They had the ability to communicate. They just lacked a platform to reach their message. What a 320-year-old established food wholesaler changed with their landing page.

The client's desired state and vision
The goal was to eliminate the gap between "Yamasan's latest values and future aspirations," which the managing director himself conveys at events and pitches, and the official information that job seekers later find through online searches. The managing director was confident that "we can hire people if we just create opportunities to talk," so the aim was to create an official platform to ensure that people who couldn't be met directly or job seekers who were interested wouldn't be missed, and to create a situation where they could hire young people and key personnel who truly resonate with the company's values and culture.

Situation at the start of the project
A little over three years had passed since the managing director joined the company, and progress was being made in articulating the company's core values (MVV) and building the foundation of the organization. However, the information on the official company website, which was intended for external use, had not been updated, and only a limited number of people within the company knew the latest updated MVV.

The gap between ideals and reality; the losses incurred due to neglect.
The latest strategies and strong vision in the mind of the managing director (MVV and slogan "Making our customers win") were not reflected on the official website, meaning that job seekers had no way of learning about Yamasan's true appeal and future. No matter how passionately the managing director communicated externally, the lack of up-to-date information in search results meant that a significant, invisible opportunity was being missed—a potential pool of people who might have resonated with the company and applied if they had known about it.

Why hasn't this been solved until now?
Like many small and medium-sized enterprises, we lacked someone within the company who could provide objective feedback on the gaps in our web communication and public relations. Because we communicated with each other on a daily basis, we tended to mistakenly believe that we were "communicating effectively" and "getting our message across," and we failed to notice how much compelling context we were burying from an external perspective. The director in charge recalls that time as follows:

"After hearing about the managing director's updated values, I simply wondered, 'Where can I learn about these things?' Things that seem questionable from an objective outsider's perspective are often overlooked from within the company. The more fascinating and wonderful the content, the stronger my desire, as a director, to share it with the outside world and let others know about it."

How did you analyze the situation, and what strategies did you propose?
I suggested that a full redesign of the company website should be postponed until 2027. This is because a more robust company website can be created in 2027, when the ongoing business reforms (such as OEM business and AI utilization) will bear fruit. On the other hand, for the urgent recruitment challenge, I proposed creating a small-scale, single-page recruitment landing page focused on values, the future, and people, separate from the company website. I deliberately avoided building a CMS and designed it in a "subtractive" way, directing users to external recruitment tools such as engage for factual information such as conditions, thus creating a strategy to meet the September student event in a short period of time and at low cost.

Why did you choose that direction? (Background and rationale for the decision)
As a B2B company, Yamasan's existing website saw a large influx of visitors, not clients, from job seekers. However, they lacked content specifically for job seekers, and since the information and tone required for clients and job seekers are completely different, they determined that separate recruitment landing pages were essential. To filter out passive candidates who only consider job requirements and to increase the quality of "culture-fit talent" who resonate with their values, they thoroughly defined roles and responsibilities.

Key points of Lionheart's proposal and differences from other companies
Rather than simply creating a website, we deeply understood the client's roadmap (business phase) and presented "what truly cost-effective actions are being taken right now." We deliberately declined a large contract for a full redesign, limiting the corporate site to partial updates, and reduced construction costs for the recruitment landing page by integrating with external tools. We implemented a flexible and essential "strategic subtraction" approach that prioritized the client's interests.

The thoughts and commitment of the person in charge
Yamasan had a clear and compelling vision and milestones. We approached the proposal with a strong passion to convey their wonderfully articulated values and the managing director's enthusiasm to job seekers in the right way, no matter what. It was because of the context we had built up through monthly brainstorming consultations that we were able to present a structured proposal and manuscript that was completely consistent from the very beginning.

Things that were actually produced and built

• • A single-page recruitment landing page (vertical, one-page) specifically designed to convey Yamasan's values, future, and people.

• • This includes articulating the company's mission statement (MVV), clarifying the relationships between its elements, describing the managing director's personality, the roadmap, the work environment (historic building and warehouse), and introducing employees (in a Q&A format).

• • A casual interview application form, and banners directing users to note and other external recruitment tools.

Points of focus and ingenuity in the production process
As a design criterion, we thoroughly adhered to the managing director's valued "functional beauty" (no need for inexplicable ornamentation, and no superficiality), pursuing a sincere tone with a smartphone-first approach. For the colors, we adopted indigo and navy blue, which have continuity with the noren (traditional Japanese curtain) and work uniforms. For the photoshoot, the managing director wore a happi (traditional Japanese jacket) that we had custom-made at our suggestion, and together with the historic headquarters building and the scenery of Toyokawa, we condensed "320 years of history and a commitment to the local community" into a single photograph.

Furthermore, to address the limitations of existing servers, we collaborated with partner IT vendors to prepare new external servers and established a system that allows for smooth publication through DNS switching.

Scenes from the photo shoot
During filming, delicious catered lunches were provided by local restaurants that are clients of Yamasan, and this kind of response and gratitude symbolized the warm atmosphere of the company as a whole and the words of the managing director, "We help our customers succeed" and "There are many good people here." The director in charge recalls:

"By taking photos in traditional Japanese festival coats in front of a historic building, we were able to express a lot of information as a single image (VI). When considering corporate identity (CI), we tend to focus on appearance (VI), but it's meaningless without verbalization (MI) and without accompanying actions (BI). Through the photoshoot, I felt integrity from the employees on site, which was proof that BI was functioning perfectly."

The LPs we select are not "sacrificial pawns," but "foundations."

Monthly brainstorming consultations are still ongoing, and even after the launch of the recruitment LP, we continue to support Yamasan's comprehensive management and branding efforts toward their next milestones, including online sales strategies for their OEM business and business improvements utilizing AI. Following a suggestion from the assigned director to "try sharing your thoughts on note," the managing director started a personal note account. He continues to share his experiences from the perspective of "joining a 320-year-old company from the outside (as a successor)" and "as a manager of a small to medium-sized enterprise in a rural area," and it is beginning to function interactively with the recruitment LP as powerful content that attracts deep interest from job seekers and people outside the company.

The website was successfully launched in time for the student event, allowing our managing director to confidently present Yamasan's latest vision and opportunities to students. This recruitment LP is positioned not as a "stepping stone" but as a "foundation" for the planned full renewal in the future. We plan to gradually develop it into a full-fledged recruitment site by continuing to expand employee interviews and content. The director in charge commented as follows:

"By carefully documenting our monthly interactions with the managing director and improving the quality of the context, we were able to propose a well-structured and concise article from the start, even in a short period of time. The managing director has actually started writing on Note, and it has proven to be a very effective way to understand the company's and the managing director's thinking."