Marketing, Sales and Negotiation skills - Individual Report

This report discusses the marketing environment and application of marketing tactics by Zara through application of appropriate models. In addition to this a personal reflection on development of negotiation and sales skills is provided in this report along with discussion on application of sales and negotiation skills by Zara.

Marketing, Sales
and Negotiation
skills

INTRODUCTION
The role of marketing is to communicate with consumers and influence them to purchase
the products and services of the company by explaining value provided by the products. In
addition to this taking suggestions and communicating consumer expectations to the company is
another key responsibility of marketing (Ketter, 2016). The company selected for this report is
Zara which operates in the retail fashion industry. Zara was founded in 1975 and currently offers
apparel products through online and offline channels in 88 countries.
The objectives of Zara are increasing consumer objective, decreasing dissatisfaction of
plus-size consumers, increase purchase frequency among plus-size consumers, increase brand
awareness and brand expansion. These objectives can be attained with the help of marketing as
value of Zara product offering can be communicated to plus size consumers through effective
marketing. In addition to this marketing can also enhance brand awareness and consumer
satisfaction by improving consumer experience. Consumer data gained from market research can
also support successful brand extension of Zara. In this way marketing plays a key role in
attaining business objectives of Zara.
This report discusses the marketing environment and application of marketing tactics by
Zara through application of appropriate models. In addition to this a personal reflection on
development of negotiation and sales skills is provided in this report along with discussion on
application of sales and negotiation skills by Zara. Concluding analysis and recommendation for
the company are also included in this report.
MAIN BODY
PESTEL and SWOT Analysis
PESTEL analysis of Zara
 Political Factors: The UK fashion industry faced uncertain future after implementation
of soft Brexit deal. Brexit deal has made the UK fashion industry more challenging
impacting the global fashion retail brands. Increased costs and bureaucracy around
customs clearance, unexpected export duties and facing double duties are some factors
which are affecting fashion retailers in UK. This negatively impacts the profits gained
from retail outlets in UK and smooth distribution of goods across UK and EU.
 Economical Factors: The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the fashion
industry including physical fashion retailers. This created a huge challenge for Zara to
recover from pandemic loss and attain higher profits. Zara was able to make profitable
comeback from pandemic losses by focusing on online fulfilment of consumers and
opening 99% of fashion retail stores. This helped the company attain profitability in post
pandemic worlds and gain strength as an online fashion retailer.
 Social Factors: The social trend of preferring responsible shopping and purchasing
ethical products affects fast fashion industry (Roque and Raposo, 2016). Zara has also
faced criticism regarding continuous disregard for ensuring ethical labour in its global
supply chain. This can alienate consumers who are now cooking to purchase only ethical
products.
 Technological Factors: COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated consumer shift towards e-
commerce and digital fashion for purchasing fashion products. Zara has made effort to
offer consumers bet in-store and online digital fulfilment to drive e-commerce sales and
enhance consumer experience. This has positively reflected on the e-commerce revenue
of the company and enabled Zara for easily adopting to a digital future.
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 Environmental Factors: Fast fashion sustainability is demanded by consumers as well
as governments across the globe. Fast fashion sustainability affects fashion retailers such
as Zara because the company has constructed a global supply chain which makes it
challenging to support and implement sustainable options at such a large scale. The
investment made by Zara in improving sustainability at the company can have negative
effect of reduced profitability because increasing sustainability at a global scale requires
huge time and financial investment.
 Legal Factors: The fast fashion industry is negatively affected because of ineffective
intellectual property regulations. Governments across the globe are not able to predict
fashion retailers from counterfeiting and state of intellectual property which reduces the
profitability of the company and also lowers credibility. Zara products have also been
counterfeited in many developing regions which can affect growth of Zara in search
countries.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
The key strength of Zara is that the
company has a positive brand image and
huge brand recognition across the globe.
The ability of Zara to offer knew
products according to changing fashion
trend is an important strength of the
company.
The allegations related to unethical labors and
unsustainable supply June are the primary
weakness of Zara as it eliminates many
consumer.
Zara also has the weakness of consumer
perception that Zara is an expensive brand. This
can create challenge for that against local
organizations who have created a more affordable
band image in different international markets.
Opportunities Threats
There is the opportunity to enter
developing markets and offer consumers
system will cooling options which are not
usually available in such areas.
Zara also has the opportunity to
collaborate with fashion designers of
different cultures to offer ethnic fashion
products in different markets which can
elevate brand image of the company in
international regions.
The firm faces the threat of high competition in
the fashion retail industry.
There is a threat of consumers moving to more
sustainable fashion options and recycling fashion
instead of purchasing from fast fashion
companies.
Discussion and analysis of marketing mix
Most of the people adore the designer clothes and due to this Zara offer their products in
premium quality with premium price considering the latest design at insanely affordable prices.
Product: The products of Zara are loved worldwide because of their simplicity qualities and
originality. The company needs to follow the unique selling proposition in order to create the
latest trends (Go and You, 2016). Most of the new style appear within the stores considering the
progress of the designs. Zara deals in luxury fashion labels and offer products for men women
and children. Zara deals in tops T-shirts trousers accessories bags shoes and so on as these are
the product strategy of Zara.
Price: Zara tends to provide latest fashion at the low prices within the international stores as
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compared to their competing brands. For this Zara follow low pricing strategy which can afford
and also does not spent enormous amount of money over the advertisement and raw materials. In
this context company as an overall or cost structure as compared to their competitors and the
prices of Zara are country specific.
Place: Zara has wide reach with its store in in approximately 88 countries with over 6500 outlets
by which Zara sell their products through offline and online method. Zara is the vertically
integrated company considering a supply chain and what offered them in the competitive
advantage.
Promotion: The company connects with consumers with the help of social media company reach
to 2.5 million followers on Facebook and 15 Million followers on Instagram. The strong social
media strategy of Zara has helped the company in establishing itself as a quality clothing
provider in many countries and maintain a successful survival in the fast fashion industry for a
long time.
People: Zara has been able to utilize its talented workforce to offer the consumers high quality
products by capitalizing on current fashion trends. The company is able to offer consumers wide
variety of clothing for different target segments with the help of our dedicated workforce from
the lower management to leadership level. the company has employed a diverse workforce of
174,000 Workers from 154 nationalities and provides them sufficient training and employee
benefits so that they are motivated to offer consumers better products.
Process: The process element of Zara is considered one of the best marketing elements in
context of a fashion retail company. there is always updating its processes to ensure consumer
fulfilment and provide consumers better experience. The company started offering consumers
click and collect Channel for purchasing outfits from physical retail stores in 2018 which helped
the company ease purchasing process more quick for many consumers . This type of innovation
by Zara across the supply chain so that consumers can gain better delivery time and more
satisfactory consumer experience while shopping with the company is the reason behind positive
reception of processes of Zara. The consumer oriented focus of Zara in updating its process is
continuously to offer consumers more personalized and satisfactory experience supports the
company in delivering exceptional consumer service along with high quality products to retain
consumers for a longer time.
Physical Evidence: The physical evidence of Zahra is differentiating for from other companies
because the company has constructed showrooms across the world which offer consumers
luxury ambiance. This marketing strategy helps the company position it sells as a high quality
fashion retailer provider and also supports consumers in selecting products from the company
showrooms easily. that is able to create a distinctive brand image through its high quality
showrooms and online website which is user friendly.
Sales and Negotiation skills applied by Zara
Sales and negotiation skills are essential for effective marketing because they play an important
role in persuading consumers to purchase the products of the company instead of rival
organization (Livingstone and et. al., 2017). In addition to this sales and negotiation skills can
also help resolve consumer complaints and conflicts more easily. I have learned that the primary
sales and negotiation skills are effective verbal communication listening skills and Building
rapport with the consumer. Communication and listening skills are required to understand
consumer problems and expectations so that further action in influencing and persuading them
can be taken. Zara has effectively applied sales and negotiation skills to make a loyal consumer
base and solve consumer problems. The employees at Zara are trained to keep the consumers
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first and engage in effective communication so that they are able to persuade the consumers in
taking positive action needed for increasing company profit and attaining organizational
objective. In addition to this there has also adopted the sales and negotiation skill of building
report with the consumer. this is completed by the company but ensuring that the consumer
gains the best experience while working with the company and offering them personalized
results when did he visit the organization. These efforts to increase consumer confidence in the
company and ensure that they get the best experience with the company makes that already
skilled organization in context of sales and negotiation as they are able to build positive rapid
with each consumer and use the relationship to create a loyal consumer base.
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CONCLUSION AND RECCOMENDATION
From the above report it is determined that the marketing objectives of a company can be
attained by understanding the external marketing environment and utilising strengths to offer
consumers the most effective experience. PESTEL and SWOT analysis can be List bad
businesses do understand the external environment and marketing mix can be applied for
determining suitable marketing tactics to exploit opportunities in external environment.
It is recommended that the company takes action in improving sustainability and creating a
sustainable brand image across the globe. this is a suitable recommendation as it will help the
company connect with the younger population who are looking for responsible shopping.
Zara is suggested to collaborate with local designers as it will increase product range and help
create a differentiated image.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Go, E. and You, K.H., 2016. But not all social media are the same: Analyzing organizations’
social media usage patterns. Telematics and Informatics, 33(1), pp.176-186.
Ketter, E., 2016. Destination image restoration on facebook: The case study of Nepal's Gurkha
Earthquake. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 28, pp.66-72.
Livingstone, S and et. al., 2017. Maximizing opportunities and minimizing risks for children
online: The role of digital skills in emerging strategies of parental mediation. Journal of
communication, 67(1), pp.82-105.
Roque, V. and Raposo, R., 2016. Social media as a communication and marketing tool in
tourism: an analysis of online activities from international key player
DMO. Anatolia, 27(1), pp.58-70.
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