What is "People Driven Growth Consulting," committed to sustainable business growth?

Dentsu Inc.'s "Business Growth Practice Webinars" share the latest insights on the ever-evolving business landscape. This series highlights key sessions from the Business Growth Practice Webinar 2022 by Dentsu Inc. People Driven Marketing, featuring interviews with the presenters.

This time, the theme is "People Driven Growth Consulting" (PGC), a people-centric consulting approach developed by Dentsu Inc.

What is this new era of consulting that integrates customer experience design—including business strategy and brand strategy—by leveraging Dentsu Inc.'s strengths in data analytics, creativity, communication, and innovation? We asked Masahiro Hayashi, the Solution Planner who developed PGC, and Yuki Tajima, an expert in data-driven business strategy.

<Table of Contents>
▼In an era of uncertainty, business strategies that "mobilize everyone involved in the business, starting with the customer" are essential.

▼What brand strategy broke into a certain "red ocean" market?

▼Consulting that drives growth across all domains with a "people-centric" approach

In an era of uncertainty, business strategies that "mobilize everyone involved in the business, starting with customers" are indispensable

──Let's start with the basics about PGC. What exactly defines this consulting approach?

Hayashi: In a word, it's "people-centric consulting" that moves people's hearts and spurs action to drive business forward. I myself come from a consulting firm background. Traditional strategic consulting services focus intensely on "business-centric" analysis and strategy formulation, examining whether the business will succeed or grow from a business perspective. In other words, it was fundamentally about "how to manage the company" or "how to manage the business." However, businesses and companies are collections of people, and customers are people too. Therefore, to grow a business, fundamentally, you need to move people's hearts and minds. Consequently, many challenges have emerged that traditional consulting, which only looks at the business perspective, cannot fully address. Personally, I was exploring whether I could leverage the approach I had cultivated—moving people's hearts and minds to prompt action—to support our clients' business growth.

Tajima: That's why we developed a framework combining Dentsu Inc.'s proposed "People Driven Marketing" concept and insights with traditional consulting. That framework is PGC.

What is People Driven Marketing?
https://www.dentsudigital.co.jp/services/communication/ax/pdm&nbsp;
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Hayashi: To truly grow a business, you ultimately need to move people's emotions and prompt action. The People Driven approach combines two elements: data-driven planning centered on "people" + creating experiences that move "people." You could say it encapsulates Dentsu Inc.'s strengths in marketing and communications. To be more specific,

• Data-driven customer value creation
• Insight × Creativity
• Execution power that moves society alongside the field
• Customer experience (CX) and communication design capabilities
• Innovation creation through business co-creation

These are all strengths possessed by Dentsu Inc. By combining these with consulting functions like "business challenge identification" and "business strategy formulation," we can solve the challenges clients face today.

──So PGC supports clients facing contemporary challenges not only with traditional consulting functions but also with Dentsu Inc.'s marketing and communication expertise, right?

Hayashi: Yes. We're seeing an increase in client inquiries like the following:

Hayashi: These problems cannot be solved without engaging with all stakeholders, including consumers and employees. In other words, I believe the concept of "engaging with people to move people" has become indispensable for every company and business.

──Could you explain the overall framework of PGC?

Hayashi: We provide support through the following four major steps:

1. Business Environment Analysis... Conduct business environment analysis from both a company-centric and people-centric perspective
2. Deriving Core Issues... After comprehensively identifying business challenges, we derive core issues. We then examine and evaluate strategic scenarios.
3. Expanding Customer Value... Based on strategic scenarios, we deliver value through "business strategy formulation," "customer experience design," and "data strategy formulation." In other words, we develop strategies that actually mobilize everyone involved in the business, not just theoretical plans.
4. Driving Business Execution... Producing the business. We design organizational structures and workflows that "get people moving," supporting sustainable execution and PDCA cycles.

While we often accompany clients through all four steps (1-4), we can also provide partial support tailored to the client's specific challenges and requests.

──The key difference from traditional consulting is that we don't stop at strategy formulation. We accompany clients all the way to downstream areas like communication aspects (customer experience design) and actual operations. Furthermore, PGC is grounded in the "People Driven" philosophy across all four steps.

Hayashi: I believe this is precisely the kind of support only Dentsu Inc. can provide. Among these, the most distinctive feature of PGC is conducting analysis and strategy formulation from the perspective of " " People Driven—moving people's hearts.

What brand strategy broke into a particular "red ocean" market?

──Moving forward, I'd like to hear about PGC case studies that demonstrate the actual value provided to clients.

Tajima: Let me share a case study supporting a foreign beverage manufacturer. Beyond the "business strategy" traditionally targeted by consulting, we aimed for market expansion that moves people's hearts by driving both "business strategy" and "brand strategy" – leveraging the strengths of Dentsu Inc. – in tandem.

Hayashi: Business strategy and brand strategy are inseparable, but broadly speaking, "business strategy" is crucial for the earlier points 1 and 2, while "brand strategy," which is closer downstream, becomes important for points 3 and 4.

Tajima: In this case, we supported the client, a foreign beverage manufacturer, with both business strategy and brand strategy as they entered a red ocean market already dominated by strong Japanese brands as a latecomer.

This time, the client requested a proposal for a "new drinking experience." First, for market analysis, we needed to understand Japanese values, market structure, and the competitive environment. Based on that, we considered how to build a long-term foothold.

While traditional business consulting approaches also conduct "competitor analysis" and "market analysis" – essentially analyzing "companies or products as subjects" – we took a people-centric approach. We focused on "how the relationship between people and products evolves" and built our story around that.

──In terms of the four steps, that would be the "Business Environment Analysis" and "Deriving Fundamental Challenges" phases.

Tajima: Yes. Specifically, we first defined the product's target position as "premium mass" – a position that combines premium appeal while also being sold to the mass market.

Of course, reaching that position immediately was impossible. So, we decided to first carefully deliver the story to build a "premium product image." From there, we gradually expanded sales channels and formulated a strategy to advance "mass adoption."

──So the goal was to carve out a new "premium mass" position within the red ocean to capture a unique market. To achieve this, you started by establishing a "premium product image" even within a small market.

Tajima: As our core strategy, we emphasized "changing the relationship between people and products." Keeping this focus, we advanced market capture in three stages: "storytelling," "expanding into households," and "full-scale sales expansion." For each stage, we detailed specific action plans—defining the customer experiences to create and the channels for information dissemination.

──From a "human-centric" perspective, you also created target personas and customer journeys, correct?

Tajima: Yes. We based our understanding on actual awareness and behavioral data to grasp the real lives of consumers. Dentsu Inc. possesses not only a rich data infrastructure but also expertise cultivated in the field of marketing. This allows us to conduct analyses that go beyond simple demographic information, capturing consumers' daily actions and values at a granular level.

This time, we created target personas and customer journeys representing the product's latent needs, deriving the target's "key insight": "enjoying genuine relaxation time with family and loved ones." Furthermore, based on various data, we examined the extent to which this product/brand could ultimately capture the market, leading us to the "premium mass" strategy.

Furthermore, to build a medium-to-long-term foundation, we examined how to engage external stakeholders—or, in other words, considered the product's entire value chain. Within the three stages mentioned earlier, we created several patterns for the "procurement/manufacturing," "distribution," and "retail/service" value chains to support market expansion and consolidation.

Hayashi: To summarize, this case demonstrates how the "Premium Mass" brand strategy captured new markets and achieved "people-centric market expansion" through Dentsu Inc.'s expertise in customer understanding. The value delivery followed this sequence:

1. Discovering client business opportunities from a "human-centric" perspective
2. Conceptualizing new market-creating businesses from a "human-centered" perspective
3. &nbsp;Business design that "mobilizes" all stakeholders involved in the value chain
4. &nbsp;Developing business strategy and creating customer experiences

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Consulting that drives growth across all domains through a "human-centered" approach

──I believe PGC's fundamental approach is now clear. Each of the four steps mentioned at the beginning leverages the unique strengths of Dentsu Inc., doesn't it?

Hayashi: Yes. Finally, let me summarize the seven characteristics of PGC. I'll explain them in relation to the "four steps."

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① Understanding markets and discovering opportunities from a people-centric perspective
② Predicting shifts in human behavior based on national and societal trends

While traditional consulting firms also conduct business environment analysis, PGC enables market analysis based on actual consumer facts—such as Dentsu Inc.'s proprietary awareness data, behavioral data, and platform operator data. Utilizing data management platforms like People Driven DMP, we discover business opportunities grounded in consumer understanding, envisioning each individual consumer.

As seen in the earlier "Premium Mass" case, we quantitatively calculate the "market size" that drives sales based on data. We then segment consumers, infer latent needs for the client's products or brands, and evaluate whether sufficient market scale exists.

Additionally, we offer "Public Consulting," which predicts and provides insights into shifts in human behavior based on national and societal trends. Public Consulting integrates elements like government policy information and its underlying rhetoric, consumer insights regarding social trends, and resulting market movements into management, business strategy, and marketing communications.

For example, variables like "cashless payments" or "carbon neutrality" significantly impact people's lives. We predict how resulting regulatory trends and shifts in industrial structures will affect the client's business. We forecast what challenges will arise in that industry over the medium to long term and what needs to be addressed, incorporating this into strategy development.

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③Evaluating Business Scenarios from Both Business-Centric and People-Centric Perspectives

In general consulting, strategies are developed based on business environment analysis, and several strategic scenario options are evaluated to support corporate decision-making. We also evaluate scenarios not only from a business perspective but also from a "human perspective."

In the beverage manufacturer case mentioned earlier, traditional consulting would evaluate based on corporate-centric metrics like "sales," "cost," and "uniqueness," and the company would make decisions based on that. While these are important, PGC places equal emphasis on people-centric perspectives like "habit formation" and "cultural integration." By evaluating the strategy from the viewpoint of whether consumers would use the product or service over the medium to long term, the "Premium Mass" plan was realized.

■ Expanding Value for Customers
④ Creating New Markets from a Human-Centered Perspective
⑤ Business Revitalization Driven by Purpose/Brand, Moving People's Hearts

At PGC, consumer insights are particularly crucial. We define service and product concepts based on insights from target consumers, then use these concepts to define new markets like the "XX Market." In the earlier example, the "Premium Mass" concept enabled us to create and expand a new market.

Our consulting services extend beyond new ventures to revitalizing existing businesses. For many existing services and products, differentiation from competitors based solely on quality or price is challenging.

By shining a light on products and services that struggle to build competitiveness from a purely business perspective through the lens of brand and purpose, we can change customer behavior and the business's revenue structure. Possessing a strong brand or purpose also alters relationships with neighboring industries. As a result, the value proposition of the existing business significantly changes, putting it on a growth trajectory. This perspective of brand and purpose is also an area where Dentsu Inc. excels.

■ Business Advancement That Moves People
⑥ PDCA Based on Human Awareness/Behavior Data
⑦ Organizational Culture Transformation That Moves People

Once the business begins operating, we support "people-centric" operations and PDCA cycles utilizing consumer awareness and behavioral data. Leveraging our extensive data infrastructure, we can drive PDCA cycles to achieve numerical business targets. Dentsu Inc. possesses long-standing expertise and accumulated systems in this domain—specifically, understanding what communications effectively transform people's behaviors in positive directions.

Finally, PGC offers organizational culture transformation not only for consumers but also for stakeholders like corporate employees. We place particular emphasis on "changing the employee experience."

First, we define the desired state of the business using the keyword "livelihood." We then design the experience that will transform employees in alignment with this livelihood. We aim to visualize the livelihood, make it personally relevant, drive actionable behavior, and ultimately embed it into the corporate culture. We design this so that the livelihood, established as a strategic vision, permeates not only the customer side but also the company's internal operations.

──I understand PGC's characteristics well now. Are the primary areas where you provide consulting services centered around "business" and "marketing"?

Tajima: While we certainly have strengths in those areas, we also excel in other domains: "Management" areas like Purpose and Brand; "CSV" areas like Sustainability and Social Issues; "Specialized Domains" such as Public and Sports Marketing for municipalities and public organizations, leveraging Dentsu Inc.'s unique strengths; and "Digital" domains including EC and D2C business growth and loyalty programs.

Hayashi: While we already have a strong track record, we aim to expand our support across even broader domains. Furthermore, Dentsu Inc. possesses an extensive network spanning media, local governments, large corporations, and startups. This enables us to tackle complex challenges that a single company couldn't solve alone through collaborative projects with multiple partners. We welcome consultations for everything from short-term projects to mid-to-long-term business growth.

──Thank you very much for your time today!