Matsukiyo Go!

Below: Before and After Images in Slide Show, Videos, Summary, Credits

Traditionally, drugstores in Japan are functional roadside warehouses whose only edge is price. Matsukiyo is the dominant domestic chain. Founded in 1932, it now boasts 1,680 stores and 576 billion yen annual revenue.

In recent years, the excitement in the sector had shifted to boutique stores in upscale areas. To compete, Matsukiyo realized it needed to revolutionize the way people feel about their everyday purchases.

We turned the company’s Ikebukuro store into an eye-popping multimedia experience that repositioned the chain as unconventional, daring, and forward-thinking, shook up ingrained notions of what the category can be, and changed the way customers interact with their essential domestic purchases.

App-based virtual concierges guide you through the showroom-like floors and highlight fashion tips and trends. The store is built around POP characters with bouncy expressions and comic-like elements to create a fun expression that entices and informs.

Rather than just a place to hunt for the things you need and get out of there, we made Matsukiyo GO! a destination by itself. With a jazzy, dynamic decor with interactive screens and multimedia, we made visitors feel thrilled to be here, and far more likely to linger.

Matsukiyo GO! is a new category of store that draws in people of all ages and sexes. The point is to change consumer behavior, and we’ve certainly achieved that. In-store times, sales, and media attention have all skyrocketed. We’ve also managed to pull in elusive male purchasers, including kindling a conversation around male cosmetics.

We turned the drugstore experience into one of culture, entertainment, and wit, with surprises on every floor, and reinvented Matsukiyo as youthful and daring. The result is a brand with confidence and verve, and one whose stance on social issues is back at the heart of everyday Japanese society.