Uniqlo Assessment Presentation and Project Report Environmental Analysis Apparel Brand Management

First research objective was to determine whether it is profitable for J.Crew to shift their brand focus to a ‘sustainablity’ business model instead of resuming their position in the fast fashion industry.

80 billion clothing items are produced every year. About two million tons of clothes is thrown away every year. The clothes often cannot be resold due to lack of quality. Only about 10% of clothes are resold. ¾ of the clothing’s manifested from fast fashion labels will end up in a land fill after a year after it is put out for consumers to buy.

According to the mission statement of Anthropologie: “Lifestyle merchandising is our business and our passion. The goal for our brands is to build a strong emotional bond with the customer. To do this we must build lifestyle environments that appeal emotionally, and offer fashion correct products on a timely basis. Our customers are the reason and the inspiration for everything we do.” UO considers the relationship it has with its customers before making decisions that affect them. Therefore, UO has kept in touch with customers continuously by utilizing various platforms such as SNS messages, connections with its online store, campaigns, events, and social media. In 2016, the growth rate of the company of retail segment is 1.6%, $47.4 million (URBN FY 2016 Annual report, 35). The basic concept of gaining inspiration from customers forms a diverse and progressive corporate culture; this is the driving force behind the development of the

The global women’s clothing industry is expected to exceed $621 billion in 2014, marking a 12% increase in five years, reports MarketLine. Clothing retailers account for the largest share of the market at almost 65% in terms of value. We will first seek customers locally, but will increase our range as we build our brand and are confident in our image.

Of the hundreds of named brand clothing that form part of the retail and fashion industry I chose to compare, for my analysis, Abercrombie & Fitch, Forever 21, American Eagle, and H&M. These stores are prominent, well-known for selling apparel, shoes, and accessories by the means of offering sales and promotions to their customers. This is a clever strategy for attracting customers, allowing them to believe that they bought goods at affordable, convenient prices – and not to mention the prestigious name prescribed to the clothing brands. Using keyhole.co as my main source, I obtained relevant and valuable information regarding the status of these brands. My intentions were to compare a period of 14 days, however, due to the limited access that I received from my free trial, the program only allowed me to see fewer of the dates than I anticipated. I want to take this opportunity and mention ahead of time that due to the various and distinctive products that are sold from these stores, when looking for the “spending capacity” I decided to focus on shirts/ jeans for men and women and compare the prices among them since each of these retailers carry those items and as a way to make this report easier to contrast and comprehend. Also, when approaching the section of “setting”, I screen-shotted some of the images on Instagram and made them into a collage to separate the type of clothes and trends that each of these brands sell currently. In the following modules

The condition of Australian fashion retailers have been under-serviced and underwhelmed when it comes to fashion choice, especially in affordable variety (Wells 2013). There are only numerous fashion labels are available to dress 23 million people. In addition, the price cannot be compared to international brands’; the volumes produced by big international retailers like Zara and H&M are to service global market, unlike Sportsgirl or Country Road who produce much smaller volumes.

Uniqlo is a retail industry which sells high quality casual wear at cheap and affordable prices under the company name of FAST RETAILING CO., LTD. It dominated the world with its presence and as of 2015 it has opened over 1’400 stores in 16 markets worldwide including big economy countries like China and The United States. Other than its flagship stores, they have delved into E-Commerce websites bringing in more profits. Due to the number of stores opened and popularity it has gained it has a big group of workforce of over 30,000 employees. (uniqlo.com, 2015)

Finally is Part IV of the book, “My T-shirt Finally Encounters a Free Market.” This section deals with what happens to the clothes after they are discarded, usually through donation to Goodwill or The Salvation Army. In fact, American donations to these kinds of organizations have increased so much that they have begun exporting the recycled clothing, “nearly 7 billion pounds” (Rivoli 176), to other countries. The recycled industry has actually created jobs in Africa as America’s old clothes are

In 1993, Patagonia was the first company to make plastic soda bottles into fleece, as well as other materials. As many other brands are following in their footsteps, this new technology is a new way to make an Eco-friendly material and that is durable and well made. Patagonia has changed how people view recycling. They are focused on reducing the amount of pollution in the environment. They needed 20,000 barrels of oil to make raw materials, but as they started recycling plastic bottles there was no need for that. Now, there is space in the landfills by keeping millions of bottles out, which eliminates harmful air emissions, making the environment a better place. While Patagonia strives for environmental improvements and to make their products, sustainable, there are now expanding to other fabrics. It has been over

There Is a similar relation among the clothes. Several customers shop there based on the quality and prices as well as the features associated with the products. An advantage of the store is that it has a wide product mix and various offering in different categories and all these can be located at one place. This attracts a wide variety of customers. In line with their positioning of offering quality, trendy products, the brand is consistently updating its product line. The brand does not focus on innovation but rather on always leading trends. In relation to the product life cycle, clothing has a short life span from the first to last stage as tastes change easily. For this reason, it is important to constantly anticipate consumer tastes and preferences prior to launching a product so as to retain and possibly build customers loyalty. It is also necessary to develop a successful marketing strategy to display product offerings.

2. Richard M. Johns (2006). The Apparel Industry. 2nd ed. UK, London: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.. 1-124.

and clothes are so general that they can fit more than one costume, which actually

Generations ahead of us only had a tiny wardrobe, where clothes were not washed every day. In our generation, fast fashion is in. It’s ok to have multiple shirts or shoes of the same color. It’s actually ok to throw away unwanted apparel. Apparel companies are beginning to focus on sustainable fashion, also known as eco fashion. Apparel, fashion, and textiles is the most polluting industry in the world. Every stage, that a garment goes through, uses up and threatens our resources.

2002 UNIQLO first time set feet on Chinese soil, H & M, ZARA brand yet so few people have heard of. Uniqlo in Japan is a popular clothing brand, so first in mainland China also positioned as a mass casual clothing. Thus, its main competitor is the Baleno, Giordano. And inland low-end brands to play a direct result of the bitter Uniqlo year Waterloo.

UNIQLO is the abbreviation of “Unique Clothing Warehouse”, a Japanese casual wear designer, manufacturer and retailer which provides consumers with the business philosophy of " low price, quality assurance ", and achieved remarkable results as world's top apparel retailer. UNIQLO plans to have 100 fresh stores annually in China while many other retailers have retarded store openings on account of China's slowing economic growth (Doland, 2015). This report, therefore, will set out to evaluate UNIQLO's marketing strategies in China, with a particular focus on the importance of pricing, development of product and the need for precise positioning.