Monday, February 6, 2012

Ch. 2 - Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

Uniqlo's sound reputation for simple, basic designs and top quality materials has set the flagship store aside from their competition. Their main theory aims to respond to the needs of contemporary customers with versatile yet demanding lifestyles. By developing this ideology, Uniqlo establishes once again that their products are MADE FOR ALL.


Tadashi Yanai, President and CEO of Uniqlo has also established a business model name SPA, which embraces all stages of the business, from  design and production to the final sale. By referring to this model Uniqlo successfully differentiates itself from their competition aside from developing unique products. One key factor that has helped Uniqlo maintain its high sales is their well organized meetings. At these meetings the board of directors  decide when to increase or reduce production during a season. Doing so guarantees that there won't be a surplus nor a shortage in merchandise.

This method is crucial when it comes to making a profit because if there's a surplus of merchandise the listing prize of products would have to go down. In the case of a shortage, the clientele would be face to purchase similar products from Uniqlo's competition.

You might be asking yourself why Uniqlo doesn't pushes their brand logo like store flagships such as, American Eagle, Hollister or Abercombrie and Fitch. Why not further promote their brand? Might be another question. The answer might be narcissistic, yet Uniqlo believes that their products speak for themselves. Their denim jeans are develop from a specific spinning and dyeing methods from the world-renowned Kaihara Corp. They have also develop new functional materials such as HEATTECH, which is a synthetic fiber maker in collaboration with Toray Industries Inc.

In the graph below you can see the that Uniqlo's strategic method to develop casual clothes using high quality methods has paid off. This places Uniqlo in fourth place world wide within the Apparel Industry.



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