Building relationships builds demand in Japan

This was Woolmark’s second marketing campaign with Sanyo Shokai, one of Japan’s largest apparel groups with an annual turnover of about A$600 million. 

Following an initial joint marketing collaboration in 2023/24 with Sanyo Shokai’s premium suiting brand Paul Stuart, Woolmark significantly expanded the collaboration to 13 more of Sanyo Shokai’s apparel brands for the recent autumn/winter 2024/25 season.  

Nearly 123,000 wool rich items of knitwear and coats were promoted during the three-month campaign from 18 October 2024 to 31 January 2025, which equates to an estimated 74,000 kg of wool. More than $A40 million of wool products were sold. 

Marketing of wool coats (left) and wool knitwear (right) from Sanyo Shokai brands. PHOTOS: ©Sanyo Shokai 

“The marketing collaboration with Sanyo Shokai successfully increased Japanese consumers’ awareness of Merino wool as a premium fibre and, importantly, increased their purchases of Merino wool apparel during the autumn/winter season,” said AWI Regional Manager, Japan & Korea, Samuel Cockedey. 

“This collaborative marketing project is a good example of the benefits that have been achieved by Woolmark fostering good relationships with large apparel groups. Following last year’s successful campaign with Paul Stuart, we were able to expand the collaboration this year to include many more apparel brands in the Sanyo Shokai group.  

“Going forward, we anticipate the group will be keen to undertake more large scale, multi-brand marketing campaigns that highlight Merino wool's premium attributes and showcase the high quality of the group’s supply chains.” 

The 13 Sanyo Shokai brands involved this year were: Amaca, Crestbridge Black Label, Crestbridge Blue Label, Epoca, Epoca Uomo, Evex by Krizia, Mackintosh London, Mackintosh Philosophy, Paul Stuart, Sanyocoat, The Scotch House, To Be Chic, and Trans Work. 

Marketing campaign 

The marketing collaboration, which targeted affluent male and female customers, comprised two online campaigns: one for Sanyo Shokai’s two Crestbridge brands, and the other for the remaining 11 brands.  

Both campaigns had a digital and social media component, with online traffic driven to dedicated hub pages for knitwear and coats on their two respective websites. In addition to highlighting the wool apparel products and where consumers could purchase them, the hub pages included information about Merino wool’s benefits and Woolmark certification. Electronic mail about the wool products was sent direct to about 427,000 consumers.  

The campaign received 19 million impressions (the number of times the campaign was seen online) and 108,000 click-throughs to the hub pages.  

This article appeared in the Spring 2025 edition of AWI’s Beyond the Bale magazine that was published in September 2025. Reproduction of the article is encouraged.