Chapeter 10: Product Concepts

Product Concepts

     UNIQLO, like I mentioned in my previous posts do not emphasize their logo. If a person were to wear a shirt from UNIQLO, most people, if not every person, on the street would not recognize it as a UNIQLO product. For example, it is so easy to analyze an Abercrombie and Fitch shirt in a crowd because their obvious logo is a moose. They would rather focus on the quality of their clothing than making a logo to make their company famous. Since they like to emphasize that their clothing is "Made For All," they wouldn't want to create a logo so that there will be people who don't like the idea and won't wear their clothing.
     Another thing they like to focus on is original, clean clothing. They want to sell shirts that are great for everyday wear, for lounging around and for basic days. Their t-shirts can be worn under sweaters, by itself on a regular non-eventful day, and as layering. Their clothing is basic so that anyone and everyone could wear so their products speaks for themselves, something they really want.
     They also provide clothing for both males and females and now children too, which really stresses their idea of "Made For ALL." They want to be able to have their clothing accessible to anyone and everyone and what better way than to have clothes for all types of people? Their clothing also doesn't discriminate against certain races because, again, they want to make clothing for everyone, unlike a lot of the stores that are out there right now. They're either focused on one race group or an age group while UNIQLO is available to all types of people.

Chapter 18: Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

     Although there isn't a sales section for UNIQLO, there are certain times in the year where they offer different promotions.
     For every flagship store they opened in New York City, they had promotions on their apparel as low as $5.99. In their UNIQLO 5th Avenue store, they offered women's jeans for as low as $9.90. This brings a lot of customers in and the customers get a chance to enjoy what UNIQLO has to offer. They also had a promotion a couple of months back where they were selling their HEAT TECH T-shirts for half the price! The HEAT TECH T-shirts are originally $5.99-6.99 so essentially, they were selling t-shirts for $3!
     Along with promotions, UNIQLO teams up with different companies or organizations to offer collaborated apparel. For example, there was a time when they were selling limited edition Hello Kitty clothing. Also, when Japan was hit with a massive Earthquake that killed thousands, they sold T-shirts to help the relief. I walked into the store during that time and there were many t-shirts saying "Save Japan." I specifically remember one of the T-shirts saying, "with all my heart, to Japan."
     UNIQLO doesn't have many promotions throughout the year, such as not offering lower prices during Black Friday, but they are very big on their advertising. Just like I said in my post prior to this one, UNIQLO advertises on trains, buses, cabs, and billboards. Advertising is an important part of how they get the attention of their customers.

Chapter 17: Advertising and Public Relations

Advertising and Public Relations

     Advertising is an important part of every business. Without advertising, companies won't be able to show their full potential to the world and not as easily either.
     One of UNIQLO's most famous products, like mentioned in my previous posts, are their HEATTECH clothing. When it was first introduced, it was advertised on billboards, trains, taxi's, and on bus stops. It grabbed people's attentions by showing off the various benefits that it has which include: fiber that makes it anti-static, fabric that absorbs moisture for quick drying, odor control, stretchable comfort, fabric that is non-deforming, and last but not least heat generation which allows heat to be kept in.
     Another major factor to their advertising is their logo and  slogan. Their famous logo could now be recognized by many of the people in New York City because it's unique and original. Their slogan, "Made For All" catches many people's attention because their clothing is known to fit the needs, wants, and sizes of every person. UNIQLO's approaches to good advertising is working to their benefit because people do enjoy businesses where their logo isn't too flashy, which UNIQLO's clothing don't have their logo on them, and people like hearing that there's a store that's capable of selling things that everyone would want. "Made For All" implies that every person in the world can shop in their store.
     UNIQLO has successfully advertised their company in New York City with their HEATTECH as well as their other products. Whenever I walk into UNIQLO, there's always a bunch of people who are in their HEATTECH section and there are hundreds of people who go into their stores each day.

Chapter 15: Retailing

Retailing

     UNIQLO is a welcoming and clean store with staff members that are friendly and helpful. I know from experience because I shop there frequently and I even stopped there today, at the SOHO store, to look for a pair of jeans and a shirt.

     When I stepped in today, I was welcomed with a fresh face who said hello and didn't bother me like most workers of retail stores do by bombarding me with "can I help you" questions. Although I wanted to do some shopping, my goal was to ask a worker what the HEATTECH really is. I've done research online for this blog but I wanted to hear it from a worker who should be familiar with the product. I asked an employee who was folding jeans on the second floor and he was more than happy to assist me. He said that HEATTECH was one of their most proudest products because of its amazing features. It absorbs any sweat you precipitate, keeps heat in, and its "mad" comfortable. The technology offers to solve the problems that many of their customers have. He said if you sweat a lot, this product is perfect for you. If you get cold easily, this product is for you. If you like something comfortable yet casual, this product is definitely for you. If I didn't know about the product before, I'd buy the shirts on the spot from his convincing but I already have about 10 HEAT TECH shirts already.

     When I left, the same young man who said hello said a warming good-bye and have a nice day. The employees are helpful and active, which are qualities of a good staff.

Chapter 6: Consumer Decision Making

Consumer Decision Making

     It is important for any business to think about their consumers with every action they take and UNIQLO puts a lot of emphasis on making their consumers happy.

     For starters, UNIQLO gets the attention of many of their consumers by posting ads on subway lines and stations and on taxis. It's crucial for a brand like UNIQLO to advertise and make their brand known by display because UNIQLO does not have a logo. It's easy to spot brands like Abercrombie and Fitch, Hollister, and Ralph Lauren because once you see the moose, bird or horse, you'll know exactly what brand it is. To UNIQLO, their brand speaks for itself and the only way to know what brand their clothing is, is to look at the tag.

     A highly promoted product of UNIQLO today is their HEATTECH shirts. They thought of a product that will satisfy many of the troubles that their consumers have. This product, absorbs moisture, for those who sweat, keeps heat in, for those who get cold easily, and maintains its shape after many washes, for those who will wear the product often. And the best part of all, their HEATTECH technology shirts are priced as low as 6 dollars!

     With their consumers in mind, UNIQLO also provides a service that many stores don't provide: Pant tailoring, FOR FREE! If you come into the store not satisfied with the way your pants fit, they can cut your pants to your desired length and they can even make a pair of long pants into a pair of shorts.

     Another thing that will satisfy their consumers is their discounted prices. About a month or two ago, UNIQLO offered a sale on their t-shirts: $3 a tee! Who could resist that? And on their grand opening of their stores in NYC, they sold pants that were regularly priced at $59.90 for $9.90! Which is such a steal!

     UNIQLO has always said that their brands catch phrase is "MADE FOR ALL" and in many ways, they are achieving this phrase. UNIQLO's products can be worn by anyone and they do not target one type of person. Unlike many brands like Abercrombie that focuses on one type of people: Caucasians, UNIQLO wants their products to be more globalized and "MADE FOR ALL."

     It is very important for UNIQLO to satisfy their consumers and they are doing a very good job at it thus far.

Chapter 5: Developing a Global Vision

Developing a Global Vision

     UNIQLO stresses their idea of becoming the world's number one casual clothing brand and one way to achieve this is to establish a profitable overseas business.

     Like most businesses, UNIQLO has business targets. They target countries like the United States, Japan, Korea, China and the UK. Even though, in the UK and China, they are not doing as well as they want to, in Hong Kong and South Korea, they are doing better than they thought they would. As for the US, they find it a bit of a challenge but a lot of other retailing companies are finding it challenging as well.

     To have an outstanding business overseas, they must do several things. For one thing, they have to change their global mindset. A lot of their people think that their Japanese operations are separate from their overseas businesses and they need to lose that mindset and think of themselves as one business with many stores worldwide. Another thing is that they need to replicate their key success factors. They essentially sell the same sizes and products in their Japan stores with success and so they replicate it in their overseas stores. They were successful in their customer services in their Japan stores and they need to stop struggling in their overseas stores and replicate their successful customer service. Another thing they need to work on is getting more local staff to the top. A lot of their top managers are from their Japan store that moved to the other stores to help out and even though they are great at what they do, they're not as fitting with the needs of the overseas customers than someone who is local to that country. Therefore, having a local staff at the top would help them become a better overseas business.

     In order to get their name known, they needed to build a flagship store and they did so by opening a flagship store in SOHO New York in Autumn 2006 that displayed all their best products. They are looking forward to opening more stores in the various fashion capitals.

Source: UNIQLO

Chapter 4: The Marketing Environment

The Marketing Environment

     Like most businesses, UNIQLO has a target consumer. So what exactly is their target?

     According to their size charts, the sizes of their supplies and products are very limited. It is clear that they don't offer sizes for both petite and plus-size people. Most of their pant sizes don't go above size 33 for men and a lot of their sizes are in the form of XS, S, M, L and XL. For those who are smaller and larger than that will have a hard time looking for something to buy. On top of that, UNIQLO adopted the slogan "Made for All" and but it doesn't offer sizes for people who don't fit the range of their size chart. In summary, UNIQLO targets those that fit the range of XS-XL.

     However, recently, on September 7, 2012, UNIQLO launched their Kids and Babies Collection for the Fall/Winter 2012 season. Expanding on their idea of "Made for All", what better way than to make clothes for children, too? Their famous Heattech product is being utilized in their kids collection for minimizing the sweating they might have during recess. In addition, their pants in the collection have elastic waist bands for extra comfort and it makes it easier to maneuver. Although UNIQLO does not offer plus sizes or petite sizes, they are moving one step closer to their fulfilling their slogan "Made for All" with their newly launched children's collection.

Souce: UNIQLO

Chapter 3: Ethics & Social Responsibility

Ethics & Social Responsibility

UNIQLO's Quality and Safety Control System

     A company should always be responsible for protecting their workers and preserving the environment. UNIQLO, along with The Fast Retailing Group (FR), have selected the strictest safety standard in the countries that they do business in such as Japan, Europe and the U.S.The Fast Retailing Group incorporated these safety rules and regulations in to the UNIQLO Global Quality and Safety Standards. These standards are set by the Quality Establishment Committee led by the officer in charge of the production.
     The FR has also published "Case Studies on Abnormal Values." This is a series of proposals that address quality related problems which teaches employees who handle their products. The FR overseas share their problems so that it stops problems from reoccurring.
     All of the materials that UNIQLO uses are subject to safety inspections. These inspections are by a third-party monitoring organization and include sampling tests for dye fastness and residual formalin. They also perform pre-production inspections to confirm that the safety standards are being followed and pre-shipment examinations are being implemented before the supplies leave the factory. After these supplies are shipped to the warehouses, they go through another inspection before it goes to the stores.

Source: UNIQLO

Chapter 2 Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning

     UNIQLO is becoming Japan's top brand and is expanding its sales outward to other countries. In order to become a top brand, it's main focus was to put emphasis on urban stores. They have become an increasingly attractive tenant of department stores and commercial buildings. These urban stores generate strong sales and are popular with customers who have help broaden their name.

     UNIQLO is known for their exceptional quality. To ensure the development of the products of exceptional quality, it has refined its SPA (Specialty store retailer of Private label Apparel) business model. This allows for control of the entire business process — from planning and design to material procurement and sales. They are continuing to develop products of exception quality in order to "create clothing with new and unique value and to satisfy customers worldwide.”

     They also care a lot about their customers and their feedback. The UNIQLO Customer Center receives approximately 70,000 comments from customers annually. Their HEATTECH product continues to become refined each year based on the customer feedback. With feedback from their customers, UNIQLO is able to produce the exceptional quality that it does.

Source: UNIQLO

Chapter 1 History and Mission Statement

                                                                        Mission

     UNIQLO, in its efforts to create the highest quality as well as high-performance clothing, has worked with manufacturers from all around the world to acquire great high quality materials such as premuim down, Supima cotton and cashmere to produce clothing nothing short of being comfortable, affordable and of high quality. UNIQLO has created new demand by collaborating with material manufacturers, leading to products such as HEATTECH, and the ultra-light down.

  History

    UNIQLO started off as a unisex casual wear store in Fukoro-machi. At that time the stores original name was "Unique Clothing Warehouse". In 1998 the first urban UNIQLO store in Tokyo's Harajuku shopping district was open, and in no time UNIQLO was spread all throughout major cities in Japan. 

    In 2001, UNIQLO began its global expansion with the opening of its first overseas store in London, and then continued its expansion by opening stores in the U.S., France, China, South Korea, Singapore, and Russia, while launching more stores in the U.K. and in Japan. 



Sources : UNIQLO