Small and Medium Enterprises in the Global World: Celebrating ShapeWin’s 10 year business Anniversary

Written by Yusuke Kamimura. Translated by Nadia Melikhova.

It is said that the average surviving rate of new businesses for a 10 year period is 6.3%. This means, 93.7% of companies will disappear due to dissolution, bankruptcy, merger, and other reasons before reaching their 10th anniversary. In the ten years since ShapeWin was founded, there have been many changes in the world economy that have impacted SME businesses. As our company reached its 10th year in the business, the COVID financial crisis hit the economy. As such, during the Corona crisis of 2020, we had to adopt a cost cutting strategy in PR, marketing, and branding expenses. The following brief analysis shows the company’s growth for the last ten years highlighting the major checkpoints from the start. [1] 

Starting as a Web Marketing Company

Mr. Yusuke Kamimura had been in charge of product planning and marketing at Sega Toys, a subsidiary of the game maker Sega. Mr. Kamimura was also responsible for Benesse Corporation`s educational information website, one of the largest education companies in Japan (planning and producing interactive content). In 2011, he decided to start his own company as a website planning, production, and web marketing firm. Thus, ShapeWin Co., Ltd was born.

While mainly focusing on consulting for web marketing and collaboration on a small-scale basis, ShapeWin developed its original PR method (Media Exposure Method) and launched a marketing based PR support model that eventually turned into the company’s core business. Our company’s goal is not limited to media exposure, but aiming the precise KGI such as PR activities to increase sales, corporate values, and employments.

Many PR companies in Japan are digitally illiterate, and there are only few firms that can provide an integrated support for PR activities as SEO and SNS. Therefore, it was challenging to create a coherent PR strategy to compete in the Japanese market. ShapeWin succeeded to build a unique PR and digital marketing consulting model based on strategic planning.

Public relations and PR support for TV Tokyo WBS, Nikkei, Yahoo

Our company provides services to B2B, B2C and G2B in different industries, including, IT, manufacturing, medical, education, automotive, entertainment, telecommunications, retail, food, and other. We work with a wide range of clients; from start-ups, and mid-sized companies to big businesses.

For example, with our support a tablet POS company “Smaregi”raised from “no marketing, no PR team” stage to the IPO/listing level (Case Study: How the Marketing and PR Team of “Smarregi” Was Created).

We released Smaregi with the policy “Well made products will be sold”, and within a year the product received wide recognition in the Japanese market.

What can work good for marketing, PR, and product creation can differ greatly.[2]  In product development in Japan it is often said, “We created good products by reflecting the voices of our customers.” In reality, simply reflecting customer’s feedback is not enough to spread the product in the market, and as the result, it is difficult to boost sales.

Interview with “World Business Satellite” TV Tokyo about Smaregi

Shape Win’s PR marketing aims to incorporate the true mindset of the customer, the media, and the market into the product and a message. The Smart Cash Register was a “good” product with excellent performance and we converted this message into a “good” product from the media’s point of view. Soon after, we signed a consulting contract with the company and made a press release. After that, WBS of TV Tokyo requested an interview about the features of the payment revolution.

Another example is our PR activities at FOODEX JAPAN, one of the largest food trade shows in Asia. In order to attract mass media coverage for the exhibition, we appealed to the particular highlights of the exhibition. As a result, the exhibition was aired on seven domestic[3]  cable TV programs (key stations in Tokyo) (Case Study: “FOODEX” Attracts Over 700 Media!)

Evolving Perspectives in the Crisis: Beginning of Marketing Support for Overseas Companies

In the past ten years, we had a difficult time in terms of sales and personnel. Just as the world as a whole goes through economic cycles, private companies also go through waves of performance. The Corona financial crisis was a huge blow to ShapeWin as well. Most companies in Japan quickly cut their marketing budgets and had to impose many restraints. Not only were commercial events cancelled, but also promotions that were already showing results before Corona were cancelled or postponed as well.

While Japanese companies were in a state of self-restraint, global companies in the U.S., China, India, and other countries had been increasing their marketing budgets at the drop of a hat. Not only do they see this as an opportunity to invest money and enter the market when other companies are stagnant due to Corona, but they also see it as a chance to quickly enter the market online without having to travel overseas, which was previously a necessity. During this time, we received a wide range of inquiries from IT companies, hardware manufacturers, meat exporters, and ministries of foreign governments, including METI (the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry).

Since its inception, ShapeWin has worked with various companies around the world whose philosophies and objectives match our corporate philosophy of “creating a society where people who take on challenges are respected. By the end of March 2020, we had a 9:1 ratio of domestic to overseas companies (only direct transactions with overseas headquarters are counted), but now more than 50% of our sales are from overseas clients. As for our domestic clients, in addition to those with whom we have shared our growth, we have been able to make a fresh start with innovative companies that are trying to turn this corona crisis into an opportunity.

For overseas companies, we provide integrated marketing support to lead acquisition with a focus on PR and digital marketing, as well as some product localization and legal support. We expect to see more and more overseas companies collaborating with Japanese companies in the future, and ShapeWin currently has a multinational workforce to support them.

 Promotion of Japanese Companies‘ Overseas Business Expansion in Asia and North America

While conducting marketing activities in the Japanese market with overseas companies, we focused on a wide range of points that need to be localized. Particularly, we had to consider the differences in marketing and sales techniques due to cultural differences when expanding into various countries such as the US, China, Southeast Asia, India, and the EU. We are also in the process of building partnerships with marketing support companies around the world, which can bring additional value to our PR services by connecting Japan with the rest of the world.

For example, TV and newspapers are still more effective for PR activities in Japan, but in the US, online media is more powerful. In the U.S., online media is leading simply because it can generate traffic to a website. In China and Southeast Asia, marketing using KOLs (influencers in Japan) is more important than mass media PR.[4] 

Besides supporting foreign companies that are expanding into Japan, ShapeWin is also preparing to facilitate Japanese companies that are expanding into Asia, China, and the U.S. We are also in the process of starting an international marketing support project using Japan as a hub for Asian companies to expand into North America and for North American companies to expand into Asia.

Corona evocated difficulties for travelling abroad, but at the same time, it opened opportunities to expand overseas. On March 26, 2021, the METI launched a major support program for businesses. The subsidies are as high as 60 million yen (for small and medium-sized companies, 2/3 subsidy) and 80 million yen (for medium-sized companies, 1/2 subsidy) for global V-shaped recovery. So, Japanese companies are also expected to actively expand their business overseas regardless of the size of the company.

Again, it’s a chance to develop sales channels and run business with overseas companies under the same conditions all over the world. Even if a company has no overseas base, it is possible to communicate with foreign firms at any time using just one computer. It is rare to find a country that worries as much about language mistakes as Japan does, but we are now in an era where technology has significantly helped push through the language barrier. In an age where even small and medium-sized companies can easily become global companies, why not take on the challenge of expanding overseas sales channels? ShapeWin is also exploring new ways to support global expansion and developing its own overseas sales channels. As we have made it past our first 10 years, we are now optimistically looking towards the next decade, and are excited to meet new International & Japanese companies who are willing to collaborate with us in the coming years.