UNIQLO UT Has Completed At Least 38 Cross-Border Cooperation In One Year.

Only UT of UNIQLO successfully built "cross-border + T-shirt" as a systematic commercial sales mode.

Above these dazzling cross-border cooperation

They all come from one of the most common products of a brand:

Foundation T-shirt

This brand is omnipresent.

According to incomplete statistics, only in China.

Visible, UNIQLO's UT has completed at least 38 cross-border cooperation a year.

The full name of UT is Uniqlo T-shirt. "UT series sells not T-shirts, but culture."

UT's current art director, NIGO, has accurately pointed out his product positioning.

Through the field research of "gorgeous ambition", we find that artists, independent designers, fashion media personalities, entrepreneurs and investors have a strong interest in UNIQLO, most of whom have bought UNIQLO.

But many people may not know the story behind UT.

Cross boundary

The field is becoming more and more normalized. In order to break the gap between the circle and the culture, even the luxurious brands that have always been reserved have begun to cross the tide frequently. But only UT of UNIQLO successfully built the "crossover + T-shirt" into a systematic commercial sales mode.

UT, the current art director, NIGO once said, "...

Other brands may also produce similar T-shirts, but UNIQLO wants to be unique. "

UT evolution milestone

In 2003, UNIQLO first introduced the concept of "Uniqlo T-shirt Project" with the concept of "making the T-shirt more free and interesting".

In 2004, UNIQLO first entered the United States; in 2001, UNIQLO entered the British market for the first time and ended in failure.

In 2005, UNIQLO experienced a decline in sales volume and visibility in Europe and Asia.

President Liu is returning to the beginning of the development of UNIQLO.

In 2006, Ryui Masa invited Misaki Sato to join the company, which brought a series of regeneration changes to UNIQLO, including the name "Uniqlo T-shirt Project" named UT, integrating T-shirt and fashion culture to integrate marketing.

Who is Misaki Sato Cox and?: Japanese design people send the elegant "fast Knights warrior", and Ryui Masa is the same as Aquarius, 16 years old, almost never laugh, do not follow the principle of advertising creativity, symbolize the deep cleanliness of the collection of famous items.

In 2013, the brand of UNIQLO was repositioned, and the brand concept changed from "Made for all" to "LifeWear (service life)".

In May 2013, UNIQLO became the corporate sponsor of MOMA (New York Museum of Contemporary Art).

In October 2013, NIGO, the founder of street culture in Japan (Nagao Zhimin, founder of Chao brand Bape), was the artistic director of UNIQLO UT.

In March 2014, in collaboration with MOMA, we launched the UT series called SPRZ NY, which has been sold so far.

In October 2014, John.C.Jay was the global creative president of Xun marketing group, which was responsible for all the creative work related to fast marketing group, including product design, store design, media, marketing and brand strategy.

Today, UT's positioning is "gathering the creativity of the world". It has a wide range of crossover, including movies, comics, games, animation, art, culture, classic brand elements, artists, outdoor, music and so on.

The production of a T-shirt's cross-border behavior has become one of the core driving force for the growth of enterprises. How did UNIQLO do it? The three elements:

First, serve the core value of UNIQLO brand.

The founder of the brand, Liu Jing Zheng, once revealed his simple thinking about UNIQLO fashion design in the book "operator notes": "UNIQLO's clothing itself is the result of struggle with contradictions."

UNIQLO's clothing has always been a simple route.

In addition, because it is clothing, people need to have vision, make the wearing of people feel comfortable.

Therefore, as the manufacturer of clothing, we also hope to inject new ideas and enthusiasm into clothing as much as possible.

UNIQLO has chosen to work with Christophe Lemaire, JW Anderson, Ines de la Fressange, Marimekko, Tomas Maier...

Many famous designers have launched a series of cooperation. These series have greatly complemented the iconic simplicity design of UNIQLO, but they have never become part of UT because of pricing, partners' tonal demand, brand recognition and so on.

In the many basic SKU of UNIQLO, how can we not only change the confusion of brand design but also inject new ideas and enthusiasm while ensuring the function and quality requirements?

There has been such a conversation in the bookshops: Misaki Sato and he suggested: the brand of UNIQLO is like a media. There must be something that only UNIQLO can do.

What is it? Ryui Masa replied slowly: "T-shirt".

The UT series T-shirts are basically fixed in appearance and style design, and only change in content according to pboundary themes.

T-shirt, as a fashion product, directly reflects the personality and value of the wearer.

Through the copy on T-shirt, you can express who you are, where you come from and what kind of culture you like.

Wearing a T-shirt that you like is a self expression.

The core value of UT is highlighted.

In the constant cross-border, UT gradually became famous for its famous core products such as HEATTECH and AIRism. It has become one of the most important products and carriers of UNIQLO's strategic significance and best brand culture.

Two, high frequency crossover, continuous optimization

"I hope more people don't want to buy UT because they like Disney or Snoopy because other brands can make similar t - shirts, but the uniqo wants to be unique," said NIGO, the current art director at UT.

In the past year, in the Chinese market, uniqo has made the UT product series with the average monthly new theme, which is unique to any fashion brand.

Behind such a high frequency cross-border is a process of UT cross-border marketing and operation optimization and improvement.

In 2016, the UT Picks theme t-shirt design competition contributed 3294 entries. In 2017, the Nintendo theme T shirt design competition was held by Nintendo chairman and Miyamoto Shige, the father of super Marie. A total of 16000 entries were submitted and contributed to the highest in history.

The joint T-shirts released by UT and JUMP and man Wei have been sold for less than a day, and the stores of every big QQ store have been queuing up, and the line has been sold out.

Three, use cultural elements to narrow the distance from consumers.

When UNIQLO develops overseas markets, it often faces cultural barriers. UT has narrowed its distance from consumers in different cultural backgrounds through cross-border IP and overseas, and has won a number of fans in the strategic markets of Britain, the United States and China.

Since 2013, UNIQLO began working with the New York Museum of modern art (MOMA) to sponsor visitors free of charge every Friday night. In 2014, it began working with MOMA SPRZ to launch the UT series called "SPRZ NY". The series will include T-shirts, including Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and so on, and the two sides have been doing well since then.

In a media interview, John Jay, Global Creative CEO of Xun marketing group, explained the role of UT in UNIQLO overseas expansion.

"My concern is not advertising, but connections, including the discovery of the relevance of local culture, and the popular culture of today.

This kind of understanding should not be on the surface. Instead, it is an effort to really understand the culture. "

In 2013, UNIQLO brand repositioned to pform the brand concept from "Made for all" to "LifeWear (service life)". Behind the idea upgrading, it represents the pformation from UNIQLO from manufacturer to user.

The flow of subdivided customers, multiple secondary cultures, rapid flow of information, and personality.

Consumption is the challenge and opportunity facing the fashion industry today.

Each brand wants to create hot spots continuously, tell more stories, attract attention from different segments of customers and pform sales. After all, "business aims at creating and retaining customers."

(from Peter Drucker), cross boundary seems to be able to achieve brand appeal to cross category, cross circle and cross culture.

How to define a successful crossover? Brand completes marketing, brand extension and even sales function, while satisfying users' needs and resonating. The most important thing is to enhance user awareness of brand and bring more fans.

While enjoying the dividends brought across the border, enterprises must be alert to the two major challenges that may be faced when they rely too much on cross-border:

First, how do cross-border brands enhance brand positioning instead of confusing brand awareness?

In the minds of consumers, maintaining a consistent brand personality is extremely important.

The frequent crossover of easy and colorful brands can easily impact the culture of the brand, which will confuse consumers, especially the core customers' perceptions of the brand.

I believe this is why UNIQLO does not rely too much on UT. It is just one of several main product lines.

Two, how can cross-border business boost business sales rather than become a marketing gimmick?

Cross boundary will undoubtedly attract more "spectators" for brands, but turning them into brand fans is the fundamental business.

Every UT sale will be queued up in stores. UNIQLO has its own social media interaction, coupled with the popularity of the red and media. The news of UT's sale is always coming. The accumulation of hunger and thirst makes fans eagerly anticipate every sale.

A successful cross-border must pour countless manpower and material resources, but it can not be duplicated. Unsustainable cross-border can not achieve "product" well.

Therefore, enterprises must carefully define the role of pboundary in brand strategy, carefully measure and formulate the target of input, output, marketing and sales of each cross-border industry: who are you? Who do you want to be? What do you want to be? What is the realization of cross-border?

The reason why UT is successful is not only the fine operation of products, but also more importantly, such crossover directly reflects the brand concept of UNIQLO and founder Ryui Masa, and directly meets the needs of every consumer for different cultures and the love of IP with different characteristics.

Let users love, is the core of product success.