The Success of Simplicity in Response to Consumerism — MUJI
Take a look around your room — on your shelves, in your closet, on your desk. Chances are you’ll find things that you haven’t used or touched in months; things you’ve held onto to “use in the future” that now only sit and collect dust. This is something we’re all guilty of doing (to some extent). Admittedly, here in America, we live in a materialistic society, buying and hoarding things for the sake of just having more things. We have developed a self-destructive addiction to faster living — caught in a chaotic, frenzied spiral as we chase money and power, and turn to excessive consumption as an outlet to temporary happiness. Here, the Japanese retail company, MUJI (which stands for “no-brand quality goods” in Japanese), offers a refreshing alternative to our traditional branded goods by instead encouraging their customers to buy fewer products and focus on things beyond materialism in our lives. In a modern society where Americans are no more than a never-ending cycle of credit card swipes, receipts, and racers against time, MUJI’s emphasis on simple products and a minimalist lifestyle serves as a much-needed break from the fast pace of life and superficial fabrication of society. It is this exact emphasis on minimalism and simplicity that has contributed to its appeal to American consumers. The success of MUJI in the United States can be attributed to the company’s acknowledgment of society’s extreme materialism and how their product approach to mediating this superficial lifestyle has called upon the core American values of morality in the perspective of our rather consumerist world.
At the time MUJI was founded in 1980, the United States was experiencing an unprecedented wave of social conformity, suburban culture, and extreme consumerism as the Postwar Boom in the 1950s and 1960s placed a heavy emphasis on spending. This new wave of consumerism, alongside the American Dream ideal of wealth and opportunity, ultimately contributed to an obsessive desire for more copious and extravagant goods as reflections of individual success to the point where many Americans felt overwhelmed by their crammed schedules and overflowing possessions. Here, MUJI stepped in, offering its minimalistic products as alternatives to the traditional goods that are prone to cluttering and disorganizing our lives. Rather than focusing on getting consumers to buy more, MUJI focuses on timeless sophistication, quality, and functionality that allows consumers to buy less, manage less, and instead focus more on decluttering our lives. The company calls upon minimalist principles that embrace simplification and reject traditional consumerism and all the problems that result from it, and rightly so. Minimalism offers a new opportunity for Americans to escape the burdens that exist when possessing and hoarding unnecessary material possessions. As the company accurately states, “Unless we adopt values informed by moderation and self-restraint, the world will find itself at an impasse” (Beecker). In other words, if we do not change our unsustainable consumption habits, we are only dooming ourselves and our world. Not only does their minimalistic concept appeal to the typical American consumer by offering a new approach to our excessive consumption habits, it also takes into account the greater global importance of social and environmental responsibility that has recently become more recognized in American society. Here, MUJI’s emphasis on simplicity and minimalism has successfully taken into account the haste of society and not only called to attention the need for minimalism, but also offered a solution to contemporary American consumerism.
MUJI is obsessed with minimalism, reflected in all its brand elements which embody the concept of “Less is More.” In today’s marketplace full of brands screaming for attention, MUJI represents a more conservative approach to consumerism, by selling products that attempt to solve the issue at its fundamental level. According to Toru Akita, president of MUJI Canada, the company uses frequent customer observation to “find invisible or unrealized stress and try to find a solution” (Lau) rather than create new products in the market with no functional purpose other than accessorizing. By doing so, MUJI products are created to simply solve issues in daily lives without unnecessary ornamentation nor flamboyance. It is this exact emphasis on simplicity that has contributed to its appeal to American consumers. Many of us today feel overwhelmed by our copious possessions, and MUJI’s minimalism offers an escape from the contemporary issue of consumerism by embracing simplification.
Acting accordingly with their goal of product simplification to reduce unwanted stress and clutter in daily lives, MUJI acknowledges micro-considerations that focus on innovative quality and design to further dissolve unwanted burdens. Their focus on material selection, process streamlining, and packaging simplification allows the company to invest more in design choice and quality to create a long-lasting product that ultimately endures the test of time. By doing so, they ensure that their customers are satisfied with a single product that lasts longer than the traditional market alternative and does not have to be as frequently replaced. This product endurance translates into buying fewer products and ultimately translates back to their ultimate goal of minimalism and decluttering. One again, minimalism offers a refreshing perspective that entices American consumers who seek to fully engage with everyday life without unnecessary distractions and regain their lost sense of clarity and focus in our bustling society. Taking a look at one of their most popular products, the MUJI Recycled Paper Bind A5 Notebook 6mm lined, one can see the innovation behind the product design: the perforated pages that prevent accidental tearing, the sewn binding that allows for writing ease for both right-handed and left-handed users, the faint grey lines that allow for creative doodling, the small guidelines at the top of each page to allow for easy vertical page division — all of these micro-considerations that many other competing stationery notebooks fail to acknowledge contributes to creating a more functional, day-to-day notebook. MUJI’s micro-considerations solve unwanted stress that customers may potentially not realize while simultaneously showcasing how minimalistic design allows for more functionality, creativity, and free rein.
Some critics may claim that the American value of aesthetics over functionality has mislabeled MUJI as simply another “foreign company selling generic products.” Tiffany Lung, a research analyst specializing in Asian retail strategy, innovations, and consumer behaviors, argues that MUJI’s lack of branding has made the company overall less memorable, and thus unsuccessful. Her central claim is that MUJI’s “very own brand philosophy and anti-America consumerism approach [has] led to their downfall,” and that this failure to account for American values has contributed to MUJI’s inability to grow in the United States stationery market (Lung). In other words, the traditional Japanese “kanketsu” mentality that emphasizes simplicity and self-restraint is too contradictory to the traditional American dream that emphasizes aesthetic and materialistic consumption. Although Lung does not say so directly, she apparently assumes that MUJI’s Japanese reflection of prudence and frugality automatically translates into an anti-American assumption of recklessness and self-indulgence. Though I agree with Lung that there is a stark difference between the consumerist habits of Japan and the United States, I would argue that it is precisely this contradictory American value that MUJI has embraced and used as its primary brand differentiation tactic. The brand’s relentless focus is on the product and does away with any unnecessary decoration or ornamentation. By maintaining this “generic,” simple branding, MUJI appeals to a unique group of American customers who are tired of consumerism and prefer a refreshing alternative to traditional branded goods. Moreover, MUJI has successfully created subliminal messaging in their “generic-looking” products and company image that indirectly calls upon the core American value of morality.
In addition to the simplicity, affordability, and innovation of MUJI that has made the brand so appealing, its products also project an environmentally conscious company image that elicits positive reactions, as the moral nature of environmentally-friendly behavior innately makes us feel good. Ultimately, this socially responsible message entices American consumers to reconsider their unsustainable consumption habits. “Approaching minimalism with an environmentally-conscious mindset allows us effortlessly to embrace sustainability through simplification” (Pratt). Simply stated, simplicity paves the way towards a more sustainable future. With issues like global climate change and pollution becoming more prevalent in daily American discussions, “69% of environmentally-conscious [North-American] buyers … are ready to change their shopping habits to reduce negative impact on the environment” (Bekmagambetova). A simple glance into their stores and on their website reveals how MUJI designs its products with sustainability in mind: packaged minimally and bare and sold in natural or Earth colored tones. Taking a look at the MUJI Bind A5 notebook once again, the recycled paper notebook consists of 30 light cream-colored pages that have skipped the bleaching process of traditional blinding-white notebook pages. Not only is this micro-consideration specifically designed to minimize strain on the eyes, but it also projects an environmentally-friendly image that makes American consumers feel good as if they are actively helping the environment. This altruistic feeling that comes with purchasing MUJI products entices customer loyalty, as customers subliminally associate MUJI with doing a moral good. By calling upon the American value of morality through promoting an environmentally friendly image, opting for MUJI’s minimalistic and sustainable products allows American common people to gain a sense of selflessness, and serves as somewhat of an appropriate excuse for their spending habits.
Americans have undeniably come to adopt a consumer behavior where we believe buying is the root of our happiness, when in fact, consumerism is only an empty, temporary distraction from our everyday problems that causes more stress than it relieves. MUJI has been one of the first major companies to successfully call out this excessive materialism of the American consumer and offer minimalism as an alternative lifestyle. Of course, a minimalist lifestyle is still a choice, and though MUJI initially appealed to individuals by selling simple products to declutter our daily lives, Americans are starting to realize the greater benefits of minimalism as well — it allows us to refocus our lives and prioritize our tasks, contributes to greater financial flexibility, and increases overall happiness. But the true benefits of minimalistic consumption tie back to its greater global implications. Though minimalism does not present an immediate solution to our continuous growth nor social responsibility, it does offer a temporary substitute to issues that seem to only get worse over-time. Once we begin to focus on the things that make us truly happy in life and overlook the distractions of our worldly possessions, then will we be able to realize the answer to our life’s problems is not through continuous, materialistic growth. And as American consumers begin realizing the negative effects of our excessive consumption habits, MUJI has successfully capitalized on this and created a brand philosophy that acknowledges the contemporary issue of consumerism by presenting a refreshing solution to solving this through minimalism.
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Works Cited
Bekmagambetova, Dinara. “Two-Thirds of North Americans Prefer Eco-Friendly Brands, Study Finds.” Barron’s, Barrons, 10 Jan. 2020, www.barrons.com/articles/two-thirds-of-north-americans-prefer-eco-friendly-brands-study-finds-51578661728.
Becker, Joshua. “Muji — Capitalizing on Simplicity.” Becoming Minimalist, 10 Jan. 2013, www.becomingminimalist.com/muji-capitalizing-on-simplicity/.
Lau, Lucy. “Cult Japanese Brand MUJI’s Secret to Success Is All in the Details.” The Georgia Straight, 27 Jan. 2017, www.straight.com/life/860146/cult-japanese-brand-mujis-secret-success-all-details.
Lung, Tiffany. “Beyond The Pandemic: Why Muji Failed To Survive In The U.S.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 13 July 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/tiffanylung/2020/07/12/beyond-the-pandemic-why-muji-failed-to-survive-in-the-us/.
Pratt, Deanna. “A Concise Introduction to Eco-Minimalism.” Eco Ally, 10 June 2020, ecoally.co/eco-minimalism/.
