Uniqlo's previous slogan was freedom and democracy, which was too serious for a fashion brand. Sato and Yanai Tadashi had multiple direct discussions and outlined a vision: Uniqlo needed to be "aesthetically conscious ultra-rationality." This complex phrase meant that Uniqlo products were not only beautiful but also had high cost-performance ratios.
"I hope to strongly convey this characteristic that can look down on the whole world," said Sato. He then removed all of Uniqlo's old logos, changing it from dark red to pure red and leaving only the font skeleton. Sato also designed a Japanese katakana version logo for Uniqlo, and he didn't care if Japanese appeared in overseas markets.
Yanai Tadashi highly appreciated this logo. He said, "Even if foreigners can't read it, it is enough to show the essence of Uniqlo, 'surely able to release strong power overseas.'"
When this logo appeared at the opening of the Uniqlo New York SOHO flagship store in November 2006, the American media gave two evaluations: "reminds people of the Japanese national flag" and "unprecedented arrogance."
This was exactly the effect that Sato Koshi wanted. Due to historical reasons, Japanese companies usually acted low-key in the European and American markets, even well-known Toyota rarely made large-scale corporate promotions. Uniqlo's actions were completely different; besides the katakana logo, there was also a slogan "From Tokyo to New York."
All of this was to reshape Uniqlo's brand perception. Sato Koshi introduced the "Flash Godfather" multimedia designer Nakamura Yuji to Yanai Tadashi, letting him redesign the American website for Uniqlo. In addition, Sato introduced world supermodels to shoot print advertisements for Uniqlo, and these western-style posters soon covered the walls of Uniqlo stores worldwide.
The New York flagship store became an overnight sensation, and the overseas market began to shift. Sato thus earned the title of "design magician who can drive sales." He then designed a new corporate identity mark for Uniqlo's parent company Fast Retailing - a pure red inverted triangle cut into three pieces. Besides Uniqlo, Fast Retailing also manufactures and sells mid-to-high-end brands like Theory. Yanai Tadashi was very satisfied with this design, feeling that his sense of "climbing upward" and "sharpness" were fully expressed.
This kind of aura permeated into the products. Compared to H&M and ZARA's style of closely following international catwalks, Uniqlo tended to subtly "become trendy." They wouldn't miss any popular elements, such as leggings (tights), striped maritime styles, and fine prints. But Uniqlo had more unique tricks - the professional T-shirt brand UT.
Sato Koshi developed an entirely new business model for Uniqlo. He said to Yanai Tadashi: "The Uniqlo brand is like a medium, there must be something that only Uniqlo can do." After reviewing all the products, Yanai Tadashi answered: "That's T-shirts."
T-shirts are the simplest product among all clothes and have great potential to become an ideal business model. Uniqlo launches five hundred types of T-shirts each season. But this could also become a disadvantage - being able to buy anytime and anywhere indeed reassures people, but it also means lacking the two important labels of fashion and individuality. Moreover, once the number of T-shirt types increases, after customers spread out the T-shirts to confirm the patterns, the store will become messy.
It was time for the organizing technique to take effect.
Sato tried to propose a commercial system. Compared to product production, system development was more important. "Just like Google and YouTube, we must be a brand that provides epoch-making systems. Once the basic infrastructure is completed, adding content will make us a world-class commercial brand and actively promote various cooperation plans."
The display method also needs to change. "A simple side-by-side arrangement lacks impact; store displays should be incorporated into the design concept to convey stronger information." In the new flagship store, POLO shirts of the same color system were combined into a colorful wall, overwhelming in momentum. And in Japan, Sato Koshi placed each T-shirt in a cylindrical red-capped plastic can, covering the entire wall for sale.
This article comes from: Uniqlo Taobao Flagship Store, Taobao Women's Spring Wear, Taobao Women's Summer Wear Original Address: http://www.baiduhou.com/uniqlo/95.html Please indicate the source when reprinting! Relevant thematic articles: http://hi.baidu.com/wgyvus4w/blog/item/cd01ceec80c11c10d8f9fd62.html http://www.diglog.com/story/technology_internet_672590.html http://wgyvus4h.blogbus.com/logs/193682214.html