BJB: Managing the LED revolution

The story:

Family-owned BJB of Germany is a world leader in lamp sockets—and currently finds itself in the middle of the second revolution in its long history.

The first revolution occurred almost a century and a half ago. BJB began 140 years ago in the paraffin lamp business. The first revolution came with electricity. The second, happening right now, is LED lighting.

Next Inc. first met with BJB around 10 years ago, when the company considered a major step regarding their future in Japan: leave or invest? After working jointly on a market entry strategy, the decision was made to move full speed ahead.

Over the years, Next has supported BJB in Japan with a wide range of communication activities. After careful research, we developed a 250-page product catalog—very different from their European catalog—to fit the Japanese market’s specific requirements.

We developed Prisma, a customer magazine, to build credibility in Japan, and to communicate BJB’s special advantages. We have worked with trade press advertising and PR to increase awareness, and, naturally, localized their international website.

A cornerstone for 10 years has been the bi-annual Tokyo Lighting Fair, Japan’s largest exhibition of lighting products, systems and lighting design. Next, along with its exhibition specialist partners plans, designs and builds BJB’s booth, and provides onsite management throughout each exhibition.

The year 2013 was extra exciting, as BJB for the first showed one of their ADS systems for automatic wiring time in Japan. Read more about it here.

Today BJB is doing very well in Japan, and is a pioneer in the LED lighting industry in the country—as it is around the world.