Inside Uniqlo's US expansion strategy with head of marketing Nico Cessot

0:05Nico Cessot: Hello and welcome back to the Glossy Podcast. I'm your host, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi, and this week we are talking about Uniqlo. Many of you listening are probably extremely familiar with Uniqlo, the Japanese retailer of affordable but high-quality clothing. You probably know for its basics, that viral shoulder bag from a year or two ago, graphic T-shirts, heat tech clothing for cold weather, lots of other stuff that I probably don't even need to mention because everyone knows Uniclo. But Uniclo has been in the U.S. for around 20 years now, I believe, in terms of its retail presence.

0:38Nico Cessot: The first U.S. store opened way back in 2005. But in recent years, I feel like Uniclo has done a lot of expansion in the U.S. There's been new stores and the store strategy is changing in kind of an interesting way. More marketing in the U.S. Just a lot of interesting expansion in the U.S. market. So to talk about that, I have Nico Sesso, who is head of marketing for Uniqlo in North America on the Glossy podcast this week. Hello, Nico. How are you? Hi, Danny. I'm good. How are you? I'm excellent. Thank you so much for being here. Just before the recording, I was saying I'm sure you have a million other things to do.

1:12Nico Cessot: So I'm very grateful that you could come join us. No, thank you. and thank you for having me. And so, like I said, I think probably most people know Uniqlo, been around for a long time and very popular in the U.S., at least in my bubble in New York City, I feel like everyone knows and loves Uniqlo. But I want to ask more about your strategy for marketing in the U.S., expanding in the U.S. But to start, could you tell me a little bit about your background, how you landed at Uniqlo? I think I saw on your LinkedIn, you've been there two or three years at this point. What was your path that led you to Uniqlo?

1:46Yeah. So I started my career actually at Nike. I was at Nike for about 10 years. I studied as an intern at Nike Europe and then made my way up to the global head office in Beaverton, Oregon, where I stay there. and then moved to New York, you know, wanted to explore the city. For that, I started my second chapter at Uniqlo USA as the digital marketing director. And now I'm the head of marketing for Uniqlo North America. So it's been five years as of September.

2:23Nico Cessot: I see. So I think I saw two or three years in your current role, but five years total at the company. That's correct. Gotcha, gotcha. and I didn't explicitly confirm this, but you are French, right? That's what I'm hearing. That's right, yeah. I can't hide my accent, unfortunately. No, that's okay. Not at all. It's a lovely accent. This is probably getting off track a little bit, but I have read about the connection between France and Japan and I feel like there's a lot of cultural overlap, a lot of Japan-officacy in France and vice versa. Did you have any, I mean, this is just a random question, but did you have any fondness for Japan or Japanese culture or fashion or anything before you started with Unico?

3:04Yes. Actually, you know, I've always been interested into the Japanese culture. I think, you know, we always hear about Japan, but obviously it's quite far, so it's very difficult to travel there and take, you know, enough time to discover this beautiful country. But before I started at Uniqlo, I actually learned about, you know, the cultural differences between Japan, U.S., and even Europe. And I've noticed a lot of connection between the French culture and Japanese culture. And, you know, one funny example is the first time I visited Japan and Tokyo, more precisely, I discovered that actually pastries, French pastries are very popular in Japan.

3:49So that's a little bit of a, you know, learning. that was a good learning for me in terms of a cultural approach in their gastronomy and noticing that they really love France and the French culture as well.

4:02Nico Cessot: It does feel like both countries put a lot of emphasis on craftsmanship and high quality of, you know, the craft and art of whatever they're making. But anyway, I just wanted to ask you about that. But to get to the Uniqlo element, so would you say I was correct in my intro saying it feels like the company has put a lot of emphasis into expanding into the U.S. There's obviously been Uniqlo stores in the U.S. for quite a while, but I think I saw last year that the company announced 10 or 11 new U.S. stores over the next year. I think I saw three are at least are opening in the next month or two.

4:37Nico Cessot: I might be wrong about some of those numbers, but it does feel like there's an expansion effort happening there. Is that true? Yes, yes. We are definitely expanding our brand and our business in the U.S. Our approach to grow to the U.S. is very intentional. We're looking also at long term, obviously, as a company. We're really focused on opening up the right store in the right location. So everything we do is very thoughtfully approached to strengthen our customer understanding of what LifeWare and what Uniqlo stands for and the value that we bring to their everyday lives. When it comes to the number of stores, we're actually going to open our 87th store at the end of this month in Georgetown, D.C.

5:27on August 28th. So the U.S. overall remains one of our most important growth markets. We see a significant opportunity to further expand the brand, our presence, while we continue to build brand awareness and our customer affinity across the country. We, you know, as part of our priority is, you know, we want to help our customers to discover and fully understand our life where our philosophy, which is, you know, thoughtfully designed, high quality, everyday clothing that combines functionality, innovation, comfort, and accessible price point. So that is, you know, what we're trying to establish here is not just opening new stores, but really introducing our philosophy, our brand to millions of customers across the country.

6:21Nico Cessot: Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that because I want to ask more about the stores in particular. But from a strategic perspective, I was wondering if the biggest priority for Uniqlo is like awareness or retention or acquisition. because like I said, I feel at least on the East Coast in New York City that Uniqlo has a lot of brand awareness, a lot of recognition. You maybe don't necessarily need to introduce the name to people. They might have heard of it. So is your goal more like people who already know about Uniqlo but maybe never bought it or haven't bought it that frequently? What do you see as the biggest priority?

6:59Our biggest priority is to continue to drive our brand awareness. Ultimately, we're still new in this market. I think you mentioned we have been in the U.S. for 20 years now. This year is our 20th anniversary. So we're still pretty new. We want to continue to appeal to the U.S. customers. And how do we do this? Obviously, the store expansion is one thing, but the brand awareness and the discovery of who we are, what we stand for, what product we promote, I think that is also key for the success of Uniqlo moving forward. So, you know, when we open our stores, which is one of our most important marketing platform, if you want, really, you know, we are a retailer.

7:48This allows us to truly connect with our customers who can really experience the life where directly to feel like the fabric or innovations, understanding the fit of our clothing, see the color range that we offer, and then truly experience the full breadth of our services.

8:06Nico Cessot: Yeah, I think Uniqlo is one of those brands that I have bought plenty of clothes from, but I almost always buy it in the store. I don't really buy it online that much, mostly because there's a big, beautiful flagship store very close to me, so it's easy to get to. I think I saw, and I might be wrong, but the first or one of the first U.S. Uniqlo stores was in Manhattan. It seems like that is obviously an important market for any apparel brand. What's the map of Uniqlo presence in the U.S. like in terms of markets? Like you have New York, you mentioned Georgetown. Are there other regions where you feel like you have a strong presence and then other regions that are newer?

8:47Yes, absolutely. You know, for many, many years, Uniqlo has been expanding in both coast, east coast and west coast. So like you mentioned, New York is obviously a big market for us, but we also have California and LA locations where we have several locations based there. We recently opened in Texas, Dallas and Houston, Seattle in Washington States, Boston, DC. Those are some of Chicago where we recently also opened another local flagship So we have, you know, now put together and expand our business and our brand across several states. But like you said, I think many, many customers still don't have access to the physical Uniqlo stores, which is, again, one of the big opportunities for us to continue to grow.

9:41Nico Cessot: And the stores are quite fun to go into. too, the checkout thing where you just put all the clothes in the bucket and it scans it off for you is very cool. At least the one in Soho in New York City, which is the one I've been to the most, is a pretty impressive location. How different are the different stores across different markets? Do you try to make them all feel kind of part of the same universe or do you differentiate them a little bit based on the local environment? Yes, I think the approach from our end is first, the foundation of our brand remains the same globally. We truly stand for simplicity, quality, function, accessibility across all markets.

10:27where we start differentiating the local flavor, if you want, is about merchandising efforts or services or collaborations with local partners or artists. So depending, again, because the U.S. requires a very localized approach, it's a large and diverse market with different climate, different lifestyle, different shopping behavior, even cultural expectation across regions. So what we see resonating in New York might be different in LA and in Dallas and Texas, for instance. So we are approaching it very at the local level for each market. We also do a lot of research through our e-commerce database, through also customer review and customer feedback.

11:22You know, everything we do ultimately is for the customers. So what we do is we truly listen to the voice of our customers on what they say about our product, what they say about our customer service, how can we get better services on the shop floor, but also online. And then ultimately, we make sure that they understand our story, our values that can really reflect their daily life. Yeah.

11:48Nico Cessot: Are there any parts of the country that you don't have much of a presence in, but you think there's an opportunity there? I think, you know, we have a ton of opportunity. I can't really tell you one. But I would say, you know, when we look at the map, the U.S. is a huge market. So I think, you know, we want to be very thoughtful on where we open the stores. You know, we, again, want to make sure that we have strong understanding of the local markets, that we have a connection with the local residents and the local customers. So everything we do and if we enter a new market, we make sure that before we get into this market that we truly have a clear idea on how do we approach it?

12:37How do we appeal to those local customers? who are those partners that we can connect with and work with before we even build our store there.

12:51Nico Cessot: Nico, I believe a couple of months ago you spoke to one of my colleagues at Glossy about even within certain markets, it seems like Uniqlo sometimes has different store strategies. Like in New York City, I mentioned the Soho store is this big, beautiful flagship, but you also have stores in Williamsburg and other parts of the city that are more of like a neighborhood approach. They're not these massive flagship stores. You mentioned the store being kind of a marketing platform too. Do you feel like the different store formats give you, I don't know, an opportunity to show a different side of the brand and like what goes into the decision-making around this one's, this market's going to be a huge flagship store.

13:29Nico Cessot: This one's going to be a more local neighborhood store. Yeah, absolutely. So like you mentioned, recently we opened several stores in just Manhattan, in New York City. We approach it differently. Like again, based on the research we make, you know, we anticipate what customers will want. So for instance, you know, we opened a new store near Bryant Park or in Williamsburg, which are neighborhood within the city. So we don't want to have the same approach for every store. We want to make sure that we can really come with relevant cultural partnership on the ground. So for instance, one of the popular programs we continue to expand is our UTME program, which is a customization services that we offer in selected stores.

14:21And for that, we partner with local artists or local partners. And we see our customers, you know, loving it and being surprised that, you know, we can partner with one of their local coffee shops or their local, you know, graffiti artists. So that's something that people really appreciate about how much Uniqlub put together behind the scene to come up with those, you know, ideas. And we hear it directly from our customers. And so I think that's something we want to continue to double down on, especially in locations where we already have existing stores like New York. And then for new locations, obviously, we have, you know, different approach.

15:03We want to make sure that either way, you know, depending on the size or the type of store we open, that those are fit for the local residents or local customers. Yeah.

15:14Nico Cessot: And are you going to the store openings? Are you flying around all these places as they pop up? Yes, I do. Not all of them. You know, obviously, we have a large team that they can go to all of them. But we at Uniqlo, you know, it's very important we understand the store operation, that we see the real situation in real life. So obviously, that's part of my job to also go to those new store openings. And to be honest, that's something that I discovered at Uniqlo where seeing the joy on people's face to come to the opening, waiting, you know, for some time, like hours in front of our stores just to discover Uniqlo and LifeWare.

15:55That's amazing. That's really the beauty of this job, to be honest.

15:59Nico Cessot: Yeah. So I asked you a lot of questions about the stores. I know you're head of marketing and that probably encompasses a lot of lots of other stuff, too. Can you tell me a little bit about marketing to the U.S. customer and any strategies you've been taking? I think I've seen that you've done a lot more in-person events like store openings. But what else is working for you in terms of marketing? Yeah, new store opening is obviously one of the, you know, in real life events that we do every season. You know, recently we also just signed a partnership with the Dodgers in L.A. So that's one partnership that will help us also to continue to bring LifeWare and Uniqlo closer to our fans in California.

16:44Another one is we also obviously continue to develop our local partnership through content creators, influencers. So we bring them to our PR showroom and we have content creation trips as well with them just so they can experience the brand in real life. And truly talk to the audiences that also can convey our product benefits beyond styling, you know, showing the functionality of our product, like HeatTech or Aarism, you know, PuffTech, that truly are designed for, you know, to improve the everyday's life. So I think, you know, having those local partners help us to tell that story. And then we have also our, you know, services like UTME.

17:32we have our Uniqlo Studio repair and customization services. You also mentioned the self-checkout, which is one of the special services that Uniqlo offers as well that customers really appreciate as well. So all of those services, partnership, collaborations help us to bring the brand in real life to those events. And on top of that, the Dodgers is one recent partnership that we just started. We also partner with local institutions like the New York Public Library when we opened a location near Bryant Park. The Art Institute of Chicago when we opened our Michigan Avenue flagship store. So all of those collaborations, you know, again, help us to bring that real-life marketing efforts in front of our customers.

18:28Nico Cessot: Yeah, and the Dodgers one in particular is very cool. And I hope I'm not reading too much into this, but the Dodgers have Shohei Otani, who's like the greatest baseball player alive at the moment, and he's Japanese. And that's such a great Japanese-American connection because baseball is hugely popular in both Japan and the U.S. Did that factor into the thinking at all? Or was it just, you know, the Dodgers are cool, it's a cool opportunity? Or did you think much about that connection between Japan and the U.S. with that partnership? No, of course. Yeah, no, for sure. For sure. Like you said, you know, Japan culture is obviously very important in what we do.

19:08And baseball, you know, for people that don't know, baseball is one of the number one sports in Japan. It's being watched, you know, by millions of people every night when the Dodgers play, but also other teams. So obviously, their players, they have Japanese players, like you mentioned, that help us to get visibility in front of our Japan markets and other markets as well. And I think it was kind of a natural connection between the two brands. You know, we're trying to expand. They are also trying to expand their brand. And obviously, I think they are the best team right now in the league. We want to become, you know, the best of clothing companies.

19:56So I think it's both efforts coming together. And now we're partnering very closely with them, not only on the field naming, but also bringing some activations around the stadium, within our stores or inside the stadium. And we will continue to explore, you know, new ways of partnering together moving forward.

20:17Nico Cessot: Yeah, I'm not a big baseball expert, but that's my understanding as well is that Otani is like the best player in the world and the Dodgers are very good because of him and others. But who is the Uniqlo customer in the US? Are you targeting specific age ranges or specific demographics? Or do you cast a really wide net in terms of the Uniqlo US shopper? At Uniqlo, we want to approach everyone. That's part of our philosophy. You know, we design clothing that are made for everyone for every day's life. So that is either a toddler or a kid to, you know, Gen Z, millennials or to, you know, older generation.

21:07It doesn't really matter for us. I think, you know, what we're trying to do is really making sure people understand our philosophy, our product, and that they feel comfortable. And they can truly understand also our commitment to quality, sustainability, community. and we do that through obviously our meaningful collaborations, the way we operate as a company, our customer service that we bring in our stores. We want to appeal to everyone. So we don't necessarily have one specific target. I think we want everyone to enjoy Uniqlo. That's really the end goal for us.

21:50Nico Cessot: Gotcha. Two more things I want to ask you. One is that I recently went to an event held by Fast Retailing, which is the parent company of Uniqlo. And the executives there were talking about one of the advantages they feel they have is these long relationships with their suppliers. They've been working with the same factories or manufacturers for years and years or decades. And I was thinking about that when you were saying you work very closely with the LA Dodgers now. It sounds like you're doing multiple things over time with them. when you are thinking about your marketing partnerships, even on a smaller level with like an individual influencer, are you thinking long-term?

22:26Nico Cessot: Like how long are we going to be working with this group or this person or this company? And do you feel like that's, is that valuable in marketing or maybe less so compared to something like manufacturing? Oh no, absolutely. I think, you know, long-term is what we are aiming for. long-term in the sense of we are here to continue to build our brand. Like we've been here in the U.S. for 20 years, and we are hoping to continue to be here for many, many years. So the way we choose our partners are to have the same commitment to long-term partnership, like the Dodgers or the suppliers that you mentioned.

23:11So I think, you know, at the end of the day, what we're trying to establish is our competitive edge, which I think, you know, partnership is very important in our industry and finding the right partners and then committing to that commitment between the two companies will be, you know, helping us, but also helping them to grow. So it's a win-win. We think about our partners, like we think about our company, we want both to be satisfied with the quality of the work, but the quality of the product that we create. And then that we have also shared value that we can build together.

23:55Nico Cessot: I think that's very well put. Last thing I want to ask you, Nico, and then we can wrap it up. But kind of a broader question, But just as a marketer, what do you think is the biggest challenge in marketing, particularly for apparel brands right now? Because I ask people this question a lot and I get a lot of different answers. Yeah, I'm curious. What do you think is the toughest part of your job at the moment?

24:21That's a great question. You know, challenges, I think there is many, many. But I would say from a marketing standpoint, you know, very simple answer is to continue to build your brand and not becoming someone else. I think staying true to who you are. Sometimes there's a lot of noise, obviously. And breaking through the noise can be challenging. The way you do it can be challenging. I think for us, what we see is continuing to educate our customers, staying true to our values, the combination of quality, functionality, value, accessibility, staying authentic to the way we do marketing, the way we talk to our customers.

25:13I think that's going to be a challenge, obviously, because, you know, as we continue to expand, you know, usually companies tend to lose sometimes their values. But for us, it's going to be how do we continue to stay true to who we are? How do we continue to bring quality product design that are made for everyday life for customers? and then how do we continue to help our customers to discover what is life where and what is it so important for them in their daily life? So I think we have a lot of challenges coming in front of us, but I take it as a very huge opportunity as a marketer because again, there's so many tools, so many data that we have now that maybe 20 years ago we couldn't get access to.

26:05So I think it's going to shift the way we do marketing. But at the end, the core of our marketing, we stay the same.

26:14Nico Cessot: Yeah. And as I've said, I think you guys have an advantage in that there's a lot of awareness. It feels like the U.S. customer is not having any hesitation about, you know, getting into Uniqlo. I think that's all the time we have. But Nico, thank you so much for coming on the Glossy Podcast and answering all my questions. It was great having you. Thank you so much. It was great to meet you and great to talk to you today.

27:05Thank you.