The Benefits of "Emotional Cosplay" for Cultivating a PR Perspective!

"Demons out! Fortune in!" Did everyone throw beans this year? Preparations for Girls' Day must be in full swing by now. Japan has so many seasonal events, doesn't it? I bet many of you have experiences like dressing up as an ogre for Setsubun and making kids cry, or getting seriously pissed off when a kid actually threw beans at you. Girls' Day might be a bit calmer, playing with the Emperor and Empress dolls, right?

This time, I thought I'd write a bit about "cosplay." I can already hear the comments: "Hey, hey, are you old guys suddenly getting into cosplay now?" But that's not what I mean. This "cosplay" is about "cosplaying your feelings." So, let's give it a try!

"Can you truly put yourself in the other person's shoes?" That's what makes or breaks communication.

Cosplay is about mimicking the appearance of characters from manga or anime, but some people also enjoy embodying the character's very feelings. They relish the moment of behaving as if they were that character, transforming into "someone else entirely." I feel this skill of "becoming someone else" is incredibly useful for all communication, including PR.

Needless to say, in recent times, consumers often react to one-way information delivery with "ignoring," "tuning out," or even "resentment." Of course, it doesn't always trigger negative reactions, but it's essential to effectively extract and convey the recipient's benefits as "useful information from the consumer's perspective." Furthermore, consideration is needed to present it at the best possible timing for the recipient, as if unraveling a mystery for them. Yes, it always requires "standing in the shoes of the recipient, adopting their perspective."

　

PR targets are diverse, requiring multiple messages

"Seeing things from the other person's perspective" is fine when communicating solely with a core target group. But as always, PR targets are diverse. It's necessary to build "gentle empathy" with each attribute that makes up society. This requires simultaneously viewing multiple attribute groups from a bird's-eye perspective. In other words, it demands the ability to immerse yourself in the lives of each attribute's members and view a single matter from multiple perspectives, almost like having "multiple personalities." To enhance this ability, I highly recommend this!

Iguchi-style "Emotional Cosplay Training"

By utilizing a little free time each day, your PR communication skills will rapidly improve. Yes, rest assured! Of course, this product comes with a cooling-off period (free returns). Now, let's briefly introduce how to use it.

① Find one buzzworthy topic
Choose one news story currently trending on TV or online. Avoid topics popular only among specific fan groups; aim for something that sparks conversation among people of all ages and genders.

② Set yourself up as a "multiple personality"
Set up several personalities different from yourself and prepare to embody them. For example: "Your spouse or partner," "Your parents back home (that's two people right there, dad and mom)," "Your child," "A coworker," "A friend from school days." It's best to choose people whose daily words and actions you've seen or heard, as it makes it easier to imagine how they think and feel.

③ Fully embody each personality and consider the topic chosen in ①
Now, let's step into the shoes of these people. Consider how your spouse or partner would think and feel about the phenomenon you selected in ① that's currently a hot topic. Then, delve deeper into how their thoughts and feelings differ from your own, and why that might be.

※Note: You don't need to go so far as to dress up in full costume just because of the word "cosplay." Doing so might lead to misunderstandings if seen, potentially disrupting your valuable thought process.

④ Compare and examine multiple "role-playing personas"
The more "role-playing personas" you have, the more you'll recognize the variety of ways people think and feel—and you'll likely feel overwhelmed. You might think, "If I had to cater to all that, it would never end (sigh)." However, it's crucial here to sincerely understand that society is composed of such diverse attributes. Effort and ingenuity are needed to tailor and communicate what we want to convey to individuals embodying each of these attributes.

Of course, the information handled by PR itself contains "facts," and we cannot create information that deviates from them. However, through this target analysis, we can determine where to place emphasis on each element constituting the facts to effectively drive "perception change" for each attribute.

From Imagination to Analysis, and Building Experience Through PDCA

That said, if someone asks, "Isn't that just imagination in the end?", well, yes, it is. But responding with "So I'll just say what I want anyway!" is not acceptable. I believe the attitude of considering the other party's perspective and engaging with them properly does come across to the recipient. The only path forward is to first imagine, then analyze that imagination alongside supporting information, refine it, and finally try it out—using the insights from that attempt to inform the next iteration. This is the PDCA cycle. Through this practice, you should gradually feel your accuracy improving (we'll consider cooling off once you've reached this stage).

Another useful way to sharpen your intuition is to compare how different media outlets cover the same topic, not just through imagination. Each media outlet represents a symbolic audience. By comparing how they unpack a phenomenon like "○○○○" and where they place emphasis in their reporting or articles, you can sometimes symbolically visualize the perspectives of different consumers. It might be good to consciously practice this way of looking at news daily.

This approach might also be particularly useful for learning foreign perspectives. While I admit it's difficult for me to accurately guess the thoughts of foreigners in every region based solely on imagination, comparing how global news is handled by media outlets in different countries can give you some insight into their areas of interest and viewpoints.

So, what did you think of this "emotional cosplay" approach? Just be careful not to get too serious and lose sight of your own personality. I'm still struggling to fully understand my Chihuahua's feelings. Woof woof.