When an international pharmaceutical brand needed to educate European stakeholders on the cultural background to their range of products, incentive experts including the Tondaya Nishijin Lifestyle Gallery (a new member of the Kyoto Convention Bureau) were incorporated into an learning tour.
Kyoto Convention Bureau, international marketing executive, James Kent comments: “Incentive based tours built on cultural experiences are a perfect educational tool. They combine the luxurious and bespoke with the detail necessary to explain even the most complex subject. This particular pharmaceutical company needed the attendees to understand the historical routes of their products and Tondaya Nishijin Lifestyle Museum was perfect.”
Over the course of two months, select participants from Holland, Greece and Spain visited Kyoto for educational visits with itineraries based on high level incentive programmes. The pharma company in question has a strong focus on CSR. The highlight of their time in Kyoto was a trip to Tondaya Nishijin Lifestyle Museum, a 130 year old merchant house (known as a Machiya), that has retained its traditional style and maintains living practices that would have been prevalent when the client’s business was first formed.
During their visit to Tondaya, the guests were attired in traditional silk kimonos, educated on the many traditional features of the house and treated to a tea ceremony in its most genuine form.
Mineko Tanaka, 13th generation owner of Tondaya Nishijin Lifestyle Museum commented: “To truly understand the client’s unique history and cultural ties to Japan’s history it was vital the stakeholders experience life as it would have been when the company was first set up. Our Machiya was a silk trading house for 130 years and still retains the traditions established all that time ago by my forebears. We also reflect the client’s focus on CSR, with both organisations investing considerable time and effort into the long term retention of our core values – peace, social wellbeing and environmental protection.”
The client commented: “To truly experience our brand values it was vital that the journalists go beyond the usual office style visits to experience our heritage and history. Experiential event such as this are a key part of our long term marketing strategy, the first three were an incredible success and we look forward to continuing this style of event through 2011 and beyond.”
James Kent concludes: “Incentive programmes are clearly no longer just the province of high achieving salesmen and luxury brands; instead they can be used to educate and inform a wide variety of people, including staff, stakeholders, client and the press.”
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