MUJI, Who Is So Cool, Has Another Side.

Speaking of

Many people will probably associate such labels as "indifference", "Minimalism", "literature and art" and so on.

But in the US, MUJI shows the other side.

Recently, MUJI held a cool fireworks display at the flagship store in Fifth Avenue, New York, and all these fireworks came from children aged 5 to 12.

Of course, it is not the kind of real fireworks, but the virtual projection on the big screen.

This exhibition, which combines elements of public welfare and technology, is a joint work of MUJI and Kids Earth Fund, Japan's children's welfare organization, as well as Tokyo's interactive art studio Naked.

MUJI invited the children of New York to create their fireworks on the drawing paper impromptu. Naked made these pictures into dynamic images on a touch screen like night sky: as long as you clap your hands on the screen, you will see a gorgeous and lovely fireworks.

In the MUJI shop, besides the lovely cool fireworks, the children's paintings provided by Kids Earth Fund are also exhibited.

These paintings of childlike innocence were made of canvas by MUJI.

It sells at a price of 5 US dollars in the flagship store in Fifth Avenue, and proceeds will be used to support Kids Earth Fund's philanthropy.

Environment-Friendly Bag

The reason why this commonweal cooperation chose pyrotechnics as the theme of creation is that it has a unique symbolic meaning in Japanese culture.

The summer fireworks conference held in all parts of Japan is the most essential summer scenery poem.

For the Japanese, pyrotechnics are a fleeting, fragile and beautiful beauty.

Therefore, MUJI's US official website shows that this exhibition, called "Kid Earth Project", promotes the cross cultural communication between Japan and the United States in addition to promoting MUJI's people-centered retail concept.

The Naked art studio co operating with MUJI is a technology and art company dedicated to promoting the traditional Japanese flower culture throughout the world.

They launched the "Fireworks by Naked" project around the world, making many gorgeous fireworks with lights, large kaleidoscope and projection technology.

For MUJI, cooperation with Naked in the US is undoubtedly a very appropriate marketing.

And Japanese culture is becoming very important for MUJI expansion in the US.

Propaganda strategy.

Since the first store opened in New York in November 2007, the initial expansion of MUJI in North America is not too fast.

In the past few years, they slowly expanded in New York area every two years, opening 1 to 2 stores, until the first store outside New York in San Francisco in 2012.

To date, MUJI has only 15 stores in the United States, only in California and New York, where the proportion of Asian people is relatively high.

In the United States, "no label brand of high quality products" and environmental protection concepts can not accurately capture the hearts of American consumers, which are much cheaper than MUJI.

So the brand story that MUJI began to choose in recent years is Japanese culture.

For example, in the second half of last year, MUJI began to organize some activities related to Japanese culture, such as teaching children's traditional spelling art, designers' lectures on traditional Japanese fabrics, etc.

In May this year, MUJI held the exhibition of "ten thousand shapes (10000 shapes of TOKYO)" in New York. The model of Tokyo city was built with more than 400 kinds and more than 10000 pieces of MUJI products, and it was exhibited in the flagship store of Fifth Avenue.

In addition to displaying many functions of their products, they also want people to have more interest in Tokyo tourism and Japanese culture.