Why Muji Is Becoming A Design Consultancy Company?

MUJI in the new direction of the attempt, in essence, is to tap the user's more possibilities, and its user cash in fact is still very traditional.

Interestingly, the founder of the traditional party B business has become a good plan.

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If you live in a city with a good shop, count how many times you go there every month, then ask yourself why, you will find something interesting.

When you go more times, you will find many people who look very similar in the shop. They smell like a tree (if they gather together, it looks like a forest) - I try to describe this feeling with a neutral, not easy to jump jump to refute the words, you may immediately come up with several keywords to enrich it.

This feeling is a bit like staying in Japan for a while. People on the street are clean and neat, but slowly you will find some rules from color and saturation, and then find many fashion models on the street.

It's also a style.

These people with forest tastes are Muji target users.

Just during my interviews with the company several times, I heard many questions about commodity pricing.

Even after a price adjustment last year, it is undeniable that the price gap with Japan still exists.

But what can I get rid of? I saw a large number of Chinese speaking guests in the Muji shop in Tokyo.

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In the book of Muji in Huaihailu Road, Shanghai, the queuing scene I saw at the cash register was enough to make any Muji worker from Japan headquarters excited.

On the same day, the store's revenue also hit a record high in the company's history.

Here, I have to be flattering to say that this company has done a very great thing - its customers like its products, they will buy it again and again, and sometimes when they know the price gap, they will still self hypnosis when ordering.

Compared with its 7000 kinds of commodities, these users who identify their values are more potential business opportunities.

MUJI products, though the core development concept is "reasonable rejection of useless", on the other hand, the collection has always been its strong point.

For example, this plastic bottle replacement, its original intention is to solve the mess problem of bathroom or kitchen shelf.

Those shampoos and detergents always like to sell some round bottles. They occupy space and are easy to run.

Square bottles can take up more space and visually more orderly.

I always think this company can tell stories, but in fact, any company can do that.

There is a reason to develop any product - why don't you tell it to it and tell your customers? In the Muji shop, you can see that the product description does sometimes send out the feeling of "original feeling". The consumer education in this shopping process is no worse than the special lecture.

Those who are designed to attract people, who are attracted by the tricks of the original function, may be the early user base of Muji. When the Muji Life Research Institute (we once reported it, this is a big pit to expand the user base) and let more people participate in the process of commodity development, the brand has spread the "lifestyle" that has just been mentioned with forest flavor to these believers.

So when the boss and President of the company mentioned the things that Muji would like to do in the future, you will find that the user's realisation is still very traditional. The interesting thing is that the sponsors of the business have become good retailers.

1. why is it qualified to say Compact Life?

This is the latest globalization strategy of Muji.

The concept of choice is also the most concise and clear way to tell Foreigners what the brand wants to do.

Its concept stems from a consumer survey done in Hongkong in November 2014.

At that time, the Muji 10 person research group was divided into two teams, and spent 4 days to conduct a round of observation study on 20 ordinary families in Hongkong.

The living experience of Hongkong and Japan is very similar, narrow and urgent.

In fact, not only is Hongkong, Muji and some graduate students in London have also collaborated on field observation projects. Because of the high rent, young people in London, who rented in share house, are also facing the same problem.

Hongkong project survey, a family before the implementation of the project status.

The investigation programme is divided into 4 steps:

(1) pick out what is really necessary in the cupboard you rush out of.

2. Imagine devices that can effectively accommodate these things.

Think of an easy and easy method of storage.

(4) the simple space after receiving can embody and enjoy your personality and fun.

In the series of MUJI products, in fact, just like IKEA, there are many ways to deal with the standardized modules. Many single products can be used together, so you know, it will also induce you to repeat consumption.

2. why is "breaking away" is just empty talk, and it's important that someone tell you how to do it.

I also tried to practise the theory of "breaking away from home" which was popular in the past. But as a stone that even picked up at the seaside, I felt that I could not lose it when I opened it. After I opened the cupboard, I could only remember the full memory and then close the cupboard door silently.

But most people still have an ideal living space, otherwise they will not put so many beautiful pictures in their favorites.

Probably starting in 2004, Muji has set up a position of "IA". Today, the IA team has 132 people (92 in Japan and 36 in overseas markets).

11 of them, 3 of whom are in Huaihailu Road store in Shanghai, have formed a management system and formed an internal Pyramid promotion channel.

To put it simply, these people are selected from among the employees who are interested in design consultation within the company, and do the training for the three subjects in the bedroom, living room and reception.

This group of people can only solve one problem: tell customers who are consulting how to use all kinds of commodities and combinations to realize their imaginary life.

In the Muji shops providing "interior design consultation", the design consultants used 3D to simulate the decoration effect map. If it is flagship store in Tokyo, such as Bodo Lok Ting store and Bodo City City, the modeling accuracy will be further improved.

For Muji, it's a business similar to a design consultancy.

At present, there are about 30 thousand indoor decoration consultations per year, of which 6 of customers want to solve the problem of "accommodating".

The unit price of Muji is about 160 thousand yen (about 9300 yuan) after each consultation.

In 2015, sales related to design consultancy amounted to about 4 billion 200 million yen (about 245 million yuan). In 2016, it was expected that there would be 5 billion yen (about 292 million yuan).

Of course, compared with the total revenue of 260 billion 200 million yen (about 15 billion 203 million yuan) in the latest fiscal year, its proportion is not high.

But this company will be closer to the goal of "real lifestyle sponsor".

3. in fact, you can build a house.

MUJI built houses is not new.

If we want to talk about the future, then "accommodation" is only part of the theme. There will be more possibilities for Muji development, such as "plants", "kitchen" and so on.

Remember the new kitchen series introduced by IKEA last year? Actually, it's a truth.

Perhaps you may feel that there are many restrictions on a place without land rights, but we have reported the opportunity of residential design in small spaces, at least to show that no one can block the idea of "making life better".

At present, decoration design services in China are mostly presented in the form of presentation. The service itself lacks value. The owners need to be more interested in the construction process. But in the future, since you can pay for the meal properly, the time for paying more services is not far away.

4. a new idea.

Supporting the concept of Compact Life is actually a new development concept. It includes two main points: one is the rejection of useless design with the traditional characteristics of Muji, and the other is "versatility".

They gave this group of development ideas the name "1+1=1".

This is not difficult to understand, for example, the towel rack with door handles combined with one, the dehumidifier combined with the watering pot, and the LED lamp combined with ceramic tiles.

These ideas and concepts were originally derived from the Compact life research project in Hongkong, and 15 pilot products have been developed and are expected to be launched in 2017.