Uniqlo Assessment Presentation and Project Report Environmental Analysis Apparel Brand Management

The developing countries have moderately high GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth rate than the developed countries who have low development rate in clothing utilization. The rapid economic growth of manufacturing countries results in rise in labour costs which may affect the low retail prices of H&M. (UKESSAYS, 2015)

J.Crew as an iconic brand targeting young working professional by focusing on preppy and classy look failed in identifying brand focus. Also, their business model is performing poorly in the fast-fashion industry compare to traditional competitors, with its high prices, diverging quality, and undesirable brand image. Hence, the brand perception by customers has changed and many of them prefer to purchase the discounted products rather than full-priced items.

UNIQLO has built their reputation as simple, basic designs and top quality materials over the years. The CEO of the company, Mr. Yanai has established the business model called SPA, which embraces all stages of the business, from design and production to the final sale. By doing this, they could control their stock so that there won’t be a shortage nor a surplus in merchandise. UNIQLO has not been pushing their logo like American eagle, Hollister do because they believe their products speak for themselves. Their products are suing high technology, which sets them apart from other fast retailing stores.

In order to do so, it has been recommended that they partner up with well-known retail stores such as Macy’s and Nordstrom. It has also be recommended that a representative or educator from Lululemon remains at the store at all times or that the retail stores (partners)

In Rich Apparels, we have shot a commercial, rolled out new designs, television and radio features and are now featured in Bosede’s 5th Annual Fashion Show.

American Apparel (AA) is a well-known United States clothing brand that has gained recognition among the retail industry. American Apparel headquarters is located in Los Angles, California where it manufactures and distributes its clothing products. It is known in today’s society, to be sweatshop free and has a strong belief of workers’ rights. However, American Apparel has had a downfall in the retail industry losing revenue. This research of American Appeal will provide feasible reasons why the company should enter China international market to improve on sales revenue. Companies such as American Apparel can operate in a certain environment that has a formulation and implementation of a strong business strategy that can avoid restricted environmental factors. This will determine the decision making of financial considerations, promotion strategy, organizational structure, and the management style. The environmental awareness is the starting point of environmental analysis. American Apparel has to take in consideration that there are two environmental factors of the internal and external environments. These factors affect the employees, customers, management, supply and demand. The environment has a direct impact on American Apparel business.

J.Crew began in 1947 as a low priced clothing company that sold its merchandise door-to-door. It was originally called Popular Club but the name was eventually changed to J.Crew to better suit its preppy image. In 1983 the company released its first catalog in an effort to mimic the success of like Lands’ End and L.L. Bean. People fell in love with the company’s preppy aesthetic that was much more affordable than designers like Ralph Lauren. Within the decade, the company grew its customer base exponentially. Their sales increased from $3 Million to $100 Million in less than 10 years. In 1989 the company expanded into retail stores with their first brick-and-mortar location in South Street Seaport in New York.

We respect our customers and hence we struggle to only offer quality products. All the products that we sell are going through a rigorous inspection that is conducted by our suppliers, prior to being introduced for sale on the market.

When they first visited their plant in China and started asking their vendors to break out the cost of packaging, they must have thought that he was crazy. But by investing the time and energy to invent a new box for their bicycles, with the ultimate goal of creating a closed loop system that extended the life of materials and avoided toxic materials or processes, ultimately saved REI money (approximately $1.25 million) by reducing packaging materials by 68%, while at the same time, influencing their counterparts in similar industries and solidifying their position as the industry leaders.

The price of a cheap, cotton t-shirt would be priced around 7 dollars in today's society whereas, in 2007 the same shirt would be priced around 4 dollars.  As the economy worsened the value of the dollar decreased which made not only the cheap t-shirt increased in price but also the name branded t-shirts such as Ralph Lauren increased in price as well. During the 2010 recession, the price of everything went up. Inflation was to blame as well as international trade imbalances. One major trade investor of America is China.  In almost every shirt tag says “Made in

Given the alignment of product segmentation towards women 's clothing, women make up the majority of buyers in each key age demographic. According to the chart, the major market for clothing retail industry is people aged 29 to 43 years, which accounted for about 39% of the market. Fashion trends and brands appeal to this segment. However in the past few years, spending power of generation Y has increased and tends to spend a high proportion of the income on clothing. Generations X and Y will increase their share of the market in this industry as more of these consumers enter the workforce [see Exhibit 2] (IBISWorld, 2012).

Many people buy cheap clothes from chain clothing stores, like forever 21, H&M, and Zara. Although these clothes are cheap, these clothes have a big backstory before they get to the stores. They have lots of reasons why these clothes are so cheap. There is a term for clothes that are made from overseas, by workers who are paid less. It called Fast Fashion, fast fashion are clothes are cheaper and are usually low quality (Ojiala). Fast fashion has been developing over the past two decades(Pagotto). Many of the brands that support the fast fashion trend release 18 collections a year (“Cris in Our Closets”). The Fast fashion industry provides marketplaces with inexpensive clothes for most young women (Luz).

After two years of establishing a strong online presence, the company would see the launch of the first physical store in the third year of operation. Instead of affecting the online store’s revenue adversely, we expect that the physical store will instead complement the online store. For example, the existence of the physical store would act as an excellent exposure to new consumers who do not shop online. Additionally, customers can expect to find the full range of products BoJ offers on their online store.

UNIQLO, established in 1963. At first, it was only a small clothing store sales, which have become internationally well-known clothing brands currently.

UNIQLO concentrates on material research for long and provides numerous simple and comfortable basic garment which results in the lack of fashion sense and slow product update. Additionally, for the Japanese brand, in a specific Sino-Japanese relations will affect the UNIQLO brand development and sales in China.