Ch. 11 - Developing and Managing Products

In the world of business, especially in the retail field, new products are essential to a company's profit and growth. The term "New Product" has different meanings depending on your perception. In fact, there are six different types of "New Products" and they each have their own meaning.

Recently Uniqlo launched a modified version of their Cardigans for the summer. This product can be categorized under the "Improvements or Revisions of Existing Products." In conjunction to the release of this new product, Uniqlo teamed up with British designer, Lulu Guiness. A limited-edition line of Shirts for women with some of Lulu's most iconic images are now on sale in every Uniqlo store around the world. This product can be described as "Lower-Priced Products."
Uniqlo's new line of cardigans may look like any other regular cardigan. Just like Uniqlo's Heat Tech products, that keep you warm during the winter, these cardigans will keep you cool while also protecting your skin  from the sun during this summer. A lot of science went into the process of creating this new cardigan. Made out of cotton and nylon this cardigan is enhanced with a special processing treatment that blocks out 90% of Ultraviolet rays. Described by Uniqlo in their Facebook page, this cardigan is set to be a "wearable sunscreen" piece of clothing. Different from other cardigans, these cardigans are soft, fine and lightweight which makes them- Perfect for the summer!

Lulu Guiness, a British fashion designer whose merchandise products are highly prized, is the latest person to collaborate with Uniqlo. Together, they have come up with a line of Tees that are $19.90 a piece. The finished product between these two parties can be defined as a "Lower Price Product." This is so because LuLu Guiness is a fashion designer, whose products do not go at such low prices.

In closure, A product may be modified, it can also be a high quality product and be sold at a low prize and still be consider a "new product."

Ch. 16 - Integrated Marketing Communications

According to our textbook, transmission of a message requires a channel- a voice, radio, news paper, computer or other communication medium. One of the most ongoing channel at this time is the internet.

Uniqlo uses Social Media as one of their key channels to deliver promotions and advertisements about their products, to their target market and beyond. I say beyond because the internet is available to almost anyone. Ttherefore anyone with a computer and internet service can come across a Uniqlo promotion or advertisement.

Uniqlo has both a Facebook page and a Twitter account from which peopple can view and learned about their special promotions. This a very effective way to deliver their message accross their target market because almost everyone has either a twitter or facebook account.

As a global company, it is important to stay in the same step as your target marke, i8n this case, Uniqlo's target market is mostly directed to 18-40 year old people. Knowing this, Uniqlo does not emphasize on marketing their products in old fashion channels such as newspapers or radios. This is due to the fact that todays youth generation are in touch by their phones in which they have apps for facebook and twitter.

Above you can see two tweets from @UniqloUSA in which they announce a special sale on women sweaters that protect you from Ultraviolet rays.  The frist tweet also promotes their products in ways that not many retail stores do. If you can recall from one of my previus post, Uniqlo has a weekly contest in which participants can upload a picture of themselves wearing a uniqlo product. If they win these contest, their submitted pictured will ber posted in Uniqlo's facebook page and twitter account. This is a clever idea because the youth generation of this time are somewhat attracted to fame. Those who win this contest may not get internatiol coverage but in some level they are guarrentee that their picture will be posted and they might get new followers on twitter and even some friend request on facebook.

Ch.10 - Products Concepts

In order to have a successful advertising and marketing distribution, marketing managers must know what product they are selling and most importantly in what category their product falls into.

Uniqlo is a consumer product. This means that the products they offer are produce to  satisfy an individual's personal wants. Having said this, Uniqlo is therefore and most obviously a shopping product. We must also know that, Uniqlo is a Heterogeneous shopping product. A heterogeneous product are things such as furniture, clothing, housing and even universities.

Now that we have successfully classified Uniqlo as a Heterogeneous, consumer-shopping product, let's see how this determines and shapes their advertisement, marketing, and promotion strategies.

If you can recall from one of my previous posts, Uniqlo does not emphasize on pushing their logo like other retail stores. In a way this is both good and bad. By not pushing their logo, people are able to combine and mix Uniqlo products with different clothing brands. In a sense this is beneficial because it keeps the doors open to other customers who might have an urban, preppy, or goth style. In the other hand, this is non beneficial due to the fact that pushing a logo in clothes is somewhat free advertising.

Furthermore, Uniqlo has yet to create a product that people can't pin point out and say "That's from Uniqlo." This is true because since they don't push their logo, people can not recognize their clothes from the competitors product.