One question changed a long established department store.

Tsuruya is a local department store in Kumamoto Prefecture, located in the southern part of Japan.

The employees of Tsuruya had lost their pride and motivation to work, because people can buy anything on the Internet without sales staff. To counter this, we sought to make them realize the true value of their work and a sense of solidarity. We first asked the sales force of 3,000 just one question about a purchase they made, “Why did you buy it?” In response to this simple question we received enthusiastic replies from 2,867 employees. Among these were many touching stories. We made a database of these stories, and utilizing the data we held an exhibition, we published a book of these stories, and we also promoted related products at the point of purchase. Through these stories we instilled the employees with the realization that they were not just selling products. They were helping the customers to make each of them a beautiful life in the future. As a result, the employees regained pride in their work. This also made consumers realize the value of face-to-face selling at a department store rather than using the Internet, and so sales volume increased.

We succeeded in developing an invaluable database of the employees’ touching stories by the one question we had given in regards to purchases.

For instance, story of The “Cutting Edge” of a Marriage Proposal.

“Six years ago, my future husband suddenly produced something in a package and said, ‘Let’s create a home where we can make tasty food together using this knife.’ I opened it and found it was a nice kitchen knife. A marriage proposal through such a gift both surprised me and made me laugh. But I was also very pleased. Thanks to this knife, my husband and I both adopted the hobby of cooking. Every day we make delicious meals together and the whole family enjoys them.”

Utilizing such stories, we held an exhibition, published a book, and displayed presentation boards on the sales floor for both employees and customers to experience the true value of a department store.

·The employees realized that the story surrounded by products is more valuable than its function.

·The customers also realized the value of face-to-face selling at department stores and that it is something that cannot be experienced through the internet.

·The project received heavy exposure in the media

·Featured in Kumamoto’s biggest-circulation newspaper issued 320,000 copies

·A 60 minute documentary was aired on TV and 270 thousand citizens in Kumamoto watched it.

·We collected stories surrounded by products from 2,867 Tsuruya employees and over 1,000 from customers by the end of the exhibition.

·Sales of products featured in these stories increased over 130%

·The book became an Amazon top seller in “Living, Health & Parenting” during July 2nd to 9th, 2014.