Selling the product was also a discreet business. Until the early 90’s about half the sales went through pharmacies while most of the rest were sold door to door. Condom sales ladies, dubbed ‘Mrs. Skinless’ after the leading brand, aimed to sell a couple of one-gross packs to the young housewives they visited.

With no competition from the pill (outlawed in Japan till this July) [the ban is not now expected to be lifted in 1997] , the future of the condom market seemed assured, even though population growth was declining. However after peaking with a value of Yen 90 Billion retail in 1983, sales began to fall away slowly. By 1993, the market was only 80% of its former size and still shrinking. Okamoto Industries, the leading maker, called in the Dentsu PR Center to help reverse the trend. Dentsu recruited Reiko Murakami, a popular young TV for a magazine campaign themed "It’s cool to keep a condom handy." Interestingly, the implicit assumption was that birth control was a woman’s responsibility. The campaign caused a sensation because it was the fist of its kind. Though there was some controversy, growing consciousness of AIDS had made it socially acceptable to refer to the products by name.

About the same time, Fuji Latex introduced designer condoms "Michiko Koshino’s London Brand." The following year, 1994, Okamoto launched Benetton Condoms under a license agreement with the Italian clothing firm. Magazine ads proclaimed these were the smallest item of clothing Benetton made. "These proved so successful that they threatened to eclipse Okamoto’s leading brand, "Skinless," and so we developed another campaign using Reiko Murakami and her husband in full page newspaper and magazine ads to support "Skinless,"" says Mr. Kenji Hanaue Okamoto’s account manager at the Dentsu PR Center. "Let us get intimate, like a married couple should," said the couple with gusto in a print campaign. The rather strange copy owed much to the input of researchers who had decided that sexless marriages were becoming the norm in Japan because working couples were giving up having regular sex in their thirties.

"The success of Benetton condoms showed that strong branding was the way to develop the market. But the licensing fee arrangement means the brand is not as profitable as Okamoto would like. And so we have been working on the development of new brands," says Hanaue. Last November, with Dentsu’s help, Okamoto launched "Cologne-Dom" and "Clean-Dom" a branded duet in perfumed and plain versions. These are aimed firmly at the lat teens and early twenties. "She chooses, I buy" say ads showing a hip young couple surveying shelves full of condoms in a convenience store.

Other makers have also spotted the power of branding. Sagami Rubber who hold 15% of the market launched "Enrico Coveri Condoms" last year while Fuji Latex are hoping their new "X-Japan" brand will appeal to those who like Rock Music and the band of the same name and build the company’s 20% overall share.

But Okamoto’s initiative in advertising has put them on a growth track. In a now-static market, Okamoto have seen their share rise from 53% to 55%. And when Japanese consumers are asked to name a condom 38% say Benetton which has higher awareness than any other brand.