Assignment – Mid Module Assignment

Subject – Consumer Behaviour

Submitted By

Arshia Chatterjee – MFM/20/131

Madhur Anjarlekar – MFM/20/87

Muskan Sharma – MFM/20/98

Prajwal Gupta – MFM/20/790

Priyal Goyal – MFM/20/102

Submitted To

Mrs. Harleen Sahni

Department of Fashion Management Studies (FMS)

National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Gandhinagar

March (2021)

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 ASSIGNMENT BRIEF

Consumer Research on any fashion Retailer/Brand in terms of motivation, Perception, attitude, Group Influence either
individual factor or combination.

Table of Contents
ABOUT THE BRAND ........................................................................................................................................................... 3
Consumer Attitude............................................................................................................................................................ 4
Consumer perception ....................................................................................................................................................... 5
Consumer motivation ....................................................................................................................................................... 7
Consumer Survey .............................................................................................................................................................. 8
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................... 11

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 ABOUT THE BRAND

Uniqlo, founded by Tadashi Yanai is a Japanese casual wear clothing store and one of the fastest growing brands
today in Asia . Tadashi Yanai is known for his famous quote i.e , “ Without a soul , a company is nothing .” This soul
is outlined on the 23 principles that are created by Tadashi himself and are expected to be inculcated in each and every
employee of the brand. The crux of the long list of these principles is to put customers first , give back to the society
and be self – disruptive .

The brand has come a long way, but has a historical story defining its rise in popularity in various countries with more
than 1000 stores around the world .

In 1972,Tadashi Yanai inherited his father’s chain of 22 men’s tailoring stores . After becoming the company’s
president in 1984 , Yanai opened a new store in Hiroshima by the name Unique Clothing Warehouse , which later was
shortened to UNIQLO . Observing various casual apparel stores like Benetton , GAP etc across the world Tadashi saw
immense potential for Japan’s casual wear market and set goals to shift to casual wear instead of suiting and bought
fashion goods in bulk at low costs In late 1990swhen Japan was going through a bad recession phase , Uniqlo adopted
a Specialty store of private label apparel (SPA) strategy which allowed them to design , produce and distribute their
products exclusively . The combination of quality but low-cost apparel proved to be a hit with consumers who were,
at the time, fighting to hang on to every penny.Focusing on the concept of vertical integration ( A strategy whereby a
company owns or controls its suppliers, distributors, or retail locations to control its value or supply chain) Tadashi
opened 300 stores across Japan by 1998 . (Joy, 2017)

Uniqlo’s entry into the European market was not as expected and the profits took a hit , this forced the brand to rethink
over their strategy . They teamed up with Japanese fashion magazines, celebrities and new designers to breathe new
life into the brand. The strategy was successful, even at the London store, and in 2005 Uniqlo established branches in
Hong Kong, South Korea and the United States.

Uniqlo today is a wholly – owned subsidiary of Fast Retailing Company Limited and is popular for providing high
quality casual wear at low prices . As of September 2019, the brand has grown to more than 2,250 stores in 25
countries across Asia, Europe and US in just a matter of 22 years. It is the biggest apparel chain in Asia with over 800
retail stores in Japan alone.

Fast Retailing’s mission is ,to create truly great clothing with new and unique value, and to enable people all over the
world to experience the joy, happiness and satisfaction of wearing such great clothes and to enrich people’s lives
through their unique corporate activities, and to seek to grow and develop their company in unity with society .

The company promises to provide its customers clothes that are simple and essential yet universal , so that people can
conveniently pair them up with anything and create their own unique styles .

A few concepts that keep Uniqlo stand out from the other fashion outlets like Uniqlo launched the HEATTECH line --
clothes that are designed to keep you warm in the winter -- in partnership with Toray in 2003. A team of 30 designers

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went through 100+ prototypes and 10,000 samples before arriving at the current design, which is the perfect wardrobe
complement to the summer equivalent. (Joy, 2017)

Uniqlo does not provide its customers with any of the mainstream products but rather has a unique terminology for
few of its products like The Smart Shape Jeans that are specially lined with “power netting” that shapes your midriff,
giving you a trimmer, slimmer waistline. Adding on to the unique name they also collaborated with legendary
Japanese denim maker Kaihara for a selvedge jean that’s stretchier than the average.

Also as a part of an ongoing partnership with the Museum of Modern Art, Uniqlo developed special edition threads
that feature designs from super-famous artists. The clothes are available for purchase at the legendary museum in
Manhattan and stores across the US.

According to global management magazine Forbes, Uniqlo has a brand value of USD 9.2 billion and is 84th on the list
of the World’s Most Valuable Brands. Much of it is credited to its founder’s strategy of innovation and its very
customer-centric culture.

With Uniqlo’s motive of giving back Uniqlo also stacks up charitable initiatives almost as high as they do clothing
varieties. Since 2001 they’ve collected over 23 million used clothing items for reuse as part of their All-Product
Recycling Initiative, almost half of which they donate to refugees in need worldwide. In 2014, Uniqlo enlisted 150
volunteers from their US stores to support and restore areas of their local communities in need. Plus, they just
launched a new campaign to collect 10 million pieces of clothing around the world to support the refugee crisis.

Consumer Attitude

An attitude is a lasting, general evaluation of people (including oneself), objects and advertisements, or issues. We call
anything towards which one has an attitude an attitude object. Attitudes reflect either favorable or unfavorable
evaluations of an “attitude object.” In the context of marketing and consumer behavior, an “object” can be a product,
brand, service, price, package, advertisement or any other aspect of consumption. Ultimately, attitudes motivate
consumers to either buy or not buy particular products or brands. Attitudes are lasting because they tend to endure over
time. Attitudes are general because these apply to more than a momentary event, such as hearing a loud noise, though
you might, over time, develop a negative attitude towards all noises. Consumers have an attitude towards wide range of
attitude objects, from a very product specific behavior (eg. Drinking Pepsi rather than Coca Cola) to more general,
consumption related behaviors (eg, how often you have fizzy drinks). Marketers need to understand consumer attitudes
in a variety of circumstances, and to devise means for influencing those attitudes so that consumers adopt more positive
attitudes towards the product or services on offer. (Duggal, 2019)

No doubt, there is a growing need among marketing strategists to better understand their customers’ attitudes towards
their companies’ products, services, and delivery systems. In some scholars’ opinions, “attitude” is a derived composite
outcome of the interaction between a person’s beliefs (cognitive thoughts) and expressed emotions (affective feelings)
with respect to those beliefs. Knowledge of these interactions can help to predict a consumer’s behavior (conative
action). Other scholars who do not endorse this trilogy approach to attitude measurement, hold that an attitude is a global
indicator of a person’s feelings (i.e., affect alone defines attitude; or affect = attitude) towards an object or behavior.

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These different views notwithstanding, the two approaches provide both the academics and practitioners with valuable
means of understanding the different scale measurements to be used to capture consumer’s belief structure (cognitive
thoughts), emotional feelings (affective thoughts), and behavior tendencies (conative action).

The goal of attitude research in marketing is to increase sales by better satisfying customer needs. Awareness of
consumer attitudes is of paramount importance to both goods and services marketers in designing strategies. Suffice it
to say that measurement of attitude is part and parcel or rather an indispensable aspect of consumer research. This
explains why reporting of attitude research is rife in the consumer behaviour literature. An understanding of consumer
attitudes has very basic implications for marketing, for two reasons. Firstly, attitudes are based on beliefs consumers
hold about the attributes or features of the products being evaluated. In many instances, these attributes form the basis
for the development of marketing strategies. Secondly, attitudes are primary causes of behaviors which makes them
very relevant to marketers who want to understand why consumers buy or do not buy their products. One organizing
principle of attitude formation is the importance of consistency among attitudinal components – that is, some parts of
the attitude may be altered to be in line with others. In this regard, customer buying behavior is indirectly influenced by
directly altering any of their three attitude components. The complexity of customer attitudes is underscored by multi
attribute models, in which a set of beliefs and evaluations is identified and combined to predict an overall attitude. A
good knowledge of these is essential for business executives in the design of rent-yielding marketing strategies.
(Asiegbu, Ikechukwu F, Powei Daubry M, Iruka, Chijindu H, 2012)

Consumer likes Uniqlo because Uniqlo has a clear vision of its brand, provide high quality, performance-enhanced,
basic casual wear at the lowest prices. Its clothing is up -to-date and fashionable, its fabric innovation and in-
house design provide exceptional and unique functional performance. Uniqlo provides “made for all’ clothing
that can be worn whenever and wherever. It is not, like some competitors, a firm that sells copies of the latest
runway fashions. (Martinroll, 2021)

There is no six- or nine-month planning cycle, but stock is upgraded in weeks or even days. The customer thus
has a direct influence on the ordering process, because what is being made is based by what they are buying.

To conclude Uniqlo is not only satisfying the quality demands of the consumers but is also providing best
price, coping up with the latest trends of fashion which is leading to a positive and enthusiastic consumer
attitude towards the brand.

Consumer perception

• Perception is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to

represent and understand the presented information or environment. Consumer perception is the view or
interpretation of consumers about something around them, maybe related to products, services, personal
finance, job, or the economy. Consumer views are formed through direct experience, advertising, or
influencers around them. It is a marketing concept that tells us what customers think about a brand or a
company or its offerings. It can be positive or negative feelings, perceptions, inhibitions, predispositions,
expectations or experiences that a customer has. (Zeithaml, 1988)

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 • Factors influencing consumer perception:

i. Consistency of performance
ii. Emotional connect
iii. Marketing communications
iv. Holistic marketing
v. Personal experience
vi. Advertising
vii. Influencers
viii. Social media platforms

• Benefits of a positive customer perception:

i. Brand loyalty
ii. Increase in sales figures
iii. Customer retention
iv. Strengthens the bond between the brand and the customer

• Uniqlo was perceived to be a discount retailer selling cheap and low-quality apparel to the suburbs.
This perception completely changed when the brand launched the Global Quality Declaration in 2004, a pledge
to stop making low-priced, low-quality garments. Post this, the consumer perception of the brand switched
from low priced low quality to affordable but high quality. (Martinroll, 2021)

• Efforts undertaken by Uniqlo to manage customer perception:

➢ Uniqlo’s brand message captures a clear vision: “Uniqlo is a modern Japanese company that inspires
the world to dress casual”. The corporate strategy that has worked for Uniqlo so far is to “totally ignore
fashion” instead of chasing fast-fashion trends like its other competitors. The brand philosophy “Made
for All” positions its clothing to transcend age, gender, ethnicity and all other ways to define people.
Contrary to its name “Uniqlo”, its clothes are simple, essential yet universal, enabling the weare rs to
blend them with their individualistic style. This design driven clothing brand offers unique functional
performance owing to in-house fabric and design innovation. The company distinguishes itself from
its price driven competitors by branding its signature innovations with names like HeatTech, Life Wear
and AIRism. Uniqlo provides a superlative physical shopping experience by impeccably managing its
stores, inculcating a positive employee culture and through in-store technology like video tutorials that
describe product attributes.
➢ Two of the biggest challenges for any brand is to define a clear brand promise and to consistently
deliver effectively on its brand promise across all touch points of the customer experience journey.
Successful brands are those that create supportive organizational and operational structures that
facilitate the implementation of strategies to deliver on the brand promise. On one hand, Uniqlo has
indeed managed to successfully define a clear brand promise for itself to provide high quality,

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 performance-enhanced, universal, basic casual wear at affordable prices. On the other hand, it has also
created a strong delivery system to deliver on this brand promise.
➢ The company also runs a highly robust supply chain. Through development of a detailed marketing
strategy by the marketing department for each season, merchandisers are able to adjust production by
style to align with demand well in advance. Concept meetings with all key product creation teams are
held about a year before a product is launched. Once a garment is in production, about 400 skilled staff
members visit production centers to ensure quality and resolve outstanding issues.
➢ Until the digital age started to gain rapid global momentum, Uniqlo has traditionally relied on
marketing flyers and TV commercials as its primary means of advertising. Today, it u ses a plethora of
methods to communicate its brand position and ideals, including its unique in -store environment,
celebrity brand ambassadors (called Uniqlo Global Ambassadors), digital marketing, collaborations
with designers and brand campaigns.
➢ One of Uniqlo’s main brand communication methods is its in-store environment. Through its wide
aisles, bright lights, neatly stacked shelves and beautifully presented displays cr eating a comfortable
and welcoming shopping experience, Uniqlo communicates its ideal of simplicity and essential basics.
Although the brand intentionally limits the number of designs it produces, it compensates for this and
distracts consumers from the lack of choice by stacking its apparel from floor to ceiling, creating an
illusion of choice and plenitude. t also has many digital screens in -store explaining the practical
benefits of its fabrics and apparels. Compared with other fast fashion competitors w hose stores are
jam-packed with clothes, lack order and do not have a specific focus on customer service, Uniqlo’s in-
store experience stands out and contributes heavily to effective communication of its brand philosophy.
(Martinroll, 2021)

Consumer motivation

• Consumer motivation is an internal state that drives people to identify and buy products or services
that fulfil conscious and unconscious needs or desires. The fulfilment of those needs can then motivate
them to make a repeat purchase or to find different goods and services to better fulfil those needs.
(Wilson, 2019)
• Companies and marketers use a number of different tools to help them understand consumer motivation
in relation to their products and services. This may help them orient their markets according to diff erent
buyer motivation. Marketers use pre-purchase and post-purchase focus groups, one-to-one interviews
and online or postal surveys to develop their understanding of consumers’ motivational drivers.
(sodexo, 2019)

• Consumer motivation for UNIQLO

1. In-store environment: One of Uniqlo’s main brand communication methods is its in-store
environment. Through its wide aisles, bright lights, neatly stacked shelves and beautifully presented

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 displays creating a comfortable and welcoming shopping experience, Uniqlo communicates its ideal
of simplicity and essential basics. Although the brand intentionally limits the number of designs it
produces, it compensates for this and distracts consumers from the lack of choice by stacking its
apparel from floor to ceiling, creating an illusion of choice and plenitude. It also has many digital
screens in-store explaining the practical benefits of its fabrics and apparels. Compared with other fast
fashion competitors whose stores are jam-packed with clothes, lack order and do not have a specific
focus on customer service, Uniqlo’s in-store experience stands out and contributes heavily to effective
communication of its brand philosophy.

2. Comfort and Wearability: UNIQLO understands that its product is one of the most powerful
marketing tools for its brand. The company puts a lot of emphasis on delivering gr eat customer
experience and communicating on causes that their customers care about.

3. Digital Media: On top of the above marketing strategies UNIQLO is pract icing, there’s one more
winning formula that is hard to miss: the brand understands the power of digital marketing, which is
reflected in how they use content and social media.
From the stories behind the products to the influencers the brands work with, a ll the way to localized
social media content – this is a brand that has a clear brand story and makes sure that their content
communicates exactly what their brand values and purpose, which ultimately helps them connect with
the audience better.

4. The company is also embracing e-commerce to further boost awareness and purchases, and it is always
looking for opportunities to reach more people through collaborations with key perso nalities and
designers globally. (sodexo, 2019)

Consumer Survey

We had conducted a survey on 50 persons to analyse their awareness towards the brand and their
favourableness or unfavourableness.

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The majority age group who are aware about the brand was between 16 -30 years of age. The category would
include school, college going students and office goes too.

86% of the sample size ae aware of the brand Uniqlo

54.5% of the respondents came across the brand Uniqlo through their peers and family, while 36.4% came
across through social media and 9.1% through advertisements.

50% of the respondents who knew the brand liked to shop online while the rest 50% from physical stores.

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36.4% of the respondents aware of the brand said they frequently buy from the brand while 34.% said they
buy occasionally and 29.5% said they buy very frequently.

43.2% of the respondents aware of the brand have very good experience of the brand.

The major association found towards the brand was on the product quality parameter followed by the price
and offers and discount parameter.

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 Conclusion

Uniqlo is a universally appreciated brand for its affordable and comfortable clothing. Consumer likes Uniqlo because
Uniqlo has a clear vision of its brand, provide high quality, performance-enhanced, basic casual wear at the lowest
prices. Its clothing is up-to-date and fashionable, its fabric innovation and in- house design provide exceptional and
unique functional performance. Uniqlo provides “made for all’ clothing that can be worn whenever and wherever. The
company is also embracing e-commerce to further boost awareness and purchases, and it is always looking for
opportunities to reach more people through collaborations with key personalities and designers globally. It is further
enhancing its initiatives to reach a greater audience.

Bibliography

Asiegbu, Ikechukwu F, Powei Daubry M, Iruka, Chijindu H. (2012). Consumer Attitude: Some Reflections on Its
Concept, Trilogy, Relationship with Consumer Behavior, and Marketing Implications. European Journal of
Business and Management, 4(13).

Duggal, R. (2019, April 19). Forbes. Retrieved from Consumer Attitudes: A Small Factor That Makes A Big Impact:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2019/04/19/consumer-attitudes-a-small-
factor-that-makes-a-big-impact/?sh=3acd86a1fa8e

Joy, A. (2017, June 2). The culture trip. Retrieved from A history of Uniqlo in one minute:
https://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/articles/a-history-of-uniqlo-in-1-minute/

Martinroll. (2021, January). Martinroll/strategy. Retrieved from martinroll.com:

https://martinroll.com/resources/articles/strategy/uniqlo-the-strategy-behind-the-global-japanese-fast-
fashion-retail-brand/

sodexo. (2019). Sodexo . Retrieved from Sodexo engage: https://www.sodexoengage.com/blog/consumer-

promotions/four-ways-you-can-influence-consumer-behaviour-with-your-next-promotion

Wilson, D. B. (2019, january 26). bizfluent. Retrieved from Market research - definition of market research:
https://bizfluent.com/about-6572429-definition-consumer-motivation.html

Zeithaml, V. A. (1988). Consumer Perceptions of Price, Quality, and Value: A Means-End Model and Synthesis of
Evidence. journal of marketing.

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