Building a brand? Why look at Japan
1) Similar demographic trends, consumption patterns and urban structure.
2) Cultural affinity.
Yitang partnered with MKT Lab to bring a group of China's leading brand professionals to Japan's benchmark companies and brand experience stores, to explore branding, product development, experience design, service experience and marketing strategy together.
Participants
| Kang Le | Former Brand Director, NetEase Yanxuan |
| Cheng Jinlan | Former Brand Director, MINISO |
| Cao Yuanyuan | Marketing Director, Consumer Products, Microsoft China |
| Wang Zhiyong | CEO, Yunqi Xingchen |
| Liu Jiaying | Senior Product Manager, Meituan |
| Ma Bohan | Co-founder, Vega |
| Zhao Congchong | CCE CEO |
| Feng Zhile | Vision Designer, Tianhong Asset Management |
Stop 1: Tsutaya Books
Session: Inside the Tsutaya Books Business Model
Tsutaya Books is the premium bookstore brand of Culture Convenience Club (CCC), best known for its Daikanyama store in Tokyo. Opened in 2011, Daikanyama T-Site is far more than a place that sells books: it proposes a lifestyle, rebuilding the bookstore around the customer experience through curated content.
Alongside the familiar café-plus-bookstore formula, it pioneered a whole range of lifestyle services, from merchandise and restaurants to pet care and travel consulting.
Stop 2: MUJI
Session: Brand and Marketing Strategy, the MUJI Way
MUJI began as the private label of the Japanese retailer Seiyu.
From its original focus on home goods and apparel it has expanded into fresh produce, restaurants and hotels, covering what customers wear, eat and live in with products and marketing designed for every scene of daily life. MUJI is, without question, the consumer brand that represents Japan.
Stop 3: UNIQLO
Session: The Brand Power Behind Best-Selling Products
UNIQLO's distinctive big-box approach to merchandise planning, development and sales keeps store operations lean and has produced a sales phenomenon. In recent years its collaborations with major Western brands, and the classic UT line that almost everyone seems to own, have kept the momentum going.
Stop 4: BEAMS
Session: Product Development and Sub-Brand Management at BEAMS
Founded in 1976, BEAMS is Japan's leading select shop for streetwear. For half a century it has set the direction of Japanese fashion, and with its records, homeware, stationery and other lines it has become a bellwether of Tokyo's trend-driven lifestyle.
BEAMS runs a large family of sister brands, each with a clear positioning and a distinct identity.
Stop 5: TMS Entertainment
Session: How TMS Builds Pop-Culture IP
Founded in 1964, TMS is one of Japan's best-known animation studios.
Its credits include Detective Conan, Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas, Lupin the Third and Anpanman. Detective Conan has stayed hugely popular since its debut in 1996, and each year's feature film is eagerly awaited by fans.
Exploring Tokyo's retail districts
The itinerary also took in Ginza, Shibuya, Minami-Aoyama, Omotesando, Shinjuku and Akihabara, a panoramic view of consumer upgrading in practice.
