In an era where PR and advertising are intertwined, business leaders must articulate the "Why" of their customers.
"Our product is good, so why can't we get the message across?" Whenever I receive this question from business owners or PR managers, I always start by asking them one question: "Can you explain its 'goodness' in your customers' words?" In most cases, they are at a loss for an answer. They have a message they want to convey, but they can't translate it into the "why" that exists in the minds of their audience. I believe this is actually the essential starting point of branding work.
Recently, I had the opportunity to watch a video of a discussion between creative directors. The themes were "the difference between PR and advertising" and "concept making." The points made that advertising and PR, previously considered separate functions, are merging in practice, and that "appealing" to customers and "PR" are similar but distinct, resonated strongly with me as someone who is involved in supporting clients' branding and marketing on a daily basis. Today, I would like to use this theme as a starting point to share my own theories on "articulating concepts" based on my practical experience as the owner of a branding agency in Nagoya.
In an era where the lines between PR and advertising are blurring, why is "concept" becoming a management challenge?
PR and advertising once had clearly defined roles. PR was about gaining trust through third parties, while advertising was about paying to deliver a company's message. However, with the rise of social media and owned media, there is a rapidly increasing number of situations where companies themselves are the "storytellers" and "communicators." Advertising-style communication now requires a PR-like perspective on building trust, and conversely, PR-style communication requires an advertising-like design philosophy. As this fusion progresses, the importance of what companies should solidify from the beginning increases. That is their "concept."
As someone who runs a branding agency in Nagoya, I often find myself simultaneously involved in multiple customer touchpoints for a single client, from websites and logos to recruitment platforms and sometimes even physical spaces. What I've keenly felt is that the more touchpoints there are, the more diluted the overall message becomes if the underlying concept is unclear. There are countless methods: running ads, starting a social media presence, creating a recruitment site. However, if you haven't defined "why," "who you're targeting," and "why you're delivering it," the more measures you implement, the more your energy becomes dispersed.
Indeed, with the growing interest in purpose-driven management and ESG, it has been pointed out that companies are now being asked not only "what they sell" but also "why they exist." In addition, as AI is becoming the standard driver of information dissemination, the messages and stories that companies tell are now required to be "evidence-based." More than ever, companies are being challenged to articulate their strengths with supporting evidence, rather than just giving subjective self-introductions. One survey also points out that brand communication in 2026 will shift from "brands telling the story" to "brands taking on a role and participating in the situation." Precisely because the leadership in communication will no longer belong solely to the company, I believe that the importance of a concept as an unwavering core has actually increased.
"Customer-centric thinking" is not about "listening to what the customer says."
What struck me most in the recent discussion was the point that "customer-centricity" is not the same as "the customer's perspective." This resonates with the feelings we encounter on a daily basis in our work. When we interview customers, we often receive abstract requests such as "make it more stylish" or "make it appeal to younger people." If "listening to the customer's perspective" is about simply turning these words into reality, then what we consider "customer-centricity" is about going a step further and delving into the underlying motivations, such as "why do they want it to be stylish?" or "why do they want it to appeal to younger people?"
We've incorporated this in-depth process into our own unique interview design, which we call the "LH Method" internally. The starting point is a strong sense of curiosity, like a child endlessly asking "Why?", "What's that?", "Who?", and "How?". For example, when a request comes in to "make it red," we don't stop there. Instead, we delve deeper by deliberately presenting contrasting options and asking "What kind of red?" and "Why does it have to be that red?". This allows the person making the request to articulate underlying reasons they weren't even aware of. I feel this is exactly the process of "articulating the customer's 'Why'" that was discussed in the conversation.
Generally, "concept making" refers to the process of articulating the reason for a company or service's existence in a single sentence, and translating it into words and visuals that resonate with the target audience. Frameworks like 3C analysis (Customer, Competitor, Company) are often used to delve into customer insights. While the framework itself is effective, our practical experience suggests that the quality of the underlying interest and questions—"why are asked?"—before filling in the framework is far more influential in determining the strength of the final concept. Even with the same list of questions, a shallow exploration will only yield superficial results.
Before formulating policies, ask "Who, what, and why"—the philosophy of holistic design.
Concept making is often mistakenly thought of as simply creating catchy slogans and taglines. However, what we value most in our work is the "overall design" that precedes the creation of words. Our marketing support doesn't start with specific measures. We begin by clearly defining "who," "what," and "why." By solidifying "why we are doing it" before hastily deciding "what we should do," the accuracy of the individual methods we subsequently choose, such as advertising, social media, SEO, and recruitment websites, will be greatly improved.
This is by no means an abstract theory. It involves visualizing the customer journey from awareness to action (conversion) as a single picture, and designing multiple channels such as websites, advertisements, social media, and recruitment platforms not as separate measures, but as different scenes in a single story. Only by doing so can advertising and PR communication coexist without contradiction. I believe that the "fusion of PR and advertising" discussed in the conversation can only be achieved with this overall design in place.
To prevent verbalization from remaining merely a "feeling," we verify it with numbers.
Another thing I'm conscious of as a business leader is not to "put a concept into words and be done with it." No matter how beautiful the words you create, you can't verify whether they're actually reaching customers based on intuition alone. We use our proprietary AI analysis tool to analyze multiple media across different platforms, and we try to understand, not by intuition but by data, "where customers' interest is waning" and "at which touchpoints the words aren't resonating." We verify abstract concepts by comparing them with concrete behavioral data. Only through this back-and-forth process do words become "usable assets" rather than "slogans to frame."
In fact, in one client's project, the initial request was only for website design improvements. However, through repeated consultations, it became clear that the real issue wasn't the website's appearance, but rather that the company's internal evaluation system contradicted its external communication. Ultimately, the discussion expanded to include a review of the evaluation system as well. It's not uncommon to uncover the essential issues beyond the scope of the request by digging deeper into the "why" behind the initial request.
Summary – A concept is not something you create once and then forget about.
In an era where PR and advertising are converging, I believe that what companies can ultimately rely on is not short-term techniques, but their own answer to the question, "Why do we exist?" This is not a catchy slogan that is created once and then forgotten, but something that they return to and re-examine every time the situation changes. The reason we repeatedly ask ourselves in our daily projects, "Does this change align with the original objective we envisioned?" is to ensure that we continue to use the concept as a living criterion for decision-making.
The process of articulating a customer's "why" is a humble and time-consuming one. However, it is only through this accumulation of effort that a brand that balances advertising-oriented communication with PR-oriented trust can be born. With this in mind, we continue to engage with the "why" of each and every client every day. If you feel that your company's communication "doesn't quite resonate," the reason is probably not the skill of your technology or design. I believe there is a "why" that someone within your company has already noticed but has not yet put into words. It's not just people within your company who can engage in dialogue to uncover that "why." We would be happy if you would remember us as such a third-party perspective.
WRITTEN BY
Ichikawa Atsushi
Representative Director and Chairman
After starting his own business at the age of 26, he has over 20 years of management experience in the design and branding fields. In 2016, he moved with his family to the Philippines and established a local IT outsourcing company, leading its global expansion. Currently, as a "GLOBAL BRANDING AGENCY," he supports the growth of companies while also actively working on organizational reforms within his own company. Based on the real-world struggles and firsthand information he has faced in organizational development and overseas management, he shares practical branding and organizational theories that are thoroughly aligned with the perspective of business leaders.
