UNIQLO U Cross-Border Cooperation Is Still A Bit Unusual.

ACG lovers' wallet is too soon to cover up.

Since 2006, UNIQLO has launched a big wave game and animation theme UT every spring. This year's debut is in March 29th, up to 40th anniversary commemorative T-shirts on the line. In April, there are Monster Hunter 15th anniversary themed T-shirts, street fighter theme T-shirts, Nintendo's game IP super Mario and jet fighters UT also on sale in April.

In micro-blog, which is released by UNIQLO, a lot of netizens' messages are just like past years. "It's ugly too!" Buy explosion! Last year, I bought the JUMP section and went bankrupt. "We have the ability to unite digital treasure!" Despite the fact that many of the new UT designs that have been published are as "hard to say" as in previous years, UT is still steady when it comes to the wallet of fans and anime fans again.

　　 From selling t-shirts to selling culture, successful business crossover

In 2003, UNIQLO first introduced the concept of "Uniqlo T-shirt Project" (later renamed "UT") with the concept of "making the T-shirt more free and interesting". UT was originally used to explore low price strategy test products, but later because of extensive cross-border cooperation, become a cultural symbol of today's clothing brand. As a result, NIGO, UT's current artistic director, said, "UT sells T-shirts instead of culture."

The cross-border cooperation of UNIQLO UT includes films, comics, games, animation, classic brand elements, art, artists, outdoor, music and so on. All kinds of prints are printed on pure color T-shirts. From the American Vanguard KAWS to Disney's role, Mickey Mouse, from the crazy Hello Kitty to Jump's classic anime character, every year, UNIQLO UT can surprise people. There are always many cultures in the world that are related to young people. He can find the one he likes in UT, and put on this UT to express his individuality.

In the UT cross-border cooperation, compared with other cultural types, animation, game UT has become a key product for young people to rob. Japan's Nintendo, Jump, CAPCOM, KONAMI and so on, the United States Blizzard Entertainment, Disney, these companies' head games, anime IP and UT several times linkage, triggered a round of another round of panic buying. Fans are always caught in a wave of UT's "sold out" complaint, which is firmly sealed by "reprint" and "new style" of UNIQLO.

Directly to the T-shirt, no one is more powerful than UNIQLO.

Although young people will not hesitate to pay for their favorite UT, but every time when UNIQLO Announces New Anime and game UT, anime fans will always discuss the UT designer's erratic aesthetics, and "unattractive" has become the most direct comment given by otaku.

It is hard to accept some UT color matching. Most of the UT patterns are directly used in the original drawings of the animation works, which is really lacking in creativity from the perspective of clothing. Even in last year's Jump50 annual cooperation, many fans pointed out that "my hero academy" UT also appeared in the Green Valley for a long time, such as the head of the street lights, such low-level mistakes, and even feel that these UT printing is like "forced to match" up.

Although this method is "simple and crude", these familiar patterns can arouse the feelings of the game and anime fans at the first time. For example, this year's "Dragon King" on the street fighter UT and the classic 8 corner selection interface, "mobile fighters Gundam" UT "Last" The "Shoot" scene, Xia Ya and AMRO's "trick and treat", "Monster Hunter" UT, the herbs and blue mushrooms in the pocket of the restoring agent, and the barbecue meat, which can be enjoyed by the players, can it be bought only one or two pieces? Obviously not.

Every game and anime series of UT has been extracted directly from the official material library and printed on the T-shirt. Even for UNIQLO's annual UT GRAND PRIX thematic design competition, the award-winning T-shirt is selected by IP side. Directly using the material library or the approved pattern of the IP party can shorten the time from UT to production and then to the market, so as not to waste time in the IP supervision. This method of direct application of the original picture, though being spit out by fans from time to time, has become a guarantee for UT to launch dozens of cross-border cooperation every year.

　　 UT, which has slightly lower quality, has become a key product to enhance business sales.

Today, the price of short sleeved UT has dropped from 129 yuan to 99 yuan, and 79 yuan has been abound in recent two years. Otaku can only buy dozens of yuan to buy genuine peripheral, but also suitable for everyday wear, it is not too cost-effective. Corresponding to cheaper and cheaper prices is the quality of UT, which is getting thinner cloth, stretching from M to L after washing, and increasing deformation of necklines.

In recent years, with the rising price of the international cotton yarn market, coupled with the increase of labor costs, the direct increase in product prices has become the first choice for many fashion brands. UNIQLO, which is located in fast fashion brand, is based on customer's brand recognition and consumer cognition in its sales mode. It launches products at a high speed and maintains quality at a level acceptable to consumers. Through fast sales, it reduces inventory and promotes sales. This is also a business model that includes ZARA, H&M and other internationally known fast fading clothing brands. 。

Therefore, although the quality of UT is usually limited to only one season, thanks to many types of cultural cross-border cooperation, fans who are deeply obsessed with different cultures are still in hot pursuit. For these customers who buy UT is equal to buying customers, it is normal for each new round to grab three or four pieces.

In the clothing industry, the profit growth point is mainly winter clothing, while summer T-shirts are small profits but quick turnover clothing types. However, in the 2018 earnings report of UNIQLO, it was mentioned that in Southeast Asia and Oceania, the sales volume of local shops was double digit growth due to the strong sales of UT, POLO and shorts. UT has been one of the brand's revenue sources with UNIQLO's other product lines. The cross-border business cooperation mode, which was originally aimed at attracting the public eye, has also been given more commercial significance by the success of UT: under the premise of ensuring the function of products, we should narrow the distance between products and customers in a diversified culture, and promote cross-border commercial cooperation and expand the coverage of brands.

In the UT linkage IP, there are both the top IP of super Mario, World of Warcraft and dragon ball, and the new generation of IP, the jet fighters. For top IP, cooperation with fast moving products is obviously a strong alliance. At some special time points, such as Jump50 anniversary, Gundam 40th anniversary, Monster Hunter 15th anniversary, revenge of the alliance 3, the cooperation between top IP and UT can resonate under the "personalization" attribute, thus maximizing the brand marketing angle.

For non top-level IP, the brand marketing promotion by UT can bring IP brand to a broader user market. Compared with the conventional derivative development mode of minority IP, the core derivative types and the more vertical sales occasions are generally selected. Although the quality of derivatives is high, the price is high, and there is a shortcoming of small audiences. Today, cooperation with fast moving products, low price of fast moving products and the popularity of sales scenarios will bring obvious changes to minority IP brand marketing.

See that every time the new games, anime UT shelves when the store stores, games, anime IP fans have apparently been converted into UNIQLO's brand users, UT expression of self attitude has become a game, animation fans a conventional way, perhaps this is the best result of cross-border linkage.