This fall semester, NUCB Business School resumed face-to-face classes, which many of the students had been eagerly awaiting, and one course in each program was completed without a hitch. The classes are run with thorough measures to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, such as thorough temperature checks and disinfection upon entering the building, small group sessions, social distancing by leaving one seat empty, and thorough ventilation of the room by circulators with the classroom entrances always open. The first course in the fall semester of the EMBA was "Marketing Management" taught by Professor Yukihiro Makita, who is very popular among the students for his sharp remarks.
In the EMBA "Marketing Management" course taught by Professor Yukihiro Makita, students learn practically from basic marketing concepts to understanding and using frameworks through the case method. The course also aims to improve the students' ability to analyze cases that emphasize the consistency of marketing as a whole, such as target segments, positioning axes that stick to the target, product strategies that realize the positioning, pricing strategies, channel strategies that are optimal for the target segments, and promotion strategies that best express the positioning. This course aims to improve the ability to analyze cases with an emphasis on overall marketing consistency.
Marketing differentiation in the apparel industry was analyzed by focusing on the business strategies UNIQLO has implemented since 1998. How has UNIQLO, which has established a groundbreaking business model, been able to differentiate itself and grow within the industry? How is UNIQLO's value chain different from that of other general apparel companies? We analyzed UNIQLO's model by clarifying its entire marketing process, from planning to sales, while touching again on the definition of the value chain. There were times when the content of the case was compared to a cloud, and the interpretations and insights made in the class were compared to rain, and the analogy was used to draw out the students' thoughts and new discoveries through abstraction. He also cited examples of other companies that have adopted some of the same marketing philosophies as UNIQLO, which seemed to help the students understand more about the company.