Muji – Clear Brand Identity with “minimalism” Culture and No-Brand StrategyClear brand identity with “minimalism” culture and no-brand strategyMuji’s main competitiveness comes from its unique minimalism style and no-brand strategy. Words from Leonardo da Vinci best describe Muji’s distinctive receipt for success: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. ” The main focus of Muji is the functionality and convenience of the product itself without brand logo, excessive decoration, rainbow colors or complicated design pattern. Adhered to “minimalism” principle, Muji uses simple plain packaging and spares all its effort on selecting best available product materials, improving product fitness and exploring ways to avoid waste in the manufacturing process. As a result, customers do not have to pay for any added things except the product itself (Muji, 2014b). Even though there is no brand logo attached, the useful, artistic and simplistic design are blended together to create strong brand recognition . Muji’s ways of branding is more systematic and does not require labeled brand logo to be recognized (Amos, 2012). This unique business strategy creates a clear brand identity for Muji and makes it be differentiated from its competitors.
Muji’s commitment to use eco-friendly materials gives it a competitive advantage. Muji always use eco-friendly material to make its product such as unbleached paper and clothes (Muji, 2014a). Besides, Muji select organic cotton to make cotton products and use soy inks to print words on its shopping paper bags. Its writing materials are produced by recycled paper and its fabric products are made of recycled textile material (Zachariah, 2013). Concerning security, Muji poses strict standards on its product. Preservatives are not added to Muji’s food product and fluorine resins which maybe toxic after heated are replaced by alternative material to make coking pan (Muji, 2013). Muji’s strive to be eco-friendly further promotes consumer loyalty to this
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• In the past, Muji uses non-toxic metals and plastics in manufacturing as well as in its textiles, body care products and clothing. They also use bio-materials, metals, plastics and other materials which may act as antimicrobials (Maki, 2013). In the past, all these methods have been used as part of natural product safety guidelines where they were applied to the material as well as on body products, which may cause toxicity, allergic reactions in humans. For example, while polyurethane has been listed in safety and scientific literature as an “emulant and antibacterial agent,” it has also been studied as an “emulsifier” (Kumar, 2003a) and as a bio-metabolizing agent (Kumar, 2003b), and its safety and efficacy is still a subject of debate among researchers. An epidemiological study carried out in a US research university in 2000 concluded that, among the 508 who had undergone polysorbate 20 exposure tests, 11 per cent (1,863) had met with exposure at any time between 1996 and 2007 (http://www.l.nature.com/data/content/early/2003/08/01/20150631_90419_12_07.pdf), and 17 per cent (1,947) had a history of polysorbate exposure (http://www.l.nature.com/data/content/early/2003/08/01/20150731_90419_10_07.html).
• In 2012, several years after the European Union announced that polysorbate products would be required to prevent and detect “sublethal radiation and other radiation sources” (Liu, 2013), European Union authorities have agreed to increase the safety of polysorbate products for three years. More information about the EU regulation can be found in: www.europe.eu/sites/default/files/CIC/ENSO/2011/CECG3_ENSO_LAW_PRELIMINARY_REGulatory_pdf.pdf.
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• At the time of the disclosure, there is still no public database of all people on the Internet. In the field of consumer responsibility, there are many types of information which vary by country and city. For example, information about the amount of polysorbate sold or the level of the concentration at which it has been found can be found in information contained on the site www.mji.co.uk which in turn may be listed in websites as “polysorbate”. In order to learn whether any person on the Internet (or anywhere on the Web) is able with any means to verify or verify the authenticity of any type of information, that person has to provide proof of that information. But such