The Reason Why "The Parenting Book That Improves Motor Skills Because You're a Mom" Sold Well

The practical guide "The Parenting Book to Improve Your Child's Athletic Ability Because You're a Mom," published by Gakken Publishing on July 1st last year with the cooperation of Dentsu Inc. SPOLUTION, is selling well.

Cover of "The Parenting Book: How Moms Can Boost Their Kids' Athletic Skills"

Despite the current publishing slump, it has already gone into its fourth printing and was even ranked #1 in Amazon's parenting category at one point. It continues to be featured in various media outlets.
Strategic Planner Watanabe Kahei, one of the book's planners, shares the story behind its creation while introducing its contents.

■Considering the book's content from a market perspective.

I'm Kahei Watanabe from Sporolution. Thank you for accessing this article.
The reason I became involved in planning this book stems from a decision made at the time: to leverage Gakken's strength in "books" to spread the concept behind their early childhood physical education program "Little Athlete Club (LAC) " – "Being uncoordinated isn't genetic!" – which Spolution helped develop.

As someone usually focused on marketing, my first thought was: Couldn't we apply marketing thinking to book development? It might seem obvious, but books often feel created from a product-out perspective—emphasizing the author's views or opinions. I wondered if we could approach it from the market's viewpoint instead.

■Visiting actual bookstores to see where books are sold.

First, I wondered what kinds of children's exercise books already existed. Visiting bookstores and searching online revealed a vast array of titles. Books with competitive titles like "Improve Your Athletic Ability..." were already on the market.

However, when I actually visited the stores and read them, I noticed something. Traditional children's exercise books are mostly shelved in the "Sports" section of bookstores and are often written for fathers who have experience with exercise or sports. Furthermore, the tone and style of these books tend to be closer to physical education textbooks or reference books (e.g., featuring realistic and accurate illustrations of children's bodies), and the content heavily focuses on introducing training programs for children.

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■Clearly define the book's target audience and positioning to change the "shelf" it occupies in bookstores.

Based on these insights, our team decided to create a book with the opposite target audience and positioning compared to existing children's exercise books. Instead of a training know-how book for dads who understand exercise, we aimed for a parenting/childcare book geared toward moms who are less comfortable with physical activity. Essentially, making it a parenting book that moms would pick up was the key to getting it chosen.

And the most crucial factor for getting mothers to pick it up was ensuring the book was placed on the "parenting" shelf, not the "sports" shelf, in bookstores. Who decides where books go? The bookstore staff. The decision on placement happens in the split second they pick it up. Therefore, our goal became creating a book with content mothers would casually pick up, one that bookstore staff would place on the parenting shelf, not the sports shelf.

■Consistent Marketing Strategy Through to Output

Not a book on elite sports training, nor a guide to running faster, but a book that shares parenting tips only moms can provide to help children develop a love for movement. Based on this concept, we created everything consistently—from the book's title to its content, structure, tone & manner, and design.

The title emphasized it was a book for moms. The content focused not on introducing training for children, but on presenting exercises easily incorporated into everyday parenting and household chores. Within this, we integrated Gakken's Little Athlete Club assertion: "A mother can nurture her child's athletic ability."

Collaboration: Office hana Illustrations: Megumi Saito (Rush)

For the illustrations accompanying the text, instead of realistic depictions of bodies in motion, we enlisted illustrator Megumi Saito to create many cute illustrations and comics.

Cooperation: Office hana Illustrations: Megumi Saito (Rush)

The result is "The Parenting Book That Boosts Your Child's Athletic Ability Because You're Their Mom."
This book was created in collaboration with professional trainer Kenta Toyama, a staff member of the Little Athlete Club; Keita Furuya, an active children's physical activity instructor; and sports doctor Hiroshi Ouchi. So, of course, the content is reliable.

■Was children's physical activity something distant for moms!?

We didn't do any major PR or promotion for sales, but mothers naturally picked it up. That led to word-of-mouth, media coverage, which spread further, then more media coverage, catching the eyes of other mothers—creating a positive cycle.

As this book spread, I realized anew: children's physical activity might have been distant from mothers' minds. Even though mothers often spend more time interacting with their children in daily parenting than fathers do. Even though physical activity is a crucial factor in a child's growth. Even though many mothers want their children to become physically capable. Many mothers probably feel unsure about how to approach their children's physical activity themselves.

Today, declining physical fitness and lack of exercise among children have become serious societal issues.

The number of children at risk for locomotive syndrome—previously seen mainly in the elderly—is also increasing. Furthermore, many mothers mistakenly believe that being "clumsy at sports" is hereditary, thinking "my child will probably be the same anyway..." and consequently either don't let their children exercise or don't know how to encourage them to do so.

We hope this book, "The Parenting Guide to Boosting Your Child's Athletic Ability Because You're Their Mom," can contribute, even a little, to increasing the number of children who enjoy exercise and sports.

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★ What is the "Sporolution" Team?
It is an internal unit within Dentsu Inc. that approaches sports content not merely as "media assets," but as "solutions" to address business challenges and project objectives.
The team brings together diverse talents including strategic planners, promotion planners, copywriters, art directors, technologists, consultants, and producers, all with extensive experience in sports planning. Through our Solution Director system, we provide not just "ideas for expression," but also "ideas for solutions," all under one roof.