophy of APGJ is:

• 'Renaissance of marketing intelligence', which means generation of new knowledge by actualization of tacit knowledge in marketing society.
• We are aiming to generate insightful and applicable knowledge: not only to 'introduce' current methodology superficially.

Scope of APGJ study is:

• Methodology of Account Planning in UK and US as a starting point,
• Consumer insight as the key focus,
• Evolution of those above in context of Japanese consumer culture, post-modern methodologies, digitalized methodologies, and any other approaches,
• And fusion with knowledge in other APGs to inspire new knowledge

Key activities of APGJ is:

• Research and publication of marketing planning methodologies, techniques, skills, and insights
  • Research:
    • Field survey among marketing practitioners
    • Desk survey among the national and international marketing studies
  • Publication:
    • Internet
    • Periodicals in Japanese, US, and other marketing societies
    • Open lecture/conference
• Cooperation with APGs in other countries
  • Introduce knowledge of foreign APGs to Japan
  • Introduce knowledge of APGJ to other countries
  • Generate interaction between APGJ and other APGs

And some message from Dr. Kobayashi....

Dynamism of gangsters
'108 gangsters gathered in Lian Shan Po castle, established liberal community, and shook up the whole country with their liberation warfare in classical Chinese story, Shui Hu ( Tales of Water Margin ) .
Each of the gangsters has his own characteristics, original skill, and ambition.
As the group, they are far from bureaucratic hierarchical organization but generated power to move big China.
APGJ should be an organization with this kind of dynamism.'

Importance of tacit knowledge
'Original knowledge can be generated from tacit knowledge.
This is one of the basic theories of knowledge management.
We are not only to introduce written methodology; instead, we will actualize the non-verbalized tacit knowledge, which is continuously being generated in business frontline.
That is the substantial part of marketing science.'