Collaborations with popular films such as "Tokyo Revengers" and "Jutsu Kaisen" are appearing one after another! What is Cake.jp's goal of "creating a system"? What is Cake.jp's goal in creating a "system"?

Today, with the increasing collaboration between various industries and subcultures such as anime and voice acting, there are many people who say, "Whoa, they're doing it! You're doing it," "What? You did it! and "Oh, you're doing it!" and "What? Akiba Research Institute is going to visit the sites where these "collaborations" are being planned and ask about the appeal of the projects, interesting episodes, hardships, and other behind-the-scenes stories about the production! The series is called "Gemba of Collaboration.

In this 18th installment, we will talk to "Cake.jp," which has been selling a series of sweets in collaboration with the popular anime "Tokyo Revengers" and "Jujutsu Kaisen," and has been attracting attention on SNS and other social networking sites. We interviewed Mr. Yuki Takahashi, President of Cake.jp, and Ms. Risa Yamashita of the Corporate Sales Department's Alliance Group. We asked them about the reason why they started making collaborative sweets products, what they are particular about in making collaborative products, and what they would like to do in the future.

Risa Yamashita (left) and Yuki Takahashi

TM: Could you tell us why you chose cakes and other sweets as collaboration products?

Takahashi: We started our business by collaborating with famous chefs and stores that are hard to get reservations for. The taste is outstandingly delicious, and many customers enjoyed it. The response from sweets lovers and gourmet food lovers was good and there was a sense of "sticking," so it made sense to launch the product, but we also wanted to expand to the general mass audience, and that is when we started thinking about collaborating with anime and celebrities.

I was originally an engineer, using a technology called Flash to create advertising content for major cosmetics companies and others. Cosmetics and apparel are particularly compatible with design, and sweets are one of them. While many cosmetics and apparel products use models and design companies and focus on design, I had the impression that the sweets industry did not spend much money on such things. That is when I thought about selling sweets from the angle of design. The main reason was that I myself was good at design and liked it. I am the type of person who would rather do something new than something that someone else is doing, so I thought I would try selling sweets through design.

TM: Do you have any memories of your first collaborative product?

Takahashi: The first one was a photo cake. We changed the pictures depending on the collaborator, and we had a good response. However, if it was a collaboration with a celebrity, for example, people would only buy it on the celebrity's birthday, and there was no other time for the collaboration cake to appear. ...... Even if it wasn't a birthday, there were occasions when people would get together and use the cake because it would look good in photos, but the opportunities to buy it were limited. The first cake that worked well in the sense of "to a wide range of people" was the "Tom & Jerry" cheesecake, except for the photo cake.

Mr. Yamashita, you were in charge of the development of the "Tom & Jerry" cheesecake, weren't you?

Yamashita: It was the first product I was in charge of after I joined the company, so I am very attached to it. Tom & Jerry" is associated with cheese, and a cake shop that I am good friends with already had a cheesecake in this shape, so I started to think about what I could do by combining the two. I wanted people to be able to express the world of "Tom and Jerry" in their own favorite form, which led me to create my own cake using a cake pick. Tom & Jerry" was the first collaboration cake in which the company acquired character copyrights.

TM: What exactly do you find difficult in the process of creating collaborative products?

Takahashi: The vice president and I are the main negotiators for copyrights. As I mentioned earlier, there are many apparel companies that use copyrights to create products, but there are very few companies that sell sweets in this way. Frankly speaking, it is easy to do business with various companies because there are no rivals (laughs). With apparel and animation goods, there are many rivals, so you have to win out. It must be especially difficult for a company like ours that has no track record. I think one of the reasons for the success of our collaboration is that we are able to make people interested in our products.

Takahashi: I understand that you don't have many rivals, but I think that more and more companies will use Cake.jp's method to create collaborative sweets.

Takahashi: If we create the atmosphere that we are doing well, there may be some companies that want to make them. However, sweets are food products, so there are expiration dates and hygiene controls. Compared to apparel and goods, they can be more difficult to handle, and it may be difficult to get involved in some areas. If they don't sell, they are disposed of, and it is difficult to secure lots. In addition, since they are frozen products, storage costs are also involved. We believe this is a hurdle for new entrants to the market. We have a system that allows us to produce in small lots. As you can see on our website, we have a large number of member stores, so it is possible to produce even small lots of several hundred.

T: What are the requirements to become a member?

Takahashi: Of course there are certain requirements, but the most important thing is that they have to be "interesting. Sometimes we become interested in a store or a product and make an offer. A certain line is, for example, brand power and recognition from the perspective of sales. From the product axis, it is whether or not the product is in line with the trend. Recently, if it is color, I would focus on pastel color products or stores that do cookie tins, which are in high demand. In some cases, we propose collaborations to cake shops that are having trouble increasing sales. In rural areas, the closure of town cake shops is serious. We have a mail-order system, so I think our strength is that we can create collaborative products regardless of the location of the store.

T: You have sold many collaborative products with popular works such as "Tokyo Revengers" and "Jujutsu Kaisen. Do you have any criteria for selecting works to collaborate with?

Takahashi: First of all, recognition. Then there is the trend. It is very important that customers "want" the product when it is commercialized. If a work is well known, it does not necessarily mean that it will sell if it is made into a collaboration product. We target a wide range of people, but our core is families with small children and working women. This is a demographic that is in high demand for cakes, but who often find it difficult to go to a cake shop. There is a high necessity to buy cakes online, so when we collaborate, depending on the product and the work, we often think about families with children.

T: Could you tell us about the concept of Cake.jp as a company?

Takahashi: Products that we really want to eat or give to someone. That's what we value.

Takenaka: What does cake mean to you two?

Takahashi: It's something that makes us a little happy.

Yamashita It makes you happy, and if you give it as a gift, it makes the other person happy too. It's something you can share happiness with.

What is Cake.jp's goal for the future?

Takahashi: I think our strength lies in the fact that we can obtain copyright contracts and that we have many stores that can produce cakes. Currently, we are planning collaborations within the company, but we think that the plans can come from anyone, such as celebrities, YouTubers, design companies, and so on. We would like to provide a mechanism for people who wanted to make collaborative sweets but were unable to do so. There have been cases where French luxury butter Essillet has landed in Japan and successfully developed sweets, but there is more than one butter maker, and when it comes to ingredient makers, there are quite a few of them. Even if you are considering expanding into Japan, if you need a budget in the hundreds of millions of yen, there are only a few companies that can do it. We think it would be a good idea to sell collaboration cakes on Cake.jp on an experimental basis, as if we were conducting market research before we consider expanding into Japan.

T: How do you do your research for collaboration projects?

Takahashi: Basically, we use SNS. Sweets made by ordinary people get buzzed about several times a month. I often think about whether the buzz is due to the quality of the sweets or a trend, and try to incorporate those elements. We check targets both domestically and internationally.

Yamashita: If it is a work, I refer to the comments of fans on the official SNS. I can hear the real voices of fans who say, "I want this kind of product," or "I want to eat this kind of food. I also often visit the websites of toy manufacturers. I can learn about the preferences of small children. Some products are starting to be developed based on this research. For example, "Tom & Jerry," "Where do you stick the cake pick? Or, with Jujutsu Kaisen's "Nugumaki Spine Rice Ball Cakes," "Which one do you want to eat? These are just a few examples of conversations that can be had with family and loved ones. I am doing this research while thinking about the background of the little conversations and exchanges that occur with family members and other people who are important to me.

T: Is there anything you personally would like to do in the future?

Takahashi: In my case, what I want to do at the company is what I want to do as an individual, so in the end it's the same thing (laughs). I would like to expand to New York and Paris. I would like to create a trend that by opening a store on Cake.jp, I can sell overseas, and by using Cake.jp, I can expand overseas. We believe that it is possible to make cakes overseas if we have the recipes. Of course, I think it is best to eat cakes made nearby, but since we have freezing technology and mail-order routes, I think it would not be difficult to expand overseas or from overseas to Japan.

Takenaka: How do you feel about the abundance of collaboration projects in the world?

Takahashi: We are careful not to just borrow the recognition or assets of the collaborator, whether it is a work of art or a store, we want to make proposals that add value to the collaborator through Cake.jp's involvement. I myself am just an ordinary consumer when it comes to anime and manga, and what Cake.jp should do is not to become attached to the works themselves, but to gather information from people who are attached to them and create good collaborative products. We believe that we are able to create good collaborative projects because we are not too attached to the work and therefore can see it from a good distance.

(Interview and text by Shinobu Tanaka)