～Multifaceted Perspectives on Branding～

"What is a brand?"
I ask myself this simple question.

From the provider's side, it is a "promise not to betray expectations."
From the recipient's side, it is a "respectable presence."
A promise is responsibility.
Respect is the flip side of trust.

When we think of brands, products or services—the tangible and intangible—might come to mind first.
However, people can also be branded, can't they?
Apart from artists or celebrities...

I would like to consider both of these aspects using the case of Ishizaka Sangyo.
In terms of products and services, this company collects industrial waste and sells recycled products made from it.

They specialize in waste from general households, which competitors prefer to avoid.
Why do they avoid it?
Because household waste contains a mix of various materials, making sorting time-consuming and labor-intensive.
They have already created a niche by focusing on this area.

Furthermore, they boast an astonishing recycling rate of 98%.
This means there is a wide range of applications for the products they sell.
This is also a form of differentiation from competitors.
Through a dual profit structure and product branding, their gross profit margin naturally becomes higher.

And then there are the people.
In the past, the "industrial waste industry" was known as a gathering of rough men.
It started in a situation where, just by declaring they would obtain ISO certification, several employees threw their helmets on the floor and quit on the spot, shouting, "Don't mess with me!"

In a company with almost no discipline, they first introduced the 3S (Seiri, Seiton, Seiso - Sort, Set in order, Shine).
This was the desperate wish of President Noriko Ishizaka: "Please, at least do this much!"
As a result, 40% of the employees resigned within six months.

They also created a rulebook called the "Ishizaka Charter" for contractors.
They stopped doing business with contractors who could not follow these rules.
This must have reduced their number of business partners.

They must have had a hard time for a while due to labor shortages and the loss of business partners.
However, this acted as a transfusion of new blood; gradually, employees who understood common sense increased, and the quality of the remaining contractors also improved...

A major turning point was the installation of a visitor walkway.
They spent 200 million yen to install it inside the factory.

Here, the experience of being seen by third parties is born.
Voices of praise from visitors for the employees' work performance arise.
This functions as motivation for the people working there.

If there are visitors almost every day, that attitude becomes a habit.
That state becomes the norm.
If the voices of approval increase, the employees' motivation will rise even further.

To respond to that hard work, the company thought about providing breakfast.
This was to ensure that people doing physical labor could work energetically from the morning.

To help them relax as much as possible during their lunch break, they built a stylish cottage-style break room.
The total construction cost was 100 million yen.

At the same time, they cleaned up the surrounding land, which had become a site for illegal dumping of industrial waste, and began working on the regeneration of the satoyama (managed woodland).
They transformed it into an environment that people would want to visit, where lilies bloom, honeybees visit, and moss grows.

These cycles act to guide people in a better direction.
"If you create an environment where people can work comfortably both physically and mentally, people will shine."

This is fan-building through people, and it is branding.
The background to this is the way of being as a human being.
They place importance on ethical and moral education.

Based on the belief that a leader should be an educator, they teach through cleaning and management philosophy.
The root is the systematization of enhancing human potential.

I believe that multifaceted branding means looking broadly at products, services, people, regional contribution, and social issue resolution.