The Opportunities There Are for Uniqlo in the Dutch Clothing Market

1. INTRODUCTION

In this report we will assess the opportunities there are for Uniqlo in the Dutch clothing market. We are student from the university of applied sciences that are specialized in trade and management connected with Asia. We picked Uniqlo because we believe that there are still opportunities within the Dutch clothing market for Uniqlo.

1.1 Company description

Uniqlo is a company originated in Japan and their assortments is tailored from kids to adults and both for men and women. This company is mainly known for their casual and high quality look combined with sharp prices. Japanese clothing is known for their fine quality. Uniqlo's clothing is manufactured in China however; this does not lead to lower quality because of the high quality demand within the company. The store of Uniqlo gives the shopper a unique shopping experience as well and combined with the excellent service they were able to separate them from the competition and expand.

Right know Uniqlo is expanding outside of Asia through franchising and have been active in different markets such as: America and Europe as well. With the multiple stores in America and the opening of stores in fashion capital such as London and Paris, expanding further towards Amsterdam seems like to next logical step for the company to expand to. The Netherlands is in an economic crisis and more people are looking for ways to cut their expenditures but still want to buy high quality affordable clothing. Uniqlo can use this opportunity to enter the Dutch market.

The Netherlands is the 5th best economy of the world with a population over 16 million people and 75% is younger then 65 years and combined with the strong buying power this provides a big target market for Uniqlo. While their web shop is not running yet this could provide an opportunity for the company as well.

During this report we will do a thorough external research of the Netherlands with all the competitors the country holds and as well an internal analysis of Uniqlo. As result, we will come to a conclusion for Uniqlo if it will be feasible for the company to expand their operations to the Netherlands.

1.2 Main research question

• How can Uniqlo enter the Dutch market successfully?

1.3 Sub questions

Industry analysis

• How does the Dutch clothing industry look like? (Country selection, DESTEP and industry analysis)

Which markets is Uniqlo currently active in?(Current market analysis)

Market analysis

Where will the product be marketed in the Netherlands? position

• What is the target group?

• What is the best way to market the products?

(Opportunities and threats, external)

Internal analysis

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the company?

(Strength and weaknesses, internal)

Implementation

• What is the best market entry strategy?

• What will be the financial forecast and the investments needed for the upcoming 5 years

• What are the potential risks?

1.4 Theory and methodology

In the course of our research on the Dutch market, different research techniques and models will be used in order to gain the information needed for this report and answer our main research question.

Our main research question is:

How can Uniqlo enter and expand their operation into the Dutch market.

Before we can answers our research question we need to answer the subquestions. In order to answer this question we will apply different models depending on the sub questions in order to get our results.

Industry analysis

We will apply a quick-scan using a modified DESTEP on the Netherlands in order to look carefully what might be the potential threats and opportunities. We will perform a market analysis on the Dutch clothing industry and this overview will provide the information needed to show us how the Dutch clothing market looks like and to see what the pros and cons are. During this research we will mainly focus on:

• Total market

• Potential target groups

• Customer characteristics and behaviour

• Positioning

This is will be part of the external analysis and from this modified DESTEP we will gain some insights about the opportunities and threats that will later be inserted and used to make the SWOT analysis for Uniqlo.

This will answer sub question 1: How does the Dutch clothing industry look like?

Current market

We will look into the market where Uniqlo is now doing business in and anaylyse how they are performing in the European countries becasuse of the similarties with the Dutch market. How they became succesfull.

This will answer subquestion 2: Which market is Uniqlo currently active?

Market analysis

Where can Uniqlo sell their clothes effectively? In order to find out we are taking 3 major cities within the Netherlands and compare the invironment and competition in those areas and after enough research on the numver op people living there and how vibrant the economies are.

This will answer subquestion 3: Where will te product be marketed?

Target market

Uniqlo has an enormous potential target market because everyone wwears clothing however, this can be divided in different target groups such as:

• Kids

• Women

• Men

Uniqlo provides clothing for all three of the target groups and speaks to amost everyone that wears clothing. Applying target segmentation in order to find out what might be the best potential target group to appraoch for Uniqlo. Finally lloking into how Uniqlo can best position themselves amongst all the other clothing brands on the market and fill a place that is still open or compete and replace a competitor on that market.

This will answer subquestion 4: What is the target group?

Local competitors

We will apply the Porter 5 Forces model. This is an industry analysis and business strategy development formed by Mr. Porter. It focuses more on the microenvironment and thus everything close to Uniqlo in terms of competition, suppliers and the market. This model will give an overview on the external trheats and internal threats, which can later be used for the SWOT analysis. Additionally, it will provide us with industry information needed for this report.

With competitive benchmarking we will analyse a number of key success factors for Uniqlo and compare them with the key success factors of their direct competitors and the consumers wants and needs. From there on we can compare where Uniqlo has disadvantages or advantages over the direct competitors. The criteria that we choose will be the most important and relevant factors for their line of business.

Marketing their products

In order to answer this question properly we will need to look at the result from different models and previous sub question. Result from the SWOT, Porter 5 Forces competitive benchmarking and their target market. With all these results, we have an overview on Uniqlo, and their target market and can formulate a business strategy for a particular target group.

A strategy will be formed to see whether adjustments need to be made before launching Uniqlo's product into the new market. For this process we will look into the 4 p's and what might need to change in order to adapt to the market.

This will answer subquestion 5: What is the best way to market the products?

Internal analysis

In order to discover what the strenghts and weaknesses of Uniqlo are, we will perform an internal analysis in order to find out what they are doing really good what result into their strengts as well as their weaknesses. After analysing both the strengts and weaknesses we compare them with the opportuities and threats and compare where the most potential lie for Uniqlo. Everying will be put into a confrontation matrix that has been told before.

This will answer subquestion 6: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the company?

Market entry strategy

In order to know