The More Unrelated Your Partner, the Bigger Your Reach: Japan's "Hat Alliance"
You can't partner with a competitor. Suppliers come with strings attached. So who is left? The answer was: a company with nothing to do with you at all.
3 min readFind the Breakthrough
Industry trends, insights, and updates from ASTER.
A $175 Banana Exposes an Industry's Pricing: The Ordinary's Fake Luxury Supermarket
"Same ingredients, lower price." Every brand says it, so nobody believes it. Instead of saying it, The Ordinary put a banana on a shelf for $175.
3 min read
Don't Attack the Competition — Build Next Door to Them: Chili's Two-Day Fake Loan Shop
Saying "we're cheaper" convinces nobody. So show people, physically, what eating at the competition costs. Chili's picked a site right next to a McDonald's.
3 min read
When the Numbers Line Up, a Discount Stops Looking Cheap: Japan's "888 Sales War"
The same 100-yen discount lands completely differently depending on whether the reason is "end of fiscal year" or "the numbers lined up." On 8 August 2026, Japanese brands proved it all at once.
3 min read
Rename the Place Everyone Complains About: Degree's "Sweat Central"
There are places everyone quietly resents but never mentions out loud. Degree took the shared truth of a sweltering subway and wrote it into the station names themselves — handing over empathy and a practical fix at the same time.
2 min read
Name the Shame Nobody Admits To: Sealord's "fishame"
Often the reason people don't buy is neither performance nor price. It is a quiet, unspoken embarrassment. Sealord gave that feeling a name — and took ownership of the barrier itself.
3 min read
Make a Trivial Dilemma Absurdly Epic: DoorDash's "Not That Dramatic"
Explain a membership discount plainly and nobody watches. Stage a customer's trivial dilemma as a sweeping historical tragedy, and people laugh, recognise themselves, and finally relax.
2 min read
Kill One Specific Fear, Not All of Them: easyJet's "Teddy Trackers"
"A comfortable journey." "Quality you can trust." The more benefits you bundle, the less any of them land. People move when you name and remove the exact fear they personally have.
2 min read