3Audiological equipmentHearing aidsAs a powerful brand that delivers the value of hearing to a wider audienceLooking at the issue from that perspective, I became convinced it wasn’t enough just to make products and that we had to be a brand that delivers the idea and value of 'hearing' to people burdened by In January 2024, Rion integrated two brands, one associated with hearing aids, the other with audiological equipment, into a single brand, and began developing its business under the new Rionet brand. This rebranding project was carried out under the slogan “Giving our all for your hearing.” We spoke to Masataka Ota from the Medical Instrument Division, who led the project, about the reasons for the project and the benefits the brand inte-gration will bring to users.“Our goal in this rebranding was to dramatically transform Rion’s business approach,” explains Ota. “I’m confident the rebranding will significantly change the relationship between Rion and society and push Rion to grow still more as a company capable of providing solutions for a wide range of issues related to hearing.”Put simply, the project involved the integration of the two brands—the Rionet brand, widely known for devel-oping, manufacturing, and selling hearing aids; and the Rion brand, known for audiological equipment used in clinical practice to carry out hearing and other tests. Since both brands have existed for a long time at Rion, which has been in business for 80 years, the project to integrate them required a great deal of energy from Ota and all the other people involved. Why did they decide to proceed with such a large project? Ota first discusses the historical background, starting with the era of Rion’s founding.“At the time of its founding, Rion’s business involved the man-ufacture of microphones and pickups. Eventually we broadened out to developing, manufacturing, and selling hearing aids. Around four years after we released our first hearing aid, we produced our first audiometer—an instrument designed for use in clinical settings to make accurate hearing tests. The results from this instrument allowed us to fine-tune hearing aids to suit individ-ual users. Over time, the development of hearing aids and audi-ological equipment progressed along largely separate paths. Our hearing aids, sold under the Rionet brand, gained wide market recognition and came to be viewed as distinct from Rion, the brand associated with our audiological equipment.” The development and sales of hearing aids were carried out with the user in mind. The development and sale of audiological equipment were carried out with medical practices in mind. Since the nature and particulars of the target fields and cus-tomers differed, the mindsets and behavior patterns of the staff involved gradually began to drift apart.Ota felt uncomfortable about this state of affairs.“No specific problems emerged from the fact that there were two brands, Rionet for hearing aids and Rion for audiological equipment. But looking to the future, I thought the integration of two brands might bring significant benefits, both for our company and for our customers. So, I started thinking about the ideal approach. After I’d established a rough idea of the way forward, I became convinced this rebranding was the right thing to do. In the end, this project involved many of our staff. I ended up taking the project lead, alongside a few other core members.”Why did Ota decide to push ahead with this energy-intensive project, in full awareness of his existing workload? Ota explained his reasoning as follows:“If you look at Rion as a company, you could say it presents two faces: one as a hearing aid manufacturer and the other as a audiological equipment manufacturer. But these two brands weren’t ideally positioned to create ideal synergies in terms of development and sales. And I realized the fact that Rion devel-oped audiological equipment wasn’t necessarily well known to Rionet hearing aids users. Conversely, the fact that Rionet hearing aids and Rion belonged to the same company wasn’t as well-known among medical professionals as we had thought. Yet both brands involved businesses associated with hearing. I thought—Integrating these two brands into one would strengthen recognition and trust. Both brands develop their own products, but manufactur-ing products is just a means to our common end. We have to return to our original mission, which is to enrich people’s lives by improving the hearing of each individual.their own worries and anxieties.”Masataka OtaExecutive Officer, Head of the Medical Instrument Division. He joined Rion in 2001 and initially worked in hearing aid sales. Afterward, he was transferred to the Tokyo Sales Office as a start-up member, where he gained experience in the sales of audiological equipment. He later moved to the Planning Depart-ment, served as head of the Business Strategy Section, and was appointed to his current position in 2024. His hobbies include singing a cappella and playing RPG video games.
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