Current Problem of the Manufacturers in the Japanese Market
In the digital era, many manufacturers could face the problem that ordinary consumers don’t buy the products because most consumers can measure the benefit from the product by digital tools that enable them to search the cheapest price on specific products and can obtain the rating by other customers. If a company launched innovation firstly, other company can follow their innovation and they could make it cheaper and finally the innovation will be a commodity. Therefore, the digital network empowered the customers to compare with other products. As a result, one top effective producer will become leading or only one winner.
For example, at the Japanese mobile phone market, Japanese makers lose to Apple that created the iPhone. Why Japanese phone manufacturers lose? They have high technology in specific fields. According to the article (Laugesen et el, 2010) explains that Apple seeks to the fulfilling customer demand rather than the specification such as cool design and good interface. On the other hand, Japanese traditional makers concentrate on developing their conventional strong technology that is not often demanded by customers. For example, If the engineer thinks they can develop the performance of a phone camera, the user cannot find the difference with the former one. As a result, the iPhone user in japan remains over 50 % in 2018(Canalys, 2019).
Breakthrough by MUJI
According to Joph (2010), a customer could be an innovator rather than a manufacturer. In many cases, the customers use a product for a long time than a manufacturer because they buy the product by paying money and it means they want to use the product. Therefore, they can find many further problems with the product than producers.
In the above situation in Japan, Muji, a Japanese manufacturer of consumer goods has increased its sales by interacting with its customers. According to Fuchs and Schreier (2010), Muji enhances their ability to develop products by communicating with customers online.
In fact, Muji established the following five corporate codes of conduct (MUJI, 2019).
- Quickly and carefully respond to customer needs
- Think and act globally
- Prosper together with local communities
- Act sincerely and honesty
- Be open to communication with all
The first code is most important in this context. In fact, Muji established MUJI Laboratory for Living in 2009. For example, the Lobo set the IDEA PARK online that is an internet portal site run by the Muji Laboratory. Through online communication with customers, Muji can gather the opinion, request from users of the product and implement a questionnaire about the topic submitted by the Muji marketing team, and they open the result to the public and implement other discussions. In fact, this feedback will be important resources for new products or the improvement of current products.For example, in this portal site, there are two main places to interact with customers, “Project” and “Request”.
Project
The project is that MUJI Laboratory sets some theme and carry out a questionnaire for their users and create improved products. For example, socks improvements;
YouTube: Good Fit Right Angle Socks by Muji
In this project, firstly, Muji finds that a Czech grandmother’s hand-knit socks is very comfortable because of knitting at 90-degree. On the other hand, most ordinary socks are knit at 120-degree. Muji wanted to create additional comfortable socks by the difference of 30-degree. After that, Muji search for a factory and the socks had come true. According to the factory staff, though other brands simply decide their plan by trying of limited staff, Muji concentrated on many resources to the socks and carry out many research and interview with their users.
Request
On the other hand, Muji users can request Muji to amend some products and to produce new products that they want to use. On the chat space of the portal site, users can post their comments and staff of Muji marketing division will respond to the comment that they understand customer’s comments or that they have already fixed it. The customer sometimes get advice from other Muji users in the portal site.
How can we evaluate the circulate strategy by Muji?
Muji’s digital communication seems suitable for the Japanese market. Thought, by digital technology, social communication tools, many companies set social communication place, how many companies could implement effectively? In my opinion, Muji is one of the successful companies in digital communication. They succeed to make circle relationships with the customer.
The strategy may seem not surprising strategy today, however, it is required to prepare for response by the customers. If other companies want to imitate Muji’s strategy, they have to arrange not only the communication with the customer but also coordination among their organization, communication cost, and supplier, for the quick response.
However, this system is built in the Japanese market mainly. While Muji had already expanded its business overseas, they cannot set these communication places in foreign countries. The reason could seem like a cultural difference. If a foreign customer push request, the Japanese headquarter could not understand the reason or usefulness. The treatment of the foreign market is the next issue.
References
J. Laugesen and Y. Yuan, (2010). What factors contributed to the success of Apple’s iPhone?. 2010 Ninth International Conference on Mobile Business and 2010 Ninth Global Mobility Roundtable. Retrieved from https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5494782
M, Bogers and A, Afuah and B, Bastian. (2010). Users as Innovators: A Review, Critique, and Future Research Directions. Journal of Management Vol. 36 No. 4, July 2010 857-875. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0149206309353944
Canalys. (2019). Apple dominates in Japan with 56% share as market falls 3.8% in Q4 2018. Retrieved from https://www.canalys.com/static/press_release/2019/pr20190219Japan-smartphone-market-Q42018.pdf
MUJI. (2019). Annual Report March 1, 2018-February 28, 2019. Retrieved from https://ssl4.eir-parts.net/doc/7453/ir_material_for_fiscal_ym9/71219/00.pdf
Muji. (2019). Improving our products with customer feedback. Retrieved from https://ryohin-keikaku.jp/eng/csr/list/list_044.html
Interbrand. Interview with MUJI’s Chairman & Representative Director. Retrieved from https://www.interbrand.com/views/interview-with-mujis-chairman-representative-director/
Christoph Fuchs and Martin Schreier. (2010). Customer Empowerment in New Product Development. The journal of Product Innovation Management.2011;28:17–32. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1540-5885.2010.00778.x
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Its very interesting to see how Muji integrated customer feedback and data into their business processes, to ultimately create a niche product. The attention to detail that is shown to each product is commendable. I did not realize that the degree at which socks are knitted would have any impact on the final product! To sustain a business model where customer feedback is constantly interwoven with the way a product is designed though requires Muji to deploy many more resources than its competitors, such as researchers and interviewers and possibly even designers as Masato correctly points out. This was an engaging read!
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I think your blog is great! The company may need to understand the users’ demand first and then implement their ideas. Muji allows users to participate in the production process, which not only ensures product sales after coming into the market but also allows brands to make a good impression on consumers. However, do users have the ability to design? This may be feasible for products that rely on design, such as clothing and furniture. Nevertheless, for high-tech products like mobile phones, consumers may need a specific knowledge reserve in order to give useful suggestions. Therefore, Muji is a sustainable business model in its field. Regarding the overseas issue mentioned in your blog, Muji has a noticeable Japanese style, which makes people see at a glance that it is designed in Japan. This may decrease the brand’s acceptance abroad to a certain extent. If the brand’s style is changed to open it to the overseas market, will this be accepted by local consumers?
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