Dissertation
Brand, full view: Uniqlo as product, place and idea
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
Dec 2015
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/etd-7193
Abstract
It has been more than a decade since Uniqlo, the Japanese clothing store, entered the U.S. market, first with several mall-based locations, followed by a grand flagship store in Manhattan's SoHo District. In the years since, the chain has brought its signature brightly colored clothing and high-tech stores to urban locations across the country. Along the way, Uniqlo has used a variety of advertising and brand strategies that seemingly run counter to contemporary brand logic. This dissertation looks at how consumers made sense of the Uniqlo brand as it entered the Philadelphia market. Drawing on in-depth interviews and analyses of Uniqlo's advertising and promotional tools, it is argued that the strategy is different than those used by previously successful clothiers. Instead of constructing a brand that relies on symbolic or narrative means, Uniqlo eschewed such methods to follow a hypermodern brand strategy that relies on localization, co-branding and individualized consumer interpretations to make the brand - and its products - as flexible as possible. Uniqlo's branding efforts constitute a plausible means forward in a media world that has been shattered by social network sites. Following media ecology arguments that suggest how we communicate influences how we see the world, I argue that consumers are looking for flexibility in all things, rather than buying into a fictional world of constructed meaning. This flexibility and lack of communicated "meaning," however, poses challenges for brand researchers, managers and consumers as unique and individualistic brand interpretations continue to grow. While these brand activities have yet to be economically successful, offering a brand with diffuse meaning poses problems for the way people understand and connect in our contemporary consumer culture.
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Details
- Title
- Brand, full view
- Creators
- Myles Ethan Lascity - DU
- Contributors
- Brent Adam Luvaas (Advisor) - Drexel University, Drexel University (1970-)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- College of Arts and Sciences; Communication, Culture, and Media; Communication; Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 7193; 991014631955804721