UNIQLO


UNIQLO is a brand name owned by Fast Retailing Corporation Limited, a leading Japanese apparel retailer. The name in itself is an example of Japanese inventiveness, combining English words ‘unique’ and ‘clothing’. UNIQLO’s emergence both on the Japanese and International retailing scenes has been spectacular and swift. UNIQLO’s segmentation encompasses lower to mid-price sensitive middle class, which virtually can include anyone in Japan. UNIQLO has a line of products that can be considered innovative and distinctive. The clothes, for example are not branded on the outside. The reason behind this is that the company wants to promote the customers’ sense of style. The company has made basic staple fashion items acceptable to an extremely brand-conscious market (2003). 


 


This report aims to analyze and determine the strategic capability of UNIQLO, a leading Japanese apparel retailer. To launch our discussion let us first define what ‘strategic capability’ is. According to Saint-Onge (2001), strategic capability is the capacity to create value based on the intangible assets of the firm. The tangible assets of the firm are readily visible, rigorously quantified, form an integral part of the balance sheet, can be easily duplicated, and depreciate with use. Intangible assets on the other hand are invisible, difficult to quantify, not tracked through accounting, have to be developed in a path-dependent way over time – they cannot be obtained instantaneously, bought, or imitated. Examples of intangible assets include technological know-how, customer loyalty, branding, and business processes. A firm’s strategic capability according to Higgins (1996) is determined by the soundness of its corporate strategy and the effectiveness of its strategic planning process. A strategic capability offers a company a sustained competitive advantage when substantial time and effort is required for competitors to develop the same capability (1992).



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