Zara Brand Report - Jessica Roberts

Fig 1. S/S Collection 2017

Fig 2. S/S Collection 2017

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Fig 3. S/S Collection 2017 Contents

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Personal Experience As someone who is a popular shopper at Zara I think it’s fair to say the brand itself is appropriate for any age and any type of customer. The brand has a huge variety of different clothing and styles ranging from gothic grunge to summer florals that are suitable for any shape and size. Being a young student studying fashion it’s important to look good and feel good whilst being able to shop within a reasonable price range and I believe the clothing I can buy from Zara allows me this.

My Personal Experience History of the Brand Zara’s Profile 7 P’s Analysis Bibliography

Fig 4. S/S Collection 2017

History Zara was established by Amanico Oretga and Rosalia Mera in 1974. The store was originally founded as a dress-making factory and then later began designing in all things fashion. For the first couple of years Zara was never actually known as ‘Zara’, it first came to light in the 70’s under the name of Zorba. It wasn’t until later Amanico Ortega changed the name to Zara however it had no intention to be called this - In fact, he felt it just fitted the company better and from then on the Zara phenomenon began!

The company began in a small town in Spain and by the 90’s had already moved over the United States of America, France and the United Kingdom. Overall Zara has six thousand stores across a massive eighty-eight different countries and is now one of the largest apparel retailers in the world. The first few stores sold basic garments that were simplistic and neutral that were sold at extremely reasonable prices. The designs later went on to include some look-alike products of more upper class garments at a cheaper more reasonable price range however. Over time the stores have developed and evolved, they now sell all different types of garments such as womenswear, kidswear and menswear at all different price ranges. In the world of fashion today Zara is known for its iconic name, it doesn’t need much else going for it. The price of clothes is implausible for what you can get and customers are more than happy to spend money there.

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Zara’s Profile Zara makes 78% of Britain’s high street profit, Ortega has broken records on what you can do with a good brand without hardly any advertising, “The frequency of seeing Starbucks on every block in any major American city is equivalent to seeing Zara on every block of any major Spanish city” Spain has allowed the brand to have its own international presence.

The brand needs no advertising strategies or techniques as it’s made its own way into the fashion industry because it is thriving in the market by using Fast Fashion as its main strategy. “The secret of fast fashion retailing is the ability to generate quick turnover of merchandise in the stores” and Zara do this successfully and continuously on a day to day basis.

7 P’s Analysis Product Zara is mostly known for its quirky and obscure products which range from accessories to footwear, to kidswear, menswear, womenswear and their TRF range. The most popular product is the womenswear. All products have that certain ‘Zara style’ about them, the appeal is so broad yet everything is still so different. When you access the website on to womenswear you get a variety of options that range from new in, trending now.

This allows customers to get a taste of what’s on trend right now allowing them to buy the most up to date garments right off the catwalk at a cheaper price. The brand’s USP is to create the latest trends that have been popular within a two-week period that are good value for money, once that has taken affect the products are then put on to the shop floor for up to a four-week period allowing the products to sell for a decent amount of time.

Price If Zara is known for one thing it’s the reasonable pricing of all garments. The company have perfected the ‘psychological trick

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of pricing’, clothing will be marked as £4.99, £7.99 or even £45.99 which will allow a consumer to think they are getting their garments for a much more reasonable price. For example, if the price tag happened to say £50.00 it would instantly seem so much more expensive than £49.99. By just dropping the price to a whole one pence cheaper will instantly make a customer believe they are getting more for their money. Zara’s main strategy is speed and price whilst still emphasizing the transition between couture fashion to ready-to-wear fashion, therefore the latest trends are displayed on the shop floor for a four-week period giving customers a chance to get the most up to date garments whilst still being reasonable and affordable. Of course, their competitors are always behind them, H&M has been in a constant competition with Zara and are also well known for their excellent pricing however what makes Zara much more efficient and popular is simply that they are the most responsive high street brand to the newest trends.

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Place Zara’s place in the market is positioned extremely high up in fashion world especially when you consider they are not actually an official ‘designer’ label. The wholesale of the company is to design and sell a large quantity of new and upcoming designs at a low price allowing the company to make a decent amount of profit. Again, they make an even bigger profit through their use of online sales and website page allowing customers to buy from the comfort of their own home. Zara are also a multi-channel company broadcasting their brand through the likes of Twitter,

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Facebook and Instagram with constant updates on their most recent and popular garments, doing this allows them to target their younger audiences as the youth of today are constantly around easy to access technology.

People The people that work behind the scenes of Zara has always been kept very quiet. The company was founded by Amanico Ortega and Rosalia Mera in 1974, then the CEO who is known as Oscar Perez Marcote however bar that no other names have been mentioned. Obviously, the store is a fast fashion brand thus meaning that there will be a constant variety of designers, buyers, and sellers working throughout the year to provide the best garments for each season. There is also the retail staff who are on the shop floor allowing customers to build relationships when shopping.

But what’s most important to the brand is their audience, the customers are vital when it comes to a well-known high-street brand. This is because without them Zara wouldn’t make the income and profit that they make so well, allowing them to turn over a staggering amount of money per year. The audience are what keeps them so popular.

Physical Environment The stores across the world are virtually identical to one another; unpretentious, white and plain. However, this has its upsides. The amount of clothing in each store is indescribable and giving each store a simple and colorless design allows the customers to focus on what the brand believe is most important, the clothing. The effect of the lack of design and color in store contrasts with the bold and bright garments allowing them to have all the attention when customers are shopping. Zara are already known for being impeccable when it comes their clothing so they don’t need to try and be over the top with anything, the clothing speaks for itself. All

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stores across the globe will always have a similar variety of what’s on trend at that time as it allows customers to be anywhere in the world and be provided with the most up to date trends that are easily accessible wherever you may be.

Promotion To sustain a compeiteve adavantage within the fashion industry brand’s will put on different sales and offers throughout the year allowing them to make more profit at a higher speed. Zara have always been known as a brand that don’t do a lot of advetsiement as they have never really needed to, the company speaks for itself. Zara have never been on a billboard or a commercial ad because it is not what they believe in, the brand believes the only advertisement they need to excel in is their shop windows and the designs within them. Their take on product promotion is completely different to any other brand. The success of Zara is proof that this does work and how it has been possible for them to be as successful as they are without any major promotions.

The use of their social media is another way they have promoted themselves, on Instagram they are known for having just over sixteen million followers and a staggering fourteen million on Facebook alone! The brand is known for focusing on three P’s; place, product and pricing opposed to promotion as they don’t see it to be a main protagonist in what they want to succeed in.

Of course, throughout the year the brand will bring out sales where they will drop prices down to an incredible 70% off however this is usually around the end of the Christmas or summer period when the seasons are changing. With, a new season Zara will bring out a lookbook with a range of different clothes that will be upcoming in the recent months as well as footwear and accessories. Again, the lookbook is not only available online but also in stores and on the app. Along with the app comes the opportunity to sign up and create an account giving costumers a chance to get updates about the brand and about sales/offers/ new stock.

Process It is essential being a fast fashion brand that Zara is constantly

meeting the markets demands, they do this effectively allowing them to have a four-week period to create brand new garments that will be put on the shop floor and online to sell quickly. The brand has a variety of different ways to purchase products; online website, (e-commerce) in store or on their mobile app which is available on any mobile phone. When buying any product in store or online it is simple – you see something you like and you buy it. In store, you can pay on credit/debit card or by cash and online you do a simple card transaction and there you have it, you have purchased an item from Zara. As well as purchasing an item you can also purchase a gift card online or in store for a present for a family member or friend allowing them to spend a limited amount of money in any Zara store across the world.

The following graph contains data showing what range is most popular within Zara stores. It’s fairly obvious from the results that out of a staggering amount of one hundred people, womenswear reached the highest number of votes at forty-nine percent.

The range with the least votes was kidswear then men’s and finally the TRF range. These results definitely emphasize how much of a big part the retail store plays in the young woman of today’s lives. This may also be because Zara is mostly well known to their customers for women’s wear, it’s the first thing you see online and it’s the first thing you see in the shop windows and the minute you enter any store in any part of the world. So many more styles and trends are evolving in today’s society and are extremely popular with the female audience, Zara are just one of thousands of other brands that know exactly how to keep this audience happy throughout the year with constant new styles coming out.

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Bibliography; https://successstory.com/companies/zara http://www.marketing91.com/marketing-mix-zara/ Jess Carnter Moley(2016, October 20th) https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/feb/16/how-zara-took-over-high-street Walter Loeb (2015, March 30th) https://www.forbes.com/sites/ walterloeb/2015/03/30/zara-leads-in-fast-fashion/#7229379e5944 Images; https://www.facebook.com/Zara/ https://www.instagram.com/zara/ http://www.fashiongonerogue.com/zara-spring-2017-campaign/ http://www.zara.com/uk/ htt://google.com/uk

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