Compare Uniqlo’s approach on Instagram (www.instagram.com/uniqlousa) to Madewell’s approach (www.instagram.com/madewell). Based on your comparison, is Uniqlo a market challenger, market follower, or niche marketer? Explain your response.

Uniqlo targets young, urban, professional, and practical American shoppers with fashions that are not unique and bear no labels. It offers low prices (e.g. jeans for $40), so it is sometimes grouped with other big brands in the fast fashion category: Zara and H&M. However, unlike Zara and H&M, Uniqlo does not chase trends. It offers staples, the way the Gap did when it made basics cool in the 1990s – before it lost its edge by being in every mall and becoming the uniform of suburban moms and dads. Uniqlo offers basics with clean lines and positions itself as affordable fashion that is not disposable. It offers free tailoring and built a reputation for durability. It also uses a number of signature technologies in its clothing, including ultra-light down, HEATTECH insulating system, and AIRism moisture-wicking. Madewell and Everlane offer similar products at a higher price. Although it is owned by Fast Retailing, one of the five largest clothing retailers in the world, only a small percentage of Uniqlo’s 2,000 stores are located in the United States, where it lacks brand awareness. Uniqlo fell short of the expected 200 stores in the United States by 2020; it operates 50 U.S. stores at a loss.