MUJI Best Flagship Store Settled In Chengdu Calling IKEA?

Dressed in cloth Dress Flat shoes, looks calm, looks like office lady in Japanese dramas, standing in four weeks full of silent and simple style "MUJI" merchandise, Wang Wenxin and the surrounding environment almost integrated into one.

During his junior year, Wang Wenxin traveled to Tokyo, where she was fascinated by a folding hairdryer. From that time on, she became MUJI. The middle-aged woman who looked a little "literary and artistic" came to Taiwan from the mainland in 2013. As the general manager of the China Planning District, Wang Wenxin, under the guidance of Mr. MUJI, marked the store of "MUJI" from more than 60 to 108, and worked with Vanke.

Not long ago, MUJI just chose to hold hands. Tmall In addition to its own official website, the only flagship store is established. And in the second half of this year, Muji, the world's largest flagship store, will also be born in Chengdu. Many people still regard "MUJI" as a cultural symbol or a life attitude, but Muji is quietly sneak into every city and turn into the hottest commercial brand in China today, though the meaning of "Muji" itself means abandoning "brand imprint".

For the Chinese people to design "long stools" in Japan, Muji has long been a "national brand". One out of every 8 Japanese is MUJI's loyalty. Today, Muji also plans to replicate the process in China. Wang Wenxin is planning to introduce new sales categories - household appliances to China. In 2012, the sales volume of 65 MUJI stores in China was 9 billion 150 million yen (about 565 million yuan), an increase of 56.7% over the previous year, and operating profit increased by 102.5% over the same period.

After completing 100 stores last year, Muji sales are just like speeding cars on expressways. In contrast, sales of Muji shops in Japan are slowing. And overseas markets, especially China, have become the most important growth engines for MUJI. If 1 of the 10 Chinese people like MUJI products in 1 billion 300 million, the market will have more than 10 times the market. Therefore, MUJI The road to mass is the top priority of Wang Wenxin in order to get rid of the label of the love of a few people.

At MUJI headquarters in Shanghai, China, 1/8 are Japanese cadres, which are several times the size of other countries. Starting from the second half of 2013, China has maintained an average of 1 stores a week, but in Japan, Muji has opened 15 stores a year.

"As long as the city reaches a certain population or a certain consumption potential, there will be MUJI." This makes China Muji become a real MUJI. It is no longer confined to the youth circle market in northern Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other first tier cities, and the concept of "reverse brand" is adopted.

In Wang Wenxin's description, Muji will be a "people from the students to the elderly, regardless of age, regardless of class" brand. But if you convert it according to purchasing power, the selling price of MUJI in China is much higher than that in Japan.

To Wang Wenxin's surprise, Chinese customers do not seem to mind. For example, in the proportion of men's clothing sales structure, compared to other countries, MUJI sales are much higher. "Because Chinese customers believe that other brands have Muji quality clothing in the men's market, the price is more expensive, but Muji is more cost-effective.

This further strengthened Wang Wenxin's confidence in expansion, and in order to get close to the ordinary Chinese family life, MUJI specially formulated a special plan, "Institute for the study of life". Chinese writers are invited to reflect their attitudes towards life and their daily life patterns by recording the way of life of Chinese people.

"A subtle observation of the life of consumers" has always been a tradition of Muji. As early as in 2009, Muji was launched in Japan as a "observation" development plan. The development team would directly visit consumers, observe their daily lives, take photos of every corner of the room, and even each product, and the photos were then submitted for discussion and analysis, so as to tap potential consumer demand.

In 2014, the MUJI AWARD design competition was also held for the first time in China. The participants were called to discover the philosophy of life around them. This competition was held in Japan 3 years ago, and the final mass production design includes a towel that can be cut according to the designed pattern. The two gold medals of the competition, designed by Hongkong contestant Ye Zhiquan, "small stone chalk", designed by Xiao Gao hao ping, a Japanese contestant, has aroused heated discussions among Chinese netizens in the know and the bean net. According to Kimi Masaki, President of the good planning company, Muji is not Japanese, nor is it Japanese style aesthetics.

"In Japan, people do not see MUJI as a brand in Japan." Kimi Masaki hopes Muji can be more "integrated into China". Kimi Masaki's friend, Muji's design consultant Fukazawa Naohito, stumbled across the long stools in rural China. After adjusting the lines and angles, the "bench" became a best seller of Muji.

Many cities in China are now plagued by air quality, and Muji will also sell MUJI air purifier in China. In April this year, Muji made kitchen appliances, such as fridge, microwave oven, oven, toaster, rice cooker, juicer and electric kettle, appeared for the first time in the Japanese market, together with furniture, becoming a new category of MUJI products.

These MUJI designed appliances, from appearance to function, are all simple and practical styles, such as refrigerators, only refrigerated and frozen functions, such as the popular ice making, touch screen, cloud services and other avant-garde functions. Unlike other electrical appliances, the upcoming air purifier is developed by MUJI specifically for Chinese customers' habits and needs. MUJI is going to challenge IKEA, the latest flagship store in Muji, which is going to open in Chengdu. The world's largest flagship store, which is more than 3000 square meters, also represents the determination of MUJI products to become more popular in the future.

In Muji's observation on China, although Beijing and Shanghai's most prosperous cities have the largest purchasing power, a lot of personal wealth on the first tier urban residents is used to invest in real estate, and disposable income may not be as good as that in Chengdu.

"The most important point is that Chengdu is one of the most well known cities in China." Wang Wenxin emphasized that Chengdu, Suzhou and Nanjing are all potential cities in their minds. The flagship store in Chengdu has been placed high hopes by MUJI. The Caf & Meal MUJI restaurant will appear for the first time in the flagship store. It not only includes the characteristics of the Japanese MUJI restaurant, the vegetarian food (enjoying the original flavor of the food, not the vegetarian restaurant in Chinese market), and the comfortable and comfortable wooden chairs. Wang Wenxin deliberately mentioned the difference from the IKEA restaurant, and their restaurant will also provide delicious food with original ingredients and no chemical seasoning.

If all goes well, Chengdu's experience will be extended to all Muji shops in China. At the same time, with the emergence of household appliances, furniture and restaurants, Muji in China will also become a common place for IKEA to provide weekend food and shopping places for urban families.

What is interesting is that from Wang Wenxin to the following staff, Muji has been very cautious about the comparison with IKEA, but has repeatedly stressed the difference between the style and type of the two. But with the increasing number of MUJI products, customers have to face the contrast and choice between them.

Wang Jing is a member designer of the graphic design association of Shenzhen. He started his 2005 entry of Muji in China, and was the customer of MUJI. At the same time, his furniture was purchased from IKEA.

From the design point of view, IKEA's Nordic style is not limited in color and style. It is suitable for different types of decoration, including Muji style fresh and warm style. MUJI furniture was designed on the premise of Japanese life. The traditional Japanese room used the size of a straw mat to count the size, several stacked space, a small table and several cushions, which is a home. In the evening, take out the mattress from the closet, lay the bedclothes, and make the bedroom. During the day, the living room is closed. But China's houses, which are larger in size, are black and white with black and white Muji furniture. MUJI does not naturally want to be influenced by its popular way on furniture.

They invited Zhang Yonghe, a Chinese architect, to design a bed that could be used for lying, multi-purpose, high efficiency and small occupation. Later, the bed was named "couch combination". The whole design work has undergone repeated modifications, which took more than two and a half years. This set of furniture breaks through the traditional single function setting of Muji, and meets the needs of many newly graduated college students from an economic and practical point of view. On the other hand, cooperation with Vanke is also a very popular way of promoting Muji. Vanke will buy household goods from Muji, from design to furniture, all by Muji.

Cooperation with famous companies such as Vanke is also seen as a way for MUJI to be accepted by more people in China. In February this year, Wang Shi went to Tokyo to give lectures on "my road and choice" for the cadres of good planning company. As a gift, Kimi Masaki appeared in the Spring Festival meeting of Vanke in May, and the theme of his speech was "business logic like water". In order to adapt to the speed of large-scale shops, there is almost no difference between China's Muji shop display and Japan. The basic elements are grey metal shelves and yellow wooden partitions, and products are interpreted literally from Japanese idioms. Most of them are "original".

Li Ji, director of the Muji shop, Shenzhen, said that between men's wear and women's wear, accessories must be put together, stationery and skin care products will be put together, and textile supplies and furniture supplies must be put together. Li Ji, who was born in 1990, is a standard "post-90s". He came to Muji work in December 2012, and was sold to millions of shop owners in a year and a half.

According to Muji's 800 square meters of standard shops in China, formal employees are usually less than 10, and need to be responsible for purchasing, placing, supervising and inspecting more than 5000 kinds of merchandise. 50 other part-time employees are responsible for specific implementation and assistance.

But the problem caused by high-speed shops is naturally the scarcity of talent. As a result, Li Ji, a slightly experienced employee, can be promoted quickly, and many Chinese Muji managers are his "post-90s".

And Muji can continue to maintain the unity of the whole style, precisely because of the strict management standard called "MUJI GRAM". This set of specifications specifies Li Ji's work steps and can only be done according to the requirements of standardization. For example, how many centimeters of posters should be placed in the shop and how long the interval between the two piles should be.

The main business of this season is the activities needed by store businesses.