Muji story
content
- History
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- Muji evolve
6 -7
- Mission & Vission & Values
8 -9
- Brand positioning
10 - 11
Customer
12 - 13
Brand Guidelines
Huimin Fan T0059802
- Logo
14 - 15
- Font
16 - 17
- Colour
18 - 19
- Tone of Voice
20 - 21
- Lifestyle
22 - 29
Product
30 - 35
- Store Requirements
36 - 39
Sustainability/CSR
40 - 41
Bibliography
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History
HISTORY By the end of 1978, Japanese economy had been in a slump under the impact of the second oil shock. Consumers were perplexed with the soaring prices and surplus products. Tightened consumption had changed the consumption habit of Japanese. They began to look for the cheap and fine brands. More consumers began to care about “the essence of the commodity� .
MUJI came into being at the moment.
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Above all, the simple life style initiated by MUJI has affected more and more people.
Evolve In 1991, MUJI opened its first overseas exclusive shop in London, then in France, Sweden, Italy, Norway, and Ireland, etc.
In June 1983, the first independent shop of MUJI –MUJI AOYAMA was started.
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In 1989, MUJI set up an independent company.
In 1980, Seiyu Ltd. launched its subsidiary brand – MUJI. It released the first batch of No Brand products which were simply packaged at lower cost. The slogan was “good value for money”. 7
The name of MUJI was proposed by Higurashi Shinzo, and Tanaka Ikko, one of the founders, defined the concept – commodity extracted from the aesthetic consciousness in daily life. Another founder, Kazuko Koike, put forward the slogan “qualitative and cheap” perfectly interpreted the aim of MUJI.
What are MUJI mission & vission & values?
The ideal of MUJI is to create a life consciousness, that once the commodity they make comes into the life of the consumers, it will trigger a new kind of anecdote, which will finally inspire people to pursue a more perfect life style. The four themes - Merge into nature, Anonym, Simple, The vast earth, are still the basic ideas of MUJI by now, and are also the fundamental thoughts of MUJI’s target – Center on Japanese, have the whole world in view”. MUJI has always been a brand with its own values – “I just manufacture what I can see and what I need”
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BRAND POSITIONING MUJI is the Romanized expression of むじ which refers to no figure and by extension the meaning of no brand. MUJI む じ る し り ょ う ひ ん Mujirushi Ryouhin is literally translated as “good goods with no brand”. Just like the meaning of MUJI – “NoBrand and best quality”, the brand conception of MUJI is to attenuate the brand conception, and initiate simplicity and natural, with economic rationality and functionality, etc.
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Behavioral benchmark • Highly focused on consumer feedback. • Ideas and behaviors are based on the Earth's vision • Co-prosperity with the local community • Maintain communication with all sectors of society • Honesty, integrity
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1. MUJI subdivides market according to market factors. MUJI possesses huge international market, and it makes geographic segmentation as to different cultures. It mainly analyses the difference of each area and manage business according to different geography unit in order to adjust measures to local conditions
Customer
target audience
2. MUJI subdivides market according to population factors The population factors subdivision refers to the subdivision of the population market with respect to the age and life cycle phase, among which, those who are under the age of driving a car are classified as the juvenile market, those who are aged from 20 to 40 are classified as the youth market, and there is also the elderly market. 3. MUJI subdivides market according to psychological factors There are usually two potential markets for the fast moving consumer goods divided based on the life style of people. For instance, MUJI launches the joint operation mode of online store and physical store for the convenience market, and releases costume and home appliance suit, etc. so as to reduce the time and effort that consumers have to pay for matching by them. MUJI decorates its shop front in a very simple and low-carbon way so that the customers would feel free.
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Logo
The logo of MUJI is simple, and the color is vivid, so that people will remember it at the first glance. Another ingenious point is that the name of MUJI is on the contrary to the common phenomenon in our daily life. People all think that good products must be printed the logo of a company to promote the culture of the company. However, there is no obvious mark on the products of MUJI which omits the unnecessary design and all unnecessary processing and colors. It is so simple that there is only the material itself left. Customers can hardly find any signs of the brand on the products of MUJI except the sings on the shop sign and the paper bag.
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MUJI Font
Helvetica capital letter ABCDEFGHIGKLM NOPQRSTUVWXYZ
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The font of the logo of MUJI is the customized logotype rather than any ready-made font, and its designer is Tanaka Ikko. The English part of the logo of MUJI is Helvetica Inserat Roman of Linotype. Except for the logo, the typeface of the CI of MUJI is in Japanese - A-OTF Gothic MB101 Pro DB (made by Morisawa, a Japanese company).
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Muji colour MUJI scrupulously abide by its own philosophy of the using of color. No matter how popular the fashion color is at the time, it will never develop its products beyond the design philosophy. Early in 1980s of the last century, MUJI had reminded people to get ride of all the unnecessary processing and color. They know that dyestuff will pollute the environment. MUJI’s restriction and persistence on the color both unifies the image of the brand and makes contribution to environmental protection. However, the colors of MUJI are by no means singular; on the contrary, we can see blue, grey, brown, and so on in its products, but the colors are tranquil and simple.
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Tone of voice
Muji a life-oriented philosophy
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MUJI is a life style store, representing a model of life and devoting to advocate “concise and simple, natural and green, and emphasizing on the design idea�. It offers consumers simple and natural daily commodities with excellent quality and reasonable price, without wasting makings, in order to continuously offer consumers rich products with quality life.
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lifestyle
MUJI togo In order to travel and prepare special items, it is better to buy simple, beautiful and practical items. MUJI to GO is the product that comes from this idea. The functional goods you carry with you will make your journey as comfortable as everyday life.
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lifestyle
MUJI HOTEL
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lifestyle
MUJI BOOK
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lifestyle
MUJI CAFE MEAL
Catering is the brand experience that is most accessible to consumers.
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Detecting improved process：
Most of its products are daily supplies. The products are plain, environmental friendly, and people oriented, and there is no brand logo on the packages. The product category covers pencil, notebook, food, and basic kitchen appliances. Now it begins to enter the field of housing construction, flower shop, and coffee shop.
Product
Material selection： MUJI usually designs its commodities in a simple way, but it doesn’t merely pursue minimalism blindly, because the brand of MUJI is just like an empty vessel that accepts different views and gives play to unfettered design. MUJI hopes to be simple and unadorned in every aspect and restore the true meaning of the value.
MUJI improves the humble things in life into practical and unique quality product, and greatly reduces the production cost of goods by means of purchasing a large number of raw materials from all over the world, so as to ensure the production of high-quality and low-price products
Simplication of packaging
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Product Product Product
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Wall-mounted cd stereo: a wall-mounted CD player like a fan. Ultra-simple without any extra accessories. It can be turned on and off with a power supply. It has won the German IF Gold Award and is one of the most classic products of MUJI.
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The MUJI Rice Cooker suits modern, compact lifestyles where function does not compromise style or high quality taste.
Product
Muji aromatherapy machine
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Store
So far muji How many stores? MUJI stores outside Japan
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Store
The first foundation for MUJI to establish its system is the resume manual instruction. Each store has a manual instruction, called MUJIGRAM, and the store development department has another business standard manual. These two manuals initiate the standardization of all the circumstances that may occur in work so that the employees will have consistent objective. It is indeed comfortable to walk in the shop of MUJI. Standardized display not only requires tidiness, fullness and visual impact, but also considers the shopping habit of customers; for instance, all the pen caps in the stationery area shall point at the same direction, and all the labels of the bottle caps of skincare products shall also point at a unified direction.
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CSR What changes may happen to MUJI in the future?
What changes may happen to MUJI in the future? There are three aspects that the top executives of MUJI shall pay attention to: ① AI evolution = greatly reform the manner of working, the commercial system, and the company; AI includes the online and offline combination, which is very advanced in China right now. ② Expand e-business and strengthen the combination with entity shop, so as to achieve online and offline combination; These are the two changes that the too executives of MUJI have to consider now. ③ Turn from pure product manufacture and retail business into information production and retail business How to innovate the working manner of pure physical labor is a very big issue for MUJI. In the past, MUJI paid much attention to offline experience, but now they need to gradually transfer to online experience, and combine online and offline well. This involves how to operate the company's logistics system and IT information system, which need to reform. In the future, MUJI will be transformed into an information manufacturing company that is closely linked with life, providing information lifestyle proposals.
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Hara, K. (2017). Designing design. Baden, Switzerland: Lars Müller Publishers.
Bibliography IMAGE: Corporate Profile 2018. (2018). [image] Available at: Ryohin-keikaku.jp. (2019). What is MUJI? | Ryohin Keikaku Co., Ltd.. [online] Available at: https://ryohin-keikaku.jp/eng/ryohin/ [Accessed 2 Apr. 2019]. MUJI cafe meal. (2018). [image] Available at: https://www.muji.com/hk-en/ store/121_FestivalWalk/ [Accessed 4 Apr. 2019]. MUJI (2019). MUJI rice coker. [image] Available at: https://twitter.com/ UKMUJI [Accessed 1 Apr. 2019]. MUJI book. (2019). [image] Available at: https://www.muji.com.cn/cn/ mujibooks/ [Accessed 1 Apr. 2019]. Muji hotel. (2019). [image] Available at: https://hotel.muji.com/shenzhen/en/ facilities/ [Accessed 4 Apr. 2019]. MUJI product. (2019). [image] Available at: https://www.muji.com/uk/ [Accessed 1 Apr. 2019]. MUJI product. (2018). [image] Available at: https://www.kisspng.com/free/ muji.html [Accessed 1 Apr. 2019]. Muji tiendas. (2019). [image] Available at: http://www.casadecorar.biz/mujitiendas.html [Accessed 4 Apr. 2019]. MUJI to GO. (2019). [image] Available at: https://www.muji.com.cn/cn/ mujitogo/ [Accessed 4 Apr. 2019]. trisha (2019). MUJI color clipart. [image] Available at: https://pngtree.com/ freepng/color-of-lead_2358835.html [Accessed 1 Apr. 2019]. zhoutian (2019). MUJI Wall CD. [image] Available at: https://dribbble.com/ shots/5104155-MUJI-Quasiphysical-style-design [Accessed 4 Apr. 2019].
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Muji.com. (2019). MUJI. [online] Available at: https://www.muji.com/uk/ [Accessed 1 Apr. 2019]. Aaker, D. (2011). Muji - The No-Brand Brand. [online] Prophet.com. Available at: https://www.prophet.com/2011/07/43-mujithe-no-brand-brand-2/ [Accessed 1 Apr. 2019]. Ryohin-keikaku.jp. (2019). What is MUJI? | Ryohin Keikaku Co., Ltd.. [online] Available at: https://ryohin-keikaku.jp/eng/ryohin/ [Accessed 2 Apr. 2019]. Interbrand. (n.d.). Interview with MUJI's Chairman & Representative Director - Views - Interbrand. [online] Available at: https://www.interbrand.com/views/ interview-with-mujis-chairman-representative-director/ [Accessed 2 Apr. 2019]. UX Collective. (2018). MUJI: why this ‘no-brand’ is more than just a brand?. [online] Available at: https://uxdesign.cc/muji-why-this-no-brand-is-morethan-just-a-brand-d5c5a1f27fc8 [Accessed 1 Apr. 2019]. Medium. (2017). The Success of a ‘No Brand’ Brand: A Muji Case Study. [online] Available at: https://medium.com/@BelleinBlackandWhite/thesuccess-of-a-no-brand-brand-a-muji-case-study-1ccff4020f72 [Accessed 2 Apr. 2019]. Fruhlinger, J. (2018). MUJI is poised for serious expansion as it launches hotels and more. [online] Media.thinknum.com. Available at: https://media. thinknum.com/articles/muji-is-poised-for-serious-expansion/ [Accessed 2 Apr. 2019]. Kim, E. (2018). 27 Muji Products So Perfect, They Make Us Feel Like Design Geniuses. [online] Food52. Available at: https://food52.com/blog/23201-bestmuji-products-we-love [Accessed 2 Apr. 2019]. It’s Nice That. (2018). MUJI talks us through the brand’s famously minimal design aesthetic. [online] Available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/ muji-product-design-111218 [Accessed 2 Apr. 2019]
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