When I was attending Nanyang Business School’s Professional MBA course, one of the assignments for Asian Branding module was to conduct brand analysis on a chosen Asian brand. My team has chosen to take a closer look at UNIQLO’s success and devise strategies for the brand to move forward. Back then, these were the strategies proposed by us:
- To adopt “Glocalisation” strategy in designing their clothing
- To develop next generation fabrics for improved quality, durability, functionality and sustainability
- To improve digital and e-commerce experience with new technologies
- To increase product variety and product mix by looking beyond tees and jeans
- To drive sustainability effort in fast fashion industry
Since then, I’m curious to see how well has UNIQLO performed and whether our recommendation made sense.
To adopt “Glocalisation” strategy in designing their clothing
UNIQLO is well known for their simple yet functional clothing design, akin to the minimalistic image we came to know and love from Japan. However, as UNIQLO went global, they can’t survive on the same clothing designs and offerings. The fashion taste are so different across countries and continents, thus the same winning formula that works in one place may not work elsewhere. Therefore, we recommended that UNIQLO should work with local designers and merchandisers to adapt their products to better suit local cultures and lifestyles.
In this area, UNIQLO did pretty well and one example is how they are serving the Malay community with products such as Batik motif shirt, Baju Melayu andAIRism hijab. In Singapore, their UT collection has been collaborating with brands and artists to push out designs that resonate with the local community, such as Beauty In The Pot series, LiHO Tea series and Singapore neighbourhood series, just to name a few. I believe UNIQLO does recognise the value of being close to local cultures and lifestyles, and they will probably continuing this trend as they expand into new markets.
To develop next generation fabrics for improved quality, durability, functionality and sustainability
When UNIQLO brand is mentioned, I guess besides the fancy and eye-catching UT (UNIQLO Tees), other things that pops up on your mind would probably be either AIRism, DRY-EX or HEATTECH. These are the innovative fabrics that UNIQLO researched, developed and made into their top selling products such as inner-wears, shirts, pants and jackets. Taking DRY-EX as an example, the fabric thread was actually weaved with recycled plastic bottles, making some of their shirts consist up to 75% recycled material. During our presentation, we highlighted the needs for UNIQLO to take advantage on their research capabilities to come up with next generation fabric which provides improved quality, durability, functionality and sustainability.
However, it does seems like little has changed since then. There were new variations of AIRism fabrics (such as the introduction of AIRism cotton) and some minor improvement on existing fabric technologies, but are these enough to propel UNIQLO to the next height? Especially on sustainable fabrics (I'll discuss more on sustainability later), perhaps UNIQLO could have done more by following the footsteps of companies like Everlane to incorporate organic cotton or recycled textile in their products. Bellroy is another company that pushes the envelop of sustainable materials by using 100% recycled polyester/nylon and plant-based fabric as part of their product materials. And how about bio-degradable fabrics? There are opportunities here for UNIQLO to innovate, and I'm looking forward to see what's coming up next from them.
To improve digital and e-commerce experience with new technologies
UNIQLO provides great in-store experience to their customers. You are greeted the moment you step into the store, and the staffs are always there to help you out when you need them. However, their digital experience has been a mismatch for quite a while with dated website design and a mobile application that was virtually just a mobile version of their desktop website. Our team were quick to point this out as one of the low hanging fruits for UNIQLO to address, and thankfully UNIQLO has took the step to get both their website and mobile application fixed, and they are now more in-line with their brand image with improved usability and experience. The mobile application now works like what you would expect from a mobile application, and for your reference, at the time of writing the UNIQLO app has a rating of 4.7/5 on iOS app store, which used to be just 1.7/5 around three years ago! Having said that, UNIQLO still need to improve their website further. Simple things such as broken link should not exist on a website, and yet it is easy to stumble upon a "Page not found" error when navigating their website.
Some of our recommendations back then have not materialised, though I believe they are still relevant and would elevate the customers experience further. For example, based on purchase history, UNIQLO could showcase personalised look-book to their customers. This adds value by giving customers ideas on how to match their outfit and perhaps entice them to make further purchases to complete their wardrobe. Besides that, augmented reality could be incorporated into their mobile application, allowing customers to "try out" clothing and accessories right from the comfort of their home, something particularly useful during the pandemic.
To increase product variety and product mix by looking beyond tees and jeans
Aside from clothing, it is natural for fashion brands to branch out and offer complimentary products like accessories. UNIQLO did just that and released products such as cap, scarf, belt, tie, shoes and so on. However, we did brought up that UNIQLO should consider expanding their product to other categories such as home and other lifestyle products by leveraging their fabric technologies. They did just that by launching their bedding series last year, which uses AIRism fabric that are ideal for hot and humid climate in Singapore, followed by AIRism face mask as the pandemic drags on.
There are a lot of potentials here to create new business opportunities, and UNIQLO could either release new product themselves or collaborate with other home furnishing brands to do so. They should continue with their effort in collaborating with fashion designers to create limited run products, like the JW Anderson, +J and Hana Tajima collection. These collaborations increase UNIQLO's brand awareness in the market besides showing what they can provide beyond basic wardrobe essentials.
To drive sustainability effort in fast fashion industry
Last but not least, let's look at the sustainability effort from UNIQLO. The fast fashion industry is well known for all kinds of scandals and sustainability issues. In order to set themselves apart from others, UNIQLO needs to have sustainability and responsibility baked into their DNA. Back then, we highlighted that UNIQLO should increase public awareness towards their sustainability initiatives, empowering people behind the brand and reduce their ecological footprint through products and raw materials innovation.
For example, UNIQLO has been running recycling and used clothes donation programmes for quite some time, but unfortunately these efforts weren't really visible on their website and in-store. Furthermore, their corporate social responsibility initiatives were also left unnoticed. As consumers are more aware on social and environmental issues, they would actively seek for such information and this could affect their purchase decision as well.
Our concerns were all addressed this year, as UNIQLO has made a big move by enlisting a green Doraemon as their Global Sustainability Ambassador and revamped their website and corporate materials to bring focus on their sustainability initiatives. Information on how UNIQLO is making a difference in three key pillars, namely planet, people and community are clearly visible and published on their website. This serves as a statement and commitment from UNIQLO in their effort to ensure their business is operating in a sustainable manner.
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As a UNIQLO customer myself, I have seen the brand changed and evolved for the past few years, and I believe they are certainly moving towards the right direction. I'm glad that most of our recommendations were indeed valid as UNIQLO has adopted same, if not similar strategy in their business.
Special shoutout to my teammates who made this analysis possible: Ankit Mittal, Charlotte Tan, Chandrashekhar Shekdar, Jessen Cunnusamy, Joeri Coppens, Oh Joo Wee, Puneet Agrawal, Ritesh Agrawal, Sumanta Bhattacharjee and Veron Thong.
