I recently came across a lifestyle store in Singapore’s shopping belt called M&G LIFE, and it was chock-a-block filled with fancy pens, mechanical pencils, gift sets and character goods that drew crowds of youngsters. I did not buy any but I did pick them up to give them a try. Here are some pictures I took, just to share the general store decor and product selection:
Interesting! Looks like a Muji store.
We get a lot of M&G stuff in little mom and pop stationery stores here, in Korea. Seems pretty cheaply made for the most part though.
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When I look at 晨光 M&G, it reminds me of Xiaomi’s design logic. A lot of models feel like they share the same underlying “ghost platform,” just different skins and tweaks.
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AliX carries a lot of their stuff.
I have a surprisingly good ”Delguard” and that white double-knock, but it is worse than the Writoll for my intended modifications use.
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An interesting story, in the early 2000s, M&G was just an emerging brand among many. While everyone else was trying to imitate foreign products, M&G (did the same thing but also) approached individually-owned stores and offered them to become M&G affiliated stores. All of them would receive M&G fascia signs and some of them would even get full store renovations, all for free. It helped individual stores to grow and it was upon these stores did M&G build their brand identity. By the mid 2010s M&G had become a stationery icon.
M&G lifestyle was probably founded after seeing MINISO’s success, althought I doubt if they will go towards a lifestyle brand as far. And yes the variety of M&G products is insane. M&G alone might have as many product lines as Uni, Pilot and Pentel combined. They have so much variety that they don’t even bother to name the majority of them. You either read the 8-digit product code or you just call it ‘‘some M&G rubber grip mechanical pencil’’
I remember last year or so they had some eco-focused products, one of them being a correction tape with honeycomb-patterned body shells to reduce plastic usage (honestly I think all correction tapes should be this way). There was also a mechanical pencil that used a massive Sprinter-style external plastic spring, so they can get rid of metal usage and make the entire pencil biodegradable
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Thanks for the brand insights! MINISO… sigh, this was such a letdown. They tried to be a cheaper MUJI and got called out for it. I found lots of fake Lamy Safari-style pens there in the early days here in Singapore. Even let Lamy Singapore know and they responded with: Yes we know, but it’s up to corporate to pursue them legally.
M&G are interesting in that I can see them trying to wean off outright copying successful Japanese stationery in favor of doing their own thing. I find this admirable.
The challenge is: they are throwing EVERYTHING at the wall to see what sticks! I would like to see them focus on one or two hero products in each category to show off their best capabilities in design, manufacturing AND marketing. More competition is good!
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