Marui department store had been known for inexpensive merchandise for college students. However, wishing to expand its customer base to a more urban, lifestyle-inspired clientele, Marui opened a new store in Yurakucho, an area known for its cluster of luxury department stores. Our challenge was to avoid Marui’s casual discount store image and reintroduce it as a quality-conscious urban store in an area where elegance was the norm. To do so, we created a concept called “Fashion Therapy”; the idea that fashion could enhance not only outer beauty but could also affect inner well-being.

First, we created teaser advertising using the capsule icon. The capsule wasn’t only a graphic icon; we brought it out into the street near the new store in the form of vending machines that dispensed capsule-like containers. Consumers selected the button that fit their mood and received answers written on underwear placed inside the containers. We even briefly opened a restaurant nearby that served everything in candy form.Finally, we used six huge projectors to project various images onto the new shop’s façade indicating that Marui was about to change its clothes to become a fashion icon store.