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Tested OK!

Courtesy : Badlab Magazine,Germanyhttp://www.badlab.de/artikel/im-badminton-saiten-test-kizuna-z58-premium-die-d%C3%BCnnste-badminton-saite-der-welt-sowie-kizuna-d61-duratech-z63-x-z-65-und-z-69-p.html

IN THE BADMINTON STRING TEST: KIZUNA Z58 PREMIUM, THE THINNEST BADMINTON STRING IN THE WORLD, AS WELL AS KIZUNA D61 DURATECH, Z63 X, Z 65 AND Z 69 PREMIUM.

KIZUNA badminton strings, a Japanese company still relatively unknown in Europe, has established itself as one of the most popular string manufacturers in Asia in recent years. Responsible for this is Mr. Abe Hideo, who founded KIZUNA in 2013 and is responsible for the production and distribution of badminton strings and equipment “Made in Japan”. As a long-time badminton coach and national coach, Mr. Hideo has made it his goal to develop better badminton strings for weaker players and to support their play with it. Many popular badminton players lack stamina and technique and this is exactly where KIZUNA comes in. Good badminton strings should make you feel like a better player.

Regarding the methodology: Each test player tested all 5 KIZUNA strings on his own racket with the tension of his personal preference. It was between 10 kg and 12 kg. As always with BADLAB, the test criteria were not just any laboratory measurements, but the personal impression of each individual string on your own racket. As usual over several weeks in a long-term test. Since we do not make our tests for professional players, but for ambitious recreational players, our testers are a well-mixed team of highly ambitious recreational players up to the national league.

The character of each string was rated according to 8 criteria on a scale from 1 (does not apply) to 5 (fully applies). So the top rating is a 5. Let’s start with the hard facts:

KIZUNA Z58 Premium – 0.58mm Rating:1234th5 average
1. The string gives a good feel (touch / feedback)5 5
2. The string has good elasticity and damping properties14th 4.8
3. The string retains its elasticity (trampoline effect) for a long time5 4th
4. The string supports good length on clears23 4.6
5. The string supports my underhand play (e.g. in defense)14th 4.8
6. The string provides good control in short games (eg cut or short crossball on the net)5 5
7. The string offers a full, controlled power transfer on hard smashes.122 3.8
8. The string impresses with a good “sound”5 5

Assessment: The KIZUNA Z58 Premium / Medium – 0.58 mmAs the thinnest string in the world, it received special attention from our testers. It exceeded all expectations and was the only string to achieve the unanimous top value of 5.0 in 3 categories – namely for “good feel (touch / feedback)”, for “control during short play” and nothing else to be expected in the categories: “Sound”. In the other disciplines, too, the KIZUNA Z58 only just missed the maximum values. But the weak point of extremely thin strings also came to light in the evaluation of “controlled power transmission with hard smashes”. Nevertheless, an impressive 3.8 was scored here. We can recommend this string to all players for whom a good feel with an incomparable sound is more important than extreme durability.

KIZUNA D61 Duratech – 0.61mm Rating:1234th5 average
1. The string gives a good feel (touch / feedback)122 3.2
2. The string has good elasticity and damping properties4th1 3.2
3. The string retains its elasticity (trampoline effect) for a long time5 3
4. The string supports good length on clears32 3.4
5. The string supports my underhand play (e.g. in defense)23 3.6
6. The string provides good control in short games (eg cut or short crossball on the net)221 3.8
7. The string offers a full, controlled power transfer on hard smashes.131 3
8. The string impresses with a good “sound”23 3.6

Assessment: The KIZUNA D61 Duratech / Hard – 0.61 mm is technically and optically probably the most striking string in our KIZUNA string test. The KIZUNA D61 Duratech is a two-tone, ring-shaped twisted string in which Teflon has been processed, which has a very high coefficient of friction. Our testers see the advantages of this slightly rough string in the grip, which enables very good “control in short play” and “controlled defense in underhand play”. Otherwise, the advantages of this very hard string are probably more important for very good players than for ambitious hobby players, as most of our testers are.

KIZUNA Z63 X Premium – 0.63mm Rating:1234th5 average
1. The string gives a good feel (touch / feedback)131 3
2. The string has good elasticity and damping properties2111 3.2
3. The string retains its elasticity (trampoline effect) for a long time1211 3.4
4. The string supports good length on clears221 3.8
5. The string supports my underhand play (e.g. in defense)311 3.6
6. The string provides good control in short games (eg cut or short crossball on the net)131 4th
7. The string offers a full, controlled power transfer on hard smashes.122 4.2
8. The string impresses with a good “sound”131 4th

Evaluation: The KIZUNA Z63 X Premium / Medium – 0.63 mm achieved above-average values ​​in almost all evaluations. It is therefore no wonder that the KIZUNA 63 X is one of the top sellers of the KIZUNA string series in Asia. In our test results, there is no question that the string delivers a rich sound. It is also rated 4.0 points, as is the very “good control in short play”, which speaks for a soulful string. But the particular strength of the KIZUNA 63 X is its “rich, controlled power transmission for hard smashes” with a peak value of 4.2. An absolute top string that we can recommend to every type of player.
.

KIZUNA Z65 Premium – 0.65mm Rating:1234th5 average
1. The string gives a good feel (touch / feedback)131 4th
2. The string has good elasticity and damping properties32 3.4
3. The string retains its elasticity (trampoline effect) for a long time23 3.6
4. The string supports good length on clears5 4th
5. The string supports my underhand play (e.g. in defense)23 2.6
6. The string provides good control in short games (eg cut or short crossball on the net)23 2.6
7. The string offers a full, controlled power transfer on hard smashes.32 3.4
8. The string impresses with a good “sound”32 3.4

Assessment: The KIZUNA Z65 Premium / Medium – 0.65 mm has emerged as a solid all-rounder in our testers. The average values ​​are above the average for all test criteria. With top values ​​of 4 points each, the KIZUNA Z65 receives positive feedback, especially for “good feel” and “good length with clears”.

KIZUNA Z69 Premium – 0.69mm Rating:1234th5 average
1. The string gives a good feel (touch / feedback)122 3.2
2. The string has good elasticity and damping properties1121 3.6
3. The string retains its elasticity (trampoline effect) for a long time4th1 4.2
4. The string supports good length on clears5 4th
5. The string supports my underhand play (e.g. in defense)23 3.6
6. The string provides good control in short games (eg cut or short crossball on the net)212 3
7. The string offers a full, controlled power transfer on hard smashes.221 3.8
8. The string impresses with a good “sound”131 3

Assessment: The KIZUNA Z69 Premium / Soft – 0.69 mm is the thickest string in the test and is still well above average in all test criteria. A particular strength of this string for our testers is its “long-lasting elasticity” and its “good length for clears”. But the “full, controlled power transmission for hard smashes” was also given an impressive value by our testers, making this string a perfect all-rounder. If the meeting is not so precise, the KIZUNA Z69 is also very forgiving. Of course, this goes hand in hand with a few compromises in terms of sensitivity. Nevertheless: A real insider tip among the durable strings!

Conclusion: KIZUNA offers a very interesting range of badminton strings with a wide variety of characters – and from our point of view has rightly developed into one of the most popular string manufacturers in Asia in the amateur sector in recent years.

This test also shows that the choice of the “right” string is extremely individual. And basically the choice of the string largely determines the character of a racket. It’s worth experimenting! With this in mind, we recommend that you really look at the tables above in detail, even if three strings particularly stood out for our testers: The KIZUNA Z58 is our top recommendation for every badminton player who would like to find out how the feel of the game is Improve the sound of your racket with a very thin string. For the demanding all-rounder, we recommend the KIZUNA Z63 X. And the KIZUNA Z69 is our new insider tip among durable strings – especially for everyone who plays with nylon balls.

For all those who can’t wait to start sales in Germany / Europe, here is a link from the Indian distributor of KIZUNA.

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The Feedback

                With marketing campaigns in full swing on Amazon, Whatsapp and Mailchimp for Kizuna Badminton Strings , we were sure to have taken off on the right foot. However, one question remained unanswered. How do we gauge the response of our customers? To remain dynamic and organically grow, genuine feedback from our customers was essential and we had to figure a way to get them to respond about Kizuna Badminton Strings.

                Now, amazon had an option for feedback through reviews. But the issue lies in people taking the effort to post their reviews. Now that is not something that you see often. So, the issue basically boils down to getting people to take the effort to post their reviews. The only way we could think of getting them to do this was by nudging them via whatsapp. The idea is to contact each of the customers and get to know what exactly they liked and disliked about the product, any room for improvement and finally requesting them to post their feedback on amazon or other badminton platforms like badminton central if they could on the basis of personal friendships built. What we did not realise though, is that in the process of getting reviews, we were building friendships who would act as ambassadors to our products. Through their contact, we came across a bunch of stringers operating from the space of their homes. Something that we would not have found out otherwise.

                Thus, every single step that we took to better our product had positive consequences in dimensions that we could not fathom. Much like a jigsaw puzzle, the pieces were falling into places. But what kept us driving was the fact that Kizuna was growing one string at a time, one shop at a time. Watch out this space for more updates on Kizuna.

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The Background Work

Having collected contact data, we were good to go with our Email and Whatsapp campaigning. Slowly, our marketing efforts started yielding results as we had stringers across India showing up to try the new Kizuna Premium Japanese Badminton strings. These orders for sample pack, though small in numbers, were spread across the country which assured us of our possible reach. Thus, we overcame the barrier of breaking into the first mover’s clan.

                Now came an unexpected challenge. We were sure that the biggest task would be to get these stringers to try our strings in the first place. Once they were made to understand the potential of the string and how good it was compared to it’s the competitors in the market, we were sure it would sell like hot cakes. Contrary to our expectations, not all first mover’s came back for repeated bulk orders. On enquiring, we got to know that some of them faced the issue of snapping of strings (the thinner ones) while gutting. Now this was unexpected to say the least. On consulting with our Japanese R&D team, we got to know that Kizuna strings are generally on the softer side compared to the string dominating the Indian market. Coupled to this was the minimal gauge of our premium strings like Z58(World’s thinnest string of .58mm), D61 (.61mm), inappropriate method of pulling crosses and the poorly managed clamps of stringing machines. Thus, on confirming with our customers, we concluded that most of the stringers in the market were not well equipped to handle such thin gauges.

                After quite some brainstorming on how to educate them to deal with these strings, we came up with an idea to caution them of the nature of these thin strings and how to go about them. Thus, we decided to place a caution notice in each of the orders just to give them a heads up on the required delicate handling of these strings. To supplement this, we also sent them tutorial links to pulling crosses and servicing of clamps. We monitored this process and took regular feedbacks from our customers for close to one month. Not surprisingly, we found that none of our stringers faced the issue of snapping while stringing. Thus, we dodged a bullet and incorporated these measures into our regular operations.

Follow this space for regular updates on Kizuna India’s journey in India.

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The first move in North- East

Kizuna Logo in Japanese.

Having made our presence felt in the virtual world through Social Media handles, Website etc, we kick-started our email and Whatsapp campaign promoting Kizuna India Badminton Strings. Fortunately, we din’t have to wait long before we got our first order from UP from a small stringer. Despite the meager number, we were happy as that was our much anticipated first breakthrough in the giant market that India is.

We kept the campaign running in the hope of diversifying our reach in this enormous country. That’s when one of our previous customers, with whom we share years of business relation got in touch with us about the string. Being a player himself, he realized the impact that a product of this reputation would have in the current market and gave us the contact of a stringer from his hometown in Lunglei, Mizoram. We promptly approached them and passed on the information about the product. Now, expecting them to buy from us solely on the basis of a 15 min phone call would be wishful thinking. This is where our well-wisher played the facilitator and assured them of our reliability and his long term experience dealing with us. Our Social Media presence and Website added extra confidence and pushed them to take the first jump of faith.

                Thus, a bit of marketing, phone call on Product info and adequate assurances from someone well known got us our first dealer in the North East. We would like to see this as just the tip of a massive iceberg. North East has always been a sports friendly market and perhaps, one of the least tapped ones with immense potential hidden. Sang Sang Sports Co of Lunglei, Mizoram holds the key to the treasury chest that the North East badminton market is. Watch out for more updates as the story of Kizuna India unfolds.

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The Domain Name

The next challenge in our journey was creating the marketing channels.  Kizuna India badminton strings needed a website. And the website needed a domain name. Kizuna.com was not available. The next best was Kizuna.in. It was taken. When we checked the details for Kizuna.in, it was found that the domain is registered by a Delhi based investor in domain names. We didn’t have the money to buy Kizuna.in from the investor for how much ever he was asking for.  Kizuna.co.in was available, but we were not very happy with it due to the long extension.

During the early days of the corona virus, we, by chance found that the domain name Kizuna.in was not renewed. We thought that it could be an opportunity to get the desired domain name. May be the holder of the domain has lost interest in it after holding on to it for a long period of time and is going to let it go. We started monitoring it on a daily basis. Depending on the domain name provider it can take about 30-120 days for a domain. We talked to our domain service provider go daddy on how we can get hold of the domain name. Their opinion was to monitor on a daily basis to see when the domain will become available for purchase in the open market. The wait and the monitoring finally gave fruit at the end of about 96 days. The domain was available to buy in go daddy and we immediately purchased it.

The next thought was where to host the new website. Our websites bikazoom.com and lotus-sports.com are hosted with go daddy. Having faced some issues with hosting like the sites taking a lot of time to open especially on mobile devices and the inability of hosting plan to have multiple sites with https, we looked at our alternatives and zeroed in on Amazon AWS. They had a plan called light sail where we could try it for free for a month and they had a plan where we pay based on the traffic at the site. AWS also had a tie up with let’s encrypt (letsencrypt.org) which provides TLS 1.3 encryption free of cost. Https is a necessity for better search engine ranking. AWS also had bitnami frame work available which will help us host multiple technologies. This was required as bikazoom.com and lotus-sports.com were using different technologies. 

Now we had to find a designer for the website and someone to implement the technology side at our budget. More about that in our next post.

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The launch

Launching a new sports related brand itself is rather daunting in normal times. Doing it during the time of an epidemic is a challenge. There are restrictions on travel, gatherings and playing. People are fearful of sending their children to play grounds due to the virus. This is a time the general economic activity slows down. Nevertheless, the show must go on. There will be an anti-virus vaccine soon, people will start venturing out and things will go back to being normal. The thought process is that if we start launching the product now we will be ready to go big when things open up again. As John Adams rightly said, “Every problem is an opportunity in disguise”.

Kizuna badminton strings are made in Japan in their own manufacturing facility. Kizuna badminton strings are developed by Mr. Hideo Abe who is the former Japan Men’s badminton team coach. Kizuna makes the thinnest badminton strings in the world and their badminton strings are famous for its hitting sound, power, control and feel. They are proud to be the No. 2 badminton string brand in the world.

We decided that we will use all available communications technology to digitally launch Kizuna badminton strings all over India. We will have a Kizuna India specific website that gives information about Kizuna badminton strings, have an effective social media presence in facebook, instagram and twitter.

We also have a large data base of stringers and sports dealers in India whom we have communicated and have done business with over the years. We decided that we will use this data base to communicate directly with the stringers about Kizuna badminton strings and what the brand has to offer them.

The following are the social media presence we created:

Website: https://www.kizuna.in

Instagram: kizuna_ind

Facebook: KizunaIndia

Twitter: @kizunaindia

We created a Whatsapp business account (+918589905858) to communicate with our contacts as it is the preferred medium of communication of all in India.

We also set up a Google pay account for ease of payment.

The KIZUNA India Badminton strings journey continues. We will have more in our next post.

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Hitherto

The Z63X in vibrant colours.

Bikazoom is a company that has been in the sports equipments business for a good 10 years and has dealt in several leading products and brands including Victor,Lotus Sports,Speedo,Tinsue etc. In this span of time, we were fortunate enough to deal with a wide network of dealers across India, gaining their friendship and trust.  Over time, due to certain unethical practices from some of our players, we had to end many of our partnerships and were staring at a situation which demanded us to reinvent ourselves to thrive in an uncertain market.

Our search to redefine ourselves and our desire to associate with a brand oozing  quality, took us to Kizuna. Kizuna is a world renowned badminton string brand and is currently the No. 2 in badminton strings. If there’s one market that has been elusive to Kizuna , and a major one at that, is India. India is one market that everybody would want a piece of, across segments and products, owing to its demography and receptivity. The badminton strings segment in India isn’t overcrowded and there’s a clear vaccum for technologically sound and quality badminton strings. And thus was born Kizuna India. Watch out for this space as our journey unfolds before you in coming blogs.