I want to accurately understand the effectiveness of each media, including on- and off-line

We will demonstrate our uniqueness through direct channels that are unparalleled in the industry.

Q. Please tell me your responsibilities.

Mr. Tanahashi:As the person in charge of the Sales & Marketing Department, my mission is to take a cross-sectional view of the issues faced by various departments involved in marketing activities, sales activities, and other data analytics, and to work toward improvements.

Mr. Watanabe:I am in charge of all aspects of marketing, from research to strategy formulation and communication execution.

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

Mr. Watanabe:The most distinctive feature of the accommodation industry is that the business model is dominated by sales through travel agencies. I'm sure many of you have made your accommodation reservations through an agency.

Our biggest feature is that our main sales channel is direct, where customers make reservations directly through the Yukai Resort website or call center. In order to provide our customers with a high-quality accommodation experience at a low cost, starting from 1 yen (excluding tax) for one night and two meals, we make an effort to keep all costs down, including distribution margins.

Mr. Tanahashi:We also value the distance between us and our customers. We think it is easier for customers to feel closer to us if we contact them directly, rather than receiving a call from an agency saying, "Yuukai Resort is starting XX." We believe that sales through direct channels are important so that we can become a familiar presence and a part of our customers' memories and lives.

Mr. Watanabe:On the other hand, there are few companies in the hospitality industry that are promoting direct channels, making it difficult to set benchmarks. For this reason, rather than looking at companies in the same industry, we refer to the strategies and ideas of companies that are developing their business in the recent trend of D2C services and low-cost, high-quality services.

Mr. Tanahashi:We want our guests to experience Yukai Resort as "the everyday in the extraordinary." When we think about how we can become part of our guests' lives, we think we can find hints in industries and content that deal with parts of daily life, outside of the hospitality industry.

I want to visualize the effects through a media mix.

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

Mr. Watanabe:The challenge was to visualize the effect of offline advertising, mainly TV commercials and newspaper ads, on attracting customers. If evaluated only based on final conversion, offline advertising would appear to be inefficient, so we felt it was necessary to evaluate the pure capabilities of each medium, including the influence between measures. In particular, we had a hypothesis that TV commercials would be more effective, but because we had not been able to perform a quantitative analysis, we were looking for a way to quantify it.

In addition, our main targets are families with children and elderly people, so we needed to approach them through both online and offline advertising. Therefore, we wanted to accurately grasp the effectiveness of a media mix that included not only offline advertising but also online advertising.

Q. Have recent changes in the market conditions led to any changes in the way you utilize media?

Mr. Watanabe:People have become more cautious about placing offline ads. TV commercials and newspaper ads take several months from planning to placing. In addition, it is difficult to cancel a placement at the last minute, which has the disadvantage of being unable to respond quickly to market conditions that change daily.

On the other hand, online advertising allows us to stop planning immediately and quickly respond to changes in market conditions, so we are currently focusing our communications on online advertising.

Mr. Tanahashi:There is no point in sending a message that does not match the situation the customer is in or the market conditions. In order to ensure communication agility in a situation that changes daily, I feel that advertising that requires a lead time should be implemented with caution at this time.

With MAGELLAN at the core, we will continue to implement and verify ideas to grow our business.

Q. Please tell us why you introduced MAGELLAN.

Mr. Watanabe:MAGELLAN has a proven track record in the MMM field and is a tool that we believe to be reliable. Also, it was a perfect fit for the issues I mentioned earlier.

Mr. Tanahashi:One of the deciding factors was that we had a good discussion during our first meeting. Despite it being the first time, they instantly understood our sense of the problem, and based on that, we had the impression that they were sympathetic in moving the discussion forward. I also felt that they guaranteed the speed and quality of the solutions they provided.

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

Mr. Watanabe:We would like to see how much change has occurred after reflecting the results of MAGELLAN's analysis in our actions. By being conscious of the improvement process, we hope to maximize our customer base.

We also want to use MAGELLAN's analysis indicators as common indicators for the entire Yukai Resort, including the management team. By continuing to implement and verify based on the results of MAGELLAN's analysis, we hope to make this project the foundation for planning and ultimately lead to business growth.

Mr. Tanahashi:Of course, we aim to improve the efficiency of our marketing activities and maximize our results, but these are nothing more than the results derived from an existing analytical equation. Now that a paradigm shift can easily occur, we believe it is necessary to pay attention to the analytical equation itself that is the premise of such a shift. This is because when there is a qualitative change in the market, in our customers, or within Yukai Resorts, the analytical equation itself may change. With MAGELLAN, which can respond to such changes, we hope to grasp the dynamic trends of the world, anticipate them, and use them to make the right management decisions.

We value the customer's perspective and want to increase the number of fans who identify with the brand.

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

Mr. Watanabe:We want to provide data-driven solutions to the problems our customers face, and we aim to be a marketing organization that always puts the customer first.

Mr. Tanahashi:I believe that what we do is a business with heart. We want to develop a business that conveys the good things about Japan and makes even one more customer smile when they think of Yukai Resort. Marketing is a tool to achieve this, so we want to use it effectively to increase the number of people who empathize with Yukai Resort and increase the number of fans.