Four Word Motto Of Liujing Running Uniqlo

　　“ Uniqlo ”(UNIQLO) is a household name in Japan casual clothes The first brand is also world-famous Fast fashion One of the brands. Fast Retailing Co., the parent company of Uniqlo, Ltd.) was developed by Masako Yanai following his father's footsteps. Masako Yanai has also become the richest man in Japan for many times because of the popularity of "Uniqlo" in the world.

　 Inheriting his father's business, Liujing is establishing Uniqlo

According to World Clothing, Shoes and Hats Network, Yanai was born in a "clothing family" in Ube, a coal city in Yamaguchi, Japan, in 1949, and many relatives run clothing stores. In 1949, his father Liujing and others opened a Western style clothing store, Ogori Shoji)， They mainly sell suits. Most of their customers are bankers and securities professionals who want to dress decently. In 1964, the store was renamed Ogori Shoji Co, Ltd.)。

At that time, whenever a coal mine went bankrupt, Liujing Zheng's classmates would go away with his family. This also made him know that all enterprises have a "deadline" since he was young. But as the only son in the family, Liujing knows that he will one day inherit his father's work.

After graduating from high school, Yanai was admitted to Waseda University in Tokyo to study economics and politics. When he was in college, Yanai was intoxicated with American culture and liked listening to jazz. During the 18 month suspension of Waseda University, Yanai was able to travel to Britain and other countries.

After graduating from college in 1971, Yanai was working in the famous department store JUSCO (now renamed Aeon, Japan's largest retail enterprise), and resigned to return to his hometown nine months later. Based on his work experience in Jizhi Island, Liujing feels that the commodity layout and process equivalence rate of Xiaojun Commercial are too poor, so it is profitable, but difficult to make big money. He began to manage the store in his own way, but the old staff could not accept leaving one after another, and only one of his staff was left in the store. They did all the work from purchase, inventory, sales and cleaning.

In 1984, the 12th year of Xiaojun Business, Liujing was becoming the president of the family business. At that time, Japanese designer brand goods were popular, but the price remained high. Liujing is thinking of opening a leisure clothing store that can also be bought by teenagers. The sales are self-service, so that consumers can buy without pressure, and the seller can also save costs.

In June 1984, Liujing opened the first "Uniqlo" in Hiroshima, called "Unique Clothing" Warehouse”。 Fearing that the scene was bleak, Liujing was promoting it through television, radio, leaflets and other means before opening. As a result, people queued up before 6:00 am on the opening day. There were a lot of people coming to the store, and the store was crowded.

Liujing felt that the store name was too long for consumers to remember, so it was shortened to "UNICLO". However, when registering in Hong Kong later, the undertaker mistakenly wrote "UNIQLO". However, we found that the word Q seemed more stylish, so we decided to change the name of all Japanese stores to "UNIQLO".

In 1991, Yanai changed the name of the company from "Kojun Commercial Co., Ltd." to "Fast Retailing Co, Ltd. ". "Fast selling" means "FAST+RETAILING", which reflects the enterprise spirit of quickly commercializing customers' requirements and quickly providing goods.

In 1994, the number of direct stores of the company exceeded 100, and the company's shares were listed on the Hiroshima Stock Exchange. Uniqlo began to open stores in the metropolis of Tokyo. Soon after, it began to mass produce the classic main product - wool jacket priced at $20. It is said that one in four Japanese has bought it.

In 1997, the company's shares were listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, with more than 300 direct stores. In 1999, Fast Retailing began to implement catalog ordering sales. In 2000, the number of direct stores exceeded 400, and online direct sales began.

Uniqlo has gradually established a brand feature that emphasizes both quality and equality, and focuses on "real ordinary people" as the main consumers. Uniqlo has expanded steadily, with retail stores along the street and independent stores in the suburbs all over Japan. "Uniqlo" has become the No. 1 brand of casual wear in Japan, and has become the best choice for the middle class in Japan during the economic downturn.

　　 Going overseas, from a bad start to a great success

After more than 20 years of development in Japan, Uniqlo has opened 790 stores. With the aging of Japanese society, Uniqlo has shown signs of saturation in its domestic market. It has no choice but to look overseas.

In 2001, Uniqlo's first overseas store opened in London, England. Unexpectedly, it was a bad start. Several stores in Britain were closed due to poor operation. Uniqlo stores in the United States have also suffered a similar fate. Uniqlo's initial overseas trial ended in failure. However, this setback not only failed to defeat Yanai's ambition, but inspired him to think about the reasons for his failure.

Liujing believes that the main reason is that the marketing is not in place and the popularity is not enough. At that time, no one knew who "Uniqlo" was, did not gain enough brand recognition, and the store area was less than 1000 square meters, small and mediocre, so it was difficult for people to raise interest.

After constant attempt, failure, repetition and adjustment, in 2006, Uniqlo launched overseas expansion again, opened an international flagship store in the golden section of New York's Fifth Avenue, and began to hype its brand. Subsequently, a number of overseas stores opened in South Korea and China, and Uniqlo's "conquering cities and territories" became smooth.

Uniqlo was not very successful when it entered China in 2001. By the end of 2005, there were only nine stores in mainland China, two in Beijing, six in Shanghai and one in Hangzhou. At that time, Uniqlo had to close two stores in Beijing and concentrate on doing a good job in Shanghai. After a series of strategic adjustments, "Uniqlo" is finally positioned for the middle class in China. The "Uniqlo" brand has been recognized by consumers and has been developing rapidly ever since. After years of development in China, buying a garment from Uniqlo has become one of the lifestyles of white-collar workers in Beijing, Shanghai and other first tier cities.

In 2013, "Uniqlo" settled the world's largest flagship store in Shanghai. In addition to its largest scale, this store also shoulders the mission of further expanding the Chinese market. In order to make regular customers feel the change whenever they come, the commodity display on the first floor will be renewed every month. Like the Japanese stores, the staff are diligent in sorting out their clothes and maintaining UNIQLO's unique "geometric aesthetics" at any time. "Uniqlo" believes that being the first in China means being the first in the world.

　　 Functional Product Marketing Achieves "Uniqlo"

Uniqlo sells high-quality, fashionable basic clothing and positions itself as a global brand, rather than focusing on Japanese characteristics. The functional features of Uniqlo products have always been talked about. The operators of Uniqlo believe that the beauty of functions should be delivered like Apple's iPhone. Apple's iPhone has won the support of global consumers by virtue of the excellent design brought about by its functions, which has become a brand image.

Uniqlo has cooperated with Japan Toray to develop many functional clothes with huge sales volume. When the two companies first discussed cooperation in 2000, the directors of the old textile enterprise Dongli, who wore dark blue suits and ties, formed a sharp contrast with the directors of the new clothing enterprise Fast Retailing, who did not wear ties and only wore casual clothes.

At that time, the plan was to use Dongli's material technology to produce high value-added clothing, and then Uniqlo would be responsible for marketing and sales. The winter underwear "HEATTECH" launched in 2003 has the functions of heating and heat preservation. According to the requirements of Uniqlo, functions such as anti-bacterial, moisturizing and anti-static are constantly added. As a result, the lightweight thermal underwear Heartech sold 100 million pieces in autumn and winter 2011.

Uniqlo's main production base is in China. More than 75% of its products are produced in cooperation with dozens of large Chinese manufacturing enterprises, and nearly 600 million products are produced in China every year. Due to the large production volume, strict quality control is required in the project of transforming R&D into production. Fast Retailing Company will send professionals to Chinese factories to study with the manufacturers how to transform R&D into practical products.

Uniqlo, together with H&M in Sweden and Zara in Spain, is known as a "fast fashion" retailer.

Brands such as "H&M" and "ZARA" lead the world market with fashion sensitive clothing. Unlike H&M, which strives to "sell out in about a week", Uniqlo, which takes the function and other quality of clothing as its selling points, adopts the business model of mass supply, and orders from overseas factories six months to one year ago, so its design often fails to keep pace with the trend. Therefore, "Uniqlo" strives to maximize its services beyond its products. "Service equals Uniqlo" has become the internal development criterion of Uniqlo.

In Japan, despite the low price of Uniqlo products, consumers are still God, employees must be polite, and stores must be clean and tidy. Uniqlo's store design promoted at home and abroad is that the store layout should not only facilitate shopping, but also present a sense of beauty.

　　 Liu Jingzheng's philosophy of "one win and nine defeats"

Yanai is one of the most innovative entrepreneurs in Japan. He often said that we are not a fashion company, but a technology company. Many people compared him with Steve Jobs of Apple. Both entrepreneurs pursued innovation with firm confidence and ingenious techniques, and finally created a concept to turn simple products into the world trend.

Yanai seems to be very popular, but when he published his book in 2003, he named it "One Win and Nine Defeats". Because ten new attempts will lead to nine failures. However, it doesn't matter if you are wrong. The key is to try. If you are wrong nine times, you will have nine experiences. In his observation, operation itself is the accumulation of wrong attempts. The growth process of Uniqlo is a process that has experienced numerous failures. "Uniqlo" has experienced the anxiety of being unable to finance from the bank, the embarrassment of cutting off the trademark immediately after people bought the clothes because they were sold at a low price, the madness of expanding stores for the purpose of going public, and the pain of being ignored and alienated by consumers.

Yanai does all things by himself, thinking and acting by himself, which is his basic principle in doing business. When he looked at a person's clothes, he could see at a glance what size of clothes he was wearing and what his waist was. Yanai is very familiar with fashion trends, keeps an eye on the latest trend information in Paris, London and New York, and judges the trend of the next season; He can use a jacket or underwear to set off a fashion craze, and create a "Uniqlo" trend around the world.

Liu Jing believes that almost everyone can start a business, and the important thing is to do it yourself. No matter how many times we fail, we will continue to challenge with courage. In this process, we can cultivate an operator.

Yanai's favorite aphorism is "novels are read from beginning to end, but business is the opposite. Business is to draw conclusions first and then start to operate".

Yanai is very strict with himself. He starts work at 7 am every day, and comes home from work at 4 pm to accompany his wife and practice golf. Therefore, the whole company has to follow the trend to advance the schedule. Liu Jing is also demanding of others. Since the first UNIQLO store was opened in 1984, Liujing has adjusted the management significantly for many times. In Fast Retailing, it is not uncommon for directors to be demoted. This is seen as a way to test whether executives are willing to continue working in Fast Retailing. Yanai's view is that people who can't swim will let him sink.

In 2002, Fast Retailing Company, whose sales and profits have been growing, suffered the first reduction in revenue and profits after its stock listing. By 2005, Fast Retailing had increased revenue and decreased profits. Uniqlo has encountered a real crisis. In the face of this crisis, Yanai, who has served as president for three years, is determined to make a comeback. Yanai is replacing Yuzuka Yuanyi (who later served as the president of Rosen, the second largest convenience store in Japan), who was then the president of Uniqlo. He is shouldering the heavy burden of business and returning to the front line of business.

In 2009, the sales revenue and profit of Fast Retailing Company achieved the goal of "revenue increase and gain", and rose against the trend in the financial crisis. On the global rich list released by Forbes magazine in 2009, Yanai is becoming the richest person in Japan, with a value of 6.1 billion dollars. In Japan, Yanai is famous for his huge wealth. However, he said that he is not interested in wealth, although he admitted that he enjoys the false name of Japan's richest man. He wore only a Swiss chronometer on his wrist.

　　 "Uniqlo" sales myth is encountering difficulties

The experience of running a small clothing store in his hometown makes Liujing realize that if an enterprise does not have scale, it cannot survive or maintain competitiveness; If there is no scale, it is easy to be annexed or bankrupt. Under the leadership of Liujing Zheng, Fast Retailing Co., Ltd.) has rapidly developed into a multinational group focusing on retail and realizing high income and growth by integrating and merging international enterprises with different characteristics and great development potential.

In September 2009, Liujing was putting forward the goal of reaching 5 trillion yen in sales by 2020, which will increase to more than seven times in about 10 years, striving to become the first in the world in the clothing industry.

By the end of November 2015, the number of overseas stores of "Uniqlo" had reached 864, surpassing 844 in Japan. Since 2001, when Uniqlo opened its No. 1 overseas store in London, England, it has taken 14 years to build an overseas store network that is more than that in Japan.

Low price and high performance once helped Uniqlo achieve rapid growth around 2000, but the situation has changed. After Uniqlo opened up the underwear market with heating and heat preservation functions, competitors have also released similar products, and even products with prices lower than those of Uniqlo have appeared. Compared with "Uniqlo" whose unit price is mostly 1990 yen or 2990 yen, the average price of a single product of competitor SHIMAMURA does not exceed 900 yen, and its low price is very attractive to customers.

In 2015, Japan's winter climate was mild, and the sales of winter clothing were poor. The price reduction also led to the deterioration of business accounting. In terms of overseas business, "Uniqlo" is also struggling in Asia. The company is too inflated, which also leads to unqualified performance. With more than 100 stores opened in Asia every year, the cost burden is increasing. The business development in the United States was unfavorable and continued to lose money. The total number of UNIQLO stores in the United States market was only more than 40. Some investors even called on Fast Retailing Company to withdraw from the United States market again.

In the first half of fiscal year 2015 (September 2015 February 2016), the net profit of Fast Retailing Company decreased by 55% year on year. In October 2016, Fast Retailing lowered its target of consolidated sales of 5 trillion yen in 2020 to 3 trillion yen. Under the background of the rapid growth of global "fast fashion" for many years, which shows fatigue and tends to saturation, Uniqlo, which once created a sales myth in the clothing industry, is encountering business difficulties.

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