How Uniqlo employs its lifestyle journal to drive manufacturer engagement

Uniqlo is watchful to note that LifeWear is not a merchandise catalog. “We’re not promoting merchandise by this publication,” Michael Zakrzewski, head of communications at Uniqlo, informed Modern-day Retail. Rather, he explained, LifeWear Magazine prints interviews, options and image spreads that touch on “the philosophy that Uniqlo generates, which is lifewear: not just clothes, but attire that helps make life less difficult for the every day wearer.” Uniqlo states the magazine — which it started in 2019 and has a entire-time personnel of four — is essential for allowing customers know what Uniqlo stands for. Uniqlo also utilizes the journal as inspiration for in-retail outlet occasions and partnerships.

“The focus alterations each and every problem, but we usually attempt to hit on the similar kind of contact points, like what’s likely to enrich the customer’s lifestyle, what stories would they want to listen to about or what factor of the brand do we want to enable them into?” Zakrzewski explained. For instance, the latest situation includes a piece about Uniqlo’s denim facility in Los Angeles, interviews a glass artisan named Yoko Andersson Yamano and involves a recipe for spring cabbage pierogi from Warsaw, Poland, in which Uniqlo has a pop-up retailer. All concerns are totally free.

For the electronic edition of the journal, “site traffic is truly comparable to what we see for product pages,” Zakrzewski stated. “And which is grown regularly as a result of the iterations of the publication, which is excellent.” In addition, Uniqlo will generally put up on electronic channels about items or spreads in the magazine. “Because individuals have an understanding of the model, and then we abide by with merchandise communication, sales are carrying out properly for the goods that we are showcasing,” Zakrzewski reported.

Uniqlo International noted a 19.4% soar in income year-about-year for its first fiscal quarter of 2023. Boosting its profile in North America is a leading precedence for the firm, where it is hoping to a lot more than triple its variety of outlets in the subsequent four decades, CEO Daisuke Tsukagoshi told Bloomberg. Speedy Retailing, Uniqlo’s mum or dad company, hopes that North America can ultimately produce $2.3 billion in yearly earnings, Bloomberg described.

Uniqlo promotes its journal with in-shop gatherings and artwork. Its Fifth Avenue retailer in New York gets the most important create out, Zakrzewski explained, while the publication is dispersed across suppliers in the U.S. These merchants typically have some sort of corresponding show, dependent on the structure of each room. Some, for occasion, will show each page of the magazine on a wall. Buyers can appear at each spread and then choose up a difficult duplicate close by, if they’d like. The Fifth Avenue store capabilities a big-scale wall picture of the most up-to-date protect and a bookshelf loaded with dozens of problems.

The newest concern of LifeWear Journal will also be readily available at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Uniqlo has partnered with the museum considering that 2017, and its Ukiyo-e UT Graphic T-Shirt Collection is motivated by woodblock prints from the MFA’s collection. A new spread in the journal explores the Uniqlo-sponsored exhibition “Hokusai: Inspiration and Affect,” which will be on display screen at the MFA from March 26 to July 16.

When it comes to demand from customers for LifeWear Magazine, “we get truly good suggestions,” Zakrzewski stated. “Some buyers have occur again to say that they’ve collected each difficulty so far.”

A amount of startups have experimented with life style magazines more than the decades, but have shuttered them or allow them fizzle out as their internet marketing priorities have improved. Casper launched a quarterly print magazine termed Woolly in 2017, but its web site only options a single issue of the magazine for sale. In 2018, Airbnb rolled out “Airbnb Journal,” which has considering that been “paused indefinitely,” in accordance to its web site.

Continue to, corporations of various dimensions are shifting to print for marketing and advertising due to the fact it will help them stand out in a crowded house, Chris Toy, co-founder and CEO of MarketerHire, told Modern-day Retail. “Offline internet marketing continue to has a feeling of premium and status to it,” he spelled out. “If you had been to ship some productive print collateral, it has considerably far more effects than just seeing the $9 million advert on your phone. There’s option there to have a various viewpoint on the brand.”

“If I received a great minimal magazine from a brand, it would be a massive offer,” Toy added. “I’d… almost certainly sit down and acquire a examine because it is just very rare… From a promoting point of view, which is always a fantastic opportunity… ‘Let me be the only print brand name lifestyle journal that you get this month’ — that is a very fantastic position to be.”