Developing a Marketing Mix and Budget for MUJI's Expansion in Vietnam

This report outlines a marketing mix and budget strategy for MUJI's expansion into Vietnam. It details the four Ps of marketing: product, price, promotion, and place, tailored to the Vietnamese market. The product strategy emphasizes maintaining MUJI's simple design and leveraging its 'No Brand' approach. The pricing strategy suggests an initial 'Opening discount pricing strategy' followed by competitive pricing. Promotion focuses on social media advertising campaigns and participation in trade fairs. Place strategy involves opening stores in populous areas like Hanoi and Saigon. The proposed marketing budget allocates resources to primary and secondary research, digital marketing, trade fairs, and promotional materials, with an initial aggressive marketing strategy to drive early sales. The report estimates the break-even point requires selling 13,500 products, assuming an average product price of $12 and a target profit margin of 10%.

Marketing Mix and Marketing Budget

Contents
MARKETING MIX........................................................................................................................2
MARKETING BUDGET.................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................................7
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MARKETING MIX
The marketing mix of the MUJI will help to develop the foundation marketing model for
expansion in Vietnam. Four P of marketing that is the product, price, promotion and place
will be analysed according to the marketing condition to get the maximum advantage of the
investment made and it will also help to reduce various risk (Huang and Sarigöllü, 2014). The
marketing mix of the MUJI is as follows:
Product
The products of MUJI have a speciality of being of the simple in design, low cost and made
from high-quality material. In addition to this, the product of the company also made from
composite material that includes recycled wood. Currently, the company offers more than
7000 products that can fulfil the needs and requirements of commercial and the residential
furniture needs of the Vietnam (MUJI Annual Report, 2017). As the designs of the products
are simple and modifications are likely to be made easily the company should not make any
specific changes in the product design and offering for the various stores in Vietnam, this
process will help the company to take advantage of the globally accepted deigns (Kotler and
Armstrong, 2010).
With regard to the branding of products, packaging and labelling the company must
continue to the use its "No Brand" strategy. Suitable application of the "No Brand" strategy
of the MUJI will help to reduce the cost of the product packaging and branding (MUJI
Annual Report, 2017). The company will also get the benefit of the reverse phycology
marketing with the help of the “No Brand” Strategy. In addition to this, it will also support
the “Green consumerism” with regard to the reduced carbon emission and the
environmental preservation due to appropriate packing (Akenji, 2014).
Price
As the company will be in an initial opening stage in Vietnam, the company must adopt an
"Opening discount pricing strategy” to gain maximum customer attention and the action an
good volume of sale in the initial phase of launching (Kotler and Armstrong, 2010). This
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strategy will help in the promotion of the company with help of mouth publicity and it will
also help to reduce the initial barrier and slowdown in the sale.
A majority of the population of Vietnam belong to the middle class and the number of the
middle-class population is rising, MUJI must focus on flexible payment options (Ernst and
Young, 2018). The company can develop a low-interest EMI option for the customers (Ernst
and Young, 2018). A wider range of pricing solution will help the company to reach a larger
number of customers. Post launching phase the MUJI can switch to the normal cost of
furniture, which can be kept below the average furniture cost in Vietnam to get the pricing
advantage (Ernst and Young, 2018)..
Promotion
MUJI can adopt social media advertising campaign in Vietnam. Various reasons can be
identified for this approach, first, the internet penetration and the smartphone usage in
Vietnam is excellent, due to which the company will get an advantage to reach a high
number of the customers. Second, the advertisement and promotion are highly regulated in
Vietnam hence the use of social media will help the company to get better control over the
marketing campaigns. Third, use of social media such as the twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and
Zing me will help the company to reach the target market segment (Ernst and Young, 2018).
Fourth, the company has an expertise in attracting the customers with the help of social
media advertisement (MUJI Annual Report, 2017)
The company can also take advantage of the trade fair that is organised in Vietnam, a large
number of the population are likely to visit the trade fairs that are organized in the various
prime location of the company. Additionally, the company strategy of “Word of Mouth”
publicity with the help of the creative and dynamic advertisement camping can be used in
Vietnam for promotion (MUJI Annual Report, 2017).
Place
The main objective of the placing stagey for MUJI must be to reach a larger number of the
customer by opening shops and centres at highly populous areas of in Vietnam. As the store
will be a direct chain of the company it will help the company to reduce cost and maintain
the quality of the customer service. The company can open the outlets at Hanoi in the
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region of Northern Vietnam and Saigon in the region of Southern Vietnam (Ernst and Young,
2018).
MUJI must also open the inventory store and head office in these two cities as it will help
the company to get easy access to the airport and the other resources required for business
operation and the promotion (Ernst and Young, 2018).
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MARKETING BUDGET
ACTIVITI
ES
( AMOUNT IN USD)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apri
l
May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
Researc
h
Primary
Researc
h
150
00
800
0
Seconda
ry
Researc
h
500
0
200
0
Actions
Digital
Marketi
ng
800
0
800
0
800
0
800
0
800
0
800
0
800
0
800
0
800
0
800
0
800
0
800
0
Trade
Fairs
500
0
500
0
500
0
500
0
Website 200
0
200
0
200
0
200
0
200
0
200
0
200
0
200
0
200
0
200
0
200
0
200
0
Promoti
on
Material
s
(Pamphl
ets,
Broache
rs, Flex
300
0
500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500
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and
others)
Total 380
00
205
00
105
00
105
00
105
00
105
00
105
00
105
00
105
00
105
00
105
00
105
00
Final
Total
163500
MUJI will get assistance in developing an effective marking campaign with the help of
primary and secondary research methods, the company will also get detail knowledge and
information about the consumer behaviour (Hair and Lukas, 2014). As the company will
focus on digital marketing and the trade fair majority of the marketing budget is assigned to
the digital marketing and trade fairs. During the initial launch phase, the company must
focus on "Aggressive Marketing strategy” hence the budge of the marketing budget for the
first month is higher. Post the launch period the company can reduce the marketing budget
(Hair and Lukas, 2014).
We have assumed that the average price of MUJI product is 12USD and the target profit is
10%. As the average price of the product of the MUJI is 12USD, so in order to achieve a
profit of the 10% over the marketing budget the company needs to sell 1250 products per
month. The breakeven point for the company will occur after the sale of the 13500 products
form the company.
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REFERENCES
 Akenji, L., 2014. Consumer scapegoatism and limits to green consumerism. Journal of
Cleaner Production, 63, pp.13-23.
 Ernst and Young, Doing Business in Vietnam, 2018 (Online available
https://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Doing_Business_in_Vietnam/$FILE/
Doing_Business_in_Vietnam_16000319.pdf last accessed on Aug 2018)
 Hair Jr, J.F. and Lukas, B., 2014. Marketing research (Vol. 2). McGraw-Hill Education
Australia.
 Huang, R. and Sarigöllü, E., 2014. How brand awareness relates to the market
outcome, brand equity, and the marketing mix. In Fashion Branding and Consumer
Behaviors (pp. 113-132). Springer, New York, NY.
 Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G., 2010. Principles of marketing. Pearson education.
 MUJI Annual Report,2017 (Online available at
https://ssl4.eir-parts.net/doc/7453/ir_material_for_fiscal_ym9/38079/00.pdf last
accessed on Aug 2018)
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