Who Will Go To Japan In 2020 To Pay For Uniforms?

The distance between us and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games does not seem to be very far away. This game, which is held in neighbouring countries, will be searched by micro-blog in three to five times. From the Japanese animation dragon ball, the protagonist Sun Wukong will become the ambassador of the tournament and become an Olympian in the Alibaba. Peak Global partners.

According to the world clothing and shoe net, UNIQLO is also eyeing this excellent marketing opportunity. It is also preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Last January, Uniqlo Announced the signing of the endorsement contract with the current fifth singles world tennis player Jin Weishui. This is nothing special, but when the new contract expires at least after the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, everything will be different.

Kam kyu wears a Jersey sponsored by UNIQLO and a photo taken by Ryui Masa, founder of fast selling group.

　　 Signing tennis player Jin Wei kyu is also an athlete and a star.

Jin Wei has become the spokesperson of UNIQLO since 2011. At that time, the athlete's performance has not yet been bright, and fame and popularity in Japan and internationally are also not high. UNIQLO signed more from it. brand The overall strategy of tennis marketing starts.

The so-called "tennis marketing" refers to UNIQLO's desire to make Jin Wei and the Japanese disabled tennis player Kunimie Shingo signed in 2009, and the Serbia tennis player Novak Dyokovic, who joined the spokesmen's camp in 2012, to form a regional and famous combination of tennis and sports events as a starting point to jointly promote products and brands.

J rgen Andersson, chief marketing officer of UNIQLO, explained the strategy further in an interview with BBC. He said that sponsoring these tennis players can make UNIQLO access to a wider consumer group, thereby enhancing brand awareness, "because tennis is a global sport played by men, women, young and old, and has an increasing influence among young people". The more practical reason is that UNIQLO already has a tennis product line.

The chief executive officer of the International Tennis Federation, JuanMargets, Jin Wei kyu, chief marketing officer of UNIQLO JorgenAndersson, Kunimie Shingo and Djokovic's group photo (from left to right).

However, after entering the Tokyo Olympic cycle, the sponsorship rewards from UNIQLO want to be more simple than that of tennis products and brand promotion. What it wants to grasp is the great opportunity of the local Olympic Games.

"There are only 4 years away from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and clothing brands are looking for a sports star from Asia." OliverVanLindonk, a broker of Jin Wei, said in an interview with Bloomberg. He revealed that the approaching of the Tokyo Olympic Games has made Kam wee Kwan, a Japanese born player, a target of brand sponsorship.

As the first Japanese tennis player to enter the top ten in the world, Jin Wei has accumulated a good reputation in Japan and around the world in the past few years. Especially in Japan, he was sent to the Tokyo Olympic Games to win medals and even gold medals. After his successful bid for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, he has been repeatedly referred to as the "image ambassador" of the Tokyo Olympic Games. All of these make it possible for the company to become a link between the Olympic Games and the commercial brand.

This may be why UNIQLO is willing to pay a heavy price for the renewal. According to the US sports media SportsPro quoted anonymous sources, the endorsement contract of UNIQLO and Kam Kwan is worth more than 50 million dollars (about 350 million yuan), "more than the brand and the then world number one Djokovic signed a contract." Not long ago, Djokovic announced that he would no longer cooperate with UNIQLO, and would sign a contract for clothing endorsement with Lacoste in the summer of 2017.

"Sponsoring sports related sports stars can make the popularity of the brand greatly improved, whether it is foreign or domestic." YuikoMitani, a Japanese analyst at Euro consulting, said in an interview with reporters.

New York Fifth Avenue flagship store's curtain wall was launched when it launched UT with Kaws.

Holiday decorations of Soho stores in New York

　　 When "Tokyo" becomes a story

Putting this analysis into the actual operation of UNIQLO in recent years, you should be able to make you understand more or less why UNIQLO is so valued for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

UNIQLO has expanded its business to 17 regional markets in the world, and over 45% of UNIQLO's revenue in the 2016 fiscal year came from overseas markets outside Japan. However, when subdivided into regional markets, the response of customers to UNIQLO is quite different, and brand penetration varies. When China has become the second largest market of UNIQLO for many years, the United States has always been a difficult city for UNIQLO.

UNIQLO entered the US in 2005 and has yet to turn a profit. The store has switched off to 45 at the end of the 2016 fiscal year. At the same time, the Chinese market has opened 560 stores in the 2016 fiscal year. As the largest overseas market, its annual revenue plus Japan's domestic market revenue accounted for nearly 78% of the brand's annual revenue.

The fast selling group of UNIQLO parent company blamed the failure of the US market in the 2015 group earnings report for its low reputation in the remote areas of the United States. To this end, UNIQLO adopted a remedial measure called "dismantling old ships and building new ships (ScrapandBuild)" in the United States, closing some of the shops that were not profitable in the suburbs, and switching to large image shops in the landmarks of major cities.

At the same time, it has continued to cooperate with American artists and designers in the United States. Maybe you still remember those UT, who worked with AndyWarhol, and the "ArtforAll" series of daily necessities, such as chopping boards, tapes and so on, which were recently sold to two stores in New York with art collectors JefferyDeitch.

But in September 2016, the Canadian market of the first store had just come out, and UNIQLO did not seem to be adapting to western thinking in marketing. Last month, UNIQLO sold tens of thousands of HeatTech products in the Canadian market under the name of "warm WarmthforAll". It's just that this marketing campaign has been resisted by netizens. Part of the view is that such free delivery is wasteful, and genuine concern should be directed towards charity.

UNIQLO needs to win fame in the world, with the world rankings hitting fourth of Jin Wei, and the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Looking back, a few months ago, UNIQLO released the "LifeWear" thematic global promotional film, which was the main street in Tokyo, as well as the renovation and transformation of the theme of "Tokyo", which was carried out by the SOHO global flagship store in New York. And the Tokyo newsstand (TokyoNewsstand), which used to sell Japanese magazine publications, would feel that they are more like the various brands for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Or, if UNIQLO wants to realize the differentiation and recognition of brand image by emphasizing "from Japan", then the Tokyo Olympic Games will undoubtedly add to this effect.

Tokyo newsstand in Soho store, New York

UNIQLO JefferyDeitch's "ArtforAll" series of daily necessities

　　 Who will go to Japan in 2020 to pay for uniforms?

The marketing opportunities in the Tokyo Olympic Games are also important for Japan's local market, because UNIQLO is suffering from the growth bottleneck of the local market.

A 2016 fiscal year summary released by XXX group in October 2016 showed that the sales growth of UNIQLO Japanese market in that fiscal year was only 2.5%, while this figure was 9% in fiscal 2015. Looking at the Japanese market sales report in December 2016 and January 2017, the overall sales volume and the same store sales in these two months also all experienced year-on-year decline.

How big can the Olympics help a brand? Let's take a look at Lining's precedent. On the eve of the Beijing Olympic Games, Lining was equally grim, and after the Olympic Games, with the founder's ignition at the opening ceremony, Lining made the best advertisement. According to public information, with 2008 as a new starting point, Lining's overall sales rose from 6 billion 700 million to 9 billion 500 million in two years, while the number of stores increased by 33% in three years, and exceeded 8000 in 2011. In the media coverage, Lining became the biggest winner in Beijing Olympic marketing.

"And the Olympic Games itself will bring a large number of foreign tourists to Japan. The goal of the government is to attract 40 million people in 2020, compared with 2 million 400 thousand in 2016." Mitani continues to give the analysis, "these tourists will bring direct sales growth to local clothing brands in Japan."

However, it is not easy to turn tourists into customers. In addition to its star effect, UNIQLO also needs to find out the reasons for other visitors to pay the bills.

Unlike other Japanese brands, Muji can attract customers to different consumption in Japanese stores through the difference between the national markets. UNIQLO has always adhered to the idea of low price and quality, so that it does not have the ability to attract overseas customers through price difference. In fact, in recent quarters, price cuts and discounts have become the main factors that drive the growth of the Japanese market in UNIQLO, which directly threatens the performance of the brand. Therefore, UNIQLO has begun to control the magnitude and frequency of price adjustment and discount.

The Olympic Games in Tokyo can at least be a springboard. It can not solve all the problems of UNIQLO. UNIQLO wants to catch tourists and turn the attention of all marketing efforts into sales, or to solve the most fundamental problem - how to make products continuously attract global customers.

In 2013, UNIQLO changed the slogan that has been used for many years from "MadeforAll" to "LifeWear", and began to stress the importance of style. The more frequent designers and celebrities cooperation series also showed that the brand that had once attacked the city with basic attack was trying to make itself more fashionable.

However, a designer who once worked in UNIQLO Tokyo Shinjuku headquarters revealed to reporters that UNIQLO had developed a mature process system for product development, and the scope of designers to break through was very limited. When designing a new garment, the designer only needs to refer to the plan given by the sales department to redesign the fabrics, colors, patterns and details that have been screened through the market. These clothes are the classics that every shop in UNIQLO can see every year.

Classic folding is the most common way of display in UNIQLO stores.

Such a model is good and bad. It is a simple and efficient way for the production of basic funds, but it also determines that UNIQLO is difficult to continue to stimulate consumers' desire to buy products such as Zara, H&M and other competitors. That's why UNIQLO's stores have a variety of UT and co operative series, and even invite new designers to open a new product line.

But these attempts did not seem to bring the expected market feedback to UNIQLO. From the earnings report, in addition to the local market in Japan, the fast growing market has also begun to decline: in the last fiscal year, the sales growth of UNIQLO in Greater China was only 9.3%, and it was known that its sales growth in the 2014 fiscal year and 2015 fiscal year could be 66.5% and 46.3%. Similarly, there was also the second largest market of UNIQLO overseas. Although the specific figures were not disclosed separately, the report "sales and profits both fell" can also reflect the serious problem, because in the fiscal year 2015, the sales performance of the market in UNIQLO's earnings report was "extraordinarily strong".

So from this point of view, if UNIQLO does not replace the above system which is good at producing basic funds, it is the best strategy for him to introduce the attractive classical paragraph in high frequency and continuously.

But this method is not difficult to practice. UNIQLO will introduce new classics, most of which are due to fabric technology innovation rather than tailoring and design breakthroughs. R & D takes time, which determines that the frequency and continuity of the new model are difficult to guarantee. Moreover, the popularity of new products can not be predicted. It seems that the latest BlockTech series windbreaker has been on the market for several months, but it has not caused much repercussions.

UT wall in Soho store in New York

　 Aging Japan and do not want the aging UNIQLO

It is worth mentioning that UNIQLO launched UT and other cooperative products, and caught young customers' consideration. Wu Pinhui, CMO of Greater China in UNIQLO, told reporters that one of the important functions of UT in the whole brand strategy is to display young people's brand culture.

This is especially important for the Japanese market, because the aging of customers is a topic that these areas can not get around. On the one hand, this is determined by the social status of Japan's aging population. On the other hand, the core of UNIQLO's many basic funds is limited to young people's attractiveness.

"Now I see a lot of old people in the UNIQLO store. There are not many young people," said A Zhu, a Chinese student who has been living in Japan for 4 years. "The Japanese young people around me go to GU more than go to UNIQLO, and it is more fashionable there, and if they go to UNIQLO, it is mainly to buy some home clothes."

GU is the fast fashion brand of fast selling group's flagship young people. In its 2015 earnings report, XXX set the brand's "ultimate goal" as "the size of UNIQLO." It is also one of the few brands that are growing in the global brand (Globalbrands) operated by the group. In the 2016 fiscal year, the brand sales increased by 30%.

But GU's share of the group's revenue is still too small. In the 2016 fiscal year, the total revenue of all global brands also accounted for only 18.4% of the fast retailing group's revenue. Therefore, it is a long story to want GU to arrive at UNIQLO. In other words, whether or not there is a long-term plan for GU and UNIQLO to have a "two phase complementarity" from the group level, UNIQLO will not give up young people for the time being, and this state will last for a long time.

GU's target audience is younger than UNIQLO.

From the current situation, UNIQLO has launched some attempts to cater to the consumption habits of Japanese young people.

For example, since the beginning of October 2016, the Japanese market has launched a new shopping APP, and has synchronized the linkage between the APP member's two-dimensional code and the public number fan member code in the communication software Line. In particular, Line is the most popular instant messaging application among Japanese young people.

"It's fun to play games with APP and jump out of shopping coupons." A Zhu said.

The new version of APP also supports online inventory search in all parts of Japan. It only needs regional and product information. On the APP, it will show the stock of the designated products in all the stores in the area, and further get through the online shopping experience.

The left picture shows the membership interface of UNIQLO Line Japan public. The right picture is the screenshot of the newly launched APP home page in October 2016.

Inventory query interface in new APP

The realization of this function is largely due to the new logistics distribution center Ariake HQ, which was launched in February 2017. According to the 2015 financial year report of XXX group, Ariake HQ and the other 10 domestic logistics centers established in the plan will help UNIQLO build a digital flagship store. In addition to supporting stock search in Japan, the digital store will also support the customer's requirements for commodity ordering. According to the relevant statement, this customized service can make a pattern change from collar to cuff, from fabric to color. This can also be seen as a supplement to the "classic model" of UNIQLO.

On the offline side, UNIQLO recently announced that it will open the first Uniqlo Move concept store in Tokyo's Shinjuku High Island store in March 2017. This store will focus on the sale of sports and leisure goods outside the "basic fund", including UT, the U series designed by the former Hermes designer Chirstophe Lemaire for UNIQLO, and the potential "classic" such as "windbreak technology BlockTech" introduced last year. I believe that when the Tokyo Olympic Games are approaching, the new concept store under the name of "Sports" can attract some young Japanese people and have a certain appeal for tourists who want to catch up with the wind.

There is no need to say that the 2020 Olympic Games will bring opportunities to UNIQLO, but perhaps the Olympic Games would be more appropriate for a UNIQLO test.

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