Services and Nonprofit Organization Marketing

Nonprofit organization marking is the effort by nonprofit organizations to bring about mutually satisfying exchanges with target markets .As I mentioned before, Muji's no-brand strategy (generic brand) means that little money is spent on advertisement or classical marketing, and Muji's success is attributed to word of mouth, a simple shopping experience and the anti-brand movement. Muji's no-brand strategy also means its products are attractive to customers who prefer unbranded products for aesthetic reasons, and because it provides an alternative to traditional branded products.To the nonprofit foundation,MUJI's effort was in their display cabinet leverages their brand power,popularization of their idea for attracting potential customs.

In an effort to increase customer interaction, Japanese homeware and fashion retailer MUJI have introduced a new mobile app dubbed MUJI Passport, which will allow users to earn shopping points and MUJI Miles from both store visits and purchases. This point system will then lead to coupons, discounts, and special promotions that can be redeemed both in-store and online. Additional features allow for customers to search specific store's current stock, gain awards for their birthdays, and share updates through various social networks. MUJI will also be able to use the apps data to track buying habits and popular products, allowing them to improve their service and offerings. MUJI Passport will be available for both Apple and Android mobile operating systems.

Ch. 11- Developing and Managing Products

           “No Label. Good Products”, which is at the core of what the business is about.

Delicate products for a simple lifestyle

The quality more than quantity

Product development and management is significant but difficult part for marketing strategy. Once the company has the objective, they have to find a good method to promote the product into the marketplace, and the products represent the image of the brand.  MUJI always wants the products to have good coordination with their philosophy because the all the products are the media to promote the abstract philosophy and improve the individual life and society. 

At beginning, Muji sold only 40 household and food products, and 3 years after they provided additional product line; now MUJI has various merchants in the retail store such as home products, fashion products, and foods. MUJI adds new products because they know what customers want. Simplicity is the point to start stretching out and provide what people want within affordable price. In idea generation, MUJI product developers would survey 1000s of customers to understand what they needed. And then they would try to meet these needs in the simplest, cheapest ways possible. The slogan for “R&D” was to “make what you want, as a customer”. As well as, they are not only get the idea from customers but also their own employees. MUJI has a systematic way to constantly harvest the best ideas and present them, ultimately to the design team, for he creation of new products. The process makes use of all touch points. In stores, employees are encouraged to make and collect notes. MUJI.net has almost 500,000 members and is used as another source of ideas. To get even more ideas, the Muji Award has been running for 3 years. The entries are solicited globally and have resulted in a number of products that have found their way into stores. After, for test marketing, MUJI takes advantage of many opportunities to figure out what people want. But it goes a step further. Even when MUJI has a design, it takes the final step of checking who will by it, before it is produced. It is an easy way to avoid a complete flop. Sometimes, they will cooperate with other company as an integrated marketing communication in product development because they want more people use their idea to create more meaningful products.

For example, the products of the Muji manufactured by Thonet collection are available in Europe at selected Muji Stores from Spring 2009. Thonet, the oldest furniture brand in the world and the German manufacturer of high-quality furnishings, is producing a simplified form of bentwood and tubular steel furniture for the Japanese retail chain Muji. The products are manufactured completely at Thonet’s headquarters in Frankenberg, Germany to the company’s customary high quality standards.

Segmenting and Targeting Markets

  In today’s Experiential Economy, Muji is successful at targeting its first and second segment of customers; they are demanding authenticity.
Muji's products is practical, affordable yet stylish.
Muji’s products are made from natural materials, possess originality in their designs, exceptional pursuit of its brand values for excellence, make referential to the Zen minimalist, and exerts influential authority to pursue environmental sustainability.
 Muji’s “no-brand” is accomplished because the customer pride themselves as being sophisticated to recognise quality choice which is encoded in the item.
In Japan, “Muji is staggering cheap as it achieves cost leadership through production efficiency and saves on  building efforts .” This allows them to be popular among the price sensitive customers – the thrifty target market.
Muji is distinguished by emphasis on recycling, avoidance of waste in production and packaging, and conservation of natural resources.
Aside from this, simplicity in design is Muji’s forte. Muji cultivates a niche with its minimalism design using standard nutural colours and clean cut lines which embody creativity .

Ch. 15- Marketing Communications

Integrated Marketing Communication is the coordination of all the promotion methods which are planed carefully in order to enable to communicate with the consumers.  The right encoding message with the proper channels of promoting the product is important, and the customers are able to decoding the idea and aware it. After the customers have the knowledge of the product, and they are going to like it and purchase it.  IMC is planned with various media to establish promotional and advertising strategy which can be acceptable to the customers and the community.

MUJI is created by the team Ryohin Keikaku Co., Ltd. which is the sender encoding their philosophy of the brand to the receiver; the receiver is everyone. They are targeting the people who like simple life and protect the environment. Everything they do is basic on this brand image which shows people their idea of life and how to protect the whole society; the customers are the member of environmentalist when they can correctly decoding the message.The MUJI philosophy are simplicity and "lower price for a reason".

Ch. 10 - Product Concepts

The main idea of MUJI's products are no-brand,and good quality.MUJI concept is most main value for their branding. Basically the Muji is selling the concept when they sell the products. Muji's main kind of product is consumer product which the meaning of consumer product is bought to satisfy an individual's personal wants or needs,and MUJI's products are covered the many kinds of people's life.The philosophy of Muji is minimalism and simplicity throughout individual lifestyle products, using the natural mater products and  protects the environment.

Tasty and healthy foods. Comfortable clothing. Household goods that are, above all, easy to use. For MUJI, the materials we use to make such products are of the utmost importance; consequently, considerable attention is given to their selection. We search worldwide for the most suitable raw materials. We use many industrial materials as well as materials discarded by others because of their appearance – items that can be acquired in bulk at low cost. The overriding selection criteria is always quality. These activities underpin our ability to create low-priced, high-quality products.

The processes by which each product is manufactured are subjected to careful scrutiny at MUJI. Processes that have no bearing on a product’s quality such as sorting, sizing, and polishing are eliminated, leaving only these processes that are truly necessary. Even items that have been discarded because they do not meet certain standards of size and appearance are turned into products for sale. Focusing on true quality, MUJI’s manufacturing processes eliminate waste and reduce costs.

Ch. 17 - Personal Selling and Sales Management

MUJI is a Japanese retailer selling everything from fashion to furniture, and is distinguished by its design minimalism, emphasis on recycling and no-brand policy.For the personal selling to the target market, MUJI often do research about what kind of product  which people seek for collecting selling information.Personal selling involves a two-way flow of communication between a buyer and seller, often in a face-to-face encounter, designed to influence a person’s or group’s purchase decision.For this purpose, MUJI always contact with the customs online ,collect and analyse those custom purchase records.
Numerous tasks are involved in managing personal selling including :setting objectives; organizing the sales force; recruiting, selecting, training, and compensating salespeople; and evaluating the performance of individual salespeople. The custom who live in the crowd city ,such as New York ,and like the simple style thing and decoration. And they would make a decision about the sales.As a dead fans of MUJI,the most interesting thing which was found by me is that their salespeople's style ,working behaviour ,and treating to customs are really suitable for their company, therefore,I think MUJI spent much effort on training their employees.

Ch. 16 - Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Promotion

 Ch. 16 - Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Promotion       

  

    Advertising is one of strategies in Marketing. Advertising presents the image of a brand and  core value of the brand.It is important way to let large region of people know their products.

On the one hand,the media MUJI uses are divers. They have direct advertising from the retail store, also, they have print advertising.MUJI does not to pay a billion dollar for a spokesman,and their are advertising just like album to promo their idea.They think their good quality of products is the best advertising. Due to the progressive and technology blast age, MUJI develops the bran through the website and public communication tool like facebook in different countries with their own languages to establish the interaction between the brand and the consumers. By the public communication tool,  they can promote the goods and get the feedback which helps improve the idea of branding system. Also, nowadays, they combine their networking with ipad which provides the convenience for the customers.

  On the other hand ,Muji's basic approach to advertising and promotional communication such catalogs,merchandising tools and magazine advertising is to use meration without being influenced by the times or their trends.We are strongly committed to producing photographic images that eliminate redundancy and clearly highlight the characteristics of the product design.The copy,brief and to the point,states only the facts,including specific points about the way the product is devised and background information about how it was brought to market.

     

Ch. 14 - Marketing Channels and Retailing

Retailing is important part in the market, and retail stores are the spaces for exhibiting their products and attracting people. Walking in the retail store, customers can feel and understand the idea of the brand unconsciously. 

MUJI is the Japanese brand not only sells the products but also the concept of lifestyle-simple. Actually, MUJI more focuses on popularizing their philosophy of lifestyle , so they design the products, the stores, and website as in entia. The material and color of the products are simple and essential.MUJI want to create a minimal and comfortable interior where the customers will enjoy staying in that atmosphere.

In addition, the MUJI store gives a clean, subtle and minimal impression which provides different feeling from the outdoor area, so the customers will feel free and relaxing when they walk in the stores,and the MUJI's products are made of nuture material which makes you feel  pure when you touch them.And then MUJI has their own fragrance steaming equipment, so the store uses this mild fragrance to attract the customer who may think it will be nice to have this environment at home.

The whole MUJI store provides a clean, contented and relaxing place,and nuture materials.

This is all about MUJI lifestyle.

Ch. 6 - Consumer Decision Making

The most significant thing after set up brand is how to access your goal.Consumer's point view is the target which a company tries to achieve, so a company must know what and how to attract the consumers to make the decision to choose them. Consumer decision making is concerning more about philosophy side - catch the consumer's purchase behavior.

Muji has strong concept and  image on their brand, so Muji basically sells their idea more than just goods. So, the Muji consumers purchase lifestyle.

The type of people that shop in Muji are making a conscious decision to be different, the customers are loyal they see shopping in Muji as a lifestyle choice. They admire that Muji are responsible in their material choices and manufacture and that Muji prides itself in being a green company. They enjoy minimalist design and want simple yet desirable products that will enhance their lives. Muji chooses to serve like minded people that value and believe in the same philosophy and ethics as them. Their advertising campaigns have been designed to appeal to this target market;”in love with no frills”, “from a different viewpoint”, “preferred simplicity”.

Ch. 5 - Developing a Global Vision

One of the strongest retail brands in the world is Muji. Brand Japan has measured brand strength for 1,100 brands in Japan for eight years. After opening its first store in 1983 as a subsidiary of supermarket retailer Seiyu, it has since been sold and now has more than 330 stores, nearly a third of which are outside Japan, including several locations in New York. Few brands deliver more emotional and self-expressive benefits than does Muji. And the Muji brand vision is "not to be a brand". It is the no-brand brand and represented by four characters that mean “no-brand quality goods.” They all about simplicity, moderation, humility and self-restraint. MUJI want to promote their concept and the MUJI philosophy is to deliver functional products that strive not to be the best, but “enough.”  

On one hand ,MUJI like most other global retailers, Muji expects a large chunk of that growth to come from China and other faster-growing Asian markets. MUJI try their best to do expansion Over the next three years, it plans to add another 100 stores in China to the 108 it already operates there. But it also has big expansion plans for the U.S., where it currently has nine emporiums, four of them in the heart of Manhattan. Its U.S. target is 100 stores by 2020 and 500 longer term.Muji is also present in 98 international outlets spanning 16 countries including the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Spain,Turkey, U.S., Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, China and Thailand. Aside from retail stores, Muji opened online stores since August 2000, for the UK, US, Europe and Japan markets. The wide distribution channels, through numerous retail outlets and the online platforms, make it accessible and convenient for customers to encounter the Muji experience. 

On the other hand, MUJI try their best to do expansion in their country --japan.Muji operates much larger stores in Japan, offering more than twice as many products, including furniture, appliances and a wide range of food items, many of which will not appear in its stores in North America or Europe. In fact, it began life in 1980 as the private-label brand of a major supermarket chain, which is reflected in its full name, Mujirushi Ryohin (no-brand quality goods).

Ch. 4 - The Marketing Environment

Muji actually is more focusing on psychographic segmentation because they try to advocate certain lifestyle.And their consumers are in age 20s and 30s 

 In general, Muji has 3 kinds of customers based on their lifestyle.The first kind is that People who are satisfied with the bare necessity rather than those who pursue brands for the sake of vanity and desires.And the the other segment consists of people who support Muji’s environmental friendly stance Lastly,Consumers who are thrifty and looking for orginal products.In today’, Muji is successful at their market.

Muji’s products are made from natural materials, possess originality in their designs,it is suitable for today customers' view. 

Muji means “no-brand” and it is accomplished because the customer pride themselves as being sophisticated to recognise quality choice .

In Japan, “Muji is staggering cheap as it achieves cost leadership through production efficiency and saves on  building efforts .” This allows them to be popular among the price sensitive customers 

Muji is distinguished by emphasis on recycling, avoidance of waste in production and packaging, and conservation of natural resources.

Ch. 18- Social Media and Marketing

Social media is "any tool or service that uses the internet to facilitate conversations." According to the results of search in Google and another references, Mr Kazama is the only community manager behind the massive corporate social channels for MUJI, where 818,000 Facebook fans, 186,000 Twitter fans and 40,000 Mixi fans gather.And then,MUJI 's Instagram owns more than 34100 fans  for providing a way to customs leave their comments and wish .It also have auto clients services in its office website for having conversation with customer,and it will transform to Artificial services when the auto client services are unable to help the customer. As the social media, it is helpful to push people to create a system for managing all of MUJI’s social channels and activities. For example, as Mr kazama said,  “We have so many products in our line up that sometimes some products get missed when customers come to our stores. But if we let them know that they’re there, it would be a good way to sell those products.” Therefore, the social media of MUJI is significant for MUJI 's social commerce.
Crowdsourcing is that  using consumers to develop and market products. MUJI uses social media to expand their impact and collect the information and advisement from the custom.And MUJI likes to focus on anonymity. Even though famous and well known designers have worked on some product designs, the company usually prefers to keep the designer anonymous. Take one of MUJI's product for example, it is named "Transmutative Tatami" . It is a kind of Tatami which a Japanese traditional chair without legs and back. Because of the different seated position between western and Orient, there are many negative comments be left in social channels from Western world.Therefore, MUJI made the adjustment of this product ,and made the tatami can be shifted into a ground sofa. Finally, MUJI opan a new market and this product had been a  star product .

Chapter2 : Strategic Planning for a Competetive Advantage

In my opinion ,the best way to describe MUJI is that"a large 99 cent store" in the world,therefore, they might have been affected by star products like other companies because MUJI 's products have many kinds and cover many fields of people's life.The reasons of MUJI be successful are basic on their products quality , limpid Japanese style,and variety of product.

Today, I will take the MUJI's tea pot and my experience for example.

Firstly ,"Detail is everything",the high quality and humanization are the competetive advantage of MUJI'S products.I am into the culture of tea and I did not find out the tea pot how especial it is when I get it.One day I compared with a tea pot of another brand, and I found out the magic of MUJI's tea pot.On one hand , the quality of MUJI ' s tea pot is better than the same price level tea pot of another brands.On the other hand, it really surprise my is the detail of MUJI 's teapot. As a well know of overflow is misbehavior in tea culture,and the long of the tea pot water outlet and sieve prevent the tea overflow much better than the tea pots of another brands.

Secondly, limpid Japanese style is one of the products of MUJI's competetive advantages.Most part of people make the decision to buy MUJI's product because they like the Japanese style at the first time.After they found out the real enchantment of MUJI's products, they would buy more products which are same style  to build up and improve the integration of their life environment.

Finally,variety of product.is one of competetive advantages of MUJI. As I mentioned before, I would buy more MUJI's products when I want to build up and improve the integration of their life environment. Basic on the variety of product,the selling opportunity of derivative when a product was bought.For example, I would like to buy some tea cup when I bought a teapot.Just imagine then, there are more than 7000 kinds of products cover many fields of people's life,therefore, how many potential selling opportunity exist!!!

Brief History of MUJI Inc

 MUJI was founded in 1980. The main idea of MUJI are "rationalization of the manufacturing process with an eye to creating simple, low-cost, good quality products." MUJI’s products won great appreciation . It is not only popular through Japan but across the entire world.There are more than 700 MUJI stores around the world.For example, there are many stores around New York, such as SOHO and Time Square.

MUJI’s goal is to give customers a rational satisfaction, expressed not with, “This is what I really want” but with “This will do.” “This is what I really want” expresses both faint egoism and discord, while “This will do” expresses conciliatory reasoning. I am one of fanaticism fan OF MUJI's products, and it seems have a kind of magic to find something to buy when they get into the store.
MUJI products have the characters of contracted style, human-based and they born from an extremely rational manufacturing process. MUJI stores carrying more than 7,000 items ranging from clothing and household goods to food and even houses.Their kind of products include many kinds of human's daily life of commodity.