The Price Increase: make an unpopular change explicit

Read the campaign story

Price changes are often communicated through fine print or a quiet update at the shelf. Akagi Nyugyo made its Gari Gari Kun increase the subject of a solemn advertisement featuring company employees. The editorial opportunity was to acknowledge that even a small change matters to customers who know a familiar product’s price. The film did not try to hide the increase behind a new flavour or a vague claim about improved value.

The company’s release states that the price moved from 60 to 70 yen before tax for shipments from 1 April 2016, after 25 years at the previous level. A sixty-second commercial showed employees, including leadership, assembled in a serious tableau and bowing. Text made the price movement explicit. A song about price increases accompanied the scene. This study describes the creative treatment without reproducing its lyrics or treating the performance as evidence of the company’s internal feelings.

The primary release specified a limited television and advertising run on 1 and 2 April, with national broadcast placements and newspaper material. The film also became the subject of online reporting. Contemporary coverage described mixed responses, including support and questions about why an apology was necessary. The campaign’s earned attention therefore should not be summarised as unanimous approval, and its short paid schedule should not be confused with the longer life of the video online.

The mechanism combines transparency with a highly visible act of accountability. Real employees give a corporate decision a human face, while the simple numeric change removes ambiguity. The unusual seriousness creates contrast with the small consumer item. This is an editorial interpretation, not a universal prescription for apology culture. In another context, the same staging could seem excessive, manipulative or like an attempt to distract from more consequential changes to product size or quality.

The opened evidence establishes the dates, amount and execution but not independently measured customer retention or incremental sales. A smaller organisation can learn to explain a change plainly and recognise its effect on customers without imitating a ceremonial bow. Clear timing, the actual new price and an honest reason are more useful than theatrical remorse. Any adaptation should also keep the people who appear in it willing participants, rather than turning employees into props for a decision they did not control.

State the actual change

Show old price, new price and effective date without hiding material conditions.

Match tone to consequence

Do not assume a dramatic apology fits every market or decision.

Protect employee participation

Use voluntary appearances and do not imply staff caused the change.

A small test for another brief

Test a plain-language notice about a fictional service-price change.

Measure accuracy, trust and perceived manipulation.

Stop if the human story obscures the actual price or conditions.

• Write the amount, date and reason in one clear version.
• Create a second version with a modest human explanation, not a staged apology.
• Ask consenting adults to identify every material term.