Ch. 12-Services and Nonprofit Organization Marketing

UNIQLO is a fast retailer and customer service is key to the business. As an employee to company I noticed that there is a use of internal marketing consistently. Internal marketing is the benefits and perks that the employees get from the employer in order to promote better result for customer service. UNIQLO obviously gives their employees a discount on their products. As well as Paid Time Off for their full time employees. But there are a lot of other events and perks that they give.

My store in particular have staff appreciation days. It’s a day given back to the employees for all their hard work. Those days consist of having free pizza and free frozen yogurt during the summer for the employees. Also since our uniform is black we have days where we can wear colorful jeans and other items that differ from our usual uniform. The uniform is all black with our red and white name tag. This is to help the customers know who works in the store. Wearing all black can be a bit boring so the managers ask the employees to submit ideas so that all the employees could dress down a little more. So far we have had colorful sneaker/shoes day, as well as flannel day and most recently UNIQLO 2015 bottoms day. These days are good for sales as well because we would wear UNIQLO products i.e. the UNIQLO flannels, the bottoms, and the Ultra-Light down Jackets (a lot of the employees at UNIQLO own at least 1 of the Ultra-Light Down Jackets/parkas/vest) Once the customer sees us wearing it they would want to as well.

I personally enjoy these days because it feels like a reward after working hard. I noticed that the days that we have staff appreciation events our sales go up and everyone is more likely to smile. Since our store is very detailed as to how their employees dress, greet, and help the customers, it can become a bit overwhelming but having days like these really make us all feel more at ease and of course more appreciated.And that makes me want to work even harder for UNIQLO and move up in the company.

Ch. 11- Developing and Managing Products

Like any business UNIQLO has developed many products that are new to that target market that they are targeting. That in mind leads to the test marketing concept. Since UNIQLO is an overseas company it takes a lot of adjustments to be able to market their products in the USA. Test marketing is very important for UNIQLO because since it is a sample/prototype of the product being shown it helps them get feedback by how many people buy that item. That feedback helps them find out if this certain would work in the USA and what needs to be adjusted.

The UNIQLO started off as a store for the basic items like a tee shirt and things like that. It was also one of the only companies in Japan to open at around 5 am every day. The reason for that is that the company wanted to be open for customers at the hours they might need something which made them super convenient and made there sale rocket. That was the beginning so everything they developed after the beginning, was put through test marketing.

The Ultra-Light down jackets were one of those items that were put in the test marketing. Since they were new to the market and there weren’t many or any light compactable until the UNIQLO brand came out with one. Another item put through test marketing was they Heat Tech and the AIRism. These are both new to their target market. Heat Tech is supposed to keep you warm during the winter. You layer it under a sweater and your body heat gets contained. Whereas the AIRism products does the opposite. These products are used during the summer or during working out because they help to keep your body cool. Both these items are new to their target market and through advertisement people were able to find out what exactly these products do.

Ch. 8 - Segmenting and Targeting Markets

Multi-segment targeting is one of the approaches that UNIQLO uses in their market strategies. This being that they target to two or more well-defined markets and develop a certain marketing approach for each. Since UNIQLO is considered a family store, there would be distinct ways that the marketers of UNIQLO would market to the Women target that differs from the way they market to the Men target.

In UNIQLO one other market that gets targeted is the Art Enthusiast. The SPRZ NY collection is consist of UNIQLO famous Ultra-Light down jackets but with prints and designs from famous artist like Andy Warhol. There are also tee-shirts and other clothing items that are similar to the regular UNIQLO items but just designed differently.

A way to tell that Women, Men, and Art Enthusiast are marketed differently is by going to the store itself. For example, if you were to step into the 5^th avenue store in New York, you can see that the SPRZ items are placed different and have a different floor format that the rest of the store. They also have different hangers and displays. When you step into the Women’s department you would see tons of items and tons of mannequins everywhere. The Women’s department takes up most of the third floor. Once you step into the Men’s department you would see barely any mannequins and everything is put together and more convenient floor plan.

The reason for that is when a man usually goes shopping they know what they want and go straight to that item first then they looks around to see what else is there. So if the Men’s department is condensed and everything is in reach it is a easier trip for said man. Women on the other hand come shopping to just see what there is and that’s why there is so many mannequins, women want to see what types of outfits they could get.

Ch. 15- Marketing Communications

Like any retail store Advertising is a key concept to the business because if people don’t know it exist then they won’t buy. But when considering the AIDA concept that is just one of the aspect to the business. AIDA stands for Attention. Interest. Desire. Action. When considering UNIQLO, when the store is having a sale, particularly for an Ultra-Light down Jacket, the process for the purchase is the following:

1.      Attention: First, UNIQLO uses the email to let all the customers about the special sale. As well as other social media.

2.      Interest: The visual team makes sure to put an Ultra-Light down Jacket on almost all mannequins to draw the customers attention. Even if those aren’t the ones that are one sale it makes the customer want to see the product.

3.      Desire: Since UNIQLO has Ultra-Light down Jackets all year long there are a lot of customers that would rather get the old season Jackets instead of the new season since it would be cheaper. Which is why they developed the water defenders with a different variation of colors, in order to convince the customer that this Jacket would be better the old season Jackets.

4.      Action: Lastly after being attracted to the new season Jackets the customer decides whether they would want the old season one which is on sale or the new season one. Which a lot of times they take both.

This concept is very much needed when there are promotions and sales because UNIQLO usually has business because of the tourist that hear of the brand from others so a lot of the UNIQLO customers are new to the brand which makes AIDA important. The store has to be able to have the customer buy something as well as have them want to come back even if it’s not that store but the overall goal is to get the customer to shop at UNIQLO.

Ch. 10 - Product Concepts

UNIQLO most definitely does branding and has a lot of benefits from doing so. Since UNIQLO known slogan is Changing Clothes Changing Conventional Wisdom, Change the World. This really is what they follow in corporate UNIQLO because they try to make their clothes as innovative as possible. Which, if you were to put that information in a chart of the power of brand equity. Light Compactable Jackets would be the product category and the dominant brand name would be UNIQLO. I have seen many light Jackets from other brands but the UNIQLO Ultra- Light Down jacket is the most recognizable.

Global Branding is a definite benefit for UNIQLO since the store originated in Japan and since then the Stores have spread to Europe and All over the USA. The Japan stores are everywhere in Japan as well as in Korea, China and other Asian countries. Just from there, the company make good amount of profit. Especially since they make your clothes to fit better for the Asian body than for that of a westerner. But the clothes in Europe and the USA are a bit bigger but the profit is from those stores are very significant. The sales goal for some stores, like the 5^th avenue store, which is a flagship store, can average to 100,000 dollars for the day. Sometimes more or less but always in the high end of the thousands.

Brand loyalty is a definite in UNIQLO. I have personally had customer come up to me to say how much they love the store the products they have to offer. There are customers who got recommended to go to UNIQLO and since then they only shop there when they want either work clothes, or comfy clothes for the winter, or even just the Ultra-Light Down jackets. Those same customers, come up to me and say how they went to our others and loved it as well. Some went to the Japan store and they never knew about the store in the states so since then the started shopping more frequently at UNIQLO.

Ch. 17 - Personal Selling and Sales Management

When reading through this chapter I noticed that the concepts and points made are really what drives retail. Having worked in other retails I know that capturing customer data and leveraging customer information is super important for the company for many reasons. But when it comes to UNIQLO, those two concepts are important and play a big role in our company but identifying customer relationships is what helps drive business in our stores.

For anyone that has ever visited a UNIQLO the employees that help will most likely ask you to fill out a comment card. That card asks you to rate your experience in the store from very satisfactory to unsatisfactory. Then on the bottom it asks you to write a comment on how you feel about the store or any commentary in general. This is also where if you have a problem or think an item can be improved you can write about it there. This helps a lot with identifying customer relationships. All those cards get read by the store managers and then get sent to the corporate office in Japan. It then gets read by the employees there and it helps the company change. For example, a lot of our customers come into our store to buy the Ultra- Light down jackets. Those Jackets would get wet and become a bit heavy for customers. And as we all know the whole point of that particular jacket is to be light. So when customers complained and wrote about how they felt about the Jacket, UNIQLO came through and created the Water Defenders. Which is the same Jacket with the same style and colors that everyone loves but is now water repellent.

The CEO of UNIQLO personally visit all of his stores at least once or twice a year to make sure the stores are properly displaying the clothes and that the employees are being as helpful as possible. Although the company has the self-help system they still make sure that the employees help and greet all customers. The reason why I mention this is because one of the ways the employees ask customers to fill out a comment card is through customer servicing. So for that moment if you do well with the customer then the comment will be good and will look good when it reaches Japan. And at the very end of the card it says to put in your email if you want to receive coupons. Which when you help a customer they will mostly likely put that in. Which helps with the whole capturing customer data.

Ch. 16 - Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Promotion

When advertising for a retail store, there needs to be something that shows the customers that your store and product are better and different from that of other stores. UNIQLO tends to show that in their ads. The product of my focus is the popular Ultra- Light down Jackets. In the picture right here, it shows an ad of the jacket. And this picture I took myself, the ad was on the side of a bus stop. I think they did this to show the attributes and benefits in such a simple way. If compared to other retail store ads you can tell the difference in style and the angle that they go towards.

Since UNIQLO is known for being basic and simple with their designs and products you can tell they show that through their ads whereas if you compare their ads to the ads of Old Navy you can tell there is a major difference. Old navy doesn’t talk about their benefits nor attributes really but mostly their prices. And Old navy uses a lot of graphics and color while UNIQLO is really monotone most of the time.

UNIQLO also does a lot of advertising appealing ads but they are very subtle. They usually show the Ultra- Light down Jacket in the mobile state and they show how it looks inside and on a person. Since a lot customer thinks the UNI from UNIQLO means unisex, I feel that the advertisers for UNIQLO use that to an advantage to promote to both woman and men. A lot of stores consider the customers a HER but in UNIQLO our customers are both and so the ads a meant to appeal to both women and men.