UNIQLO: Demographics And Social Trends Impacting Their Market

Impact of Social Trends

Question:

Discuss About The Additionally Demographics Another Factor?

UNIQLO is a Japanese fashion giant and has been operating in Australia for over three years since it opened up its first store in 2014, which is located in Melbourne.  It is one of the world`s leading dealers in taxation fashion wear for women, men, kids and babies (David & Toshiro, 2012).  Its sales rose 47% to $174.5 million in 2016.  It is projected that the net sales of the fashion store will reach $1 billion by 2020.  The key goal of the company is to be the globe`s fashion dealer of choice and continually expand its market share in Australia and globally.  A SWOT analysis given in Appendix 1 shows the likely weaknesses of UNIQLO`s fashion products within the highly competitive fashion industry with further adverse impacts by the macro-environmental factors.

Following a vivid assessment of the market, I inference that social trends are the chief such factor impacting UNIQLO products (Douglas, John, & Essam, 2015).  There has been a rise in the spending among the Australians particularly in Melbourne and this is highly attributed to its touristic nature, an increase in status and non-status seeking teenagers, and a rise in informal and casual fashion preferences.  These emerging social trends are the ones fashion giants are articulately tapping into, Uniqlo inclusive.

Additionally, demographics are another factor.  The primary target marketing for the company is generation X and Y and the baby boomer generation.  It comprises of people of ages 18-25 and 25-40. These are particularly professionals.  Also, babies and international students form a key niche of the market (Helen & Richard, 2012).

Open a store in Gold Coast (in November 2017); attain $310 million in revenue and increase our sales by 69% by December 2018.

Target customers

Appendix 3 provides a vivid profile of the target market.  Geographically, the segmentation of our products will be mainly focused in urban area markets, particularly those of Sydney, Gold Coast, and Melbourne.  Sydney and Melbourne are tourist centers and hence this provides a perfect central market for our affordable and trendy fashion textile wear (Junghyun, Eunju, Eunha, & Euntaik, 2012).  The CBDs of the three cities are also instrumental in providing alluring central locations to showcase and sell our products.  Here, our consumers will include: tourists, city residents and commuters from other places.  However, Melbourne and Sydney require quite prudent product offering since the two cities experience periodic changes in seasons/climate compared to Gold Coast.

Impact of Demographics

Regarding the assessment of the demographics, the targeted consumers will range from those of low income, middle income and high income (Ramesh, 2015).  This is because our aim is to give our customers the value for their money by offering affordable fashions.  21% of Australia`s households earned an income of $2,500 or more weekly in 2016 (Tsan, 2014).  This partly informs our decision to target this particular socioeconomic class.  However, we still highly target the rest of the socioeconomic classes.  For instance, one can get a basic item like a plain white men`s T-shirt for $7.90.  As such, our products are affordable across all the socioeconomic classes in the country.

UNIQLO products are highly creative, trendy, affordable, high quality and stylish.  We differentiate ourselves from the rest of the competitors by providing a broad range of colors for our items (Hubbard, Anne, Philip, & Antony, 2014).  A majority of the items are made of special fibers, particularly the HEATTECH which creates warmth regardless of the fact that it is light and thin.  Furthermore, we are able to provide a huge selection of clothing products throughout the year despite the changing seasons, different styles that include casual, professional and fashionable, they come in highly distinctive colors and most importantly they are all of the high quality.

The value proposition of UNIQLO is by providing high-quality stylish clothing at prices which are affordable to all.  The prices of the attires are set in such a way that every person can afford them regardless of the socio economic class that they come from and hence they are assured of getting value for their money (Susaina, Julie, & Joseph, 2015).  UNIQLO products need to be continually positioned within the affordable or pocket-friendly yet high-quality range.  This is because universal affordability is a key factor in determining whether your products can move out of the shelf at a high rate or not.  It is also a determinant of whether your items can be accessible to every of your target customers or not.  It gives you a competitive edge in that your customers can buy as much as their purchasing power can allow them anytime.  High-quality items also aid in popularising and cementing our reputational brand among our loyal and potential customers.

UNIQLO products are presently distinctive in the market compared to the products of the competitors in the industry.  Our items are made of high-tech fabric materials yet they are availed at affordable prices to the customers.  Furthermore, currently, our products come in the latest styles or trends to meet the increasing and diverse styles and preferences of women, men, kids and those of babies (based on the styles and preferences of their parents since the babies certainly cannot choose for themselves).  Studies indicate that consumers` purchase instincts are largely guided by affordability and variety in terms of colors and the number of product selection available to them (Tim, 2011).  As such, Uniqlo has extensively capitalized on this since its present products come in a wide variety and are affordable to both the loyal and potential customers.

Target Customers

UNIQLO needs to further develop and polish itself as a stylish, classier, attractive and a fast fashion retailer providing creative and customer-centered products while continually redefining the association between affordability/price and quality.   Customer preferences nowadays are highly bent towards more trendy, alluring and innovative clothing products which are tailor made or rather custom made to meet their diverse needs (Verchi, 2016).  As such, UNIQLO has been able to remarkably capitalize on this although more needs to be done in order to give it a more competitive edge in the market over its competitors.  This will also enable the brand to appeal and attract a wide range of consumers from all walks of life.  It can do this by using celebrities from all walks of life as models.

The 5Cs on which pricing strategies are based are evaluated as illustrated below.

The pricing strategy based on other major market competitors should be executed by setting slightly lower prices for UNIQLO as a brand.  Although UNIQLO is one of the brands with a broad array of products that are of high quality and pocket-friendly, it needs to be diligent when making decisions about their prices.  This is because lower prices can increase the overall sales of the brand but do not necessarily translate into actual profits (Ken, 2012).  As such, the price setting strategy should be done based on a comprehensive consideration of the goals of the brand in the market and be flexible to changes in the highly competitive fashion industry.

UNIQLO`s distribution channel is a direct marketing channel that involves a one-level channel system.  The products of the brand move directly from the different manufacturers to retail stores globally.  This implies that there are no middlemen involved in the distribution of the items.  This gives the brand an upper hand regarding the challenge of dealing with conspiracies and disadvantages associated with middlemen.  Consequently, it is able to closely monitor the movement of its products as well as the prices at which the products are being retailed at in the various retail stores (Kahn, 2015).

This distribution channel involves a network of other manufacturing partners located in Southeast Asia and China.  This has enabled the brand to foster the manufacturing of creative, affordable and reliable products for its customers.  auditing, this serves to strengthen the mutual ties between UNIQLO and its producers and consequently ensure that its stringent quality standards are always adhered to.  As such, this type of distribution channel system will continually enable the brand to attract more customers and hence translate into increased sales and market share.  This distribution channel is the most suitable for the brand since it aids it in ensuring that it continuously appeals to more customers and hence higher chances of successful new market penetration and expansions.

The optimum budget of AUD $50,000 was expended on promoting UNIQLO as a brand to open up a store in Gold Coast and attain a $360 million revenue.

Total= $49,350

Promotion is meant to consolidate the loyal customer base alongside attracting prospective customers and hence increase the market share.  The above table shows that a huge part of the budget will go to billboards and TV Ads.  A majority of Australians commute daily using the roads and watch TV as well.  As such, this will heighten the exposure of the new outlet.

References

David, F., & Toshiro, M. (2012). UNIQLO Marketing Plan. Media.dropr.com.

Douglas, W., John, F., & Essam, I. (2015). Strategic marketing: creating competitive advantage. Oxford University Press.

Helen, M., & Richard, M. (2012). CIM Coursebook 03/04 strategic marketing management. Routledge.

Hubbard, R., Anne, G., Philip, L., & Antony, O. (2014). Macroeconomics. Pearson Australia.

Junghyun, J., Eunju, K., Eunha, C., & Euntaik, L. (2012). A study of a social content model for sustainable development in the fast fashion industry. Journal of global fashion marketing, 61-70.

Kahn. (2015). Product planning essentials. M.E Sharpe.

Ken, K. (2012). Advertising and sales promotion. Cengage Learning.

Ramesh, M. (2015). Trends, challenges, and innovations in management. Zenon Academic Publishing.

Susaina, C., Julie, I., & Joseph, R. (2015). Happily Ever After: The Effect of identity consistency on product satiation. Journal of consumer Research, 564-577.

Tim, S. (2011). Pricing strategy: setting price levels, managing price discounts and establishing price structures. Cengage Learning.

Tsan, C. (2014). Fashion Branding and Consumer Behaviour. Springer Science and Business Media.

Verchi, A. (2016). Handbook of research on global fashion management and merchandising. IGI Global.