UNIQLO: Why Does The Cheap Clothing Brand Support Japan'S Richest Man?

From the mediocre sales to the leading Japanese casual wear brand, what kind of elixir did UNIQLO take?

In May 15th, the Uniqlo flagship store opened in Nanjing West Road, Shanghai, and there were long queues at the entrance. The staff had to lift up the wooden cards "queue up here and enter the store for 1 hours" to remind customers.

"Before you go to World Expo, you will feel this battle ahead of time."

Someone complained.

But the team is still growing, and there is still no reduction at 9 that evening.

Even the opening of H&M flagship store in Huaihailu Road, Shanghai, has not been so popular.

UNIQLO rented half a building in Nanjing West Road, with a business area of 3300 square meters, covering the past of any flagship store - London, New York and Paris.

Half a month before the opening, the entire Nanjing West Road and Wujiang roads were covered with advertising flags.

Despite preparations, the shop assistants were still caught off guard.

Seeing this brilliant scene, who would have thought that four years ago, UNIQLO was still struggling on the edge of the biggest crisis since its founding in 1984, and sales growth was flat.

In 2005, UNIQLO was experiencing a shrinking market in Europe and the United States, and the Asian market was also worrying, with sales and brand awareness decreasing.

The disastrous defeat even allowed Tamatsuka Shimotochi, the then president, to lose the real power of the president.

The problem is not just open shop.

More inclined to the basic style rather than the trend line, let UNIQLO get "concise and bright" commendation, but also to make its brand blurred.

In the H&M and ZARA fashion trends, consumers think UNIQLO is "not fashionable enough".

To make matters worse, simple style makes copying and imitation easier.

The turning point came after a meeting between Ryui Masawa and Misaki Sato.

Ryui Manami was not the kind of person who was moved by the idea of "parrot," but when he saw a TV interview by Misaki Sato and he decided to see him.

No one knew what they talked about. Soon, Liu was hiring a young Japanese designer who hardly ever laughed as a creative director. Sales of UNIQLO began to increase significantly.

Ryui Masa believes that Misaki Sato and his unique creativity and modern sense, "he not only knew the creativity of Japan before, but also knew the present Japan well, so we chose to cooperate with him."

In Japan, Misaki Sato is known as the fast knights.

Previously, he was in the Kirin extreme beer advertising, NTT

Docomo's mobile phone products have been designers and creative guides.

The designer, who was born in an advertising agency, likes to play cards without common sense. In the Kirin project, he used the Logo advertising screen to cover the vehicles parked on the street free of charge, and successfully grabbed the eyeballs.

He put forward the concept of "super finishing". In the conference room there was nothing except tables and chairs, and only to meet the minimum needs.

Every time a project is completed, Misaki Sato will force his staff to arrange computer and desktop data files.

He thinks that this is very related to design. "To create a design, we must thoroughly collate and find out the essence."

This is almost the way he "seeks the pulse" for every home help business owner: communicate information, and suit the remedy to the case.

He is not worried about the cut-off of creativity. In his view, creativity is in the core of the business.

He is just the "super finishing man".

It was a multiple-choice question in front of Ryui Masa in 2005.

What is the key to reversing the situation of product, sale, service and enterprise identification? When he interviewed the first financial weekly on the opening day, he emphasized "enterprise identification" and "service".

Misaki Sato's "inquiry" began here.

Faced with the gradual loss of attraction of UNIQLO, Ryui Masa hopes Misaki Sato will make clear the concept of design: clothing is part of clothing, and combination is the freedom of consumers.

After understanding the crux of the problem, Misaki Sato made his first job for UNIQLO, designing the flagship store in New York.

New York is the base of casual wear.

In addition to GAP, ZARA, H&M and other fast fashion brands that make retail businesses, there are also a handful of similar companies like UNIQLO, which means that they do not make much cheaper in terms of price.

The slogan of UNIQLO is freedom and democracy, which is too serious for a fashion brand.

Misaki Sato and Ryui Masa talked many times, and outlined a vision that UNIQLO needed "aesthetic rationality."

This complex sentence means that UNIQLO products are not only beautiful, but also cost-effective.

"I want to be able to convey this characteristic that is enough to overlook the world."

Misaki Sato said.

He then removed all the old Logo of UNIQLO, changed it from dark red to pure red, and only retained the skeleton.

Misaki Sato also designed a Japanese katakana version of Logo for UNIQLO - he simply didn't care about Japanese in overseas markets.

Ryui Masa enjoyed the Logo very much.

He said, even if foreigners do not understand, it is enough to show the essence of UNIQLO, "it is bound to be able to release strong courage abroad."

When the Logo appeared in UNIQLO New York SOHO flagship store opened in November 2006, the US media used two comments: "reminiscent of the Japanese flag" and "unprecedented publicity."

This is exactly what Misaki Sato and what he wants.

Because of historical reasons, Japanese companies usually take a low profile in the European and American markets. Even famous companies such as TOYOTA seldom engage in corporate propaganda.

UNIQLO is totally different. In addition to the pseudonym Logo, there is a "From".

Tokyo to New York slogan.

Everything is to rebuild the brand recognition of UNIQLO.

Misaki Sato and Ryui Masa introduced Japan's "Flash Godfather" and Nakamura Yugo, a multimedia designer, and asked him to design an American website for UNIQLO.

In addition, Misaki Sato introduced the world supermodel for UNIQLO to shoot print advertisements, which were quickly posted to UNIQLO shops all over the world.

New York's flagship store became popular and the overseas market began to turn.

Misaki Sato got the title of "design magician who can drive sales".

He then designed a new corporate identification logo for the UNIQLO parent company XX group, a pure red inverted triangle cut into three pieces.

In addition to UNIQLO, fast sales also manufacture high-end brands such as theory.

Ryui Masa was satisfied with the design, and he felt that his "upward climb" and "acute" feeling were all reflected.

The smell permeated the product.

Compared with H&M and ZARA closely following the style of international T station, UNIQLO is more inclined to "tide up" imperceptibly.

They will not let go of any popular elements, such as the current leggings (bottompants), striped sea breeze and fine print.

But UNIQLO has a more unique trick - professional T-shirt brand UT.

Misaki Sato Cox has developed a new business model for UNIQLO.

He told Ryui Masa: "the brand of UNIQLO is like a media. There must be something that only UNIQLO can do."

After sorting out all the items, Ryui Masa replied, "that's the T-shirt."

T-shirt is the simplest product in all clothes, and has great potential to become an ideal business mode.

UNIQLO has five hundred kinds of T-shirts every quarter.

But it can also be a disadvantage - it can be reassuring to buy anytime, anywhere, but it also lacks the two important labels of fashion and personality.

In addition, once the styles of T-shirts are increased and customers open their T-shirts to confirm patterns, the stores will become messy.

It's time for collation to play its role.

Misaki Sato tried to come up with a business system.

System development is more important than product production.

"As Google and YouTube, we must be an epoch-making brand.

Once the infrastructure is completed, and then add content, it will become a world-wide business brand and actively promote various cooperation plans.

The way of display should also be changed.

"Simple side-by-side way is not shocking, store display should be included in the design concept, to convey more intense information."

In the new flagship store, the POLO shirt of the same color is combined into a color wall.

In Japan, Misaki Sato and each T-shirt are packed in a cylindrical red covered plastic pot, lined up for sale.

The bottled T-shirts are easy to arrange and store, and there is another point - the cylinder package can prevent the customers from breaking up the clothes, and the shop assistants do not have to keep up with the shops later.

There is a sample display in the display rack. Customers only need to pick up the middle code for fitting.

In April 2007, Japan's UT flagship store, which fully embodies this design concept, opened in the Harbin Harbin Harbin.

500 T-shirts were displayed on the whole wall, and a search engine with "UT search" was installed on each floor.

This specially developed system for UT enables customers to search their favorite T-shirts from various angles such as color, graphics, themes, keywords, and also search for the display locations of the merchandise.

The brand new T-shirt purchasing method has made UT a topic in Japan, and even a product that has been sold out at once. The store has been crowded with customers for days.

The original intention of UT is "printed Tee". All UT products have two labels. Besides the usual ingredients and barcode cards of other products of UNIQLO, there is also a sign that introduces the background of this product designer.

There are all sorts of ways for designers: they may be London graffiti artists, or British supermodels Agyness.

Deyn.

Disney's new movie "Alice in Wonderland" has just released in the world, and UT is immediately out of the Alice limit series.

Sometimes something that only exists in people's memory may be reborn through UT: for example, the cover that VOGUE has published in the past one hundred years, or the mobile warrior who arrived on screen in early 1979.

UT has become a platform for more design.

UT is equal to appeal.

"For me, the so-called brand is the brand shop that I have nothing to do with."

Shi Yiwen, a 25 year old company worker, said, "because they can always tell me something new and new."

In fact, Misaki Sato Cox and hope UNIQLO are always topic oriented.

He set the slogan of the new flagship store as "From Shanghai to the".

World "because" Shanghai is very close to Tokyo, so it's better to face the world together than to emphasize differences. "

Prior to the New York store, Misaki Sato emphasized Tokyo, because "this will make New York young people feel cool."

At the flagship store in Nanjing West Road, Shanghai, UNIQLO invited the company BCJ (Bohlin Cywinski) to design a luxury house for Apple Store and Bill Gate.

Jackson) as a store design, the triangular terrain of the intersection in Wujiang, Nanjing West Road, allows pedestrians to concentrate their attention on the pparent and tall buildings, and the nearby pedestrian streets and subway entrances ensure the continuous flow of people.

Now, Ryui Masa has decided that the number of Chinese shops will reach 100 in 2010 and nearly doubled on the basis of the existing 59.

"China will be the biggest market for UNIQLO in the future."

Ryui Masa said.