Are Japanese companies well-suited for content marketing?

As a new approach to understanding purchasing behavior in the content marketing era, Mr. Naito from Dentsu Digital Inc. (DDH) Singapore discovered the "DECAX" model. Following the first part, the second part discussed its compatibility with Japanese companies.

※"DECAX" is a content marketing model representing: Discovery → Engage (building relationships) → Check (confirmation or attention) → Action → eXperience (experience and sharing).

Gunji: Mr. Naito, when developing business for Southeast Asian clients, you found yourself needing a new thinking framework called the DECAX model. Do you think this applies to those implementing content marketing in Japan as well?

Naito: Actually, I often interact with Japanese marketers in Southeast Asia too. I think it applies in Japan as well. The difference is that clients here don't have that misconception that "content marketing ≈ stealth marketing." If you don't create solid content, deliver it properly to the right audience, and ultimately make consumers happy, it can become addictive. That's something we need to be careful about.

Gunji: I agree. No matter how much you hype something up with content, it will be exposed during the verification (Check) process. For users, who is the source of the information is extremely important, and content developers need to be conscious of that.

In advertising, we often think companies should avoid taking center stage because it makes the message seem too salesy. But when consumers view all information coming from a company—not just ads—they see that company as an expert in its field. So, communicating from that position actually increases credibility. I think this is the key difference between content marketing and advertising.

Aoki: Nielsen conducted a 2013 survey in the U.S. titled "What Makes Advertising Trustworthy?" The most trusted form of advertising, unsurprisingly, was word-of-mouth from people they knew. Coming in second was the company's "website." I think this is a crucial point to grasp. Ultimately, consumers possess the ability to discern whether they can trust the source of information and its content. They sense when something is suspicious if it tries to attract attention by needlessly stoking anxiety. They also look at the source's attitude, including whether they are openly sharing information under their own name. I believe this is what led to the result of companies' websites ranking second.

Gunji: Exactly. It's not just the information itself; they're also looking at the attitude behind its release.

Japanese company products are well-suited for content marketing

Gunji: This is something I've come to understand while working on content marketing. I believe consumers actually want to know what companies are communicating. The branded content from the automotive company Mr. Naito mentioned in the first part is a classic example.

Naito: When I worked on the creative side, Japanese briefings often centered on technical details. We'd listen to engineers explain things alongside the marketing team, and honestly, that moment was often the most interesting part. But once we brought it back to the office and started discussing it, the conversation would kick off with, "Obviously, we can't convey this in 15 seconds," and then shift to, "Well, it's better to get something across than nothing at all, so let's make something interesting."

Gunji: Ah. That's exactly it. I experienced that countless times when I was in creative too.

When you visit the lab for interviews or hear from developers, you get so impressed—what an amazing company! What an amazing product! But you can't convey all that in a TV commercial. I always felt it was such a waste, so I'd propose turning the parts that wouldn't fit into those 15 seconds into brochures or magazine ads. But with content marketing, you can actually deliver those stories about the company's activities, the awesomeness of the technology, and the passion of the engineers, right?

Naito: Exactly. I'm not saying we should use content marketing solely for technical pitches. But I think we often unknowingly cut out interesting information just to fit the format. That was unavoidable with traditional advertising, though.

Gunji: Exactly. "Does it stand out as an ad?" took priority over "Is it interesting as information?"

Naito: Traditional ad formats were designed with grabbing attention as the primary goal.

Gunji: The real value of content marketing might be its ability to deliver topics that easily shift consumer perceptions.

Aoki: In our discussions, Naito-san and I often agree that content marketing suits Japanese companies well. They have so much to tell.

Naito: Japanese companies are more manufacturers than marketers, so there are often fascinating stories behind their products. While content marketing emphasizes creating content centered on consumers rather than the brand, I don't think that's an absolute rule if the content ultimately satisfies consumers. Especially overseas, I feel behind-the-scenes content unique to Japanese companies would likely resonate well.

Gunji: The key is preparing that kind of content so consumers can discover it, right?

Naito: On the other hand, since we're targeting the masses, scalability is also required. Will anecdotal "relatable" stories truly work at a mass scale? Grasping this sense of scale is actually the most difficult part when tackling content marketing. However, mass-producing by stacking a large number of individual points is precisely where computer science excels, and it can be backed up with data. That is exactly the area we should focus on next.

Gunji: Advertising's role is probably polarizing. While methods like firing big guns across mass media still exist, another direction is emerging: having content proactively discovered and engaged with by its target audience on platforms like Outbrain.

Naito: Ultimately, advertising is about moving people on a mass scale to drive sales. Content marketing approaches and the technologies used there feel promising to me because they tackle the core of that challenge.

DECAX also has the capability to solve team challenges in content marketing

Gunji: Content marketing teams now include not only traditional creatives but also data measurement specialists and digital advertising experts. This hybrid team actually has very different backgrounds and values. Even when using the same terminology, they might mean different things, making it quite a cross-cultural communication challenge. That's why a framework like DECAX becomes crucial for everyone to develop a shared understanding.

Aoki: Naturally, what's demanded in digital advertising is simply performance. The campaign objective is user acquisition, and various measures are implemented to maximize efficiency. However, this might just be my personal impression, but as digital marketing grows, I often feel that traditional "advertising" and direct marketing—essentially "direct sales"—are frequently lumped together. Yet, fundamentally, the roles of advertising and direct sales tactics can differ depending on the case. To put it bluntly, "advertising ≠ direct sales." Depending on the campaign's purpose and role, there can be a gap between the mindset of direct marketing and other approaches.

Gunji: It's quite challenging to move people's hearts through the harvesting methods of direct marketing, isn't it?

Aoki: For example, when a client manager whose main focus is boosting sales at supermarkets or convenience stores prepares video content to clearly introduce a product's value, aiming first to help potential targets understand its features, if you ask them from a direct marketing perspective, "What's the KPI for this initiative?", they might respond, "Huh, KPI? Maybe video views?" And then, by focusing too much on that KPI, they try to quantify things like landing page traffic and various other metrics. But somehow, it ends up feeling off-target, or the results just don't sit right.

Naito: Exactly. The argument that "budgets must shift to digital to match consumers' increasing digital information consumption" hasn't evolved beyond comparing efficiency with traditional channels. Back when the AIDMA model was effective, awareness was everything. That's because pioneering American marketers figured out the equation: when products were equally represented on shelves, the one with the highest awareness got picked up and bought. So it's not just about shifting budgets because online media exposure time has increased. We need to anticipate the digitization of the media business model itself and develop metrics beyond mere awareness.

Gunji: How do we measure attitude shifts like brand favorability and combine that with site behavior? We're still experimenting.

Aoki: Exactly. That's why I feel it's crucial, especially in content marketing, to adopt a framework like DECAX rather than measuring everything uniformly. If we carefully plan and execute branding or direct initiatives at the right DECAX stage, I believe it will also resolve the internal communication issues within teams that you mentioned, Mr. Gunji.

Gunji: Of course, there are many strengths in the methodologies developed by the digital world, including direct marketing. We definitely want to collaborate more on that.

Aoki: When Outbrain executives visited Japan recently, they emphasized that to acquire high-quality users, you must first focus on engagement. However, they repeatedly stressed that "engagement ≠ conversion." The initial step in content marketing is gaining user engagement through branding. Only after achieving that should you pursue conversion. This distinction might be confused even globally.

Naito: We got a bit carried away and ran out of time, but this time we introduced DECAX from the perspective of consumers' information behavior. When talking with various global platform operators, we find solutions that fit somewhere within this model's processes. This led us to conclude that the model has a certain level of systematic explanatory power. Furthermore, we've reached the point where we believe we must use this model to provide integrated solutions. We're advancing this global partner sourcing in coordination with BCC, so please feel free to inquire for details.

【Gunji's Eye】

We've now covered the new "DECAX" model—how consumers encounter and engage with brands—in two installments. In content marketing, which requires diverse talent from brand, digital, analytics, and creative backgrounds, this model could be useful for fostering shared understanding and common goals across the team.

That said, DECAX is merely a model as of 2015. We now live in an era where media and platforms are constantly evolving. As consumer behavior changes accordingly, behavioral models will naturally evolve too. Not getting stuck on one perspective and embracing continuous change—this is also a crucial point in content marketing.