Japanese clothing brand fast becoming a favourite

Great service: Transactions involve giving the customer her change using both hands with a smile and a ‘Thank you, please come again!’

Welcome to Uniqlo!” chirp the cheerful employees at every customer who enters a Uniqlo store.

While this may startle some shoppers, greeting customers with their pearly whites and ever-cheerful greetings is part of the retailer’s branding strategy and more importantly, a trademark of its “Uniqlo Culture”.

“You can visit any store in the world and experience the same thing. We understand that a minority might not be accustomed to this but most of our customers love it and we do it to give them a unique Uniqlo experience.

“If we can put a smile on their faces, we’d count that as a success,” explains Uniqlo Malaysia and Singapore managing director Satoshi Onoguchi.

Perfect domination

Founded in Japan by Tadashi Yanai, the company started as a division of Fast Retailing Co Ltd. In November 2005, it was restructured as a wholly owned subsidiary called Uniqlo Co Ltd and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The spectacular growth of this private-label-apparel specialty store has brought about some 1,100 stores in 13 countries, with at least one outlet opening every few months.

The brand made its debut in Malaysia in 2010 and now has six stores within major shopping centres in the Klang Valley, with one more scheduled to open in Paradigm Mall, Petaling Jaya, early next month.

Besides their upbeat greetings, it’s evident that the staff appear to do things methodically, with great care and detail because Uniqlo is a company that monitors and analyses every action executed by each employee.

This includes how they fold the clothes (Uniqlo has their own folding techniques), to the way they operate the cash registers — whether they return change or credit cards to customers using both hands with a smile and a “Thank you, please come again!”

While it may appear slightly excessive to some, the staff at Uniqlo appear to be practising kaizen, the Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement.

Whether customers like it or are unwaware of it, it is part of Uniqlo’s culture and gives customers who notice something to talk about or even look forward to when they visit the store.

The company is blazing a trail for Japan’s fashion industry with overseas sales that have expanded by 63.4% year on year to ¥153.1 billion (RM5.7bil) and operating income that rose by 22.9% to ¥10.9 billion.

Revenue from overseas operations make up more than 20% of all Uniqlo sales, with both sales and profitability growing in Asia (the regions accounts for over 80% of international sales).

Dressing Malaysians

The company offers a collection of fashionable yet practical clothing that is popular all over the world.

The launch of its first store in Malaysia was thronged by some 2,500 enthusiastic customers who lined up to get in and every store is usually bustling on weekends and even week days.

Thus, it would be an understatement to say that Malaysians like it, they really seem to be enamoured by it.

“Our current stores continue to garner a very positive response from consumers because the apparel suits a wide range of profiles.

“Instead of dictating what one should wear, we want to provide customers with the freedom to express their individuality,” explains Onoguchi.

He adds that, while such popularity is encouraging, this shouldn’t be a reason to rest on his laurels as there’s always room for improvement.

“We would like to continue to listen to our Malaysian customers on their expectations and ideas. The company takes this feedback as ways to improve ourselves, whether in terms of customer service, product design or innovation,” says Onoguchi.

Even though the business is raking in big bucks from its daily sales (it’s been reported that it can reach up to RM760,000 per store in the US), there are still some issues that need to be addressed.

“We’re constantly working on how to reach out to more Malaysians as well as strategising methods to effectively increase awareness of our innovative products that are a manifestation of our philosophy that our clothes are ‘Made for All’.

“We believe that smart consumers today not only purchase the products but also look at the whole brand itself which ultimately influences their buying decision.

“As such, it is important to communicate to our customers what Uniqlo represents,” explains Onoguchi.

He recounts that when the brand first came to Malaysia, there was obviously a need to increase awareness and visibility.

“We reached out to the public and invited them to attend the official opening of the store via several channels, from print advertisements and announcements to social media and promotional events. We also had some incentives like lucky draws and gave out door gifts so the response was fantastic,” says Onoguchi.

Powerful business strategies

Striking when the iron was hot in terms of shopping trends, Uniqlo grew from drab Japanese roadside shops into large retail outlets of more than 1,600 sq ft in popular urban malls.

Company founder Yanai has publicly stated his intentions and dreams for the company to literally dominate the world and supersede all its competition, with targets of annual group sales of ¥5tril and pre-tax profit from operations of ¥1tril by 2020.

Its business model integrates the full scope of the clothes-making process from procurement of materials, product planning, development and manufacture through distribution and retail to inventory management.

The company comes up with new designs of clothing every month and season while keeping every design and graphic fresh by collaborating with non-clothing brands and designers.

Currently, the Malaysian stores are featuring the Uniqlo stretch jeans, ‘Heattech’ tops that absorb moisture and keep in warmth, the ‘Frankenweenie’ collection and other interesting selections.

Celebrity endorsements are also a potent marketing and branding tool that the company uses.

It provided the uniforms for some Japanese Olympic athletes, and some fans were pleasantly surprised to see tennis champion Novak Djokovic sporting Uniqlo T-shirts at the French, Wimbledon and the US championships.

In this part of the region, Onoguchi hopes that the company will eventually become a “lifestyle guide” for Malaysians.

“We want our apparel to directly suit our customers’ values and have them perceive us as the source of style.

“Most importantly, we want Malaysians to know the functionality, innovation and quality of our products and by wearing our brand, we’ll be able to enhance their lives,” he says.

Although the company rides on the success of its innovation that brings out the best of urbanity, every store’s interiors is designed with a clean, uncluttered concept using the red and white of its emblem.

It’s a clever strategy since the simplicity helps to emphasise and highlight the rainbow of colours from the clothing.

Hence, customers are focused on the products and can see them from a distance, which will entice them to enter the store.

“Our stores are also spacious and allow customers to take their time to browse through the clothing on a self-service method. But, sales staff are always around to provide assistance,” says Onoguchi.

There are currently about 500 Uniqlo Malaysia employees including those in the retail and management divisions and like most multinationals, every staff member goes through a series of training sessions.