We started out from focusing on what Japanese young people most appreciate, "Kawaii".

By fusing the fundamental element of Japanese food culture "miso" with the fundamental element of Japanese pop culture "Kawaii", we developed the "World's First Kawaii Miso Soup" and turned the old and boring miso into an approchable subject.

Furthermore, by focusing on the polysemic nature of the word Kawaii, we succeeded in raising the question "what is Kawaii?" among the younger generation.

* "Kawaii" is a value Japan has shared with the world.

It is an ambiguous word with many meanings including pretty, cute, innocent, and fleeting.

On September 4th 2015, in the 160 years of Marukome’s history, we changed the brand character to a girl for the first time.

The development of "Kawaii Miso Soup" began.

Instead of just redesigning the package, we also adopted a unique manufacturing process. Just like if you continue to tell a girl she is “Kawaii”, she will surely become that way, what would happen if we kept telling miso it was “Kawaii”? Focusing on this point, we held events around the world (Tokyo, London, Paris) in which people told miso it was “Kawaii”.

Then we played the feedback to the miso in our plants.

On February 22nd 2016, the product and commercial were launched, then the pop-up stores opened in Harajuku and Shibuya.

The number of new graduate website users increased by 200% YOY, contributing to the prime objective to increase new recruits.

Media exposure was TV – 15 cases, newspaper/magazines – 66 cases, online – 992 cases. The campaign was featured continuously.

Ad conversion exceeded $5 million.

Media impact was at 1.4billion

“We were able to collaborate with young people leveraging miso soup itself as a media and generated a type of communication not possible in the supermarket.” (Client feedback)