Aiming to maximize results, we visualized the effects of promotions and were able to explain them with numerical evidence

Promotions need to be adapted to suit the target audience

Q. Please tell me your responsibilities.

The Sales Promotion Department of the Public Relations, Advertising and IR Division is engaged in promotional activities aimed at raising awareness and attracting customers. Specifically, we are responsible for a wide range of activities, both offline and online, including creating and placing advertisements, creating in-store special offers, operating SNS and websites, and planning and planning. We also carry out PR activities in cooperation with the Public Relations Department.

Q. Please tell us about the characteristics of the market and your company’s situation.

The restaurant industry is characterized by the fact that, in addition to price, taste, and freshness, safety and security are of utmost importance. Our company is taking various measures to provide safer sushi, which is inexpensive at 100 yen (excluding tax) per plate, such as "no four major additives" and "antibacterial sushi covers."

Furthermore, the conveyor belt sushi restaurant industry, in particular, is characterized by a wide range of customer ages. Customers of a wide age range come to the restaurant, from small children to the elderly, but their motivations for visiting vary depending on their age group. For this reason, it is important to appeal to them more efficiently by changing promotions to suit the target age group.

Visualizing promotional effects was an issue -- there was no way to prove the hypothesis

Q. What challenges have you faced in marketing so far?

Visualizing the effectiveness of promotions was a major challenge. Until now, cost-effectiveness was verified by comparing the content of promotions implemented in relation to sales with the costs incurred. Promotions were verified by looking at changes in store sales, but because multiple advertising media were always used and in-store sales promotions and campaigns were almost always carried out at the same time, it was difficult to accurately calculate the cost-effectiveness of each measure, such as how effective each measure was.

We also had issues with determining the optimal budget allocation for each area, as well as the ratio of offline and online advertising budgets. Although we will be conducting a more detailed analysis in the future, we believe that the efficiency and characteristics of each area will likely differ.

It has become possible to explain things with numerical evidence.

Q. What are your impressions of the MAGELLAN analysis results?

I am very grateful that I was able to verify my hypothesis and understand how to allocate the budget to maximize results, and it has become easier to make proposals to upper management because I can now explain the numerical basis. It is often difficult to decide to stop existing measures when sales have not decreased, but I felt that I could make the decision with confidence if I could explain the contribution of each measure to sales in numbers.

Q. Please tell us about your future plans for using MAGELLAN.

First of all, we would like to develop promotional activities more efficiently based on the analysis results of visualization of promotional effects and optimization of budget allocation. Rather than just analyzing once and then being finished, we need to analyze continuously and update budget allocation. As the type and efficiency of media also change, I think it is important to constantly analyze and review efficiency.

We would like to use MAGELLAN to explore how we can double or triple our advertising effectiveness within our limited advertising budget. We hope to discover new ways to promote our products.

We also plan to use MAGELLAN in earnest in the future for area-specific analysis. Effective promotions and appeals should differ depending on the area, so we would like to use MAGELLAN to analyze that as well.

The ideal situation would be for "Sushi = Kura Sushi" to be the first thing that comes to mind

Q. Lastly, please tell us about your goal in marketing.

Ideally, the first thing that comes to mind when people think of sushi is Kura Sushi. Our goal is to create a cycle where customers who become fans of Kura Sushi as children continue to visit even after they become adults.

To achieve this goal, we must first make our efforts and services known to as many customers as possible. To that end, we will analyze and verify the data we have quantified, and develop promotional activities more accurately and effectively.