The First Step for Fan-Based and Thought Leadership is the Same: An Interview with Masayasu Tsuda, President and CEO of Fan-Based Company

A marketing approach that creates new customers and markets by presenting innovative ideas to the world and attracting stakeholders to co-creation through "empathy""Thought Leadership". This is the seventh installment of interviews with various experts to examine its importance from multiple perspectives. This time, we invited Masayasu Tsuda, President and CEO of Fan-Based Company, who co-authored "Fan-Based People" with Naoyuki Sato and practices "Fan-Based" strategies through his work with various companies and regions. What do thought leaders need to gain "empathy"? We explore this by looking at the commonalities between "Fan-Based" and "Thought Leadership."

In the first place, without a thought, "empathy" cannot be born

—You joined Nestlé Japan as a new graduate and stayed for 16 years. Are you applying what you learned during that time?

Tsuda At Nestlé, I learned the importance of truly observing customers. During my first six years after joining in 2002, I often worked in sales and sales planning, visiting retail store fronts, but I felt it was "difficult" to promote the benefits of our products using only store POP displays. So, I started asking customers who bought a lot of Nestlé products, "Why do you buy so much?" and when I wrote those raw voices on the POP displays, sales at the store increased. I was trying out various methods I came up with in the field on my own.

What I learned there was, "So this is how customer voices are passed on to other customers, leading to sales." I was able to experience the dynamism that is happening now on social media firsthand in the field. Because I have that joy and sense of accomplishment, even now after graduating from Nestlé, I still believe in and stick to the thoughts I had back then.

—Once again, what is "Fan-Based"?

Tsuda Fan-Based is a way of thinking that values fans and uses them as a base to increase sales and business value over the medium to long term. The "fans" here are people who support the values that a company or brand cherishes. Fans are important "partners" who empathize with the philosophy of the company or brand and support it over the medium to long term.

▼ The overview of "Fan-Based" is described in detail here

What I thought this time is that Thought Leadership has a very high affinity with Fan-Based. I recognize Thought Leadership as an approach of proposing one's own new thoughts and increasing the number of new partners who "empathize" with those thoughts.

While at Nestlé, I strongly "empathized" with "CSV (Creating Shared Value)" proposed by current Honorary Chairman Peter Brabeck. CSV is the concept of "solving social problems through business and simultaneously creating economic value." This is indeed a thought, and it can be said that this thought moved me.

The result of thinking and acting based on CSV, wondering what could be done in Japan, was also the "Nescafé Ambassador" program. After the Great East Japan Earthquake, we delivered coffee machines to Ambassadors who empathized with our idea of "wanting to brighten up society even a little, and wanting to energize Japan from the workplace."

In the first place, without a thought, "empathy" cannot be born, and fans cannot exist. In that respect, Fan-Based and Thought Leadership are the same. As the very first step, organize your own ideas (thoughts) thoroughly. Declare them with courage. I believe this is important for both Fan-Based and Thought Leadership.

—How should we declare our own ideas (thoughts) to the world?

Tsuda First, it is important to speak in your own words and have that passion conveyed. And I think it is about how you "choose" the people you convey it to.

Who you talk to about your ideas is an important point. It is better to convey it to people who are likely to understand the essence. Even if you have a wonderful idea, if you shout it to an unspecified number of people who you don't know will understand, it probably won't get through, right?

Rather than that, it gives you more confidence if you talk to a few people who share your values and they say, "That's right." I think it's best to start there. If you convey it to three people on the spot, it should spread from those three people to others with similar values. The content of what you convey is important, but scrutinizing "who you are conveying it to" is even more important.

Making the creation of emotional value a differentiator for Fan-Based and Thought Leadership

—Are there any companies that are practicing Fan-Based and leading to organizational transformation?

Tsuda This year marks the start of the sixth year since I founded Fan-Based Company. So far, I have been involved in over 500 projects for companies and regions.

From the projects I have been involved in, I would like to talk about the case of Pietro. The company is a publicly traded firm in Fukuoka City, famous for its dressings and pasta sauces. Since 2020, Pietro has adopted "Fan-Based Management" and even established a dedicated department. (The current department name is the "Fanbase Promotion Department".)

Pietro's origins lie in a restaurant. Their original dressing, which they served, became famous for being very delicious, and it was commercialized in response to customer feedback. A culture of valuing customers has been rooted in the company since its founding.

Based on "Fan-Based Management," their marketing strategy has also shifted, and they have actively developed activities to engage with fans, such as the fan community called "Pietro Hometown" and hosting fan events. Their business performance is also reported to be strong.

They are also putting effort into building an internal culture, and the passion of each and every Pietro employee is very high. The employees themselves are fans of Pietro. I feel that the passion of these employees supports their fan-based management.

Like Pietro, more and more companies have recently been adopting "Fan-Based" as a management strategy. Joshin Denki, headquartered in Osaka, is another example. Since our founding, we have aimed for fan-based management to be a culture that will remain 100 years from now, rather than a passing buzzword. It is a great honor that it is gradually being incorporated into corporate management strategies and that we are receiving "empathy."

—What is the secret to deepening bonds with customers?

Tsuda Whether it is fan-based or thought leadership, I think the content is "obvious." The "obvious" thing in fan-based management is to cherish the customers who love you. There are many marketing measures that do not see customers as people and stop valuing them. For example, automatically targeting and delivering ads is easy, but if the perspective of how to deepen bonds with the customers who have come in is missing, they will leave one after another. In reality, that part should be designed first.

You must create an opportunity for customers to think, "I like this brand from this company." If that is only functional value, they will switch to others when better products or services appear. It is required to properly create emotional value.

—I see. However, isn't the creation of emotional value a high hurdle?

Tsuda You are exactly right. When I was doing "Nescafe Ambassador," I anticipated that this business idea would be imitated by competitors. If they distributed coffee machines to offices in the same way, the functional value could be copied. That is why I thought about adding emotional value to the functional value.

What I emphasized was actually meeting with ambassadors and consciously creating a human connection. This is a one-of-a-kind relationship between us and the customers, so even if competitors imitate it, it will not be the same thing. In fact, when I talked to people who had been ambassadors for many years, various opinions emerged.

One person told me, "I am happy that I have a place in the workplace where I can feel relieved." Everyone was working busily, and even eating a lunch box at their desk at noon felt like slacking off, which made them feel guilty. That is why they said, "I wanted a place where I could take a break openly." Since there were many opinions from others seeking healing and relaxation, when we added an appeal to emotional value in our TV commercials, the effectiveness increased.

Fan employees are the true thought leaders

—You mentioned that building an internal culture is also important in fan-based management. What specifically do you do?

Tsuda I was also at a manufacturer, so I understand, but customers are "scary" beings at first. You imagine bad things, like whether they will file complaints. But when you actually meet fans with high passion, you realize that they are very kind and delightful beings.

We often hold "fan meetings" where we listen to fans with client companies. Here, we form groups with fans and employees to discuss what they like about the brand or product together. Interestingly, when we ask in a post-event survey, "What was the best part?", the answer "I was able to meet the employees" is the most common. The passion of the employees is conveyed to the fans, and they think, "Oh, it's such a good product because such employees are making it." That is the point.

Thinking about it that way, it seems that "fan employees," who are fans of the company while working inside it, are the very thought leaders who convey the philosophy of the company or brand to the people around them and to fans.

It left an impression on me when I asked a fan of a certain company what triggered them to become a fan, and they replied, "Because my friend works at the factory and was passionately saying that it is a truly good company."

We utilize our own unique "Fan Degree" index and survey how many fans exist through questionnaires. We ask about "current favorability" on the vertical axis and "fan stage (how they want to be involved)" on the horizontal axis to visualize the fans' emotions. This index can be used for both customers and employees.

Looking at the results of internal surveys, the HR department says there are people who they didn't realize were such fans of their own company. There are also many people like "silent fans" who are hidden but actually have high passion. It is important to dig into how many fan employees are in the company and what parts of the company the fan employees love through surveys and interviews, and utilize that for building internal culture.

In addition, well-being has been receiving significant attention in management and marketing in recent years. Corporate activities should gradually shift toward making all stakeholders happy, not just customers, but employees as well. To that end, our company is also researching and developing new metrics such as 'Customer Happiness' and 'Employee Happiness'.

—It is common to express this as loyalty for customers and engagement for employees. But it is easier to understand when it is called 'fan-based,' isn't it? I feel that the way words are used is being neglected these days.

Tsuda　That is exactly right, and the choice of words is extremely important. 'Engagement' translates to 'pledge' or 'betrothal' in Japanese. As for 'loyalty,' it means 'allegiance.' Asking customers to pledge their allegiance is quite condescending, isn't it? (laughs)

Partly because of that, we are conscious of changing things starting from how we use words. Traditionally, marketing has frequently used military terms like 'strategy' and 'campaign' (military operation), and the current reality is that these have been ingrained in us without us feeling any sense of discomfort.

That is precisely why, if you want to gain the 'empathy' of many people through thought leadership, the choice of words becomes extremely important. The words you use reveal the personality and essence of the person or company.

Customers are equal partners, and in the context of thought leadership, they are peers. That is why thought leaders themselves must choose words that they truly believe are good, words used among peers.

It is an era of viral, not buzz. Let's steadily increase the number of people who 'empathize'.

—How should Japanese companies refer to fan-based knowledge and know-how when creating new customers and markets through thought leadership?

Tsuda　To repeat, it is essential to steadily convey your message to people who share your values, rather than to an unspecified number of people. There are always people around them who share the same values, so it will spread further starting from there. In short, it is an era of viral, which spreads continuously, rather than transient buzz.

It has become commonplace for small initiatives by small companies to be known by everyone and gain 'empathy.' This is the result of prioritizing dialogue rather than one-way communication. Companies and fans engage in dialogue, deepening mutual understanding while growing the good parts of the company or brand. This is exactly what we are doing with fan-based approaches.

—Are there any examples of small circles expanding?

Tsuda　I am wearing it today, but Heralbony from Iwate Prefecture is an easy-to-understand example. I happened to see it about four years ago, liked the design, and bought a handkerchief. Later, when I became interested and researched the brand, I learned about their founding story: 'incorporating unique art created by artists with disabilities into daily life, and challenging the image of the word disability.' I personally empathized with it very much.

I believe the reason Heralbony has gained such broad support is that the founders had a solid thought, and the circle of 'empathy' expanded steadily through repeated dialogue. Even if the beginning is small, it is a good example of how much one can grow.

Thought leadership is the same; you have no choice but to carefully and painstakingly talk about your thoughts to many people over a long period of time. While refining your thoughts in line with the flow of time, you gradually increase the number of people who 'empathize.' I think that will eventually become a big wave.

<After the interview>

'An era of viral, not buzz'. Steadily conveying your thoughts to people who share your values, rather than to an unspecified number of people. Starting from there, it spreads to people who share the same values. The idea that this perspective is important for thought leadership hit the mark. Regardless of the size of the company or initiative, we live in an era where 'empathy' is born through viral effects based on emotional value, and scenes where fans attract more fans and peers gather are seen daily through social media and the like. In fan-based approaches, internal fan employees and external fans engage in repeated dialogue using the same language on equal footing. If we consider the former as 'thought leaders,' I feel that these repeated dialogues play an important role that cannot be overlooked in the process of thought leadership, where 'empathy' for the thought and peers eventually increase, becoming a large circle. On the other hand, it would be difficult for people outside the company to 'empathize' with thoughts that employees themselves cannot proudly convey to others or do not 'empathize' with. Now that companies are being asked whether they can make all stakeholders, including employees, happy, it can be said that the importance of thought leadership is increasing even more.

Planning, Production, and Editing: IISE Thought Leadership Hub (Kumi Fujisawa, Shotaro Suzuki, Yukiya Shimba, Azumi Ishigaki)

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