The market for miso, a traditional form of Japanese food, had been shrinking each year. At Marukome Co., Ltd., an 160 year old company and number one in the miso industry, we realized that consumption was decreasing, especially among young people, and began to fear for our future.

Miso is seen as a sort of "antiquated culture"; it was even driving us mad when our recruitment drive wasn't working – university graduates simply weren't applying to join us. That's why we decided to carry out a rebranding campaign for miso soup and Marukome, targeted at young people. We based it on a symbol of youth culture: rock. We released a new product with big changes to the miso soup ingredients as well as a perk allowing purchasers to download original rock music – the world's first miso soup coming bundled with rock music. We also drew the interest of young people by transforming our brand mascot into an edgy character.

This campaign got young people talking on social networks, increasing engagement with us and dramatically increasing the number of university graduates applying last year. In addition, four large convenience store chains – which focus their activities on youth consumption – agreed to sell our products.

With a bit of courage, we temporarily transformed our brand mascot into a rock star. Marukome’s mascot represents the monks of Japan’s temples – in ancient times one of the monks’ tasks during their training was to grind the soybeans into the paste used in making miso soup. It was among this background that the drastic change of our mascot had its impact. We took a food truck to a rock festival full of young people. We also opened a pop-up store in Harajuku, Japan’s fashion capital and a magnet for young people. We also engaged with the media by holding press previews. We created an innovative promotional video showing the miso ‘listening’ to the rock music at our factory, uploading it to YouTube.

The miso soup ‘bathed’ in the rock music initially sold 230% faster than any limited edition product previously sold, selling out on Japan’s premier e-commerce site Rakuten. Nationwide Japanese convenience store chains are firmly entrenched in young people’s lives. Of these chains, FamilyMart, Daily Yamazaki and Y Shop carried our product. Approx. 22.8 million yen ($190,000) of sales reached – more than six times our original goal. Exposure in 460+ forms of media (699,427,982 impressions). SNS statistics: 75,886 posts, 60,399,134 followers. Official Marukome SNS accounts: approx. 144% more fans registered! Recruitment page users also increased by 191% year on year. Marukome Project Manager Kitazawa was interviewed by the Huffington Post. “Never have things been so exciting in Marukome’s 160 year history. We’ve created collaborations with young people through miso soup, and we now have a form of communication you couldn’t create in a supermarket.”