[One win, nine loss] Uniqlo won because they were in the batting

Roughly speaking

1. An autobiography of the famous president, Yanai Masa.
2. A candid monologue of failure. Spocro/Famiclo withdraws from Osaka America Village and advances to London.
3. A few successful projects drive sales. A cool commercial for Yamazaki Masayoshi from Harajuku store.

Yanai Masa's first autobiography

Speaking of Uniqlo, it is Japan's leading fashion SPA, where even crying children remain silent.

Yanai Masaru opened his "Unique Clothing Warehouse" in Hiroshima in 1984, taking an eye on the casual wear trends from Men's Shop Ogori Shoji, a men's clothing store he inherited from his father.

After that, the company switched to SPA business, which handles everything from manufacturing to sales in-house, achieving "cheap and good clothes," and expanded nationwide and internationally from Hiroshima.

This is an autobiographical book written in 2003, as he gained domination within the country and advanced to global expansion.

As the title of this book states, "One win, nine losses," the story depicts Uniqlo's path of hardship and the moment he opens a breakthrough.

The Road to Uniqlo's Failure

Spocro/Family

Uniqlo's sports and casual specialties, Spokuro and Family specialize in sports and casual wear, but the differences in product lineup were not much different from Uniqlo, making it less popular, and in fact, inventory management was inefficient and stock shortages were canceled.

Osaka Amerikamura Store

Uniqlo, which was mainly in the suburban store, first opened its store in the center of fashion town in Osaka Amerikamura. However, the lineup became more and more popular, and as a result of low appeal, they were unable to establish branding and withdrawing.

The Harajuku store, which was later retreated, managed to completely push the fleece, which was rare for casual use at the time, to significantly increase awareness.

First overseas store to expand into London

Its first overseas expansion was in 2000, in London. He was excellent until he selected a candidate for entering the event. At the time, New York, Paris, and London were candidates for entering the market, but New York was rejected because it had so many high-end brands and had so many competitors, and Paris was conservative and likely to be disliked when it came to expansion in the market, so it was rejected.

London has an OK city size and land prices, and has a global national character that accepts expansion from Japan, making it a huge success in its first store.

However, his goal of entering the market became a foul. The goal of opening a store was to "turn into a profit over three years" and "50 stores in three years", but the number of 50 stores took the lead, putting off the profit alone as a store, and opening stores one after another in poorly located locations such as the suburbs, increasing the loss.

As a result, the company was unable to achieve a profit in three years, and withdrew all of its stores, leaving behind five stores outside London.

There were also challenges in the product. Dry polo shirts were the main product of Uniqlo at the time, but they sell well in Japan, which is hot and humid, but are too cold in cool, dry London. It wasn't supposed to sell.

Uniqlo turning point. Harajuku store and commercial

Yanai Masaru learned of numerous mistakes and made his slight success a catalyst for rapid growth.

1998, Harajuku store

The Harajuku store, which was a "Yasukaro and Evil" store in the suburbs, has now taken on its second challenge to open a store in urban areas after its withdrawal from Osaka's Amerikamura.

The lineup, which was all-rounder, was narrowed down to just one fleece bottle, and was sold at an incredible price for the time at 1,900 yen. The Harajuku store has been in a long line since it opened.

Customers who actually used fleece were shocked by Uniqlo as "cheap and good clothing," and managed to expand their customer base.

CM

Yamazaki Masayoshi and Fleece, a simple commercial with only the words 1,900 yen, has been established as a standard commercial for Uniqlo.

In a world where there were many cluttered commercials appealing with large, loud prices and voices, Uniqlo's commercials, where only environmental sounds suddenly play, was surprising.

This commercial was made by John Jay of Wyden-Kennedy, a company that was realized through an approach from Yanai.

John Jay dismissed the cluttered commercial as "making fun of consumers." A novel commercial has been created, saying, "We should respect people who watch TV more and make them intelligent. There's no need to talk about the price."

Aside (Today's Recommended Book)

This section introduces books that are not worth writing about but would like to introduce. This time, here.

Recommended design books. Packed with tips for designs that you can use forever. I use it a lot too.