After "Indecent Video", What Is The Future Of UNIQLO?

Last July,

There was an indecent video in the fitting room of Sanlitun shop.

Although the police have been able to control the suspects in time after receiving the alarm from UNIQLO, there is still a conspiracy theory: UNIQLO is in the process of speculation.

The bustling audience has had talks since then.

But Ryui Masa, founder of UNIQLO, was very angry at that time.

"Our shop is most reluctant to have such embarrassment."

"It makes me nauseous," he said in an interview with foreign media. "It's disgusting."

At the time of the video incident, the Japanese fast sale group under Liu well's banner is trying to catch up with the top two giants in the garment field - the parent company Inditex of the Spanish brand ZARA and the H&M of Sweden.

Uniqo is a well-known brand under fast selling, contributing more than 80% of the revenue to the whole group.

He will feel sick.

Because of the 2015 earnings report up to August last year, UNIQLO's annual sales in China reached $2 billion 500 million, an increase of 46% over the same period last year.

China's business is thriving. Why should we adopt the next three marketing tricks that are ridiculing?

Willow well put forward the "2020 plan" a few years ago: it became the first clothing industry in 2020, and its sales in the world reached US $50 billion.

But XXX group's annual revenue last year was only $13 billion 800 million. It is unlikely that the plan for 2020 will be completed.

Although the plan sounds like an encouraging speech, Liu well is also approaching it step by step.

An essential measure he has taken is to rush out of the increasingly saturated Japanese market and set up shop in other countries.

Over the past five years, the number of overseas stores in UNIQLO has increased by 5 times, from 136 to 798.

Of course, this number is still growing.

But when it entered the 2016 fiscal year, its life was not satisfactory.

The group's operating profit and net profit began to decline sharply.

Compared with last year, the two indicators fell by 23% and 45.2% in the first three quarters, respectively.

In July, it lowered its profit target.

This is the third reduction in its 2016 fiscal year.

In the first two years, the two price rise of UNIQLO in Japan was announced, but it was announced in April this year.

At that time, Liu well believed that the improvement of product quality and added value could reduce the side effects of price increase.

But he now thinks this is wrong.

"Consumers do not agree with the value of new products."

He said in an interview with Japanese media.

In the Chinese market, it can draw lessons from failure and attack the city, but it has been in the European and American market for more than 10 years.

The United States as the world's largest

It will decide whether the ambitious goal of UNIQLO can be achieved.

But UNIQLO's performance in the US is not satisfactory.

At the beginning of this year, it also closed 5 stores in the United States.

"The most important thing is how to display our brand, company and product like customers.

I don't think we have done that yet. "

BOF, an innovative director of UNIQLO, said in an interview with fashion media.

Executives know that in overseas markets, UNIQLO's biggest problem is that it fails to deliver the image of UNIQLO precisely.

But what does the image of UNIQLO look like? The answer may be sought from the founder of UNIQLO.

In 1994, that is, when the 10th anniversary of UNIQLO was founded, Ryui Masada, who was still expanding at home, put on TV commercials.

When he first opened the shop, he believed in marketing value. He still remembered the plot in an advertisement: a more than 50 year old woman went to the UNIQLO reception desk and was excited to replace an old fashioned dress. She complained that she threw off her trousers and sweater, threw it on the cashier's desk, and went into the store to get her clothes.

This advertisement has aroused great controversy in the company's internal pretrial.

Most people are against the idea that such ads can not be played.

Ryui Masa decided to broadcast it first.

Women began to criticize advertisements intensely.

They complained that they wanted to vomit when they saw such a content, calling it "dirty" and suspected of discriminating against women.

Advertising can only be stopped.

From the result, though it has promoted the brand's reputation, its negative effects also exist.

But Liu well is proud to describe this advertisement as a masterpiece.

Since 90s of last century, Ryui Masa began to perceive an awkward phenomenon.

UNIQLO opened up territory in Japan to do marketing, but many people bought products from UNIQLO, and then did some treatment for clothes, such as removing labels to prevent others from finding out that this product was UNIQLO.

That is to say, UNIQLO is still a bargain in the eyes of Japanese consumers.

This shocked Ryui Masada and began to improve the quality of products.

He gradually improved the way of production of UNIQLO and moved closer to the SPA business model.

This mode implements one-stop management in all aspects such as planning, production and sales, and can carry out efficient production around the terminal sales situation.

In addition, UNIQLO recruited a number of skilled workers who worked in Japanese clothing enterprises and sent them to factories in China to supervise production.

In the eyes of outsiders, ZARA, H&M and UNIQLO SPA clothing companies are fast fashion brands.

This powerful model pushed the bosses of three companies to the top of the nation's richest position (the founder of Amancio Ortega, ZARA, briefly passed the US Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates as the world's richest man last year).

However, Liu well has been emphasizing that UNIQLO is not fast fashion.

In the 2011 book, "Hope", Ryui Masa said, "the companies that can be called fast fashion brands should be ZARA, H&M and Forever21.

They sell popular information.

How to make clothes as quickly as possible and how to send them to consumers as early as possible?

They will continue to increase the variety of products and sell one new item after another in every season.

If goods are out of stock, then they will say goodbye to customers completely.

By contrast, the speed of UNIQLO is somewhat slower.

From commodity development to window display, ZARA can be completed in the shortest two weeks, while UNIQLO needs more than half a year.

ZARA is a small batch and multi variety mode. The design team imitate or even copy the latest fashion week style. Every year, 50000 new styles of clothing are designed and about 12000 kinds are put into the market, and UNIQLO's annual new clothes are only 1000 kinds.

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In addition, UNIQLO's main role is the basic fund, which lacks a certain degree of fashion.

Of course, this is also related to the experience gained by Liu Jing's struggle in the Japanese market.

In the 80 years of last century, Liu well summed up the truth that basic clothing is more popular than those fashionable clothes.

With the help of

Advantages of research and development, UNIQLO has introduced several classic products that are enduring.

In 1998, it introduced FLEECE series garments, which are light, warm, fast and cheap.

Because sales are booming, it has even become a cultural phenomenon.

In 2003, the HEATTECH series of thermal underwear, which was developed over the past 4 years, sold 70 million pieces during the autumn and winter of -2011 in 2010.

What is the clothing that can be sold in large quantities every year? Ryui Masa's answer is basic.

He adjusted the target customers of UNIQLO to a public group with no age and no class difference.

He began to advocate the concept of "joking", "clothes are supporting roles, and clothes are the leading role."

Specifically to UNIQLO customers, it is possible to use the basic funds to mix with other brands to show individuality.

For a long time, the slogan of UNIQLO was "made for all".

Ryui Masa has changed the young, fashion and other keywords praised by Japanese casual wear, and has expanded the user base through new positioning.

It can be said that this is the starting point of UNIQLO, and it is also an important reason for its rapid rise.

After its rise, UNIQLO began to expand overseas, but it had many challenges.

In 2002, it entered Shanghai, which was 4 years earlier than ZARA.

But by 2005, the 9 shops in the mainland were not profitable.

In Japan, "made for all" stands for all services, but Japan is already a developed country with a high level of consumption.

UNIQLO does not have a price advantage compared with competitors such as Smith Barney and Baleno.

Chinese management has adjusted the price but sacrificed quality and design.

The level of stores is also uneven.

In 2005, the new large China CEO penning challenged the slogan of "made for all".

In his view, the Japanese public is actually a group of people with the Chinese middle class.

With the positioning strategy of "middle class", UNIQLO quickly seized the opportunity. Now China has become the second largest market of UNIQLO.

In 2001, UNIQLO officially entered the European and American markets.

Liu well understands that the premise of UNIQLO's success in Japan is to open a large number of shops in a short time.

In the United States, New York and other places, the retail industry is very developed. It is not easy to build a reputation in these areas.

In addition, UNIQLO did not have the strength at that time.

So he set his goal first in London, England.

Mr. Liu willow is leading a local man from Martha's department store in England.

However, the team formed by the manager is very conservative. From the management to the store manager and the shop assistant, the levels are clear and the communication is poor.

This is contrary to the management culture of UNIQLO.

And blind expansion, resulting in twenty-first stores opened UNIQLO, the book appeared a loss.

By 2003, there were only 5 stores in London.

"It was a disastrous start," Liu said in a British media interview earlier this year.

Ryui Masa, of course, interviewed the western media, and also shouted for the UNIQLO.

In some cases, he will take more radical measures.

Last August, he paid a heavy price to publish a personal letter on the front page of New York Times.

The letter began, "in 1984, when I founded UNIQLO in Japan, I believed that it would come to the United States one day."

This letter is sincere and polite, and the writer is eager to let the Americans know that there is a brand called UNIQLO.

Any brand knows the importance of the United States.

In 1989, ZARA entered the United States; in 2000, H&M entered.

By the beginning of this year, the number of American shops in the two companies was 71 and 415 respectively.

And the number of stores in UNIQLO is at the bottom of three stores.

Since its first store in New Jersey in 2005, UNIQLO has made slow progress in the past 11 years, with its sales sluggish and still losing money.

In addition to competing with its competitors, UNIQLO chooses to work with famous designers to launch limited products, and emphasizes shop style and Japanese style service.

But these results are not great. In the United States, the identity of UNIQLO has been very vague.

Ryui Masashiya has always emphasized that UNIQLO is a technology company and its competitor is apple because of its technological content, such as fleece and HEATTECH.

But UNIQLO failed to express the differential value of technology, nor could it attract Americans' attention.

In the emerging market of China, the fast fashion brand is still in deep tillage stage.

In the US market, fast fashion brands are gathered. They can compete with UNIQLO for a part of their basic funds, and attract users with a large number of fashion styles.

UNIQLO failed to convey the added value of basic funds.

UNIQLO now needs to buy a reason for its basic or self professed technology.

"Even in New York, which has a high reputation in UNIQLO, the relationship between the company and its customers is mainly based on the quality and affordability of the products.

If you need a well-designed, reasonably priced basic fund, you can go to UNIQLO.

But the brand of UNIQLO is still not very clear, and its emotional connection with customers is also very limited.

Group global creative President John C Jay said in an interview with BOF.

John C Jay is responsible for Nike, Coca-Cola and other customers.

He was also responsible for the advertising series of UNIQLO fleece.

After joining UNIQLO last year, his first job was to let UNIQLO people know about UNIQLO.

"We must have connotations," he said.

Great brands must give meaning to people's lives.

First, I need to say, "why do we exist?" and then the next question is: who cares? "Why should I care?"

In early August, UNIQLO launched its first brand marketing campaign around the world.

One of the questions raised in marketing advertisements is: what are we dressing for what? An important demand of this move is to increase its awareness in the North American market.

UNIQLO chose to work with a creative company in New York, which was mostly responsible for the creativity of UNIQLO.

UNIQLO's advertisement in 1994 was criticized by the women.

Of course, this marketing campaign is necessary in the global market.

You know, in Japan, China and other important markets, there are many opponents of UNIQLO.

Problems in the United States can also occur in other regions.

UNIQLO needs to convey the value behind the basic fund, which needs to continue to occupy the minds of consumers, so that consumers believe that clothes that are not fashionable are equally attractive.

By the end of this month, UNIQLO will end in fiscal 2016.

Its achievements in the European and American markets will soon be announced.

But whatever the outcome, UNIQLO still has a long way to go.