“More Than Books” - Japan's most beautiful bookstore, TSUTAYA BOOK: Successful Branding Strategy

     Since the rise of Amazon, e-books and mobile reading devices, bookstores are finding drops in print book sales globally and the downturn of the economy hard to recover from. According to the Bookseller's Association, the number of independent bookstores in the UK has fallen below 1,000 for the first time, while the number of bookstores in the US has dropped by 12.2% since 1997, with a 9.6% decrease in sales at bookstores since 2007.However, In Japan, Shibuya Tsutaya Book(蔦屋書店) survive with a strong brand image: no promotion, no advertising, sales rose, gaining a large number of loyal readers, the success of a paradox.

Tsutaya business model

     Tsutaya Book is owned by Culture Convenience Club Co., Ltd. (CCC), the first bookstore opened at Osaka by founder Muneaki Masuda (增田宗昭) in 1983. 2 years later Muneaki set up CCC Club and created another line called "TSUTAYA", a nationwide chain of video/DVD rental shops. In 2011, due to the rise of online rental services and competition with Amazon, CCC's business - the entity's DVD rental market (TSUTAYA) growth has encountered bottlenecks, it would be a red ocean with many rivals if only selling books and videos such similar products online, Tsutaya had to create its own blue ocean - the change of brand position, an effective positioning is the basis of building strong brand. Muneaki rebuilt Tsutaya books from a "Book Store" to a "Lifestyle Concept store" in few ways:

                                      In the past, Tsutaya selling books,movies DVD or CDs rental.

I. "Premium age" customers to reshape the brand image

    Muneaki conducted a specific analysis of 35 million "T members", he found that TSUTAYA consumers are mostly young people, especially X & Y generation working group, he defined them as "premium age" who are highly sensitive to information and lifestyle. He relocated the concept store "T-SITE" at Daikanyama(代官山), a source of the latest fashion and a high-class residential area in Tokyo, with clean design and charming flourishes of light and mirrors, creating a slick, super-modern reading atmosphere for those "premium age" readers. Inside the store, there are many cafe and lounges with different topics, readers could bring books, DVDs or CDs into cafe or shops freely, this approach may result in increasing of operating costs, but the operator said that the readers who came to the bookstore book are truly love reading, they will certainly cherish to the books, which is good way to build brand loyalty to the customers.

                    

A brand new store T-site daikanyama with new logo "T" design, Tokyo 

 A simple design of Tsutaya sales bag 

II. Expertise or KOL books recommendation (專家導購)

     Different from Amazon, Tsutaya invited experts or KOL (key-opinion-leader)from a different area to write books recommendation for readers. For example, they will invite some travel expert or professional chef to recommend travel books or cookbooks, beauty bloggers/KOLs come to the bookstore talking with the readers, their dialogue may not only revolve around books but may be more spill over the scope of the book, extending to the way of life, readers could buy those recommended products after reading in the concept store too. Tsutaya could meet the reader's needs in deep, they also provide a "One-stop service" to their target customers.

III. Making Brand as Media

     Out of traditional POE (Paid,Own,Earn) media framework, Tsutaya does not make any advertisement to promote their products or brand in traditional Japanese media. Tsutaya set up CCC MEDIA HOUSE on 2014, they do promotion on their own channels: such as《PEN》,《FIGARO JAPAN》magazines, social media platform like Twitter and Mixi (Japanese social media), they even do not make any promotion or posters in their bookstore. Their advertisement message is very clear and simple to the audience, in the series of advertisement called "讀書的人", a monochrome photo with one sentence, raising many discussions and positive word of mouth from social media, people believed that Tsutaya is a "Book paradise" for readers.

 Tsutaya advertisement series - "讀書的人"

                 Tsutaya Book founder, Muneaki Masuda, autobiography printed by CCC Media House

      An effective change of brand communication and sales strategies, Tsutaya is gaining persistent growth of business revenue and positive brand image. As of Dec 2016, Tsutaya Books opened 4 concept stores in Japan and 1 in Taiwan, they target to expand 5 more concept stores overseas within 3 years.

written by Joanne Lo Pui Ching (1004600634)

Reference:

1. 日本最美書店的背後──蔦屋書店5大經營亮點, Retrieved from https://www.shoppingdesign.com.tw/post/view/949
2. 日本唯一入選「世界最美的20家書店」：蔦屋書店TSUTAYA, Retrieved from  http://www.storm.mg/lifestyle/50015
3. 日本代官山「蔦屋書店」的商業模式, Retrieved from http://www.worklifeinjapan.net/2015/10/why-tsutaya-enter-white-goods-retailing-industry.html