Uniqlo: A Case Study on Creating Market Share with Affordable and Timeless Designs
The Japanese designer, manufacturer, and retailer, Uniqlo, is known for casual, high-quality clothing for very affordable prices. During the Japanese recession, the company was valued especially for its low prices. They soon expanded their business throug
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bstract
The Japanese designer, manufacturer, and retailer, Uniqlo, is known for casual, high-quality clothing for very affordable prices. During the Japanese recession, the company was valued especially for its low prices. They soon expanded their business throughout Japan. Step-by-step, they expanded internationally and were then competing successfully with the major fashion retailers. Today, it is the fourth largest fashion retailer worldwide. Uniqlo made it possible to successfully educate countries worldwide, within less than 25 years, in its unique product strategy and it is still continuing to enlarge its business operations. By 2020, the company is aiming to become the world’s biggest specialty retailer of private label apparel with a continuous growth rate of 20 %. The company’s success can be explained by its initial success during the Japanese crisis. The consumer’s demand for affordable but high quality clothing was high during this time of recession, as consumers had to cut back on expenditures. After this sudden success, Uniqlo’s founder Tadashi Yanai managed to expand brand awareness and achieved success globally.
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Introduction
The Japanese designer, manufacturer, and retailer, Uniqlo, is known for casual, high-quality clothing for very affordable prices. During the Japanese recession, the company was valued especially for their low prices. They managed to communicate this unique selling position and soon expanded their business throughout Japan. Shortly thereafter, the company was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and F. Schulz-Mu¨llensiefen (*) • A. St€ockmann The Honor’s Program of the International Business School, Hanze University OAS, Groningen, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] # Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 R.T. Segers (ed.), Multinational Management, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-23012-2_12
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F. Schulz-Mu¨llensiefen and A. St€ ockmann
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became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd. Soon, step-by-step, they expanded internationally and were then competing successfully with the major fashion retailers. Today, Fast Retailing is the fourth largest fashion retailer worldwide. Uniqlo made it possible to successfully educate countries worldwide, within less than 25 years, in their unique product strategy and they are still continuing to enlarge their business operations. By 2020, the company is aiming to become the world’s biggest specialty retailer of private label apparel with a continuous growth rate of 20 %.
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Company Profile
2.1
History
In June 1984, the Yamaguchi-based company, Ogori Shoji, opened the first “Unique Clothing Warehouse” store in Hiroshima City that was specialized in men’s wear (Uniqlo 2014a). Soon, the original brand “Unique Clothing Warehouse” got renamed to “Uniqlo”. They changed their product line into casual clothes for both men and women, and since Uniqlo’s product are comparably cheap, but still high quality, they had a major competitive advantage during the Japanese “Great
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