In Addition To Murakami Takashi And Billie Eilish, What Else Can You Realize In UNIQLO'S Joint Name?

Following the creative cooperation of MV shooting, virtual image design and physical exhibition planning, Japanese artist Murakami Takashi (Takashi Murakami) has been interacting with American singer Billie Eilish to create the current hot trend. Uniqlo, a Japanese clothing retailer who has long been keen on all kinds of "fancy" crossover, will not miss this opportunity.

In May 25th, the three party joint UT series of UNIQLO x Murakami Takashi xBillie Eilish will be formally launched on the Internet. Women's wear, men's wear and children's sizes are all included. The price ranges from $9.9 to $14.9, and it continues to remain unchanged. In May 29th, the cooperation series will be synchronized in the offline retail channel and launched in the Chinese market.

Such a forerunner forerunner, Billie Eilish and Murakami Takashi's respective artistic features can be highlighted in the cooperation series. The portrait of the former and the logo of the self created brand Blohsh are combined with the typical smiling sunflower of the latter to become the main image design of the UT series. John C. Jay, global creative president of UNIQLO, said: "two influential global creators have gathered together to show a new way of artistic expression to all."

Although the actual sales volume and market performance of the joint series are not yet conclusive, but for UNIQLO, who has a wealth of joint experience, the hot selling trend of making topics and realizing short supply is already familiar. Compared with other brands based on the same basic price T-shirts, many consumers have isolated the UT series of UNIQLO subconsciously, even as a symbol of "fashion".

That being the case, it is not easy to really change the minds of consumers. Moreover, in a variety of "joint names" popular today, as a "civilian" fashion brand, how to continue to bring new ideas to consumers and avoid linking names to superficial rather than connotations is a problem that UNIQLO has been exploring for a long time.

1, well-known IP resonates, multi circle coverage together

The partners chosen by UNIQLO UT are often the most classic and most famous brands or talents in various industries, so that they can easily attract many consumers to come to buy. One of the most heated discussions of the brand is the collaboration with American graffiti artist KAWS, especially the UT cooperation series launched in June last year, and it soon sold out online. The reason why the series is so popular is closely related to the appeal of KAWS itself. Compared with the relatively expensive luxury brand joint name or art exhibition tickets, the audience who loves its art undoubtedly regards UNIQLO's 99 yuan joint name as a "parity substitute" without buying a lot of money to buy it.

At the same time, across the range of animation, film, video games, food and other industries, it helps UNIQLO break the circle and reach different consumer groups to promote the diversification of consumer sources and expand the contact point with the consumer market. For example, earlier this year, UT launched a series of cooperation between Disney and Ambush, and Pok e mon and Daniel Arsham series, while guaranteeing the public's high recognition of IP, it also overlapped consumers in different fields.

The upcoming sale of Murakami Takashi and Billie Eilish UT is also the principle. The former has worked with Louis Vuitton for 13 years, and has worked with many brands such as Supreme, Vogue, Wakubo Rei and Vans. The name of the fashion industry has been very loud. The latter do not need to go into details. They have held 62 million 900 thousand Instagram fans and 5 Grammy Awards in the younger generation. It does not restrict its own joint category, so that UNIQLO's joint efforts are even more complicated, and even many consumers will be "shouting" across the air, hoping that UNIQLO can cooperate with its favorite brands or designers.

2, take T-shirt as the carrier, presenting the cultural core.

Such a wide range of joint cooperation, a little careless will make consumers feel more and more complicated, and it is easy to leave the impression of "too much pursuit of joint popularity". UNIQLO realized this, so this spring launched a new magazine "UT2020", hoping to convey the original intention of its joint strategy and the cultural core behind each joint name.

Once, the UT series was dubbed to help UNIQLO break the early development of the ceiling and become the "explosive money" to boost sales. However, it has not been out of its own characteristics in the basic T-shirt market, and its sales have been bleak. It was not until 2006 that after the drastic reform of Kashiwa Sato, the new design director of UNIQLO, the definition of UT was finally clear, that is, to transcend the T-shirt itself and pass on the cultural value through printing.

Reaching out to different cultures, and then drawing on one of the most representative and attractive parts of it, and then combining it with its own design products, is the beginning of UNIQLO going to various joint names. But it's a little worse. Various T-shirts actually bring different cultural elements into UNIQLO stores, but how can consumers actually feel the core of culture besides buying behavior?

Maybe it depends on words. In the introduction of UT2020 magazine, the first sentence is "every t-shirt has its own meaning". Under the leadership of Kinoshita Hyoho, the editor in chief of Popeye and the editor in chief of the magazine LifeWear of UNIQLO, the UT2020 team visited New York, London and Tokyo, and interviewed many artists, calligraphers and designers. In the first issue of the magazine, the Andy Warhol visual arts foundation authorized the director Michael Hermann to talk about the past changes in the art world. Tezuka Rumiko, director of Osamu Tezuka's daughter and Tezuka production company, talked with Disney about the Disney. From the Museum of modern art in New York to the Gundam factory and the Museum of the Qing Dynasty instant noodles, the team's intentions can be seen in order to tell the story on the T-shirt.

3. Incorporate creative talents and lead the overall strategy.

Relying on the joint name to produce a UT series of days, it can continue to launch new cooperation every year and fit with the current market. To a large extent, it is attributed to Nagao Zhimin, founder of his mastermind and Chao brand Ape (Nigo). Nagao Zhimin, the first creative director of UT, is the only one to date. Nagao Zhimin once said that he hoped that more people would not buy UT because they liked Disney or Snoopy, because other brands might also produce similar T-shirts, but UNIQLO wanted to be unique.

With keen intuition to capture the trend of the trend, carefully selected partners and their wide connections, Nagao Zhimin really made UT a brand. In this way, UT culture and style become an indispensable feature of UNIQLO, which is balanced with other simple design of the brand, and gradually let consumers recognize the existence of UT as a "trend" member.

Taking Nagao Zhimin's creative talents as the core power is the consistent strategy of UNIQLO, and Christophe Lemaire, the creative director of U series, is also an example. Taking the co operation of Lemaire's own brand name and UNIQLO as an opportunity, the former Herm s creative director integrated the sense of high-end design into the "civilian" brand, which caused a strong market reaction and sales performance was quite bright. Immediately, UNIQLO appointed Lemaire as the head of Paris R & D center and high-end product line "U" series.

Looking back at the joint history of UNIQLO and designers, there are many German heavyweight designers such as Jil Sander, Chanel's inspiration, Mousika Ines de la Fressange, Bottega Veneta former creative director, Tomas Maier, and other heavyweight figures in the fashion industry. The cooperation with British fashion brand J.W Anderson started in 2017 and is still being launched.

Whether it is a great play, it still does not forget the UT series of the cultural core, or the cooperation of creative talents led by designers. If we want to get out of a different joint name, UNIQLO, we have not stopped the pace of its exploration.