Unlog Launches Industry-First Online Course on July 1 to Train Food Marketers in Gut Health Communication

Unlog Inc. (Headquarters: Tokyo, CEO: Takashi Taguchi), operator of 'Unlog', the No.1*2 stool-tracking and gut health support app, will launch a 6-session online 'Gut Health Basic Course' for marketing managers at food companies starting Wednesday, July 1, 2026. Minami Nagase (author of 'Gut Health Without Overdoing It'), a gut health producer and PR consultant, will serve as the instructor.

While 'gut health (cho-katsu)' has become widely recognized among consumers in recent years, marketers at food companies face challenges such as:
- 'It is difficult to convey value merely by promoting ingredients or components.'
- 'I don't know how to articulate the gut health value of our own products.'
- 'I struggle to find expressions that convey the message to consumers without causing misunderstanding in PR, advertising, and storefronts.'

This practical course is designed for marketers facing these issues, aiming to help them systematically understand gut health and speak about their products' 'gut health value' in their own words.

*1 Internal research. As a course to systematically learn about gut health targeted at marketing managers of food and food-related companies.
*2 Internal research. Based on cumulative downloads among domestic apps featuring gut health and bowel movement recording as primary functions.

[Recommended for:]
- Those in charge of gut health-related products, fermented foods, and ingredients like lactic acid bacteria, bifidobacteria, dietary fiber, and oligosaccharides.
- Those who want to clearly communicate the gut health value of their products to consumers.
- Those struggling with messaging in PR, advertising, landing pages, storefront promotions, and sales materials.
- Newly appointed or young managers wanting to systematically learn the basics of gut health.
- Those wanting to establish a common language internally or with agencies and production companies.

[Background] 'Gut health' is widely known, but frontline industry professionals face challenges.
Recently, the term 'gut health' has permeated deeply among consumers, leading to an increase in products claiming gut health benefits across various categories like food, beverages, and supplements. However, we recognize the following challenges occurring on the industry frontline.

Challenge 1: The definition of gut health is used ambiguously
The term is spreading without being organized as a common language within the industry, resulting in different meanings across products and communications.

Challenge 2: Over-reliance on ingredient/component claims fails to reach consumers correctly
Messaging tends to focus on names like 'contains XX bacteria' or 'derived from YY', making it hard for consumers to understand 'how the product actually benefits the intestinal environment.'

Challenge 3: Marketers lack opportunities to systematically learn about gut health
Due to heavy workloads, project or personnel turnover, and internal structures, there are almost no venues for frontline marketers to systematically learn 'what the intestinal environment is' and 'why gut health ingredients exist.'

[Structural Issues] As a result of these accumulated challenges
As a result of these challenges piling up, we believe the following structural problems are occurring within the industry:
- Genuinely valuable gut health products struggle to be evaluated correctly by consumers.
- PR and advertising generate expressions that could lead to misunderstandings.
- The reliability of the entire gut health market declines.

[Course Objective] Aligning marketers' 'foundational understanding' to foster better gut health products and communication in the market.
Driven by awareness of these issues, the 'Gut Health Basic Course' aims to align the 'foundational understanding' of marketers dealing with gut health.
Specifically, it is designed so that participants achieve the following states after the course:
- Understand gut health from its essence.
- Articulate the 'gut health value' of their own products.
- Acquire the perspective to communicate clearly and without misunderstanding to consumers.

Through this, we support a state where 'marketing managers of gut health brands can tell the brand story of their gut health products in their own words.' Ultimately, we aim for this to lead to better gut health products and communication in the market, improving the overall reliability of the gut health market.

[Course Features]
Feature 1: Industry first. A gut health course 'designed for food manufacturer marketers'
Most existing gut health courses focus on individual qualifications, memberships, or side-job/reskilling purposes. This course is an industry-first specialized program tailored specifically for the 'people who drive the industry'—marketing managers at food manufacturers handling gut health brands.

Feature 2: A trinity instructor of PR frontline x Gut health producer x Consumer
Instructor Minami Nagase is a PR professional providing PR and branding support for companies, while also acting as a gut health producer sharing basic knowledge of the intestinal environment, and she is a consumer practicing gut health herself. She possesses both the 'corporate logic' and 'how it reaches the consumer' perspectives.

Feature 3: A systematic curriculum from 'poop -> gut bacteria -> metabolites -> intestinal environment -> gut health ingredients'
Treating gut health not as 'fragmented knowledge' but as a 'system'.