市民に知っておいてほしいことを、役所は広報を通して知らせる。有益な情報なので読んでもらいたいのだが、多くの市民は読まずに捨てる。雑誌だったらお金を出してまで読むというのに。
広報と雑誌の違いは、いかにお客目線になっているかだろう。雑誌は売れるために、お客がほしい情報を提供する。しかし役所は、お客の目線に立つということがなかなかできない。
そのことに危機感をいだいた埼玉県三芳町は、改革に乗り出す。題名をひらがなからアルファベット表記に変更。文字量を少なくして、町民のいい顔をカラーで全面に配置。「これなら読みたい」と思うような住民目線へと大きく舵を切ることで、市民との間に信頼関係が生まれていった。
Government offices inform citizens about what they want them to know through PR. They want people to read it because it is useful information, but many citizens throw it away without reading it. If it were a magazine, they would pay to read it.
The difference between PR and magazines is how customer-focused they are. Magazines provide information that customers want in order to sell. However, government offices have difficulty in taking the customer’s point of view.
The town of Miyoshi, Saitama Prefecture, felt threatened by this situation and embarked on a reform. It changed the title from hiragana to alphabetical characters. The amount of text was reduced, and the good faces of the town’s residents were placed in full color. By taking a major step toward a more resident-oriented publication, the town has developed a relationship of trust with its citizens, who are now eager to read it.