Brief Explanation

A long-established company felt somewhat outdated with the young and thought how they could engage with them. With a 160 year history as the biggest Japanese miso manufacturer, Marukome for the first time boldly changed its brand character. The character of a miso-making boy with a shaved head was changed to that of a rock star with a mohawk. Booths at rock festivals were set up and ideas were incorporated from young festival-goers. Marukome matured the miso with the help of rock music, thereby making the world's first rock miso. They also enclosed a QR code with a downloadable rock song. Using Rock Miso through social media, Marukome cultivated news ways of communicating with the young.

The Brief

Miso soup is a traditional Japanese comfort food. However, according to Ministry of Internal Affairs & Communications statistics, the consumption of miso per person has decreased by 50% in the last 40 years. Especially among the young, miso had become somewhat outdated. Marukome was also worried about the decreasing number of young applicants to the company. Instead of just focusing on senior consumers, they needed to boldly change their strategy to engage with the younger generation. The goal of this campaign was to make the young embrace miso once again through an attractive product, thereby increasing their interest.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

The miso soup ‘bathed’ in the rock music initially sold 230% faster than any limited edition product previously sold, selling out on Japan’s premier e-commerce site Rakuten.   Nationwide Japanese convenience store chains are firmly entrenched in young people’s lives. Of these chains, FamilyMart, Daily Yamazaki and Y Shop carried our product. Approx. 22.8 million yen ($190,000) of sales reached – more than six times our original goal.   Exposure in 460+ forms of media (699,427,982 impressions)   SNS statistics: 75,886 posts, 60,399,134 followers   Official Marukome SNS accounts: approx. 144% more fans registered!   Recruitment page users also increased by 191% year on year   Marukome Project Manager Kitazawa was interviewed by the Huffington Post. “Never have things been so exciting in Marukome’s 160 year history. We’ve created collaborations with young people through miso soup, and we now have a form of communication you couldn’t create in a supermarket.”

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

A long-established company felt somewhat outdated with the young and thought how they could engage with them, thereby starting the Rock Miso story. With a character that everyone in Japan was familiar with, they boldly changed it, which had a big impact in the news. By exposing the miso to rock music, they came up with an unprecedented product that greatly interested the young. Furthermore, the Marukome brand expanded into the smartphones of the young by including a downloadable rock song. This promotional campaign started on September 1st, 2014. On September 13th, they set up a booth at a rock festival, incorporating ideas from young festival-goers. The developed product went on sale on February 1st. On January 30th, a pop up store was opened in Harajuku, a district popular among the young.