Why Do Chinese People Not Buy Muji, But They Like UNIQLO More And More?

Recently, media exposure showed that the profit of Muji has declined for the first time in China. Despite the fact that Muji has quickly denied it, it is an undisputable fact that in recent years, Muji has become more and more immovable in the Chinese market.

MUJI was first introduced to China in 2005, and soon gained the favor of many Chinese consumers with minimalist design style. At the same time, Muji also priced itself as a luxury product at a much higher price. In the eyes of many consumers, Muji can not only reflect its taste but also show its wealth. Muji has become a lot of middle class. Class reveals the identity tag.

However, in recent years, the recognition of Chinese consumers for Muji has been getting lower and lower. One of the main reasons is that Muji is originally a cheap and grocery commodity in Japan. After coming to China, it became a light luxury product, and this way of deliberately promoting the brand image was gradually known by the Chinese people, which made Muji has encountered an unprecedented difficulty in China. 。 More than ten years ago, the Chinese people were still in the stage of blind worship. They didn't know much about the true identity of many foreign brands. But as more and more Chinese people went abroad, their horizons and horizons were greatly broadened. When they saw the same Muji, the price in Japan was far lower than that in China, and Chinese consumers inevitably felt cheated. When more and more people know that in China, the high cold Muji is only a parity brand in Japan. Muji has gradually entered the altar in the hearts of the Chinese people. In addition to a more accurate understanding of MUJI products, many manufacturers in China have also begun to exert strong impact on MUJI products. In recent years, a large number of companies with major cost performance have appeared in China, such as online NetEase's strict selection, online famous products, and so on. More and more competition.

Because many famous brands in the world are produced in China, including MUJI products, China's competitors will soon be able to produce products that are very close to MUJI products by working with these international famous foundries, and the price is much lower than Muji. Although there are some disputes over the practices of these competitors, these competitors are equivalent to bringing the price of Muji to Japan in China. After years of being cheated by the high price of Muji, consumers certainly welcome the more popular pricing.

For Chinese consumers, Muji has not been sincere in price for many years, and it is difficult to match prices in terms of product quality. In recent years, Muji has repeatedly revealed quality problems. In July last year, the Beijing municipal market supervision bureau informed the results of random sampling of furniture quality. Of the 11 unqualified products, 6 came from Muji. The main problem was that the nominal material was not in conformity with the actual material. In January last year, the Consumer Council of Hongkong released a test report that the Muji part biscuit food contained genotoxic and carcinogenic epoxide propanol and acrylamide. This is only part of the problem that was published last year. There were many similar cases earlier.

When a brand has no advantage in quality and price, it wants to rely on design sense to attract consumers. It is obvious that it is too confident in its own brand and at the same time overlooking the intelligence quotient of consumers. It is only a matter of time before such products are abandoned by consumers. In recent years, Muji has also started to depreciate frequently in China. However, since the company has already packaged itself into a light luxury product, it is also equivalent to binding itself, so it is impossible to return to the local brand in Japan. Therefore, as Chinese consumers are getting more and more knowledgeable, domestic producers are also gradually rising, and the survival space for Muji is also getting smaller and smaller.

MUJI has been a great success in Japan, mainly because it caters to the economic background of Japan. The Japanese bubble economy burst in the 90s of last century, and the Japanese bid farewell to the good fortune of soaring wealth. On the one hand, they turned to minimalism in the aesthetics of life, while at the same time, they favored the commodities with low and medium price in the middle and low quality. It was against this background that Muji and UNIQLO rose rapidly in the ten years that Japan lost.

On the streets of Tokyo, Japan, on 2011. The rise of rent and property prices, coupled with the impact of the earthquake and tsunami, has led to a downturn in the Japanese economy, and many changes have taken place in the way of life of Japanese nationals.

But after entering China, the two companies have chosen a completely different road. UNIQLO still adheres to its parity in Japan, but Muji has packaged itself as a luxury product. In the past decade or more, China is still in the era of "people's money and more money". After the rapid economic take-off and the increase of people's income, it has blindly pursued the overseas brands but lacked enough understanding. Therefore, Muji strategy has made a good effect in the Chinese market, and has made itself from a civilian grocery brand to a light luxury product. However, Muji's strategy in China can be said to be guessing but not at the beginning. They are sensitive to the rise of the middle class in China under the reform and opening up policy. However, it is not foreseen that with the slowdown of China's economy, the environment of China's consumption will soon change dramatically, and consumption upgrading will be replaced by consumer demotion overnight. MUJI is now at the top end of the market, and now it has to pay the price after it tasted the sweetness in the early years. Compared with the decline of Muji, UNIQLO is in China. In April last year, UNIQLO issued its earnings report, and its overseas business profits first surpassed Japan's domestic market. The main growth came from China. UNIQLO's income and net profit both declined in Japan, but the income and profits from the mainland market maintained an increase of over 20%. Thanks to the contributions of Chinese consumers, the wealth of Ryui Masa, the head of UNIQLO, has grown rapidly, and has surpassed Softbank Sun Zhengyi in the fortune list, making it the richest person in Japan.

China's current consumer market is facing unprecedented changes. On the one hand, as the economy slows down, people's expectations for future revenue are no longer optimistic, and the consumer market is sinking. With the emergence of more and more companies, more and more businesses began to focus on the sinking market. Whether Ali or Jingdong, the main performance growth points in recent years all come from the sinking market.

On the other hand, the Chinese people's consumption mentality has become more mature and pragmatic. In the past just rich stage, many people have a look up to overseas famous brands, hoping to achieve conspicuous consumption with luxury goods. But with this primitive stage, many people no longer look up to the so-called international brand, and the consumption mentality is more pragmatic. More and more people prefer a more comfortable, practical and cost-effective product. Therefore, Muji is becoming more and more difficult to sell in China, and UNIQLO is getting more and more popular. This phenomenon is not accidental, which means that the era of great changes in Chinese consumption has arrived. After the Japanese bubble economy burst, the Japanese bid farewell to the days of wine and glamour, and gradually moved towards a low desire society. Today, China is also facing such a profound turning point.