A Research on Japanese Apparel Companies:The Case Studies of UNIQLO, MUJI and SIMAMURA

• Main Authors: Fen-Fang Lin, 林芬方
• Other Authors: 蔡錫勲
• Format: Others
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/45368665293332376973

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 日本研究所碩士班 === 97 === Japan entered the period of the HeiSei recession around 1991. It also called [The Lost Decade]. Consumer''s purchasing had became to low-price orientation by the price busting competition. Then there came out the low-price specialty store in Japanese apparel industry. It was called the 2000''s top three winners, UNIQLO, MUJI, SIMAMURA. In this research, I used case study method to analyze these three companies’ history, management structure, business system, marketing strategy, and further, how to formulate a set of the sustainable competitive advantage. After doing this research, we have found out three conclusions. First, a old commercial practice was destroyed by the distribution ways of the SPA model and the complete-purchase model. The purpose of two distribution ways is to reduce the non-essential resources and cost reducing. Second, the brand power will affect the enterprise’s growth power. Both UNIQLO and MUJI are expanding the overseas market to enhance the brand power and profit. On the other hand, SIMAMURA owns more than 1400 stores in Japan, chooses only to enter Taiwan market. It focuses on enlarging their market share in domestic market. Third, these top three winners have totally different marketing strategy. UNIQLO is famous by it’s outstanding marketing strategy. MUJI provides very wide product line from with high-quality and reasonable price. But in order to get more sales and profit, MUJI still has some space to improve in promotion. For SIMAMURA, although the global economy today is slumping, the purchasing behavior of consumers has changed from low-price oriented to quality oriented. So if low price clothes provider-SIMAMURA can improve its quality control, high-profit and high-growth target will be achieved in the future.