Nebari Star from Ikeda-cho, Tokachi, Hokkaido
Introducing a special yam product as a "Branded Product"
Product of chance followed by Branding
A Japanese seed company developed this special kind of yam, called "Nebari Star" by chance in 2008. And JA Tokachi Ikeda-cho started its test-growing of this yam right away. They had grown ordinary yam in the past but their crop wasn't particularly good due to the soil in their region. However, this special variety "Neabri Star" turned out to be a suitable variety for their region(soil). And they called Watari for assitance to make it a special(value-added) product. That's how we got involved in developing "Nebari Star" as branded product.
Test-tasting it made us sure of its success!
In 2009, we test-tasted this special yam and got so much impressed by its distinctive taste and sticky texture. Instantaneosly, we belived its potential and started our branding project for this product.
Trademark Registratioin of "根張星”(Nebari Star)
Through our internal discussions, we decided to use its originl variety name "Nebari Star" but convert it to Kanji Characters "根張星”for its brand name. And we had a Japanese calligrapher to write the brand name in distinctive characters and made it registered trademark officially. Moreover, we have made it a strict rule to use this trademark only for the Nebari Star yam grown in Tokachi Ikeda-cho. That's how we made it a special brand, a value-added product.
※Certificate of Trademark Registration
Nebari Star (根張星) is a registered trademark of Watari Co., Ltd.
Of course, we have done a lot of promotion activities for Nebari Star, including actual sampling in stores. Once consumers tasted this yam, they keep buying it as it's so good and most of all, they can surely remember it by its brand name. And it has been more than 10 years now since this product(brand) became so popular in Japan and it's still a growing business for us.
Mr. Nakanishi, a leader of the grower group passionately talking about his proud product.