Monday, 6 May 2013

Introduction


1.      Introduction  
a.             In 1984, Fast Retailing which is headed by Tadashi Yanai, opened the first UNIQLO store in Hiroshima, Japan. In 1997, UNIQLO was the first company in Japan to establish a SPA (Specialty store retailer of Private label Apparel) strategy which means they would produce their own clothing and sell it exclusively. By continuously refining its SPA model, UNIQLO successfully differentiated itself from other companies by developing unique products that were made for anyone of any age (FAST RETAILING CO.,LTD, 2013) . As the founder of UNIQLO says, “UNIQLO clothes are MADE FOR ALL- highly finished elements of style in clothes that suit your values wherever you live.” 

The reason of why we chose UNIQLO as our company is because it is a global clothing retailer and is soon to overtake H&M and Zara as the largest global clothing retailer. In Malaysia, UNIQLO currently has 9 stores located in Klang Valley and Penang.


b.            UNIQLO is based on monopolistic competition market structure. (McConnell, Brue and Flynn, 2012) characterize monopolistic competition by a large numbers of firms selling differentiated products and with easy entry to or exit from the industry. It is very competitive between firms in the monopolistic competition because of the easy entry and large number of firms selling their products.

c.             The issues that we are currently addressing are the factors of demand such as taste and preference, price of related goods and consumer expectations. These are the factors that fluctuates sales for a company. McConnell, Brue and Flynn (2012, p.84) state that demand is the desire to obtain something which is more than just a necessity in order to be satisfied and demand will only work if you are capable of obtaining the items by having the purchasing power. One of the factors of demand is taste and preference, if the consumers prefers product A over product B, the demand for product A will increase even though both prices stay constant. For example, people would prefer to purchase a smartphone rather than a normal phone. In this case, if customers prefer to purchase a T-shirt from UNIQLO instead of H&M, ceteris paribus, the demand for UNIQLO will rise. This is to identify how much a consumer is willing to pay for the product they prefer. Next, complements are goods that can be used together. With a decrease in the price of one would result in an increase in the demand for the complementary good. An example would be petrol and cars. In our case, if UNIQLO are willing to lower the price of jeans, it would result in an increase in demand for belts. Not only that, a substitute good is a product that can serve as a replacement for one another. When the price of good A increases, demand for the substitute product increases. In our case would be an increase in the price of a T-shirt in UNIQLO resulted in an increase in demand of a T-shirt in H&M. This is to gather information on the number of loyal customers willing to spend more on UNIQLO’s product. Lastly, consumer’s expectations on future prices would shift the demand curve. If expectations are such that the price of a product would fall next month, demand for the product for this month will fall because most of the consumers would wait for the price to fall. If consumers are aware of UNIQLO’s upcoming sale , the demand for UNIQLO’s product will fall before the sale. This would help to identify if a price increase or decrease would affect the demand of consumers towards the product.

d.      Some of the limitation that we faced in conducting this survey was that few people purchased UNIQLO’s product and are not aware of the brand. They prefer to buy products with the best quality and high price instead of buying products with good quality and low price. Other than that, lack of experience in conducting this survey was also one of the limitations. With zero exposure to the public , we found it hard to start the interview.

Methodology


2.      Methodology
a.       Firstly, a selection between Microeconomics and Macroeconomics as the topic was made. Secondly, UNIQLO was selected as the product that the survey was conducted on. Next,10 sets of 8 questions based on the demand factors was prepared and distributed to the public. UNIQLO’s product was prepared and given to the people that are answering the survey so that they can provide a precise and accurate answer. Lastly, the surveys are analyzed and interpreted on graphs and charts.


b.      The reliability of the survey to get the basic needs in order to assess the problem statement is based on people who are users and non-users of UNIQLO product but do not have any bias towards it. The questions asked are related to the demand factors such as an increase or decrease in the price of the product, level of satisfactions from the consumers and personal preference.



Finding And Analysis


3.      Finding and analysis
A.
I)         The first determinant of demand asked in our survey was taste and preference. Based on the survey, 9 out of 10people have purchased UNIQLO’s product. Most of them state the reason they choose UNIQLO is because of their good quality products for a reasonable price. Thus, this is predicted by UNIQLO’s marketing strategy of producing good quality products with a low price.

II)         The second factor of demand being asked in our survey was elasticity of UNIQLO’s products if there are changes in the price. From the survey, it shows that majority of the people state that they agree on that price is a major influence when buying a UNIQLO product because there are many other retail brands as well. However, 8 out of 10 people strongly agree that the prices for UNIQLO’s products are reasonable.

III)      The third factor of demand that was asked in our survey was price of related goods which are substitutes and complements. Based on our survey, it can be concluded that majority would not continue to buy UNIQLO’s products if the price of UNIQLO’s products are more expensive.

IV)      The fourth factor of demand asked in our survey was consumer expectation. Based on the findings, all of the people that answered the survey would like to purchase more UNIQLO’s product during the promotion period and majority of them are willing to wait for the promotion period.

B.
I)         Based on the survey, majority of the people interviewed prefer UNIQLO’s product because of its Asian sizing instead of H&M and Zara which uses European sizing. With a favorable change in consumer tastes for UNIQLO, the demand for UNIQLO will increase; the demand curve will shift rightward.

II)        According to the survey, majority of the people agree that price is a major influence when buying a UNIQLO product. This is because UNIQLO is a monopolistic competitor and the competition in the industry is very competitive. An increase in price of UNIQLO’s product would lead to an increase in demand of competitor’s products.

III)      Based on the survey, availability and price of substitute goods are also a factor of demand for UNIQLO’s product. When the price of H&M’s or ZARA’s product remain the same while the price of UNIQLO’s product increase, the demand for H&M’s or ZARA’s product would increase.

IV)      According to the survey, consumer expectation will shift the demand for UNIQLO’s product. For example, A Newly formed expectation of higher future prices may cause consumers to buy now in order to “beat” the anticipated price rises, thus increasing current demand. In our case, demand for UNIQLO’s product during the promotion period will increase because of the lower price of the products.

C.
I) 

II)

III)

IV)


Conclusion

4.      Conclusion

a.                      Based on the above analysis, it can be concluded that UNIQLO’s products have a reasonable price and good quality. Most customers purchase the products because it has good value for money. Regardless of age, gender or nationality, UNIQLO’s product are suitable for anyone because it offers a wide range of variety such as basic T-shirts, polo, sweats, knitwear, outerwear, dress shirts, casual shirts, jeans, casual pants or shorts, skirts, underwear, socks, belts, hats, sunglasses and scarves. It is also obvious that most of the customers prefer to buy more products during the promotion period. As a suggestion, UNIQLO should have a lucky draw event that can be participated by any customers who spends over a certain amount of money in UNIQLO. Any gifts ranging from free vouchers to limited edition products should be able to attract a large number of customers, thus increasing the demand for UNIQLO products and total revenue for UNIQLO.

b.          






References

5.      References
FAST RETAILING CO.,LTD, 2013. UNIQLO Business Model.[online] Available at:< http://www.fastretailing.com/eng/group/strategy/uniqlobusiness.html> [Accessed 6 May 2013]
Campbell R. McConnell, Stanley L. Brue and Sean M. Flynn, 2012. Economics. 19th
Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies