Changing society and consumer awareness through shopping. The "Okaimono" Project Realized by Cross-Industry Collaboration (Part 2)

Manufacturers, payment service providers, and retailers collaborate in the " It's Shopping for Good." project, enabling donations to social contribution organizations through shopping.

In Part 1, Shinya Makino and Ayaka Adachi from Kao Group Customer Marketing Inc., Soichi Hara from NTT DOCOMO, Inc., and Mai Kawabata from Dentsu Inc., who have participated since the first year, discussed the project's overview and background. In Part 2, we hear about the challenges faced in realizing sustainable initiatives, the lessons learned, and future prospects.The discussion was moderated by Rie Takeshima from Dentsu Inc.'s Sustainability Consulting Office.

Expanding the Potential for Cultivating Loyal Customers Through Digital Utilization

Takushima: I believe this "Okaimono" project is a bit different from typical sales promotion campaigns. Were there any challenges in terms of business or profitability when trying to balance addressing social issues with business viability?

Kawabata: While I believe this project gains significance through the participation of multiple companies, it's true that gathering participating manufacturers was not entirely smooth. Although they resonated with the concept of such a sustainable initiative, I sensed each company had its own challenges—market conditions, internal circumstances, relationships with their sales departments, and so on.

Makino: From the manufacturers' perspective, the honest truth is that they want to implement cost-effective measures within their limited promotional budgets. When discussing campaigns with other manufacturers, we sometimes heard comments like, "We fully sympathize with the ideals and philosophy, but given our company's current situation, participation is difficult at this time."

Hara: Timing is also an issue, right? Some companies have periods where they must prioritize sales, or it might overlap with other campaigns they're running.

Takushima: Despite such challenges, the first campaign last year saw participation from about 300,000 consumers, and we were able to run it again this year. I believe this was due to positive internal feedback. What results did you achieve?

Makino: While many campaigns focus on giving back to consumers, we feel this initiative resonates emotionally with customers, encouraging their support beyond just perceived savings. As a company, we strongly value LTV (Life Time Value) and are committed to building long-term relationships with our customers. Overall, the campaign received very high internal evaluation.

Hara: From that perspective, I believe Docomo's role is to nurture relationships with customers who are likely to become loyal customers of manufacturers through initiatives like this one. For example, this year we sent messages to customers who participated in last year's campaign. By leveraging data to effectively deliver messages to customers, we believe this also supports increasing the number of customers who understand the company's activities and policies over the medium to long term.

Takeshima: Accumulating data on who purchased what products, how much they bought, when they bought, and what social issues they focus on when taking action is a significant benefit for participating manufacturers too. It seems possible to build connections that go beyond the simple "sell and buy" relationship by working together not just with users, but with fans who share the same vision.

Through continuity, we aim for actions that bring about a transformation toward a "creative consumption society."

Takashima: As the project enters its second year, what are your future goals?

Kawabata: While this project began by focusing on shopping, its major goal is to transform the current consumption society itself into a sustainable system.Traditionally, manufacturers produced goods, retailers sold them, consumers purchased them, and consumption continued even if environmental impact followed. We believe it's now necessary to embed meaningful mechanisms within consumption itself—such as donations following purchases—rather than leaving environmental burden unaddressed. We position this project as a catalyst for transitioning toward a "creative consumption society" (a coined term), meaning consumption that builds a better society.

Adachi: Honestly, before getting involved in this project, I felt SDGs and sustainability were such vast themes that the barrier to entry seemed too high. That's precisely why, for the campaign, we focused on lowering the participation barrier. We prioritized making it easy to do – not requiring anything special, but rather an extension of everyday actions. Since this project allows us to start changing behavior to shift awareness, we want to keep it going long-term.

Makino: Precisely, I believe this project generates significant value through sustained implementation. To achieve this, I think it's crucial to "change the subject when considering things." For example, instead of using "our company" or "the corporation" as the subject, we need to think about things using subjects everyone can share, like "society" or "people in need." When the subject changes, the predicate changes. We want to create opportunities for action by valuing the perspective of consumers.

Hara: At DOCOMO, under our slogan "Changing the World with You," we are also working to create new life values and lifestyles, contributing to building a better society.Docomo has launched "Caboneu," an initiative toward carbon neutrality, and is advancing company-wide activities focused on envisioning the future, looking ahead 10, 20, and 30 years. Personally, I have children, and I wonder what kind of society and environment they will face when they turn 30. Our generation bears significant responsibility for that. I would be delighted if this project could play some role in encouraging people to view and act upon matters from such a long-term perspective.

Kawabata: Finally, as a statement of intent, I am determined to keep this project going absolutely until 2030, continuously updating it to capture shifts in consumer values. To realize the world we envision, we naturally want many consumers to participate, but it is also essential that more companies join us. I sincerely hope many companies will endorse this project.

For initiatives focused not just on the immediate present but on the future, "continuity" is a major point. To achieve this, visualizing the process and outcomes of the initiative is important, as is creating an atmosphere and designing motivation that makes participation easy and encourages people to want to continue. Furthermore, to implement actions in society alongside this shift in values, collaboration among stakeholders from various fields is essential, not just one company. We look forward to seeing more companies join the project and the circle of creating a better society expand.