The Campaign

To the Japanese consumer, a “price increase” is thought to be some very negative news.Many corporations will increase prices or shrink products without any notice. We feel that in order for a corporation to continue being trusted and loved by the public, the best policy is in fact “Honesty”. Therefore, intentionally facing this negative news head-on, a creative approach was taken, bringing the top executives of the corporation together in order to apologize to the entire nation and the children who are their primary customers.

Execution

Executed through television commercials with nationwide broadcasters who have the greatest domestic coverage. Additionally, placing full page advertisements with a visual image of “apologizing” in the top financial newspapers throughout Japan. Timeline: Television commercials aired and newspaper advertisements were run on April 1st or “April Fools’ Day”. This shows some playfulness through “telling the truth” on April Fools’ Day. Placement: All over Japan

1.Positive reactions exceeded 90%. Messages of support such as “The price was too low until now, thank you”, “I’ll definitely keep buying even if the price goes up by 10 cent”, “Please, raise your heads” and “An honest company that can be trusted!” had been posted on social media. 2.News of this advertising activity had gained coverage on every television channel in Japan, becoming a hot topic. Worldwide media attention was achieved with comments like “Apologizing for a measly 10 cent price increase?”, “What an honest company” from countries such as China, Malaysia, Italy and Brazil. Introduced on the front page of The New York Times as well as an interview with the board members by the BBC. 3. Through this advertising, sales had risen to 110%. This low budget campaign has had a great effect from the perspectives of branding and sales promotion. Over 1.5 million viewed on YouTube.

The Situation

A simple idea, taking the negative theme of “price increase” and intentionally bringing this to the center of the message, with an “apology” by the CEO. More than just expressing a straight forward corporate philosophy, the basic gesture for communicating an “apology” (known as OJIGI in Japan) has shared the good feeling of acting in such an honest, polite and graceful manner with people around the globe.

The Strategy

Target audience: As an ice pop with sales of more than 400 million units per year, all demographics are targeted Target media: Television commercial (Total of 3 times over a period of 2 days), Newspaper advertisement (Advertised once in one newspaper). ?PR planning: An advertising budget for activities other than the abovementioned could not be secured. Also, considering the contents of the advertising, it was thought that the budget should actually be as minimal as possible. Measures to spread the advertising were intentionally avoided. (In fact, this had left an impression of honesty and directness, becoming a topic of conversation with widespread notoriety, resulting in the acquisition of a strong and positive impression) Approach: Through honestly stating a price increase, then sincerely “apologizing”, the acceptance of the price increase, desire to buy this product, positive impression toward this company and the gracefulness of this “apology” have all been brought together.