Context
Zenrosai is a consumer cooperative established in September 1957 during a time when ordinary workers were poor and could not afford the insurance products that were on the market. It is comprised of 58 cooperative societies and has expanded its business in the past 60 years, working closely with trade unions to promote mutual aid and solidarity. Its target markets are workplaces and communities.
In 2019, it rebranded itself as ”Kokumin Kyosai co-op” in order to become a friendly and approachable organisation to many more people.
The new name signifies that the insurer is a cooperative providing ‘Kokumin‘ or all citizens with ‘Kyosai‘ or cooperative insurance. Founded on the “One for All and All for One” ideal of cooperatives, Kokumin Kyosai co-op is organised on the basis of person-to-person cooperation.
Like many Japanese brands, Kokumin Kyosai Co-op has a long history of using cartoon characters to help its members get to know the organisation. The Pitt family are cartoon characters created by the cooperative insurer which are used in brochures and advertisements. The family of cartoon characters is very popular with members and one initiative by the insurer has been to create a range of soft toys based on the Pitt family. It is also now commonplace for members to see the Pitt family at events with people dressed up inside mascot suits based on the characters.
Not only that, but the Pitt family of characaters are now often featured in advertising on the outsides of trains and buses in Japan, where they help promote Kokumin Kyosai co-op products.
Mission
We are a not-for-profit organisation, owned, managed and utilised by our members. Kokumin Kyosai co-op provides both life and non-life insurance to improve members’ security in life. “Towards a safe and affluent society with mutual help”.
Vision
Creating a safe and affluent society through mutual aid.
Value proposition
Lifestyle Security Design Programme – the goal is to enhance security and reduce household expenditure, and through consultation with our members consider the insurance coverage they truly need to prepare for uncertainties in a reasonable way through planning and implementing a life plan suited to their own needs.
Slogans and taglines:
‘Co-creation’ ‘spirit of helping each other’ ‘creating a safety-net for society’
Story of the rebrand
Despite a solid financial foundation, over the past decade leading up to 2019, Zenrosai saw a decline in the total number of policies in force. And although they enjoyed good brand recognition, many people did not know about Zenrosai’s business or product offerings, and its brand was not viewed as an important factor in selection of an insurance provider. This was particularly noticeable among young people. The company determined that it was becoming more difficult to retain customers and even its most loyal members with its current business model.
Zenrosai set about reviewing its origin and mission. In light of increasing social problems in today’s world, its mission as a cooperative business and the values of mutuality have become even more important in order to provide support to people and society, and so would remain unchanged as these are considered timeless and universal. However, unless Zenrosai dynamically changed its business models, products and services it would not be able to attract new customers in the future.
The first step in this transformation, was a rebrand to declare its commitment to the public. The aim was “to reinvent itself to keep our cooperative values unchanged”, and resulted in the organisation’s new name, Kokumin Kyosai co-op:
- Kokumin meaning “for all citizens”;
- Kyosai meaning “providing mutual aid system and spirit”;
- and co-op, short for “cooperative”.
In full, the name means a cooperative organisation to provide mutual aid for all citizens in Japan. The inclusion of Kyosai was important as it means both “mutual aid system” and “spirit of helping each other”, resulting in a brand that represented its cooperative mission and values and was easier to communicate to the public (especially younger generations).
Kokumin Kyosai co-op has continued its efforts toward the realisation of its philosophy of “building an affluent and safe society where people look after one another”, through various activities based on the mechanism of mutual aid called “Kyosai” which is the name for cooperative insurance in Japan.
A digital survey was conducted by Kokumin Kyosai co-op in Japan in June 2020, with the aim of examining changes in whether or not people felt there was a spirit of mutual help, of community spirit and a willingness to help others during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were 3,000 respondents (1,482 men and 1,518 women) to the survey. The summary of the results is as follows:
- 66.9% of the respondents said that the COVID-19 problems heightened their “awareness of community spirit and people helping others”.
In life during the state of emergency, the respondents appreciated the help from “family” (58.9%) and “essential workers” (31.6%). - 46.1% of the respondents agreed that society demonstrates a good level of community spirit and people helping one another, which was an increase of nearly 20 points compared to the survey conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Regarding the change in community spirit and a willingness to help others, more than half (57.9%) felt that there was no change. However, 32.8% answered that it increased, which was higher than 9.3% who said that it decreased.
- 82.2% empathised with the concept of “a society that looks after one another”.
- 90.2% agreed that society would need community spirit and people to help one another in the near future.
In response to this survey results, Kokumin Kyosai Co-op said: “By experiencing ‘community spirit and a willingness to help others’ during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is widely recognised that Japanese society will need ‘community spirit and people to help one another’ in the near future, and it can be seen that this has increased individual awareness from this survey”.
“Even though people are feeling they have benefitted from help and support under the influence of COVID-19 and they are taking actions in consideration for infection prevention, it is possible that this has not yet been clearly recognised as ‘community spirit and a willingness to help others’. So, it may be necessary to promote the vision of a sense of mutuality to build a society that demonstrates a good level of community spirit and people helping one another, or as we call it – mutual help”.
With the idea that “we may be able to live more comfortable life and create a human-friendly society if we can make helping one another both easier and more enjoyable”, Kokumin Kyosai Co-op has implemented the “ENJOY TASUKEAI (Mutual Help)” project (see image) since October 2019. As a part of this project, a special panel session was held involving up-and-coming professionals and young people in February 2020. It was aimed to collect mutual help stories from the public and highlight particularly impressive ones in order to encourage people to help neighbours and to do the good for community. The news of this event went viral via social media.
In addition, as social unrest spreads due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the cooperative insurer is developing the “Ima-Dekiru-Tasukeai” (Mutual Help in Difficult Times) initiative to try to prevent infection and to promote “community spirit and a willingness to help others”.
Based on the results of the June 2020 survey, Kokumin Kyosai Co-op says it will continue to work on the dissemination of “a sense of mutuality” through Kyosai and other various activities toward the realization of “a society that looks after one another”.
