Subtle Art of Marketing — The Zara way!
Heard of Amancio Ortega?
A Spanish billionaire businessman and a founder of our own fast-fashion Zara, Ortega has a net worth of $68.3 billion(as of December 2019), making him the second-wealthiest person in Europe after Bernard Arnault, and the sixth-wealthiest in the world.
Zara started from a small store in Spain on 24 May 1974. Today it has become the largest fashion retailer and has shaken up retail stores with its mind-boggling fashion strategy; currently holding 2,259 stores strategically located in leading cities across 96 countries in the world. It wouldn’t be wrong to call it a global fashion power-house.
Zara’s communication officer, Jesus Echevarria describes Zara’s model as organic, cyclic and season less. In fact, Zara spends as little as 0.3% on advertising compared to its competitors, yet is an ever-emerging business.
So, what’s the secret? Why millennial flock through the store?
The answer for this is hidden in its Marketing Communication Strategy
“They listen and observe”
Let’s go deeper and analyse Zara’s integrated marketing communication approach.
1. Customer centricity:
Zara captures new trends on rap walk and introduces them quickly in their stores to keep their customers happy. Even attending the latest concerts and fashion events, Zara’s designers continuously develop new designs that are quickly delivered to its stores.
2. Right Positioning:
Zara uses its store location and store displays as key elements of its marketing strategy. The company funnels the dollars that would have gone toward advertising into new store openings. In fact, a lot of time and effort is spent designing the window displays to be artistic and attention grabbing.
In 2008, 937 million Euros was spent in opening of new stores. They put much emphasis on opening the right store at the right time in the right place.
3. Product Differentiation:
Zara creates short lived designs each month. Close attention is paid to continuous information on customer needs and wants, and these are answered with clear market segmentation and product differentiation as mentioned in Mazaira, onzalvez and Avendano study, 2003.
“A reporter Suzy Hansen in The New York Times Magazine revealed how Zara doesn’t stock a lot of clothes, and the company updates what’s in stores regularly, creating a sense of urgency that if a buyer doesn’t buy them now, they won’t be available tomorrow”.
4. Excellent inventory control and place of Distribution:
In stark comparison to other fashion retailers, like Uniqlo, H&M and Topshop, Zara designs, produces, distributes and sells its collection in only four weeks, as opposed to the several months that its competitors take to do the same thing. Zara has incorporated high velocity shipping techniques of all its products.
With all these physical outlets and their online presence, Zara collects rapid feedback from customers to make changes in subsequent production runs.
5. Social media:
Zara’s social media initiative has got an edge generating both excitement and publicity.
“To attract its large customer base, Zara maintains its social media network by regularly posting new content and pictures be it on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Currently their digital and social media platforms include their website, Instagram (40 million), Facebook (28 million), Twitter (1.3 million), Pinterest (900K) and YouTube (77 K)”.
6. Promotion:
Firstly, Zara gets a lot of attention through “word of mouth” and hugely benefit from endorsements from top models like Kate Moss and celebrities like the duchess of Cambridge.
Secondly, by teaming up with fashion designers like Stella McCartney, Karl Lagerfeld, Martin Margiela and Marni, wrote the New York Times, Zara uses its store location and store displays as key elements of its marketing strategy. A lot of time and effort is spent designing the window displays to be artistic and attention grabbing. Zara’s strategy is to get as close to them as possible.
Last Thoughts:
Indirectly or directly, Zara does a great deal of marketing and there are no qualms how Zara is winning retail.
