"Pla de Isetan," the official Isetan online community for communication between Isetan and its customers, as well as between customers themselves, will launch on December 13th. Testing began in February 2012, and this will be the third event.

The goal is to gather the real interests and opinions of Isetan fans by providing a forum for communication with customers outside of stores. The Mitsukoshi Isetan Group has previously used purchasing behavior data from approximately 2.6 million cardholder accounts to inform its product lineup and sales services. However, the idea behind this initiative was that the subtle, honest thoughts consumers express in their daily lives, beyond what can be gleaned from this data alone, may hold clues for creating new value (products and experiences).

By registering as a community member, "Pla de Isetan" allows users to freely express themselves and communicate with other participants by posting comments, sending applause, and answering surveys in areas such as "Discussion Spaces," "Circles," and "Online Discussions." Through these actions, participants can earn community points, which can be used to enter a lottery to win prizes.

Participants will mainly be Web MI Card members, and will cover topics such as the remodeling of the Shinjuku store, gourmet food, and lifestyle. In a first for the company, there will also be an "I Love Pets" circle set up, where people can talk about pets, and which is open to non-members as well.

The event will be run by Avec Research Institute (headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo), Japan's largest provider of social media consulting services.