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UNIQLO: Balance Between Quality And Price

2014/2/15 20:05:00 28

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In 2013, the history of UNIQLO sales exceeded 1 trillion yen for the first time, of which 7 of the top ten stores were overseas stores, while overseas stores accounted for 1/3 of the total number of UNIQLO shops, contributing 27% of the total sales and 16% of operating profits, becoming the new growth engine of UNIQLO.

Ryui Masa, head of the business, became the richest man in Japan by virtue of his "a href=" http://www.91se91.com/news/index_c.asp "clothing" /a ", ranking fifth in the 2013" Bloomberg billionaires index "Asian richest.

first of all, let's start with a set of data.

In 2001, Japanese media conducted a survey of 14324 UNIQLO consumers.

In the minds of consumers, what is good about UNIQLO? 84% of consumers think that "cheap price" is the charm of UNIQLO.

Although it was considered that only 28% of consumers were "good quality" of UNIQLO products, more than 35% of consumers felt embarrassed because everyone was wearing them. But because UNIQLO started in the depression of Japan, many Japanese consumers were very sensitive to commodity prices, so the charm of "low price" really made UNIQLO win many consumers' favor.

In those days, before the opening hours of UNIQLO shops, many consumers were waiting for the front door of the UNIQLO store.

seeing this set of data, you may know that UNIQLO started with the price advantage in the Japanese market.

Then, what is worth thinking about is how does UNIQLO achieve "cheap price"? Or how does it control the cost?

the first reason is that UNIQLO was able to provide products at a very low price in the Japanese market. That is, UNIQLO chose to manufacture in countries and regions with relatively low labor and material costs in China.

In 2008, 90% of UNIQLO's products were produced in China. With the increase of China's prices and labor costs, the production cost of UNIQLO Chinese foundries was also increasing. In order to further reduce costs and avoid the risk of production concentrated in China, UNIQLO is gradually pferring production to Asian countries such as Vietnam, Bangladesh and Indonesia. In 2010, the proportion of goods produced in UNIQLO in China dropped to 85%. At present, there are about 70 manufacturers of P in UNIQLO, and the proportion of goods produced in China has dropped to 70%. Its future plan is to produce 1/3 of goods in countries other than China.

secondly, the positioning of the basic clothing of UNIQLO clothing means that it wants to meet more common needs of consumers, rather than personalized needs. Its consumers can be spread all over the world, and audiences at all ages are wide.

Compared with the unconventional products, the positioning of the basic fund can bring greater volume of single product to UNIQLO, and scale production and reduce costs through mass production.

Third, UNIQLO adopts SPA whole industry chain integration operation mode, and independently operates from commodity planning, design to raw material procurement, production plant quality management, terminal retail and so on.

The advantage of this mode is to save the middle cost, and improve the ability to control and control the various links.

To get involved in the sales link, we can better understand the needs of consumers, grasp the sales situation in a timely manner, react quickly, and quickly withdraw funds.

At the same time, because the commodity is a complex chain from the production to the delivery of consumer goods, UNIQLO is involved in many links, so it needs more risks than those who only part of the business, and is fully responsible for the quality of the product.

Fourth reasons contributing to UNIQLO's cost reduction are UNIQLO's large-scale procurement of raw materials worldwide.

Because UNIQLO will choose manufacturers directly to negotiate, large-scale purchase and mass production on a global scale, UNIQLO can purchase high-quality raw materials at lower prices.

"P >" UNIQLO 1 "was officially opened in the outskirts of Hiroshima in 1984. In the same year, Ryui Masa became the president of UNIQLO. Today, 30 years have passed, although now the location of UNIQLO dress is" anytime, anywhere and anyone can wear it. There are popular elements and high quality basic funds. "

External publicity is more about "providing high quality goods at lower prices" and trying to enhance the brand image by opening flagship stores in prosperous downtown areas. But "low-cost operation" is still the goal pursued by UNIQLO. After years of training, UNIQLO has accumulated rich experience in supply chain management and cost control.

cost control capability has become a competitive advantage of < a href= "http://www.91se91.com/news/index_c.asp" > UNIQLO /a >.

What problems have it encountered in the process of internationalization? Sales centered mode can generally expand the scale and occupy the market faster.

The advantage of cost centered mode is that it can speed up the process of industrialization and technological progress and bring about sustainable competitiveness.

because UNIQLO uses the mode of cooperation with the foundries to produce rather than completely autonomous production, how to manage the foundries and ensure the quality of products is a headache for UNIQLO.

In order to solve the quality problems, UNIQLO has made a lot of efforts. One is the so-called "craftsman culture", that is, technical guidance for the foundries to ensure quality.

For the production of up to several million pieces and tens of millions of pieces, how to ensure the quality of the same quality? The production technology and production management of the factory are particularly important at this time. UNIQLO dispatched the technical team with abundant experience in the Japanese fiber industry to the foundries in various places for technical guidance. Meanwhile, the head of the production management department will check the quality of the products and manage the production progress every week.

The second is to sign long-term cooperation contracts with the foundries.

generally speaking, the short term contract with < a href= "http://www.91se91.com/news/index_c.asp" > behalf of factory < /a >, the advantage is that the flexibility of the enterprise to switch partners is high, and it is convenient for production adjustment.

And UNIQLO and Chinese manufacturers will generally sign long-term, strategic cooperation, so that cooperation factories and UNIQLO become the fate of the community, all glory and glory, a loss.

In this long binding mode of close cooperation, UNIQLO produces a lot of products, and the quality of products is also well protected.

Of course, it's easier said than done, and as a brand player, to ensure the stability of product quality, it needs a lot of running in with the foundries. And as the analysis report of Alan consulting company points out, multinational enterprises are afraid of the high cost of pferring production chain to other countries.

Therefore, even as China's price and labor costs rise, the appreciation of the renminbi, China's competitiveness as a "world factory" is gradually losing, but UNIQLO still intends to produce about 2/3 of its goods in China.

now, "cost performance" has already become the advantage of UNIQLO for the outside world. In other words, UNIQLO is pursuing the balance between "quality" and "price".

Less than P, of course, UNIQLO does not just do that in order to build its competitiveness.

For example, UNIQLO attaches importance to customer voice and product development and improvement according to customer needs.

UNIQLO's customer center receives about 70 thousand customers' feedback and feedback each year.

Taking warm underwear as an example, UNIQLO, according to customer feedback, such as "want to feel softer", "want to increase the function of preventing skin drying", and "hope for more color choices" besides heating and insulation functions, UNIQLO, based on these suggestions from consumers, constantly improves and develops products to meet customers' needs and gradually improve product quality.

For example, developing functional fabrics, developing lightweight feather clothing that can be easily carried in pocket.