BM - 1823001

Submitted by: Adhishree Bhattacharya

The film follows Jiro Ono, an 85-year-old sushi master who has spent his life perfecting his craft
at his deceptively modest three-star Michelin restaurant in Tokyo. Jiro is supremely dedicated to
the art of sushi and has earned a reputation for serving the best sushi in the world.

Guests are served the sushi Jiro has prepared that day, in the order he has decided. This allows
Jiro to focus entirely on a single menu of sushi every day and ensures the perfection of each
piece. This same principle can be applied to marketing. Stop focusing on the things that don’t
matter. When marketing your product and/or services, focus on the narrow message you want to
deliver. Don’t make an audience think too much about what you are offering. Jiro thinks about
every single detail that goes into his sushi.

From the seating arrangements to the ingredients to the temperature of the rice – absolutely
nothing is overlooked. In marketing, the same attention to detail can make the difference
between a mediocre campaign and a great one. It was a little detail that went a long way in
creating a holistic experience.

He’s focused on ensuring all patrons finish eating at the same time, so he makes bigger sushi for
bigger people and smaller sushi for smaller people, adjusting on the fly. Everything from seating
arrangement to portion size is handled in the background by Jiro and his staff so customers can
focus on the one thing they came to do: eat the best sushi in the world. In marketing, we may not
be able to sit and closely observe the way an audience is consuming our efforts, but with today’s
technology, we do have powerful analytics and data that can help inform you of an audience’s
interaction with your marketing and their experience. Smart marketers will use these insights to
adjust tactics on the fly in order to create the best, most effective experience.

All of Jiro’s sushi is extremely simple. This not only allows the ingredients to shine through, but
makes the end result pure. Essentially, Jiro edits his sushi down to only the most crucial elements
and then makes sure those elements are perfect. Do the same with your marketing: Edit. Remove.
Repeat. Reduce your marketing and messaging down to its most essential and important
elements. Allow the “ingredients” of your marketing shine through. Focus on making each piece
of marketing boil down to only the most essential elements.

At 85 years old Jiro is the best sushi chef in the world. And yet, he proudly states that he is not
perfect and there is always room for improvement. Jiro was nine years old when he left his
home, and he has only done one thing since then, keep improving. Even after he received an
award from Japan declaring him a national treasure, he returned to work the same day to further
improve his skills. You can apply this same attitude towards your marketing.