[Last Mile Labor Union] "Doctors who have worked for over 10 years are specialists." Is CEO Makoto Watanabe's advertising training okay?

Advertisements should not simply stand out. Representations regarding medical care, prices, and effects in particular serve as important information for consumers to decide whether to enter into a contract or receive medical treatment, and therefore require accurate grounds.

According to information provided to our union by a current employee of Last One Mile Co., Ltd., during the sales media training at Last One Mile Co., Ltd., Representative Director, Chairman, and CEO Makoto Watanabe gave extremely questionable explanations regarding hospital signboards, hair removal service price displays, advertising effect figures, and the use of internet images.

A medical specialist is a doctor with over 10 years of practical experience.

In an example of improving a hospital sign, Makoto Watanabe proposed displaying "Specialist on duty" and defined a specialist as follows:

A medical specialist is defined as a doctor with over 10 years of practical experience.

A board-certified specialist is not simply a generic term for someone who has practiced medicine as a physician for 10 years. It is a title treated as a qualification that meets requirements such as training, examinations, certification, and renewals within a specialized field.

If a clinic advertises "specialist on staff" based solely on years of service without verifying actual credentials, patients may be misled into believing that a doctor with official specialist qualifications in a specific field is on staff.

Is it permissible to uniquely define a doctor's qualifications as a catchphrase for attracting patients to a hospital?

Write the original price of 5500 yen and make the 3980 yen look cheap

When considering a hair removal service flyer, we request that you display not only the discounted price, but also the original price.

If you don't write what the original amount was, we can't discount it for comparison. I want to make them include the amount of 5500 yen.

If there is an actual track record of regular sales at 5,500 yen and it is the exact regular price of the same service, comparative display is possible.

However, if a price with no sales record or a price set for only a very short period is added as a "regular price" for the purpose of making customers think it is cheap, it creates a misleading impression that it is being discounted significantly more than it actually is.

The important thing is not whether adding a comparative price increases advertising effectiveness, but whether that price is based on actual sales reality.

That'll do for the image that came up in the search

I just searched for signs casually and this photo came up, so I figured this was fine and submitted it.

Images displayed in internet searches are not free-to-use image collections. Photographers, production companies, stores, advertising agencies, and others may hold the rights to them.

Just because it's for internal training doesn't mean anything goes; depending on the distribution scope and usage of the materials, copyright clearance may be required.

If legal training teaches people to quantify legal risks while sales training allows for the attitude of "good enough" when using searched images online, does the company's compliance vanish and reappear depending on the department?

I forgot the exact numbers, but I am telling you the experimental results.

Regarding the effect of including "Call Now" in advertisements, Makoto Watanabe explains that it makes a difference of about one person out of a hundred.

I forgot the exact numbers, but I think the difference was around 0.01.

If you are going to teach the figures of advertising effectiveness in training, it is necessary to indicate the survey sponsor, target industry, population size, period, comparison conditions, and statistical reliability.

Even if you forget the numbers, if you explain specific effects as "experimental results," employees may use unsubstantiated numbers in proposals to customers.

Public questions for Last One Mile, Inc.

1. Did you actually make the proposal to display "Specialist on Site" at the hospital used as an example in the training?
2. Have you verified that the target physician holds an official board certification?
3. Was the 5,500 yen hair removal service price actually the regular selling price?
4. Did you check the period and number of units sold at 5500 yen?
5. Did you obtain permission from the rightsholder for the sign image retrieved via search?
6. Can you disclose the source material for the effectiveness figures stating "Call now"?
7. Was there a system in place for the legal or compliance department to review advertising materials?

Advertising is not the job of engineering customer misunderstandings.

The word "specialist," the figure of the regular price, and statistics on advertising effectiveness are important information for customers to trust the content.

An advertisement that puts eye-catching words first and follows up with the basis for qualifications or pricing might be a selling advertisement. However, it is not necessarily a correct advertisement.

If Last One Mile Co., Ltd. is going to provide advertising support as a business, it should ensure that its own displays point in the direction of laws and facts before making customers fall completely in line.