We repositioned mushrooms.

It's already been nearly a month since the new year began. How has everyone been? I graduated from my New Year's resolution of exercising after waking at 5 a.m. after just three days, and I'm still in the thick of the endless year-end parties that started last December. Regardless, I want to take care of my health this year too. Since last year, perhaps due to the economic upturn, I've been getting more invitations than usual, which is delightful. But getting too carried away is strictly forbidden. So, today, I'd like to take this opportunity to share one method that might help everyone manage their health: "Microbiome Activation."

 

Originally, the topic I was asked to cover was "Getting consumers to recognize mushrooms as an everyday food."

That said, I'm not exactly the picture of health myself, so I can't really speak authoritatively on the subject. Plus, I'm afraid of getting called out with "You're the last person who should be saying that!" So, instead, I'd like to explain the mechanism from a PR perspective. I call it "Creating New Habits for Consumers / The Backstory of Manifestation PR." Oh, and by the way, this was one of the campaigns that won an Excellence Award in the Marketing Communications category at the 2013 PR Awards hosted by the Japan Public Relations Association.

The original brief we took on was "to get consumers to recognize mushrooms as an everyday food." We launched the PR campaign to tackle the challenge of increasing opportunities to eat mushrooms and boosting consumption. Fundamentally, mushrooms carry strong seasonal associations like "autumn" or "winter hotpot ingredients." While they sell well naturally during fall and winter, sales struggle in other seasons. However, mushrooms are now cultivated indoors, meaning high-quality mushrooms are actually available year-round! So, from the company's perspective, it became, "How can we not sell them year-round?! What a waste!"

But you know, suddenly saying "Hey, mushrooms are great in spring and summer too—buy some!" doesn't really click, right? People still want them in hot pots, and they think "Grilling mushrooms over charcoal on a long autumn night is so atmospheric." So we wondered: Is there a way to make mushrooms part of everyday habits? That's when we stumbled upon this: the trivia that "kin" (菌) means "mushroom" (きのこ) in kun'yomi (native Japanese reading).

For those with a Level 1 Kanji Proficiency Test, this is probably common knowledge—something you'd say, "Of course I know that!" But I learned it for the first time. While half-angrily thinking, "Well, I guess I just lack common sense," I also thought, "But surely most people don't know this? Isn't this something you just want to tell people?"

Of course, "kinoko" (mushrooms) are genuine members of the fungus family, written in kanji as "菌" (kin). Wanting to leverage this little tidbit to "reposition" mushrooms as "good bacteria for the body," I started digging deeper. And wouldn't you know it? It turns out there are quite a few people out there incorporating "fungi" into their daily lives for healthier living, not just mushrooms. Well, this is better than mushrooms fighting alone. Having "fungus" allies makes them stronger. So I started looking, and just like in a manga, before I knew it, allies started appearing. And they're quite a formidable bunch. "I'm yogurt. I'm a lactic acid bacterium. "Eat me every day!" "I'm her little sister, Bifidobacteria!" "I'm the heavyweight Miso Soup, but you can't start your morning without me, right? Wahahaha!" "I'm the trendy Salt Koji. I get along with everyone instantly and help bring out the best in you!" And so on. All sorts of famous folks (or should I say, famous microbes?) from the "microbial world" gathered together.

Looking at the lineup, they were all beloved by everyday people. Okay, putting "Mushroom" at center stage for their debut was a sure thing! So, I even came up with a name for this group. Naming them, "The Microbe Squad."! With the name decided, it was finally time for their debut stage.

 

Taking a bird's-eye view to broadly define the market and foster personal connection across a wide spectrum

The story may have jumped to an idol group, but the PR point is creating a new market that resonates with consumers. If a stranger suddenly asks for a handshake, hardly anyone would readily offer theirs. Efforts are needed to help consumers understand who you truly are. Eliminating consumer discomfort and creating steps to increase their sense of conviction—that's what matters.

After all, if a single manufacturer loudly proclaims, "This product is popular!", it's only perceived as self-serving information. It's crucial to showcase its existence as a phenomenon that resonates with consumers, drawing on their accumulated experience and incorporating related products like yogurt. To achieve this, it doesn't work well if one entity tries to take center stage and perform a solo part. By making consumers consciously aware of their existing experiences – "Oh, I have that habit," "I have this habit," "I've tried something like this before" – and helping them understand these as part of a larger bundle, the anticipation for this new market expands. Within that context, positioning your product as the "top-recommended newcomer" is the strategy to get yourself concentrated spotlight.

A key point to remember about this strategy is that no matter how much you create a sense of personal relevance, if it's confined to a narrow domain, the pool of people who empathize will be small, and it won't become a movement. To gain widespread consumer resonance, it's essential to cast a wide net and identify the greatest common denominator. Therefore, it's crucial to involve related ingredients, identify many experienced users, and promote it broadly as "fungus-based wellness." Only then can it achieve widespread consumer resonance, eliciting responses like "Oh, that's so true!"

As a result, "fungus-based wellness" gained recognition not just for mushrooms, but as a new dietary habit encompassing various ingredients. Recipes using mushrooms, combined with the appeal of the term itself, began appearing organically in lifestyle magazines, women's weekly magazines, and cookbooks. (Yay!)

 

Boosting PR with Commercials

While "fungus-based wellness" became a trend, promoting pure recall of the brand name "Hokuto = mushrooms" required an integrated communication plan encompassing advertising and other initiatives. Consequently, a rather edgy TV commercial was launched simultaneously. This sexy commercial featuring Yuu Kanai and Sawa Suzuki became a major online sensation. Needless to say, it dramatically increased recognition among young people—not just the main target of housewives—that "Hokuto = mushrooms." This kind of synergy, where PR is boosted by commercials, is crucial!

 

Everyday, familiar phenomena are the easiest to relate to

What we want you to understand here is that appealing to consumers with entirely new concepts is incredibly challenging. Can consumers instantly understand and relate to information they've never encountered before? That hurdle is undoubtedly high. However, if they have even a little prior experience with the subject, they can engage in communication using their own limited background, thinking "Come to think of it, that thing..." or "Actually, that's..." The real know-how lies in finding that clever connecting thread that effectively ties together existing images.

A good example is the established market concept of "sweets-loving guys." Previously, men who enjoyed sweets might have hidden their preferences, thinking, "If I say I like sweets, people might think I'm stupid..." This concept brought that hidden reality to light, showing them, "Actually, there are quite a lot of people like that, right?" This made the market visible. Men who felt relieved and identified with this then came out, declaring, "I'm a sweets-loving guy too!" The reassurance of finding peers and understanding the sheer volume of them likely bolstered the sense of legitimacy. Discovering and bringing to light these hidden yet potentially lucrative markets with a fresh perspective could be another PR idea worth exploring.