Marketing Analysis -UNIQLO Essay Example

in 2006. In this period from 2006 to 2014 UNIQUE opened its first global flagship store in New York Soho Store along with other flagship stores including London 311 Oxford Street Store France Paris Opera Store China Shanghai West Nanjing Road Japan Osaka Shanghais Taiwan Taipei Imaging Department United States New York Fifth Avenue Korea Encoding Central Tokyo Gina Store Hong Kong Lee Theatre and Germany Berlin.

Fast Retailing owns UNIQUE along with other brands like GU Theory Competitor des Stoniness Princesses tam.Tam and J Brand.GU was established in September 2008 focusing on design manufacture and retail of GU brand clothing and other goods.As of May31st2014 GU had277stores worldwide.Fast Retailing was established on May1st1963and its Chairman President and CEO is Dadaist Yang who is Japanese and has been with the company since its inception.The company has undergone significant globalization, with its top 10 stores reporting annual sales abroad in 2013. One-third of Fast Retailing's branches are now located overseas, demonstrating the rapid pace of its global expansion. Recently, Fast Retailing has adopted the motto "Global is local, local is global" to ensure that it provides customers worldwide with exceptional stores, service, and products. The objective is to expand its global fan base and become the leading brand in every country where it operates.

Fast Retailing exemplifies this commitment through its partnership with Grahame Bank in Bangladesh. Together, they have established a cooperative social enterprise focused on clothing design, production, and retail. This collaboration not only creates more local job opportunities but also improves living standards while fulfilling corporate social responsibility.

In Hong Kong, Fast Retailing made its debut on March 31st, 2005. By July 31st, 2014, it had

opened a total of 22 stores in the region. Since opening their first store in September 2005 until August 2013's end date, Fast Retailing steadily increased its number of Hong Kong stores to a total of 18 locations. Hong Kong stands out among Asian markets due to its strong consumer purchasing power.

UNIQLO brand experiences high enthusiasm from consumers resulting in highly efficient and profitable business operations in Hong Kong with strong sales per store.The opening of the UNIQUE Lee Theatre Store in April 2013 marked the brand's tenth global flagship store. This flagship store offers exclusive products that can only be found at other global flagship locations. In terms of industry ranking, UNIQUE is second only to competitors like GAP, H, and EZRA. The Gap, Inc. owns popular brands such as Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Prelims, Athlete, and Intermix. As of April 30, 2011,Gap Enterprise Co.Ltd.had a total of 3,245 company-owned and franchise stores located in various countries including Canada, China,Croatia ,France ,Italy,Ireland ,Japan,the United Kingdom,and the United States (excluding Puerto Rico). The remaining countries have joined the company's branch management.Established in 1969 with a single store in San Francisco,GAP is an American costume jewelry retailer with a focus on casual,classical,and modern American style products.UNIQUE,on the other hand,strives to provide "Life wear" that represents a simple yet joyful life.UNIQUE targets young people as their market while GAP caters to office workers with disposable income.The product designs for GAP change quarterly but for UNIQUE they mostly remain consistent including T-shirts,hats,and jackets.GAP incorporates corporate social responsibility by donating clothing to areas affected by natural disasters or impoverished nations after recovering UNIQUE clothing does not have similar

initiatives.GAP outsources the manufacturing of their products to other garment factories, except for their own production plants in Bangladesh and China. These plants are responsible for designing, producing, and processing UNIQUE products. The UNIQUE plant ensures that the finished products are not illegally resold and are sold at a fair price. Additionally, baby clothes from UNIQUE are sterilized and must be returned to the factory for sterilized packaging if unpacked.

Fast Retailing's business philosophy for UNIQUE includes Life wear, customer service, and product policy. Life wear is an ideological concept that UNIQUE has embraced, with twelve product series such as HATCHED, ULTRA Light Down, Fleece, Silk, Cashmere, Cotton Flannel, ULTRA Stretch Leggings Warm Easy Denim Shirts Topics. HATCHED and ULTRA Light Down are the best-selling products in the UNIQUE lineup.

HATCHED is a highly functional line created through collaboration between UNIQUE and Tray Industries Inc., offering exceptional comfort. It is renowned for its thinness, lightness,and softness due to fabric elasticity which provides remarkable comfort consistently impressing customers.HATCHED was launched in response to customer demands for narrower products complementing predominantly cotton lineup.For men,HATCHED offers warm narrower options combining heat-retention and anti-perspiration functions introduced in fall/winter 2004.
After the success of introducing a similar line for women the following year, we were able to create soft and long-lasting products in vibrant colors by incorporating our original HATCHED fibers with a special milk protein. The popularity of these products exceeded production capacity during the 2007 fall/winter season. UNIQUE remains committed to producing world-class products without compromise, as demonstrated by our strategic partnership with Tray in June 2006. Together, we pushed the boundaries of technology to create the synthetic fiber that forms

the foundation of HATCHED, which is both soft and durable and offers a wide array of vibrant colors. To meet high demand, UNIQUE has increased their plant's production capability with an exclusive HATCHED production line. In addition to internal operations, Customer service Fast Retailing emphasizes the importance of customer service. For example, unlike other companies in different industries that have several layers or rent entire buildings as offices, UNIQUE's Hong Kong office has shabby rented decor with only a few units.UNIQUE, a Specialty-store retailer of Private-label Apparel, has complete control over the entire clothes-asking process, encompassing design, creation, and sale. This unique advantage allows them to offer high-quality casual wear at reasonable prices that sets them apart from other companies in the industry.

The S.W.O.T matrix is a valuable tool for businesses to assess their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within the marketplace. It plays a crucial role in developing a robust business plan. The matrix includes internal factors such as business structure, products, technology, and quantifiable or unquantifiable resources possessed by the firm.

Weaknesses refer to internal factors that hinder company performance, including poor management planning, complex internal structures, unacceptable products or services resulting in customer dissatisfaction. To prevent such issues from recurring in the future, immediate action should be taken to optimize planning processes.

Opportunities arise from external factors with potential profitability implications for the company. These opportunities can stem from changes in government policies or industry trends. By identifying these changes and effectively meeting customer needs and wants through strategic initiatives, UNIQUE can attract more customers while gaining an edge over competitors.

Threats are external conditions that have adverse effects on the company's structure and profits.

Such threats may manifest as new or alternative products entering the market thereby making the company's original product obsolete. Recognizing these threats is critical for UNIQUE to adjust its strategies accordingly and maintain its position within the market landscape.Analyzing Unique's business performance, their strengths lie in Product 1. They have created their own business model called SPA (Specialty store retailer of Private label Apparel), prioritized by Fast Retailing. This model encompasses the entire clothing-making process from design and production to final sale, including material procurement, product planning, development and manufacturing, distribution and retail, as well as inventory management.

The SPA model allows for minimizing personal expenses and store rent to enhance store operation efficiency. Unique focuses on developing high-quality garments at low prices in order to create clothing with new and unique value that satisfies customers worldwide. They follow superior quality and safety controls to ensure customer comfort and satisfaction.

Additionally, Unique collaborates with Tray Industries Inc. to create Hatched, a unique line of inner wear that offers amazing comfort and has gained a multitude of customers. The company emphasizes customer opinions in garment development by incorporating feedback such as softer fabric, functions to keep skin warm and prevent dryness, and an expanded range of colors.Unique is able to produce high-quality reductions by allocating more resources to business planning, product design, and product procurement based on customer feedback. The Uniquely Quality and Safety Control System implemented by the UNIQUE Material Development Team ensures that products maintain a high standard of quality while remaining affordable. This is achieved through negotiation with material manufacturers worldwide and making bulk purchases. The Tokyo Headquarters, known as the Humanity Head Office, has

technical specialists who focus on garment material and provide guidance for production offices in recess management and personnel training. The director emphasizes offering instruction on dyeing technology at partner factories to improve production management philosophy. Despite cultural differences, the aim remains the same - to create truly good products. Picture 11 and 12 showcase positive customer reputation for Unique, while picture 13 displays customer feedback from their Customer Center in Japan.Unique places a strong emphasis on customer service and has established three promises to ensure customer satisfaction. These promises include maintaining a clean sales floor, keeping advertised items in stock, and allowing returns and exchanges within one month of purchase. To further enhance their customer experience, Unique has created the FRY'S Customer Center where customers can reach out via phone, fax, or email to provide feedback and make inquiries.

The company takes pride in its high-quality products and unique clothes-making process that covers design to production. Customer needs are given utmost importance by Unique, although they do struggle with the instability of their management values. They strive to carefully plan their service offerings, particularly when it comes to product design ideas and service standards.

However, Unique faces challenges due to customers' significant bargaining power as well as the need to adapt to a constantly changing market environment. It is crucial for them to stay updated with trends and adjust their business plans accordingly.

According to "The Business of Fashion," Uniquely's same store sales record has shown fluctuations at times due to their policy of introducing new season merchandise while removing old items regardless of weather conditions not always aligning with the schedule. In July last year, there was

a 5 percent increase in sales followed by a significant jump of 28.9 percent in August. September saw a 4 percent increase in sales as well.However, despite a 2.2 percent drop in sales during the same month the previous year, sales fell 13.8 percent in an unusually warm and wet October. In terms of market competition, Fast Retailing (Unique) is ranked as the fourth largest casual wear industry globally. The top three companies in terms of sales are Inedited EZRA (Spain), H Sweden), followed by GAP (USA). Despite having a strong brand and reputation, Fast Retailing has neglected acquisitions over the past five years. Previous takeovers, including Cabin, Link Theory, Vivisection and Nozzle (which have since been dissolved), as well as Competitor des Stationeries, Theory, and Princesses Tam from overseas brands, have not performed as well as expected according to "The Business of Fashion".