April, 26, 2013. The project "MUJI Roshia" is launched to study the possibility of the Japanese brand MUJI establishment within the Russian envinronment. Further marketing analysis will follow, while all the ideas, suggestions and procedures implemented while coming up with the final recommendation will be displayed on the blog. Stay tuned, feedback is welcome.
The group project “MUJI Roshia” was launched to study the possible opportunity of Japanese brand MUJI to enter the Russian market. The analysis is being implemented as a part of final project for the GSOM Master’s course International Marketing by Maria M. Smirnova (PhD, Associate Professor).
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The group project “MUJI Roshia” was launched to study the possible opportunity of Japanese brand MUJI to enter the Russian market. The analysis is being implemented as a part of final project for the GSOM Master’s course International Marketing by Maria M. Smirnova (PhD, Associate Professor).
Project team of four
students will focus on existing MUJI business model and day-to-day operations
in other countries in order to estimate the existing possibility to enter to
Russia. At the same time, due to the uniqueness of the products and services
MUJI provides, the corresponding analysis of the Russian niche market will
follow in order to decide over its competitiveness and opportunities for entry.
All the procedures
and steps of analysis will be displayed on the main page of the blog, and the
final recommendation given to MUJI will be based on all the data concerned.
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ReplyDeleteHi, guys!
DeleteYou have made a nice start with several very useful information about Muji brand. I was not acquainted with Muji brand before your presentation, but you have made a nice analysis what Muji brand supposed to be in Russia. I also like the analysis of Russian market.
But it will be also really interesting to know who is the typical customer of Muji project. His or her age, where he or she shops, for what purpose Muji can be interesting for him/her.
Which type of Muji activities will be present in Russia? Only shops? you have mentioned in your analysis house building and food retailing. Can those directions be also popular in Russia? Like for instance IKEA has opened Swedish food retailer department in its IKEA store.
And finally, you have said that you have made a survey! It will also be an advantage, if you will post your questions or a link (if it is an online survey).
Let me know if you need any help for your project! Because the idea of Muji store in Russia is really interesting. Nowadays there is a trend toward simplicity, which Muji definitely following. I suppose that this brand will be successful in Russia. I am really interested in this project.
Yulia Shmeleva
Sorry, made a mistake.
DeleteHi, Yulia!
DeleteThank you for your comments!
We have also got some of these questions from Victoria about the products with which we are going to enter the Russian market, and the target audience. Actually, we are working just now and discussing with our project team members the charactetistics of our products and customers in detail. So, this information will be soon in the blog))
Concerning to the product choice, we decided to enter with basic product line: stationary, house hold items, some beauty products and accessories (we were talking about this in the presentation in class and also showed the typical design of the shop which we are going to use for the shops in Russia, and this information will be also included in the blog in the sections about products and customers). So, the first entry we are planning to do with the typical products, and then at the later time (after the establishment on the market) perhaps consider to enlarge the product line, this may be in the long-term perspective. To sum up, for this particular project we are entering with the typical product line and shop design.
As you know, we have conducted a survey (questionnaire) in order to know the attitude of customers to our product line, Japanese origin of products, attitude to ecological products and readiness to buy them, and other questions. It is online questionnaire. The first results of the questionnaire we analysed and included in our first presentation in class. For today, we have 419 answers.
The questionnaire is not published here yet as it is still open now, and each day we have more and more respondents, and the statistics is changing.
Here is the link to the questionnaire: http://www.ianketa.ru/anketa/242802333/
We will be very glad if you and other consultants also participate in the survey!
You are also very welcome with the suggestions which will help to make our project better!)
Tatiana
Dear friends,
ReplyDeletethe company you have chosen for the project is extremely unusual. Honestly speaking, I would never think that there might be any alternatives to IKEA.
IKEA is a great thing, but at any case it has a pretty limited range of products. If Russia will get a new player on the market, probably it will influence the whole system - people will get opportunity to choose between two companies offering qualitative and cheap products.
At any case, my main concern is the way you are proposing Muji-shops to be present in the Russian market - will it be huge all-in-one shops like IKEA model, or it will be something different?
Thank you for such a nice blog!
Kind regards,
Petar Dimitrov
Hello, Petr!
Deletethanks for your comments)
yes, our company is unusial and has a wide range of different products and a cool minimalistic design. It was one of the reason why we have chosen this company)
Comparing Muji to IKEA, many paople may see some similarities. However, we stress on the differences between them: product line, design, atmosphere are different. And of course, size and location! You know, IKEA is a big store that is usually situated on the border of the city just because there is simply no place for this huge store in the central regions. On the contrary, our shops are pretty small, and we are planning to locate them in the central regions of the city where there are a lot of customers.
Also, the bahavior of customers in these two shops is different. People usually plan their trip to IKEA to buy some things they are intended to buy (usually finiture), and they may spend several hours to get there and many hours inside the shop choosing the product (in my experience, it takes around 30 min just to go from the 'Start" to the "End" of the shop following the arrows on the floor wihout spending time on seeing the products or sitting and luying on them!). People usually do not go to IKEA to buy some small stuff as, for example, vases, small household goods and so on.
As for Muji, the bahavior of customers is different. We would like to establish these kinds of shops where people can buy cool small thigns, household items, accessories, etc. in good quality, cheap price and great design! They do not plan their shopping beforehand as in IKEA, they just pass by Muji shop, see cool things and decide to buy them )
Tatiana
Dear Tatiana,
ReplyDeletethank you very much for a specified and professional answer.
To my mind, you idea of locating the stores in the center is great. I would also recommend you to locate them also in the historical parts of the cities - I rent a flat in the very center of St Pete, so I suffer from tha lack of any type of shops!
I would desagree with the statement, that it takes around 30 min just to go from the 'Start" to the "End" in IKEA - if you know what you need, it might take you up to 7 minutes to get the product and go to the cahsing desk! And I do personally go to IKEA to buy small things, if I know they are cheaper there.
At any case I got really inspired by the idea of Muji - hope to visit it one day in Russia!
Good luck!
Petar
For sure, time spent in the shop depends on the customer, and also on time period of day) Perhaps, I was not lucky to go there on the weekend !
Delete