Declaration of Consumer Orientation
KOSÉ Won Award for Excellence in Consumer-Oriented Management
KOSÉ received the “2023 Consumer Affairs Agency Commissioner's Award” in the Consumer Affairs Agency’s “Excellence in Consumer-Oriented Management Awards.” This award recognizes companies for their outstanding efforts in consumer-oriented management.
Encouraged by this award, we will continue to promote consumer-oriented management and contribute to a sustainable society.
News Release: KOSÉ Won 2023 Consumer Affairs Agency Commissioner’s Award in “Excellence in Consumer-Oriented Management Awards”
I. Corporate Philosophy
Based on corporate principles such as our corporate message of “Creating Beauty in a Sustainable World,” our Statement of Purpose—“Create a culture and values embodying a distinctive beauty through a sophisticated fusion of sensuousness and intelligence”—and our “Mind to Follow the Right Path” Behavioral Charter, we strive to provide cosmetics that will meet with the greatest satisfaction from all of our customers. KOSÉ contributes to society by enhancing customer beauty in myriad ways and helping them realize richer, fuller lives.
Reference：Company / Corporate Philosophy
II. Key Policies
1. President’s Message
Closer to Our Customers
KOSÉ’s founder Kozaburo Kobayashi launched his business with a boundless passion for providing cosmetic products that inspire and instill hope. He ran the company with a strong belief in creating, and delivering with a personal touch, high-quality cosmetics that customers would cherish generation after generation. That belief has held strong, despite how society and the size of the company may have changed. Both in honoring customer expectations and in providing satisfying and inspiring products, we believe that no effort should be spared. Our “closer to our customers” in-house slogan expresses every KOSÉ employee’s commitment to taking a step back from their role as sellers of products, truly seeing things from the customer’s perspective, and delivering the kind of value they expect. We will continue to offer cosmetics that provide our customers with true satisfaction and contribute to richer, fuller lives.
Kazutoshi Kobayashi
President & CEO, KOSÉ Corporation
2. Corporate Governance
With the view that corporate governance is one of its highest management priorities, the Group is working to establish the necessary organizational systems and frameworks to ensure sound management and consistently earn the trust of society.
Corporate Governance Structure
The Group has a Sustainability Committee and Risk Management Compliance Committee, both chaired by the President & CEO. These committees are responsible for familiarizing employees with the Corporate Philosophy and KOSÉ Group Action Guidelines, while maintaining a system for ensuring fairness, good ethics, and legal compliance in the sale of our products and at every step of the product development process. The Group also has a risk management structure with established crisis management provisions and risk prevention functions in each supervisory department, along with a system for reporting about and responding to crises.
Reference：Company / Corporate Governance
3. Together with Our Customers
Satisfying Customers with the Finest Quality
Since the establishment in 1946, our mission at KOSÉ Group has been to deliver with passion cosmetics and services of the finest quality to customers.
Since cosmetics are something used directly on our customers’ treasured skin and hair, safety and peace of mind is always the top priority. This guides our efforts to develop products with a wide variety of values and ensure that the quality of every product that makes it into customers’ hands will bring satisfaction.
We also strive to provide sustainable products and services, which include raw material procurement and our employees’ work environments.
Reference：Sustainability / Together with Our Customer
< Major initiatives >
- KOSÉ Quality Policy
“Customer satisfaction is our priority.” - KOSÉ Group – Organizational Structure for Quality Assurance
- KOSÉ Group – Policy on Assuring Safety of Cosmetics
- That Draw Out the Beauty in Our Customers
- Honest support system for customers’ demands—Customer Service Center
4. Providing Information to Customers
The Group provides a range of information to customers at every point of contact.
Through our Customer Service Center, we provide not only product and store information but also information about product usage, beauty, and our advertising activities. We also strive to provide information customers need in an appropriate and timely fashion through news releases and the internet , as well as through our stores and other such touchpoints.
Reference: Main websites that provide information to customers
KOSÉ TOP
Frequently Asked Questions / Contact Us
Beauty Topics
News・IR Release
5. Product Development and Improvement Aimed at Satisfying Customers’ and Society’s Needs
The Quality Assurance Department, which includes the Customer Service Center, takes the lead in proactively passing on feedback it receives within the Company, ensuring that the valuable feedback we receive from our customers gets translated into continually improving products and services.
The department promptly and appropriately shares customer feedback with related internal departments in the form of a monthly customer feedback report, and has established a feedback database that can be accessed at any time. It also holds quarterly meetings with related departments to discuss specific suggestions for improvement from the Customer Service Center, leading to product refinements and renewals based on customer feedback.
We will continue to consider sustainability in developing products and services, including products, that are easy for all customers to use and more eco-friendly products.
Case Study: Improving a Product Based on Customer Feedback
Sustainability / Together with Customer
Sustainability / For the Global Environment / Product Initiatives
6. Raising Employee Awareness
Through our groupware, employees receive messages from the President that raise employee awareness by emphasizing the importance of “getting closer to our customers” and providing specific examples of actions to take. As one effort to get “closer to our customers,” we call on employees to provide examples of “KOSÉ Beauty Partnership” activities aimed at realizing each department’s customer-oriented activities slogans, and these examples are then shared throughout the company.
The Maison KOSÉ concept store, which opened in December 2019, provides an environment for research and development personnel to interact directly with customers and turn customer feedback into better products and services. As a company that employs many women that are also consumers of cosmetics, we are also focused on getting “closer to our customers” through unique programs that include calling for user-oriented proposals for developing better products and services.
7. Other Major Sustainability Promotion Activities
The Group is variously engaged in putting into practice our “Creating Beauty in a Sustainable World” corporate message, which is also the basic guideline for our sustainability promotion activities. We also contribute to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Visit the website below for more information.
KOSÉ Sustainability Plan KOSÉ’s Sustainability Initiatives
Sustainability : For the Global Environment Initiatives to Reduce Environmental Impact
Sustainability :Together with the Community Initiatives as a Member of the Community
Sustainability: Various Efforts to Promote Sport Support for an Active and Healthy Sporting Life
SEKKISEI “SAVE the BLUE” Project Environmental Preservation Activities, Including Coral Reef Preservation in Okinawa
Declaration of Consumer Orientation — Activities Report (Follow-up)
FY2022 Activities Report (Follow-up) （PDF:2.89MB）