How Far Is UNIQLO From Selling Lifestyle?

Ryui Masano agrees that UNIQLO is a "fashion seller".

Companies, he thinks they sell Style, especially lifestyle.

"We make clothes to make people express their attitudes towards life".

When a company gets brilliant achievements, as a bystanders, we often fail to think about how many failures it has made for today's success, nor do we want to maintain its peak or even higher level. We are thinking about the trend of industry trends and what actions we will take next.

UNIQLO had suffered countless times of failure. The founder and President Ryui Masa said that his life was "one win, nine defeats" and the probability of winning was only 10%.

For example, how UNIQLO promotes its internationalization process and how to shape its own brand culture can be said to have fallen off a lot.

The location of UNIQLO in Japan is for all people, because the lowest price in the market is said to have been labeled with "selling basic goods" and "no cost clothes" and so on. Of course, it has also achieved success, and has accumulated a lot in product quality, supply chain and capital.

After entering the Chinese market in about 2002, its position did not change at that time, still facing all people, and it turned out to be a crushing defeat.

Why? Because China's policy is that overseas purchases of raw materials have higher value-added tax and customs duties, thus forming a certain cost pressure. In order to lower prices, UNIQLO adopted different fabrics from Japan, of course, the fabric of poor quality, while selling price competition with competitors at the time of sale, and it was badly beaten by brands such as Baleno and JEANSWEST.

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Of course, worse still, this strategy of reducing fabric quality and low price makes Chinese consumers consider UNIQLO to be in the same position with Baleno and JEANSWEST, and such a state that makes itself compete with other brands without differentiation is not conducive to development, but rather damages their brand image.

The same was true of the opening of the store in Hongkong in 2005, and the uniqo soon fell into the environment of the Giordano and other local brands.

But soon, it adjusted its brand positioning to be more upscale than Hongkong's local brands.

It can be seen from one detail: when it is promoting marketing, it will write all the signs of Hongkong UNIQLO shop.

Don't underestimate this little strategy. It is smart to understand the local customers' consumption psychology and habits in Hongkong, because the main consumers of UNIQLO are those who grew up watching Japanese anime and playing with Japanese toys. Besides, letting consumers speak Japanese once more will make them feel that their value is higher.

In mainland China, the change of thinking is almost the same. UNIQLO no longer carries out price war with competitors, instead of focusing on the value of goods. It enables consumers to enjoy some quality services in the elegant and elegant shop style. In terms of product performance, it also has "high quality and low price". In addition, it also makes full use of the great proliferation effect of flagship stores in the most prosperous areas of big cities (such as the flagship store that runs over 8000 square meters in Huaihailu Road and Shanghai, and Sanlitun flagship store in Beijing, etc.).

All this can arouse consumers' interest in UNIQLO and make it a bright spot.

Therefore, to pform into UNIQLO, which is the main consumer group with middle class or middle class, China is also 10% to 15% higher than Japan in terms of clothing pricing.

This pricing strategy is still continuing.

Anyway, at least in the Chinese market, UNIQLO is a shining casual wear company. It is said that the mainland has opened at least 450 stores, becoming the largest overseas market, and expects to add 100 new stores a year, probably to 1000 in 2020.

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The more important pformation of UNIQLO is more and more attention to mining the clothes behind.

Culture and lifestyle, its advertising slogans are also from Made For All to Life Wear. Obviously, the former English phrase focuses on UNIQLO, and the latter focuses on consumers. It conveys its values that enable consumers to realize the simplicity, quality and durability of products, and even wear their own styles even if they match everyday.

The philosophy of UNIQLO is "a shirt, jacket, or

It's just a piece of accessories that a person expresses their personality. That's why we look for clothes that are very basic but of high quality.

Besides, UNIQLO is actually not only selling clothes, it is not just values, but is trying to express in the process of seeking value recognition, and to convey and communicate with consumers about their way of life.

Ryui Masano agrees that UNIQLO is a fast fashion company selling fashion. He thinks they are selling Style, especially lifestyle.

"We make clothes to make people express their attitudes towards life".

If you look at UNIQLO from the perspective of lifestyle communication, it is not very obvious. For example, compared with the Swedish IKEA brand, it may not be so complete, because IKEA, on the basis of high quality, high creativity and low price, has made a lot of human experience and even enjoy the warm scenes of family life, which is what we yearn for.

Another example is apple, which is not only a technology company, but also a design company. It has designed a simple and nearly perfect digital product. It is also a lifestyle company, representing a new digital lifestyle.

UNIQLO has not been able to display its brand, products, culture and lifestyle as well as Apple Corp.

However, UNIQLO's thinking of returning itself to the essence of clothing is worth considering.

Although it is a company that attaches great importance to technology, it is also designed to make consumers more comfortable or experiencing better service when they wear clothes. Although it will invite world-renowned designers to jointly design fashion clothes, such a purpose is to make the high-end clothing with design sense more attractive in price. As Ryui Masa said, "we are essentially a clothing house that makes clothes, providing people with real good clothes."