Why Did UNIQLO Live Well? Because It Is Different From Other Fast Fashion.

Shop windows in Forever 21, on the streets of Oxford, are full of discounted large scale slogans, indicating that the brand is about to declare bankruptcy. This is just a microcosm of the development of the fast fashion industry. With the slow growth of Zara's parent company's revenue and the backlog of H&M's stock of up to US $4 billion, the fast fashion trend is getting worse.
Uniqlo, which is hundreds of meters away from them, is still brightly lit, and the stream of people is in an endless stream. The new autumn and winter series of new products co operated with British designer J.W Anderson has just come into the market. The latest 2019 financial year report released by its parent company Xun marketing group shows that as of August 31st, the company's operating profit has increased by 9% to 257 billion 600 million yen, setting the best performance level over the years. Thanks to its excellent sales performance in China and Southeast Asia, UNIQLO's sales in the international market surpassed the Japanese domestic market and broke through 1 trillion yen for the first time.
Why does UNIQLO go against the wind? Speaking in the words of Ryui Masa, President and CEO of fast marketing group, "UNIQLO is not fast fashion." We never make disposable clothes. I want to make clothes that suit my personal life style, beyond the age and can be worn for a long time, that is to say: Timeless clothes. "
It is condensed into the essence of brand, that is, "LifeWear". UNIQLO hopes to make clothes that suit all people, which means that they do not purposely pursue fashion. They regard clothing as a prop to show their individuality.
This value runs through all the product development and marketing strategies of UNIQLO. "Props" need to combine quality and functionality by combining simple aesthetics with innovative technology, and at the same time, the price is reasonable and can be purchased anywhere, with a wide range of sizes.
Today, UNIQLO has 3588 stores all over the world, and the scale of garment manufacturing has leapt to the third place in the world. It provides about 1 billion 300 million clothes to customers around the world every year. As Ryui Masa expected, UNIQLO has been seamlessly embedded in customer's wardrobe and life.
Thinking about life rather than lifestyle
To help UNIQLO achieve this, the most fundamental point is that with its constant renovation of fabric technology, its clothing has a high degree of comfort as well as a strong practical function. This is already a well known fact, and it is also the foundation to help consumers to product their minds and promote their continuous purchase.
"We create concepts based on changes in people's lives. Not based on fashion trends, but lifestyle trends, "Yukihiro Katsuta, head of research and design department at UNIQLO, told BoF." Katsuda Yukihiro
The super fine polyester fiber is combined with the polygonal section yarn weaving structure. The Airism comfortable underwear series has both soft touch and heat dissipation, and keeps cool and breathable, especially for summer wear. Heattech underwear uses moisture absorption heating fabric to convert human body water vapor into heat and locks it into fiber pores to enhance the warmth retention effect. According to market analysts, the Heattech series has sold more than 1 billion products so far, with an average annual sale of over 10 million pieces, which is one of the most popular products of the brand. Heattech underwear and Ultra Light Down ultra light down jacket become an essential commodity for countless consumers in winter.
When other fashion brands are promoting lifestyles, UNIQLO is thinking about life scenes. John C Jay, global creative president of UNIQLO, thinks this is a very Japanese mindset.
"There are many ways of life in this world. Everyone is an independent individual and has different ways of life. The Japanese gene determines our cognitive style. As we see it, we see that a sweater is just regarded as a sweater without considering the way of life behind the sweater. We will not impose an image or a way of life on you, "he said.
"You know, before admiral Perry opened the door of Japan, there was no concept of clothing in Japan. Therefore, the concept of Mashup comes from this. Because this piece of historical blank, frameless constraints, unlimited rules, so that everyone will mix up and play. UNIQLO is trying to pass this on to everyone.
　　 Cutting-edge technology support, deep cultivation of consumer demand
From comfortable underwear to warm coat, no matter how the seasons flow, UNIQLO always seems to satisfy people's wardrobe demand. This is due to the design and fabric development of all these garments in UNIQLO, and from the beginning to the end, it is based on the needs of consumers.
Katsuda Yukihiro said: every day, the call center of UNIQLO users will ring up busy phone calls, and customers' calls are an important source of brand mastery of first-hand information. Every week, UNIQLO organizes a face-to-face meeting with guests, usually from 6 to 8 people, and sometimes gives them some test samples to get direct feedback. There were even several try on sessions before, and people were invited to wear brand clothes and exchange their views and suggestions.
"We have the responsibility to provide the best products for all categories. The key is: what kind of classification is the best classification," Katsuda Yukihiro said. "Usually, we will analyze what we missed and start to start from a single piece, which is the way we started."
When UNIQLO discovered that it needed some kind of high-tech fabric to improve or support a brand new lifestyle, the brand would consider developing new fabrics. Many times, brands consider how to bring real natural fibers, better cotton, better linen and better wool.
Sometimes, it is the innovative fabric that needs to start from scratch. At this time, the Japanese Dongli group, which can support advanced technology for a long time, is on the stage.
As a chemical material company, Dongli has been committed to the research and development of cutting-edge technology. It not only covers many fields such as medical treatment, automobile manufacturing, but also provides carbon fiber materials for Boeing 787. In 2000, there was a willingness to cooperate between the two. In order to form a more stable cooperation mode, UNIQLO decided to set up a business department in Dongli, and is directly responsible for the development of various cooperative projects by Dongli president, chief executive officer and chief operating officer, Akihiro Nikkaku.
After 19 years of familiarity and running in, the two sides have reached a tacit understanding that UNIQLO is planning a brand new concept of clothing, and then realizes the specific design and production through Dongli's professional technology. "Although they are different in different formats, they can share all the information and integrate all the processes as an enterprise," said Liu Jing, who is the chairman, President and chief executive officer of fast retailing group of UNIQLO parent company.
In the office of UNIQLO, there are also technicians stationed in Dongli for a long time. Because each improvement and innovation requires both sides to go through countless tests and sample tests together. Only in this way, can UNIQLO get feedback and feedback from consumers or stores to deliver it to the Dongli team in a more timely manner, so that the whole process can be carried out smoothly.
Many fashion brands only work with garment manufacturers, and rarely consider direct contact with material manufacturers, he said. "I think it is difficult to introduce innovative products like Heattech underwear in the business mode of Nike or Adidas," he said.
Exploring the diversified expression of simple aesthetics
Although UNIQLO does not consider itself a fast fashion, it is undeniable that although the brand is simple in design, its popularity is not bad. It has even become a favorite and indispensable brand in fashion industry.
"Our clothing is never designed for popularity, nor is it for marketing. Our design is designed to meet people's daily needs, and all the inspiration comes from real people, "John C Jay said. Rebekka Bay, creative director of UNIQLO Global Innovation Center, also believes that the perfect contour and fabric are the key to achieving beauty, rather than putting all kinds of elements on products. Almost everything we do is based on simplicity, filtering out surplus impurities, leaving only pure beauty.
This involves how to make the simple "basic" and "functional" garments popular and popular among the consumer groups.
UNIQLO clearly realized that if people want to keep expectations or freshness, they still have to work harder in design. "For different markets, we have their own innovation centers. Each center or studio has different concerns. For example, the innovation center of Losangeles branch is concerned about cowboys, and Paris branch is responsible for the design of Uniqlo U series, "Rebekka said.
Under the leadership of Christophe Lemaire, the Uniqlo U series has been comprehensively upgraded and upgraded. The brand also has joint cooperation: art, film, animation and other fields, including British designer J.W Anderson, Japanese artist Murakami Takashi and French director Eric, are all the inspiration sources or cross-border objects of UNIQLO.
However, even these clothing designs that focus more on sensibility and aesthetic expression, UNIQLO has spent a lot of thought on fabrics. Blocktech fabrics with waterproof, wind proof and breathable properties, and 3D knitted technology are all embodied in various joint cooperative series.
Pass on Value Aesthetics to employees and pass them on to consumers.
All these subtleties can only be understood and indescribable. Even buying UNIQLO has become the designated action in its life, and not everyone can appreciate the different values and aesthetics of UNIQLO.
This is a challenge for Liu Jing Zheng and John C Jay. "LifeWear's life is our brand concept, and everything we do is consistent with it," John C Jay said. In order to let UNIQLO's staff and consumers understand this, he made a thick brand handbook which is highly praised by the whole company.
"The purpose of making this handbook is not only to let the salesmen understand it, but to hope that the book can go deep into the simple meaning. If the customers come in and ask questions that often confuse them, shop salesmen can answer them," John C Jay told BoF: "the rapid transmission of information is very important, but there is still a lot of information transmission delay. In a dialogue, it is most important for both parties to answer each other in a timely manner.
Visual dialogue with consumers is also a key. In retail stores, UNIQLO conveys brand messages to consumers through color. But what about online? "Let's think about it. For social media, the whole world is a visual world, everything is driven by vision, and our clothing has no symbolic Logo in visual effect. What should we do?" John C Jay said.
In August of this year, UNIQLO founded the brand magazine "LifeWear", which was created by the former chief editor of Popeye, Xiao Xiao Hao. The aim is to reach a deeper level of communication with customers and to better explain the brand concept of "Lifewear service life".
John C Jay told BoF that in addition to printing the half yearly edition of printed paper, the digital version is also developing continuously. "The digital version is not simply uploaded to the web. We need to constantly create new materials, tell the relevant brand stories, explain our concepts in a very interesting way, and ensure that the content of" LifeWear service life "continues to update.
In the European market with slightly lower heat than Asia, UNIQLO hosted the global brand exhibition in London in September this year on the theme of "Lifewear service life", and announced the two latest technology of fabric developed based on sustainable development. Although the concept of the brand itself is to make long-lasting clothing, it is clear that sustainable topics are a good breakthrough in the European and American markets which are more concerned about environmental issues.
In the spring and summer products of 2020, the Dry-Ex speed drying series, which is known for its quick draining of moisture, will be rebuilt on the original basis, and a large number of polyester fiber fabrics made from recyclable plastic bottles will be used. In addition, UNIQLO will recover the old Ultra Light Down ultra light down garment from customers and extract recycled feather to make new down products.
From the prospective perspective of consumers, real wear function and fabric innovation, simple style and multiple joint names, coupled with the sustainable development of environmental protection, this is the watershed between UNIQLO and other fast fashion, and why it can still maintain a high development trend in the volatile and changeable industry background.
"Changing clothes, changing common sense, and changing the world," Ryui Masa said, indicating that their goal is far more crazy than the design of UNIQLO.
"We are actually one of the most radical brands in the world, because our radicalism stems from a deep-rooted idea that it does not depend on marketing and does not rely on fashion. This influence is very profound, just like religion's influence on people, and is not known to the public," John C Jay added.
"We want to compete in the clothing industry, where everything is dazzling, but we will not make clothes with large signs and exaggerated designs. Even then, these clothes are pretty good. So how can we make clothes that everyone is satisfied with? What can you do to enable the public to accept and attract elegant consumers? This is the secret we want to uncover, that's all.