Brand promotion, how does Uniqlo create best-selling products?

Every summer’s UT campaign is the peak of Uniqlo’s brand marketing throughout the year, but it’s even more popular this year.

In early June, the topic of "Everyone is scrambling for the UNIQLO×KAWS co-branded UT" was frequently on the screen, becoming the second most popular event in China in 2019 after the Cat Claw Cup.

But this isn’t the real Uniqlo.

The editor believes that UNIQLO may be the brand that has had the greatest impact on Greater China in the past 30 years. It has achieved the goal of changing the lifestyles and consumption concepts of people from all walks of life .

In 2010, Uniqlo opened its first global flagship store in Shanghai, which is also its fourth flagship store in the world.

Uniqlo established its Shanghai office in 1999, and this year marks its 20th anniversary in China.

In the past few years, the brand has achieved global expansion, surpassing its initial learning target Gap, H&M and ZARA; its founder Tadashi Yanai has become the richest man in Japan, with a net worth that surpasses SoftBank's Masayoshi Son.

UNIQLO is no longer a "fast fashion" brand in the eyes of consumers, but a brand that focuses on the lifestyle of all mankind. Strong values ​​and aspirations have always driven the brand forward.

So, in addition to the crazy rush, long queues and low prices, you should also know the overall picture of UNIQLO. And Uniqlo’s “hot-selling items” are not limited to the UT series.

1. The first “explosive item” at the turn of the century: fleece

Back to 20 years ago , UNIQLO had transformed from a brand collection store into a clothing brand that develops and produces its own products. It has a certain scale in Japan, but is not yet well-known in Tokyo. In addition, the brand has always been left with the stereotype that "cheap products are not good".

Therefore, planting the flag in Tokyo and tearing off the label became an important strategy for the company to become stronger, and the fleece sweaters that had been put on sale before were finally designated as the vanguard of this battle.

The opportunity for polar fleece to explode was that this fabric was monopolized by the United States at the time and could only be used by high-end clothing brands due to the high import cost. After development, Uniqlo reduced costs and sold it at 2,900 yen, which became the first step for polar fleece to become a hit.

In 1998, the first store in Tokyo, Harajuku, opened. It adopted a price reduction sales strategy and used the advertising slogan of the opening event, affixed a label of "Uniqlo fleece sweater, 1900 yen" . In the three-story shopping mall, the first floor was entirely filled with fleece sweaters, which was a huge success. That fall and winter, 2 million fleece quilts were sold.

Later, Yanai mentioned in his autobiography "One Win, Nine Losses" that "we quickly locked in on best-selling products and organized development and production at the fastest speed." He recalled the main reason why polar fleece sweaters helped the Harajuku opening succeed:

1. Display specific products in a concentrated manner to highlight the focal points (in-store display strategy)

2. High-quality flagship products at a low price of 1,900 yen (low-price strategy)

3. Advertising is fresh and unique (advertising marketing)

Until now, Uniqlo's new product launches still follow the above logic: the ultimate display in terminal retail combined with online marketing.

In the autumn and winter of 2000, UNIQLO designed 51 colors of polar fleece sweaters and launched them into the market. 26 million pieces were actually sold, making it one of the best-selling products to date.

However, in 2001, after entering its heyday, Uniqlo's development efforts began to decline, and some negative voices gradually emerged at that time. The fleece sweaters all over the streets made consumers begin to feel uncomfortable and gradually tried to stay away from the brand. This is a corporate crisis. Fortunately, through repeated practice and improved flexibility in change, we finally achieved growth after 23 months.

Today, UNIQLO has reformed polar fleece again and again, using different methods of weaving polar fleece fabrics to provide more options for touch and texture.

The polar fleece at UNIQLO's 2018 Fall/Winter preview has a more urban design feel, and also shows that the brand is keeping up with the times:

2. Entering the technological revolution: HEATTECH

Uniqlo sells polar fleece to one-third of the Japanese population, while HEATTECH, which was launched in 2003, has saved the lives of people in southern China who have no heating.

The childhood memories of Shanghai people are “cotton-padded sweaters and cotton-padded trousers”, but we no longer wear them when we grow up because they are “ too thick and don’t look good .” Later, HEATTECH came out of nowhere. Its focus was on "light and warm", or in plain words, "warm and good-looking ".

HEATTECH fabrics help the body block out cold air from outside and prevent heat from escaping

Over the past 15 years, HEATTECH has also gone through three iterations. From the basic model, to EXTRA WARM/double warmth, and then to ULTRA WARM/high warmth, the warmth retention capacity increases successively, and it can be seen that the total proportion of viscose and acrylic is also roughly increasing.

President Tadashi Yanai prefers to position UNIQLO as a "technology company" because, in Yanai's view, only by applying technology to everyday clothing can differentiation and high added value be truly achieved.

The latest generation of HEATTECH is also given a layer of "design sense". UNIQLO has collaborated with ALEXANDER WANG to launch a series of thermal underwear.

HEATTECH series

The success of HEATTECH is not only one of UNIQLO's best-selling product lines, but more importantly, it reflects the company's continuous pursuit of innovative technology and never-ending corporate innovation. It is precisely because of this that Uniqlo officially left other clothing brands behind soon after.

3. World Culture T-shirt: UT

Finally, we come to UT. What is the power that brings together the world's most famous IPs and puts them on a T-shirt worth only a few dozen dollars at Uniqlo?

UT and HEATTECH are the same age, and both product lines were launched in 2003. However, the positioning, product quality and style of the two product lines are completely different. Currently, UNIQLO has cooperated with hundreds of IPs through UT, breaking the fastest sales record every year.

This year's UT campaign is named "Traveling Through Creativity" and its English slogan is "Wear Your World" . During our trip to Tokyo last month, we also went to the 12-story flagship store in Ginza, where the top two floors were occupied by UT.

In fact, apart from Kaws, this year's cooperation IPs are all very exciting. Here is a brief list:

Gundam

Nintendo

Japanese comic series MANGA UT

This series is a small climax, which also includes: Detective Conan, Inuyasha, One Piece, Ranma 1/2, Gintama, Naruto, Bleach...

Here is another photo of my Kuroba Kaito-san

Kaws’ great success this year is also inseparable from the support of its partner Uniqlo. In 2016, when Uniqlo first collaborated with Kaws, Kaws was not as familiar to China as it is today.

The marketing team in Greater China contacted hundreds of KOLs one month before the launch and sent them materials including the Kaws brand story and personal introduction, which successfully assisted the online fermentation of the event and made users aware of the sense of identity of owning a Kaws co-branded product.

I am afraid that few brands can do this approach of " not looking at the artist's current traffic and influence, but relying on judging the other party's potential and standing with it to reasonably complete the project promotion ."

With UNIQLO's powerful supply chain, which is enough to make T-shirts affordable, UT has also been given the mission of providing affordable fashion to the public . The affordable price of 79 yuan is much lower than other trendy clothing brands that are also crossing over. The quality of Uniqlo is better than most fast fashion brands, winning the favor of the mass consumer groups.

4. UNIQLO’s business philosophy

The operation of Uniqlo cannot be fully described in just one article. In fact, just from the examples of the three product lines mentioned above, we can get a glimpse of the core reasons why this company was able to catch up and surpass its competitors.

The polar fleece sweater represents the company philosophy that UNIQLO established in its early days: "constantly pursuing the limits of low-priced, high-quality goods."

HEATTCH directly addresses users' pain point of thin and warm underwear in winter, and also indicates that UNIQLO is officially moving into the field of focusing on technological innovation, subverting the traditional clothing field and becoming an industry disruptor.

UT has enabled UNIQLO to achieve its mission of "affordable fashion for the masses". Clothes themselves have no personality. Only when each individual wears them skillfully can they show their unique personality.

At the same time, these three product lines continue to keep pace with the times after their launch, constantly optimizing and iterating on products and marketing, rather than standing still and standing still . This is also an important reason why Uniqlo's product line can develop sustainably.

In marketing, Uniqlo’s important brand upgrades are now a classic case. In 2013, Tadashi Yanai changed the brand slogan from "Made for all " to " Life Wear ". This seemingly small change at the front end actually reflects the company's high-level summary of its entire business logic, including its brand values, business philosophy, and understanding of clothing.

By 2020, UNIQLO aims to become the world's largest ready-to-wear clothing empire. In my opinion, it has been achieved.

Just as the UT series does not represent Uniqlo, this 3,000-word article also cannot reflect the full picture of the brand.

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Author: Rui Qiu

Source: Ruiqiu