Brand Concern: UNIQLO Clothes Have Become More Expensive Recently. What Do You Think

"Has UNIQLO become more expensive recently?" A Ling, who originally wanted to spend 1000 yuan to buy all her family's winter clothes, went into UNIQLO and found that a pair of ordinary trousers had reached 249, and her jacket, down jacket and overcoat had approached the thousand yuan line.

UNIQLO's + J series, CO branded by designer Jil sander, has set a new peak in unit price since November 13. The most expensive wool blended long coat costs 1999 yuan, while wool suit and jacket are priced at 999 yuan.

For example, the prices of clothes have been rising steadily since the prices of clothes and cashmere have been rising steadily

Quan now visited the offline stores and found that these new products were placed in the conspicuous position of the store, which undoubtedly increased the "body feeling" of consumers about the price rise. In addition to price increases, many consumers also have doubts about the cost performance of the + J series, believing that the version is too loose and the cost performance is not high. But at the same time, we found on the line that, despite continuous replenishment, + J series of popular styles have been out of stock. So why do people still pull out their wallets honestly? On the one hand, UNIQLO is still an ideal choice under the same quality requirements, which requires the joint support of design ability and supply chain response ability; on the other hand, UNIQLO's loyal users also have the need to upgrade. Under the concept of "service is suitable for life", UNIQLO needs to expand the brand width through abnormal product lines.

01 the cold Chinese market?

"Originally, I was waiting for the UNIQLO + J series, but it was easy to get it!"

At 0:00 on November 13, consumer Xiao Luo was punctually waiting for the official app to release goods. She thought she would experience a "hand speed war", but she easily bought the overcoat and shirt that she had already seen. She said that UNIQLO made replenishment later. In addition to the most popular coats, most of the friends who wanted to buy them all bought them. "The stock is more than expected.".

Different from the Chinese market, as soon as UNIQLO + J series was launched, Japan, South Korea and other places appeared the situation of crazy offline shopping, which reappeared the "grand occasion" when UNIQLO launched the fashion brand kaws joint brand. In Japan, even the model's display money was stripped off, police had to go out to maintain order; the second-hand market was also hot, and an official price of 15900 yen (about 1000 yuan) of coat was fried to double the price.

Offline, the Chinese market is also relatively sparse. Xiao Luo passed the UNIQLO flagship store in taiguli, Sanlitun the next day. "There were a lot of people queuing up, but the goods were still quite complete. Each person was limited to one item on the spot.". Compared with the situation in Japan and South Korea, she thinks it can be called "orderly".

Xiaochen, a 26 year old consumer, does not understand the pricing of + J series. She calls herself "UNIQLO die loyal powder". There are more than 10 UNIQLO items in her wardrobe, all of which are basic models under 500 yuan. "If you want to buy about 1000 yuan, why don't you save any more and buy more designer clothes with more expensive brands?" She listed several brands that she likes in daily life, such as Mo & Co., Moussy and sly, which are "obviously more beautiful and have more sense of design".

Photo source: realook, up owner of station B, reminds fans to "buy at a discount"

Luo, who robbed the goods, took a different attitude. She thinks that the quality of the coat seized this time is similar to the blue Erdos coat purchased during the double 11, but it is more in line with the needs of daily commuting. In addition, she also bought the fleece two Lapel bottoming shirt that UNIQLO will launch every year, and found that this year's fabric has been upgraded: "the material is softer than before, and it's obviously more comfortable."

Some consumers said that if it becomes more expensive, the quality and design can keep up with it, "I'm still willing to pay for UNIQLO.".

Cheng Weixiong, an expert in textile shoes and clothing brand management and general manager of Shanghai Liangqi Brand Management Co., Ltd., explains to Quanshi that the general clothing enterprises are divided into basic, best-selling and image styles. He believes that the + J series co branded model is an image model for brand promotion.

"This kind of brand needs to invest a certain amount of marketing cost to drain, so from a cautious point of view, they will pilot first, promote first from the flagship stores in big cities, or guide them online first." Therefore, in his opinion, it is normal for offline stores to encounter cold on the Internet, because they have not been invested in promotion resources, coupled with the impact of the epidemic, the experience of physical stores will further shrink.

02 for whom to develop "high end line"

To understand why UNIQLO is a high-end line, we must first understand its competitive state in the Chinese market.

According to the report of wind and Everbright Securities Research Institute, after the first half of 2018, the annual growth rate of China's clothing retail sales dropped to less than 10%, consumers are more picky about clothing, market competition is intensified, and the industry gradually turns to the buyer's market. The report also pointed out that in the short and medium term, the growth rate of China's clothing consumption in high-end luxury consumption is relatively low, and high cost-effective consumption has become the dominant.

From the actual operation point of view, UNIQLO is implementing the policy of high cost performance, firmly grasping the core needs of Chinese consumers.

In July this year, the Industrial Securities Research Report showed that UNIQLO's price increase rate was about 2-3 times, that is, the price of the final product was 2-3 times of the cost. This is a big gap with the rate of 9-10 times of price increase in the industry. According to the research report, this is mainly due to UNIQLO's effective management of products, channels and supply chain.

Moreover, from a realistic point of view, emphasizing value is also the solution to the severe challenges UNIQLO faces this year. Affected by the epidemic situation, as of the end of August this year, UNIQLO's parent company FMCG achieved a net profit of 90.3 billion yen, a year-on-year decrease of 44.4%, and an income of ￥ 0.01 trillion, a year-on-year decrease of 12.3%. Although there is no deficit, this is the annual performance decline of Fast Retailing since 2017.

In the financial report, UNIQLO predicted that the Greater China region will receive a substantial increase in revenue in the second half of the year, as well as a double-digit growth in net sales of e-commerce. But UNIQLO said it would control discounts for the big shopping season, so growth could slow. As a result, the company will focus on the value of goods in order to achieve a significant improvement in profit margins.

In other words, in order to gain the profit margin improvement in the second half of the year, UNIQLO is also gradually approaching consumers with higher recognition of the value of goods.

UNIQLO is not willing to be recognized for its brand history. The more expensive co branded items have been UNIQLO's way of showing itself.

In 2009, UNIQLO started to cooperate with Jill Sandra for the first time in + J series, trying to "draw a line" with fast fashion brands such as H & M and Zara. "UNIQLO is not a fast fashion brand, but a lifestyle brand that advocates high quality, innovation and improvement of life," said Berndt hauptkorn, CEO of UNIQLO Europe in an interview.

Before 2013, UNIQLO's brand concept was "made for all" to provide low-cost and high-quality clothing styles. UNIQLO adopts spa mode to control cost, inventory and production, and keeps up with consumer demand through strong information feedback. In 2013, UNIQLO repositioned its brand and updated its brand concept to "life wear".

Since 2013, UNIQLO has taken a series of "fashionable" innovative actions more intensively, extending olive branches to more consumers who are interested in fashion.

For example, Japan's "trendsetter" Nigo (Nago, Japanese rapper and founder of a bath APE) was employed as the creative director of UT series, and the co branding cooperation with kaws, a graffiti artist in New York, and Christophe Lemaire, the former design director of Hermes, was employed.

On June 9, 2016, UNIQLO group, the parent company of UNIQLO, announced that lemer was the art director of the newly established UNIQLO Paris R & D center. The "UNIQLO U" series designed by lemer and its royal Paris team has gradually become one of UNIQLO's classic product lines.

UNIQLO's director of Greater China said in an interview in April of the same year that UNIQLO once regarded UNIQLO and Lemaire cooperation series as the carrier of "a future life style". They hope to establish UNIQLO's "fashion leadership, and we want to redefine our fashion". From the consumer's point of view, these clothes are still reserved basic styles, but the design concept is added.