The Trinity of Branding, Marketing and Experience

Hello there! 👋

It’s been a while since my last newsletter. I’m back from my recovery and also my trip to Japan. It’s a trip that I have been planning since before the lockdowns happened in 2020, and when Japan reopened last year, I knew I had to book it at the start of this year. As a matter of fact, I hadn’t fully recovered, and I was still coughing quite badly while I was in Japan, and I had to go to Tomod’s — japan’s well known pharmacy/drugstore for some cough medication.

Anyway, it was my first time going to Japan and I must say, the country is absolutely beautiful. There were many places that I visited and I enjoyed almost all of it. One place stood out to me with the genius behind the brand it has built for himself, and the experience that we got. I thought I could break it down to you and share how it was so compelling for me to go there, and share this experience on social media—like everyone else.

Kichi Kichi Omurice

If you have watched BuzzFeed on Youtube before, around 5 years ago, they featured a place called Kichi Kichi Omurice in one of their videos, amongst others. Helmed by Mr. Motokichi Yukimura, today he is known for his cheerful performance of cooking omurice—which he thinks that is important to show his enjoyment of making it as well, to help the food taste better, giving you an experience you never forget. For context, Omurice is Japanese Omelette Rice that can be presented or cooked in a variety of ways.

If you’ve heard or seen about him on your social media, it’s because there are things that he has done absolutely right in his branding, marketing, and experience, tying it up altogether to create an ecosystem that produces a demand, forming queues that start from 11am on weekdays and 9am on weekends outside his store daily. There’s in an online system, but because all seats are snapped up within 2 minutes when bookings open, people would go down to queue to get a spot in his list of diners.

Why Do People Want to Go There?

For starters, people who have seen his performance on social media have seen his cheerful demeanour and his silky smooth omurice drizzled with demi-glace sauce. Some people called it overpriced and overhyped—after all, it’s just eggs and rice. They are not wrong though. However, there are so many places in Japan that sell omurice. So why Kichi Kichi?

Experience—If you go to his restaurant, and someone else cooks it, you probably wouldn’t be happy. People go there for him and his performance. I too, went there, because I wanted to try the omurice made by Mr. Motokichi

And also…

Demand—The limited seating of around 10 people per session increases demand because it’s difficult to get seats.

We’re now in the “content/influencer economy”, where people like to show that they were able to get into some place that is in high-demand, further driving demand, as it gets more popular.

The Kichi Kichi Experience

While some restaurants refrain you from filming or taking pictures, Kichi Kichi Omurice actually encourages it. The way he has brilliantly made it simple for everyone to share, is to provide a dock for all to film his performance of him making omurice. This dock is placed in front of everyone’s seats at the counter, so you can place your mobile phone there to record his performance without having to hold it.

He then makes omurice for the people who have ordered it (everyone is there for that so it’s pretty much everyone), and he personalises it for each and every person. His performance of YOUR omurice is made for you and you only. You can choose between ‘cut’ and ‘fly’ where he either cuts it on your plate, or flips it directly onto your plate. All his interactions when cooking for you, are directed to you. It makes you feel special, as if he created this experience just for you.

And because I was the recipient of this amazing experience, I wanted to share this with my audience on social media. This then creates the impression (his branding) and the interest of people who want to get the same experience. The experience through his personalised performance, and thoughtfulness of having a mobile phone stand, created the cycle where the trinity of branding, marketing and experience perpetuates itself.

Here’s how it is:

His demeanour and performance — Experience

Providing a mobile phone stand for everyone to record the performance — Marketing

Me, posting on social media (and writing this post) — Branding & marketing

People viewing the post and forming an impression — Branding

If you actually haven’t heard of him, what I just did for him was to create an awareness about him, and if what I shared with you piques your interest, you might just go visit him when you’re in Japan. I just did free marketing for him. Interesting, ain’t it? He’s such a genius.

I honestly believe that a good brand is the experience you receive, and when you’re impressed, you’d share it on social media, which in turn, creates a good impression. If you’re a UX designer, you need to understand that you’re not just designing interfaces. What you need to know is that your role supports the other two functions as well.

Reflect: Think about how Mr Motokichi uses this for his own branding and you could apply this either at work, or even use it to elevate your own personal branding. The experience that you deliver to other people, creates a brand around who you are, and then in turn, when they speak of you, it would be based on their experience they’ve had with you. That is why I stress that as a ux designer, you have to understand the importance of personalising experiences to the people you meet—it could be the HR, it could be your colleagues, it could be your boss. A good experience always speaks for itself, which in turn, the people who speak of you are the ones who market you, and give you your brand.

Mentor’s Notes

I honestly enjoyed myself there. It’s overpriced, I agree, but it was the experience I was seeking. I also needed to taste the food for myself before coming back to Singapore to make omurice myself. In case you didn’t know, I also have an Instagram account that posts food that I’ve cooked. And yes, I got kichi’s omurice pan, spatula and rice mould.

If you’re going to Japan soon, and you’d like to visit Kichi kichi omurice in Kyoto, here’s what their process is, and here are some tips:

• For weekdays, Kichi kichi omurice only opens for dinner at 6pm, and weekends, 11am for lunch and 6pm for dinner. There are a few sessions for dinner (not sure about lunch)

• They take bookings at 3pm for dinner, and if you get a seat, you have to come back 20 minutes before your session for them to take your order.

• For the 3pm booking, I was there at 1.30pm and there was already around 15 people in the queue—so be there early. It’s first-come-first basis.

• I have heard that the queues are getting longer even at an earlier time, so try to be earlier.

There you have it! I thought it was a pretty fun yet thought provoking experience understanding the mechanics behind Kichi Kichi Omurice’s success. If you enjoyed this newsletter, or have any feedbacks about it, do hit reply! I’m always keen to hear from you.

P.S. Yes, as always, please share it with your friends if you think it’s useful.