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| Biography |
After graduating from Gakushuin University's Economics department in 1975,
Masato Shiotani joined NCR Japan (the manufacturer of POS retail measurement
systems) as a market researcher in the Corporate Planning Division. In
1979, he joined the consumer-marketing department of Unilever (Nippon Lever)
during a period the company was growing rapidly in Japan and was engaged
in innovating such brand related marketing activities as concept development,
market research analysis, advertising creation and the management of media
support and promotions. At Unilever he was brand manager for the shampoo
brand “Timotei” when it established its position as the #1 shampoo in Japan.
Shiotani subsequently held brand manager and sales/marketing director positions
with Philip Morris Japan, Avia Japan and United Brands Japan (Chiquita)
and in each position contributed measurably to growth of sales and profits.
From 1995, Shiotani held general management positions in the entertainment
industry, first as Executive Director at Buena Vista Japan, marketing Disney
Video Cassettes, and subsequently as the Managing Director of Warner Vision
Japan, a division company in AOL/Time Warner. The latter mission included
restructuring two record companies' visual departments, while introducing
the new medium of DVD as a replacement for VHS and Laser Disc in the music
video market. In eight and half years, sales increased 8 fold generating
US 5.0 million dollars profit. During the last two and half years of his
career at Warner, Shiotani was also co-chairman of the DVD-Audio Promotional
Association, a broad association of electronic companies, including Panasonic,
Sony and Toshiba, and major record companies in Japan with the aim of promoting
a new audio format. (Dual mission)
After leaving Warner due to the corporate decision to transfer all Warner
Vision worldwide business units to Warner Music, Shiotani established his
own consulting company Sigma International, working as a freelance consultant
for three years with engagements for European and other entities considering
market entry into Japan. Subsequently, Shiotani became COO of Japan Market
Intelligence, a market research firm introducing new technologies into
Japan such as eye-tracking, and other scientific human behavior monitoring.
With JMI’s merger with another competitive research firm in March 2009,
Shiotani renewed freelance consulting under the Sigma International banner.
In addition to the above positions, Shiotani conducted consultancy projects
for ZOOtech, a British DVD-Authoring company and DAIKI Sound, the Japanese
largest independent record label distributor located in Tokyo.
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