http://www.mintetsu.or.jp/association/mintetsu/pdf/59_p08_11.pdf
Conveying the image of the new Kotoden to local areas
Q: What did you think about Kotoden before you joined the company in 2009?
I lived in Takamatsu city until the end of high school and I took Kotoden’s bus and train during middle school and high school, but I didn’t have a good image of Kotoden. After I graduated university in Tokyo, I started a career as a management consultant to bring back companies and later I heard that my father, who was the President of Kagawa Nissan Motors at the time, decided to revive Kotoden, and my first thought was, “There is no way you can bring Kotoden back that easily. It will go bankrupt again.” But this new Kotoden’s quick actions to adopt many new measures managed to make it a profitable company again and surpass the public’s expectations, which made me truly appreciate the efforts of the people behind that.
This was around the time Lehman’s fall occurred and the economic situation went into recession. As a result, many young people started turning to local areas, and invest in those instead, I myself started to see a lot of potential in local transportation. I wanted to take what I had learnt in the industry while in Tokyo and give it back to my hometown, so I decided to return to Takamatsu and support my father’s determination to revive Kotoden.
After I joined Kotoden, I was surprised by how much the staff’s attitude towards customers had changed. I felt they had become more of a service industry, more welcoming and driven to please our customers.
On the other hand, there are many people who still keep an image of the old Kotoden, which is understandable because this change had occurred three years before then, but this only made me feel it was my mission to make the renewed Kotoden known to as many people as possible.
Q: What did you think of the 100th anniversary in 2011?
The 100th anniversary would be an opportunity for us to make further changes to the company’s stance. We felt it was important to take our customer service one step further by offering more support to the local area as the whole. To make this possible, we had to establish more straightforward communication between us and the locals who don’t ride Kotoden in order to spread the “Kotoden brand” across this area.
We spent one year planning and preparing for the anniversary event, the slogan for which was “from a new beginning to a new leap” (a play on the words “hundred” – hyaku – and “leap” – hiyaku).
Another priority was to come up with a way to appeal to those who don’t feel inconvenienced after 10 years without riding train or those who are not interested in Kotoden. This was the precisely the purpose of “Kotoden, 100 Years Later”, a photo exhibition showing pictures that were published as a photo book, “Kotoden Busshozan Factory” ー as a way to show a more human side of train safety as a service provided by people for the people.
We arranged for more retro train exclusive services and held a concert of the Japanese rock band Quruli. Koto-chan, who hadn’t been used so much as a Kotoden’s mascot character until then, started having many more goods, and we also started using social networks. In addition to maintaining our train and bus services, we started communicating with local people more actively, and it really helped creating a new, exciting image for Kotoden.