Case study : Butter Monaga from Matsubayashido

By | 2014/03/11

Delicious! Super good!

Monaga is kind of Japanese desert with soft red beans inside, which is a common Japanese desert.

The Matsubayashido company produced Monaga with butter inside, which made it extremely good and different!

I got these Monagas from my friend, who is in activities related to the supportive activities to the entrepreneurs in Tohoku, Japan.

Although I never know this special desert before, I was so surprised that it haven’t become popular yet.

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Here comes some ideas about this Butter Monaga business.

(1)   How to let people know the deliciousness.

Since the company/store is located at Fukushima, 200 km from Tokyo, it is difficult for customers in Tokyo to understand the taste without demonstrative stores in Tokyo.

I believe this is the most significant bottleneck of this business.

If they can distribute some samples of Butter Monaga to customers, I think it may be quite effective method to produce repetitive customers.

Even through there are some good photos of Butter Monaga on the internet, the effectiveness should be very limited.

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(2)   Price

105 yen (1 USD) for one is a very cheap price. There should be no problem on this.

The problem comes from the shipping cost. The shipping cost is usually around 700 yen (7 USD) to send a package from Fukushima to Tokyo.

The price of 10 units is 1,050 yen (10 USD) and the further cost of shipping (700 yen) becomes a heavy burden to sell.

Therefore, the way to decrease the cost of shipping is the key.

I would propose to establish a store or a small storage center at Tokyo so that the shipping cost could be pressed by shipping with large amount each time.

Besides, since the price of each unit is as low as 105 yen, we can expect that the profits will not be very high, which result in some difficulties in setting a store or storage center at Tokyo.

To cooperate with some local food distributors in Tokyo may also be a good choice.

(3)   The order process

Because there is only one store at Fukushima, the purchase from other locations relies on phone calls only.

It is also kind of problem.

Nowadays, internet ordering is very common. People are getting used to obtaining all information of the product, such as the price, shipping cost and shipping date, etc, and pay by credit card online.

Therefore, If it is not available to order online, some people may feel troublesome and may just give up.

In conclusion, the way to express the deliciousness and the strategy to lower the shipping cost are core problems inside this business.

If they are not improved, the business may be limited to Fukushima local customers or some tourists, which may let this business struggle more in the future.

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