Marketing and promotion skills | The marketing behind the crazy rush for Uniqlo’s co-branded T-shirts!

Recently, the Kaws x Uniqlo co-branded T-shirts were snapped up as soon as they were released. The incident once became a hot topic and caused heated discussions among netizens. Below, this article will analyze the reasons behind this incident from a marketing perspective.

1. Background

In the past two days, Weibo and WeChat Moments have been flooded with news about the crazy rush to buy the last joint release of Kaws x Uniqlo in the summer of 2019: the official price of the T-shirt jointly launched by Uniqlo and fashion brand Kaws is 99 yuan, and the offline stores were snapped up, and the online mall showed that it was out of stock within 1 minute of going online. The prices on second-hand platforms have been driven up to 200 to 400 yuan or even higher.

The level of exaggeration in offline stores is outrageous. There is another wave of queues all night long. The entire shelf is cleared out one minute before and after the store opens. There are videos and pictures showing many exaggerated scenes, including people drilling through rolling shutters, stripping models, fighting to grab clothes, and some running away after grabbing the clothes without even checking the size... Passersby thought that Uniqlo clothes were free today.

Although this crazy incident has attracted all kinds of ridicule from netizens, there must be rules and reasons behind a popular marketing product. This article analyzes the reasons behind the Kaws x Uniqlo shopping spree from a marketing perspective, and combines theory with practice, hoping to bring some inspiration and ideas to creating popular products in marketing and product design.

2. Theoretical basis

There is a very important theoretical foundation in modern marketing, namely the Customer Perceived Value theory.

The first scholar in the world to give a definition of customer value was Jackson (1985). He was the first to propose that "value" is actually the definition of "customer value". He believed that value is the ratio between perceived benefits and price. The price here includes the purchase price as well as the risks of acquisition, transportation, installation, ordering and failure. Monroe (1990) believed that customer perceived value represents the trade-off between the quality or benefits the customer obtains from the transaction and the cost he pays. He mainly emphasized the relativity of customer value. Morris (1994) believed that customer value is the function between customer-perceived quality and price.

Customer perceived value = the trade-off between the gains and losses perceived by the customer, which is an overall evaluation of the utility of a product or service.

In the process of empirical research in marketing, American scholar Weingand divided customer value into four levels, namely basic value, expected value, demand value and unexpected value, and each level corresponds to different customer value.

Weingand's customer hierarchy model

In summary, the characteristics of customer value theory are:

(1) Customer value is the customer's perception of the value of a product. This value is not limited to the cost price of the product itself, but is based on the customer's personal subjective judgment;

(2) The core of customer perceived value is the trade-off between the perceived benefits customers receive and the perceived costs they pay, that is, the trade-off between gains and losses. When the perceived benefits are higher than the perceived costs, the willingness to buy is stronger.

(3) Customer value is a hierarchical structure that runs from product attributes, attribute utility, expected results, and then to the customer’s desired goals. (See Weingand's customer hierarchy model above)

3. Based on the above theory, the customer perceived value analysis of the kaws x Uniqlo joint product

3.1 Let’s briefly introduce the background of kaws x Uniqlo

Kaws is an American street artist, whose representative works include "The Long Road Home". A painting he created in 2005 was auctioned for a whopping HK$100 million in April this year. This already shows that he has a high enough status and value among artists who are only 45 years old.

Kaws's work was sold at a sky-high price of 100 million

Artworks with avant-garde and fashionable design concepts like Kaws's are popular among young people, but the high prices of artists' works mean that most young people can only admire them from afar. This strong gap between the desire and the unattainable has created market demand.

Kaws founded the street fashion brand Original Fake in 2006, using various unique Kaws representative elements to enter the fashion clothing market. Kaws's creations are popular among many young groups. In addition to Uniqlo, it has also collaborated with big brands such as AJ, DIOR, Supreme, etc., all of which have created impressive market responses. Of course, the prices of these brand products are relatively expensive compared to Uniqlo.

As a civilian clothing brand, Uniqlo has a good reputation and quality assurance in its own dimension. In recent years, it has frequently launched joint models with big brands and well-known designers, and almost every model is a hit. This time, many joint models were sold out as soon as they were launched. The co-branded T-shirt with Kaws is priced at 99 yuan, and fans jokingly said, "This may be the only chance to afford Kaws' work."

3.2 Based on the customer perceived value theory, we first analyze the customer’s perceived benefit

We analyze from the customer value hierarchy model:

First level: basic value = a summer T-shirt from Uniqlo

Second level: expected value = designed by the famous artist kaws, the style is fashionable and has artistic value.

The third level: the value of demand = it is a limited edition in itself. The manager of Kaws also announced that this is the last collaboration with Uniqlo, which may make it out of print, so it has a high collection value.

The fourth layer: Unexpected value = As Kaws’s creative ability and fame gradually increase, perhaps this ordinary T-shirt will also have unpredictable value in the future.

The above four levels of customers have different levels of value, which can be seen as the benefits perceived by customers when purchasing this Kaws x Uniqlo co-branded T-shirt.

According to customer value theory, purchasing behavior requires a balance between benefits and costs. So let’s take a look at what customers pay.

• Customers who rushed to buy the products offline: They paid 99 yuan in cash + the time they spent in line + the effort they put into buying the products
• Customers who buy online from purchasing agents: pay 99* (2-4 times) in cash.

There is no uniform standard for whether the above efforts and benefits are balanced. Because according to customer value theory, the balance between benefits and costs is entirely a subjective judgment of the customer. Does the benefit of buying this dress far outweigh the cost? Everyone has his own judgment.

• In the eyes of a confused passerby, this is just an ordinary summer T-shirt, which may not even have a perceived value of 99 yuan, and it is even more impossible for her to spend more time and energy to queue up and grab it.
• In the eyes of ordinary customers who have no idea who Kaws is, this is just an ordinary Uniqlo co-branded T-shirt. They may still hesitate whether to wait until the promotional price of 79 yuan before considering buying it.
• However, in the eyes of Kaws fans, if they can buy a Kaws-designed piece for 99 yuan, and it is a limited edition co-branded with Uniqlo, what does it matter if they wait in line a little longer?
• In the eyes of purchasing agents, a T-shirt bought at full price on Xianyu can be resold for 2-4 times the price. A huge profit of 100%-300% is not something that ordinary products can achieve. For customers who hold such a profit-seeking mentality, running around the mall, fighting, and queuing all night are all worth it.

To sum up, in simple terms, when the customer's inner value level is constantly satisfied, the customer's perceived benefit from the product will be higher, and their tolerance for paying will increase. As long as the customer's subjective perceived value is higher, the purchasing behavior will be more decisive. Uniqlo's Kaws co-branded T-shirt perfectly demonstrates the customer value theory and customer needs hierarchy model.

Therefore, as product designers and marketers, when designing and packaging products, they also need to combine the customer's demand hierarchy model, strive to improve customers' perceived benefits of the product, and reduce customers' costs. Only by maximizing the customer's perceived value can we promote the customer's decision to place an order.

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Author: Louise

Source: Louise