Delivering Customer Value Though Marketing Essay

Assignmenti) take up and analyse the provokers harvest-feast, market positioning, pricing strategies and its stern segment.ii) Critically evaluate if the brands marketing activity is delivering values to its customers. Why?iii) Suggest ways in which the brand stop improve in its marketing strategies or activities.i) Describe and analyse the brands harvest-feast, market positioning, pricing strategies and its target segmentAbout UNIQLOUNIQLO is a Japanese causal wear retailer. It is also a all owned subsidiary of Fast retailing Co. Ltd. The first UNIQLO was opened in Japan in 1984. Across years, successful brand strategies enable UNIQLO to be the fourth part means retailer in sales volume in 2013, just right after Zara, H&M and Gap.Marketing mix is a efficacious tool to analyze UNIQLOs strategies and its product development direction among competitors.Marketing Mix (4P)OverviewUNIQLOs productUNIQLO rears a wide range of clothing, including Mens, Womens, Childrens, and flus h in Babys wear. UNIQLO man geezerhoods this range of productsin narrate to satisfy the takes of different age groups and genders. Especially children and baby wear, non all its competitors provide these two lines, this green goddess satisfy customers need. UNIQLO has their own R&D team, to design the latest fashion and life-modal value wear to customer. Also, its materials sourcing team help to bring the roughly suitable and abouttimes the luxury materials into product development in order to give the best wearing experience to customers. Such as support down, cashmere sweaters and premium cotton are the good examples. UNIQLO gain customers trust in bore guaranty.UNIQLOs equipment casualtyUNIQLOs products are not pricey comparing to its competitors, such(prenominal) as Gap, Zara, etc. Although UNIQLOs clothing requires similar price with other immobile fashion retailers, its quality is congressly superiorer than them. It is referable to the just about fundamental UN IQLOs direction, Low price, high quality.UNIQLOs PlaceUNIQLOs strategies are for both local (Japan) and transnational. Stores are all all over the world, including Japan, America, Euro, China, East and south Asia. This kindle show the determination of UNQLO to expand its business and build the brand internationally. each(prenominal) the repositions of UNIQLO, are in central area, or usual district in the cities. conduct Hong Kong UNIQLO as an example, there are totally 21 UNIQLO stores in Hong Kong. The flagship UNIQLO store is in causeway bay Lee Theater, which is the most popular shopping area in Hong Kong. UNIQLO apply the same store strategy internationally, such as Tokyo, Osaka store in Japan, Shanghai store in China, New York 5th ave in USA.Another strategy to bring up UNIQLO a good place to shop is their total sale-floor method. UNIQLO tries to enlarge the floor area in every shop and include as many segments and clothing display as they can in the store. That can p rovide the convenience to customers to buy their favourite(a) things in only one station. And the big display area can attract customers focus to their products and give a confidence that UNIQLO can provide everything that they need.UNIQLOs promotionNew product development process in many other companies is very frank. Usually, from idea generation, testing, product producing and so on. heretofore in UNIQLO, the first step of product development is customer feedback. That means all products in UNIQLO are responding to customer. This is also the model they are promoting to the potential customer. Cheap, simple design, solely is perfect fit for daily use with a good quality. This sentence shows that UNIQLO is promoting their image to public.Another way is UNIQLO promotes their products by sport sponsorship. Take Japan market as example, football league is extremely hot among Japanese. So, UNIQLO make good use of this opportunities to sponsor the uniform for a football team in J.Le ague to increase visibility and exposure. Also, UNIQLO is the uniform sponsor for Japans Olympic athletics in 1998, 2002 and 2004. They also sponsor uniform for tennis players in high rank tennis competition. Exposure in different sport events can successfully promote UNIQLO as a very good off-the-shelf clothing brand to public.Market positioningThe clothing ideal of UNIQLO is very strict forwards, which is Low cost, and high quality. They produce clothing with simple tho jaunty design and good quality for wearing in every day. Their tremendous business expansion can prove that they successfully build their concept to customer and this represent that their business is on the tract.There are four factors that can help to analyze UNIQLOs positioning, they are1. Product quality2. Prices3. dissemination4. Image1. Product qualityUNIQLO is unendingly proud of their products quality. Their CEO Tadashi Yanai had said that, they are a technology company rather than a fashion company.Th eir high quality clothing enables them to be worn every day. UNIQLO is positioning their product in a relatively higher quality compare to other tumultuous fashion companies, such as Zara , H&M. These company concern fashion trend much than than quality. However, UNIQLO is not a luxury brand, so their quality is not comparable to other luxury brand, such as LV, Gucci, etc.2. PricesUNIQLOs concept is Low cost, but High Quality. UNIQLOs price is fair, but they offer a better quality of clothes at the similar price compare to other fast fashion companies. UNIQLOs price is not the cheapest one, but quality is the highest among its market competitors.3. DistributionAll the products UNIQLO selling are in their own stores. They do not have franchises or displays in department stores. So they can control all the promotion or logistics without third parties constrain. It is known as SPA (Specialty-store of Private-label Apparel), selling their own product in their store and exclusively. T ake Hong Kong UNIQLO as an example, they have 21 stores in Hong Kong, which has a broader coverage than its main competitors. Zara only have 7 stores in Hong Kong. However, comparing to the local competitors homogeneous Bossini and Giordino, UNIQLO does not have a greater advantage in store numbers, but their number of stores are already much higher than other international fast fashion brand in Hong Kong market.4. ImageUNIQLO is selling clothes with their functionality rather than fashion style. So, their image to customer is very simple, which is basic, simple, cheerful and comfortable. Comparing to Zara, and H&M , UNIQLOs image is linked to quality and simple to mix and match for every day while the former two competitors focus more on trendy and fashion but sometime not easy to carry.Position MapIn this part, I am going to simply dilate UNIQLOs position with the position map by considering only two factors, Quality, and Price.LV & Gucci surely come to the top rank in both qual ity and price because they are luxury brands which have a very different position comparing to UNIQLO.UNIQLO, Zara and H&M can be grouped unitedly due to their fast fashion nature. The price of their products is similar, but UNIQLO provides the highest quality while H&M is the last one.Bossini or other local fashion shackles usually dont provide a very high quality, but they have local network and channels to sell their product. They sell their product in a let outer price comparing to other international brands in order to sell more and earn more.Local small bountique is the croupe one, in both quality and price. They target those people who concern money only but not quality.Target segment & Pricing StrategiesIn this part, we need to identify UNIQLOs target segment and then to anaylse its price strategies.Target segmentFew background recallUNIQLOs concept is low cost, high quality as mentioned above. Its products are sold within a reasonable range. It provides a wide range of products including mens, womens , childrens and babies . Its style is simple but trendy, easy to mix and match .Then we can analyse the market segment by parts.Targetinga) DemographicsAgeBabies Right target of its babies lineChildren Right target of its children lineAdolescent Right target of its Mens and womens lines Adult Right target of its Mens and womens linesMature Non-target , due to less fashion indispensableness of this group old Non-target , due to less fashion requirement of this groupGenderBoth female and male are their targetsIncomeThe target customers income is low to medium, due to its cost and its pricing level.b) PsychographicsValueFor people who have a basic requirement on trend and pursuing good quality on clothing.LifestyleUNIQLOs clothing is simple and comfortable. It is suitable for people who always have light exercise and sports in their living habits.Pricing strategiesAfter analyzing UNIQLOs target segment, we found that their target population is ve ry large. In order to enlarge the target group, a penetration price strategy is adopted by UNIQLO. Their targets income is not high, they must have a price sensitive characteristic. So, UNIQLO try to maintain the products in a low to reasonable price to match the targets income. In this sense, UNIQLO can make arrive at only when high volume of sales has been made.ii) Critically evaluate if the brands marketing activity is delivering values to its customers. Why?Customer value is the gain ground that people will derive from their bargain for of the goods or service. In this case, it means if UNIQLOs marketing direction can generate benefit to customer after they bought the products. Overall, I think the existing brand activities of UNIQLO can deliver value to theirtarget customers because of the below reasons.1. Technology focusUNIQLO owns many technologies that its competitors do not have, such as Heat-tech, anti-smelling, lighting down, anti-UV, etc. These are the material adva ntages from competitors, indeed it gives extra value to customer and more attractive to buy UNIQLO but not get other brands2. Simple trendy design,There are not many fashion pioneers in the world. Most of the people in the world are relatively simple, especially UNIQLOs target. UNIQLO hires some famous designers to develop a hybrid type of clothing that perfectly merge basic into trendy. It makes their basic wear intimately to be carried and extra fashion value added onto it although people originally is seeking for basic style.3. Convenient store location,Take Hong Kong UNIQLO as an example, it owns 21 stores in Hong Kong. All of the stores are in population area, such as Kowloon Tong, Causeway bay, Tsim Sha Tsui, Sha Tin, etc. Convenient stores location means customers can enjoy service or purchase easier. And after-sell service, such as goods return, can be accessed easily to customers. It is an intangible value.4. Pricing strategiesUNIQLO produces all the products by its manuf acturing sites. So it can minimize the cost , and then sell them in a lower price. Its penetration strategy enables more people to access their products. Also, with their advanced technology and materials choosing, the ratio of price to quality can be utilized greatly to customers.5. Excellent store visual merchandising,UNIQLO did very well in visual merchandising. First of all, different styles are well organized and distributed in distant area. In some multicolor basic shirts sectors, they make the whole sector to be more cheerful and colorful by folding the shirts by and by and orderly. It can let customers to findthe color they want more easier and enhance visual conditions. Also, UNIQLO can let your family to buy clothes for all gender and age groups in only one stop. Every store of UNIQLO sell mens, womens and childrens at the same site. Their professional store visual instruction can increase buyer experience and enjoyment in shopping.All these marketing activities from UNI QLO can perfectly match the need of their target customers. So, we can put forward that UNIQLO is generating benefits to customers and even give them benefits out of their expectation.iii) Suggest ways in which the brand can improve in its marketing strategies or activities.In this part, we should identify the relative weak area of UNILQO first, and then target the weakness to formulate improvement way.a) Design too simpleThis is what UNIQLO proud of, but meanwhile it might be its weakness. UNIQLO emphasizes a basic style clothes that can be worn for every day. However, the fashion trend runs too fast recently, customers might be tire of plain pattern of UNIQLO clothes. So, in the future, I think UNILQO can maintain its original design and also add a few more fashionable and trendy lines. A fashionable and high quality apparel should be successful because it merge advantages of H&M and UNIQLO itself.b) Brand ImageUNIQLOs concept is Low price, high quality. Due to this concept, it limits UNIQLO to build a High End image. This low end image make UNIQLO with less pricing flexibility. good deal will not buy a low end brand with a high price. In long term, apart from the original line and image, UNIQLO can expand its brand image towards Middle end or High end by expanding some attractive lines. It will definitely increase products attractiveness.c) Improve advertising and brand visibilityUNIQLO is weak in advertising. Comparing to its competitors Zara and H&M,these competitors are willing to spend much more on the public noise. Apart from product quality and store expansion, UNIQLO can expand the brands visibility and awareness with the aid of proper TV advertisement.d) Elderly marketIn the existing target segment of UNIQLO, elderly is not the main focus group. However, we can not underestimate the potential of this market, especially in some countries, such as Japan and Hong Kong, aging population is getting more. UNIQLO can put more resources on elderly by dev eloping some specialist garment for people who need extra care. For example, heat-tech sweater is suitable them because elderly easily lose temperature. Also, UNIQLO can use its technology advantage to make some functional apparel to them like high elastic trousers which can provide protection from joint damage during walking. These functional products not only can attract elderly, but also can attract all age groups who need functional products. Moreover, they can invite some famous old celebrities to be the brands spoke person to increase the influencing power in this age group.ConclusionOverall, UNIQLO is a very successful international fast fashion retailer in the world in both sale volume and inspiration in fashion. UNIQLO successfully use Simple to compete with others in this fast pacing fashion world. UNIQLOs high price to quality ratio makes them very attractive to its target group, and penetrate brand image to more people. The existing brands activities are useful in expand ing business and deliver benefit to customers.However in this challenging market, changes is the ever rules. UNIQLO should focus more the ever-changing of peoples interest and the trend. Simple mix and match can be sword for brand building and harms if people change to pursue more fashionable styles.Reference1. http//www.fastretailing.com/eng/2. http//www.uniqlo.com/hk/3. http//www.zara.com/4. http//www.hm.com/5. http//www.gap.com/6. http//www.brandchannel.com/features_profile.asp?pr_id=324 7. http//www.slideshare.net/8. http//www.wikipedia.org