Zara's Branding Strategy: A Comprehensive Analysis

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Research Proposal
Research Topic: An evaluation of the Branding strategy of Zara

Table of Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................................................3
Research Problem.....................................................................................................................................3
Problem statement....................................................................................................................................3
Reference on the topic..............................................................................................................................4
Branding.....................................................................................................................................................4
Importance of Branding...........................................................................................................................5
Company Overview..................................................................................................................................5
Zara Branding approach...........................................................................................................................6
Objectives..................................................................................................................................................7

Introduction
Research Problem
Branding is a process which constitutes of processes of a company creating a unique name and
evolving a product according to the needs of customers and market trends. The development of
the product is generally done by promotional events and campaigns, abiding by a particular
theme. The awareness is increased using different promotional handles. The concept helps in
determining the product by its uniqueness that differentiates it from other brands selling the same
kind of product, attracting more customers who remain loyal. In context of branding the B2B
marketers have stated that the most top five goals should be determination of brand, which can
improve the business operations of an organization and position its brand to get the maximum
preference. The brand awareness helps in leading maximum sales and improves the production
line. The B2B marketers also consider that 70% contribution to building an audience and
improving the brand image is much more important than directing the sales (Forbes.com, 2019).
The sales of an organization can be well directed if the brand is positioned in a right way. It has
been observed that 75% of the business to business (B2B marketers) want to promote branded
products, as it helps them in evaluating business ideas, whereas 94% of the brands have focused
their marketing strategies according to selling their products and services by a brand name. In the
year 2012, there has been an analysis that strong brand have outperformed the weaker brands by
20% (Trinh and Tanusondjaja, 2016). Strong branding helps in reducing risks and eventually
generating maximum profits. The study will therefore analyze the importance of branding on the
reference of an apparel company Zara. The research study will emphasize the branding strategy
used by the organization, and the objective they chalk to achieve the goals and objectives
according to their branding strategy (Andrews and Shimp, 2017).
Problem statement
The main issue of branding in the organization faces is that the enterprise must understand the
link between just increasing their sales and generating profit. The study therefore will depict the
lack of branding strategy which company must apply to gain more competencies and improve the

quality of their product and services. The branding strategy will help in analyzing the concepts of
the profit generation and earning competitive advantage (Lucidpress, 2019).
Reference on the topic
“Brands have the ability and access to connect with people in all kinds of ways and have an
ongoing dialogue and relationship with them as opposed to the monologue, how it used to be ”
stated by Lee Clow.
This explains branding as a connection between the customers and the organization and aligning
their need to their production. Branding improves the image of the company and helps the
customer to differentiate them in a different perspective. The brand positioning of the company
will help in acquiring maximum revenues, generate profits and gain competitive advantage (Lee
and Cavanaugh, 2016).
Branding
Branding in an apparel industry is not just determining its brand logo, size but also determining
product quality which meets customer needs and match with ongoing trend in the market. The
brand should serve all types of customer, and their price requirements. The manipulation of the
customer psychology states determining the right positioning of a brand, and enhancing the
customer experiences and relation.
Branding has evolved in variety of ways, and the concept of a brand has changed in that 70
years. It was considered that a good quality product can increase a brand. The perception of the
customer changed throughout this years and they now demand products with more attributes and
a reliable brand name. The most essential thing in branding is consistency and consistency also
includes designing of the product, website management, packaging, and analyzing the presence
on social media. This are considered to be the various elements of branding which helps in
profits generation of the company. The maintenance of relation with the customers also helps in
determining the brand in the eye of the customers. As said by Jung and Jin (2017), the apparel
industry authorities must determine their production line according to the meeting of the
customer need and expectations. The maintenance of consistency throughout years will help in
determining the needs of the customers; maintain the relation with their customers. The

implementing of technological advances in the company and lastly advertising their products
through social media sites about the merchandise the company is producing.
The consistency in maintaining the products and same logo will build an impression of a high
quality brand, which they depend for their needs and basic life necessities. The brand value also
increases their trust so that they can depend on their products.
Importance of Branding
A particular product is determined by the amount of usage by e-customers, offering made by the
company, attention it gets from the customers and acquisition. The product is determined as a
tangible item which is designed according to the requirements of customers. The product should
also offer additional benefits like offering, price discounts, to keep with interest of customers.
Firstly, the branding therefore is providing a product with bundle of benefits to the customers.
The importance of the branding is to understand the components of marketing the pattern in
which the company must operate and understand the quality systems and manufacturing
attributes to gain ultimate success and profit. Secondly, the branding helps organization in
generating new innovative ideas and enhancing their potential in making products more inclined
to high quality with additional attributes to offer.
For example, the apparel industry often gives discounts in clothes, by providing accessories for
fewer prices or free of costs. They also offer 50% discounts in their products, annually once in a
year to attract more customers and improvise their brand name and serving all level of
customers. Thirdly, in perspective of American marketing association, stated that branding is
important as it helps in developing interactive relationship with customers, providing quality and
value through their products, the management of customers and stakeholders (American
Marketing Association, 2019). Fourthly, branding is a kind of differentiation strategy and a
complicated symbol, which helps in fighting the company with all the negative external factors
and synchronizing their processes to make the organization gain maximum profits and
competitive advantage.

Company Overview
Zara is fashion retailing organization dealing with apparel and accessories which is originally
based in Arteixo in Galicia (Zara.com, 2019).It was established in the year 1975 by Amancio
Ortega and Rosalia Mera, and even has establishments in United Kingdom. The main house to
which the brand of Zara belongs to is the Inditex Group, which has now become the world
largest retailer organization. Zara is considered to a house of brands including brands like
Massimo Dutti, Pull& Bear, Bershka, Oysho, Zara Home. They have near about 20 varieties of
clothing’s which they launch every year. They have successfully launches 20 different types of
clothing’s collection as of the year 2017.
Zara used RFID technology from the year 2014 in their stores to keep track with the advances
technological developed markets and the customer needs for home services through online stores
and websites. The company eventually ranked up 30 on the Interbrands which is the list of world
best global brands, because of their fast production and change in their collection and rendering
quality services to the customers. They have diversified their products by manufacturing men,
women and children clothing’s. They have always operated according to the customer needs,
making its approach customer oriented. Zara main distribution center is situated in Spain and
have more than 12000 new designs every year. This results in increasing the store number to
10000 all over the world, collecting annual revenue of $18.9 million.
Zara Branding approach
Zara branding approach is entirely inclined to customer centered production, and they change
their clothing production pattern every two weeks, and the clothing designs changes in two to
three months. Zara have 11000 different items every year which is much more than their
competitors like H&M, Marks & Spencer where their production is 200 to 3000 items per year.
This production has been successful because of their highly act9ive and responsive supply chain,
where they use their automatic distribution center which is called “Cube”. The company has
centered their production towards the demands of the women of United Kingdom who age
between 25-37, and the latest trends the market is having. They have minimum amount of
inventories. The company uses RFID technology within its stores in 2014, the RFID chips are
types of security tags, and those tags can be reused (Shakiba et al., 2017). This tag helps in

organizing the inventories, by radio signals that the product range has been replaced and new
product line will be introduced.
Objectives
The objectives of the company should be deduced according to the strategies they have set to
increase their brand image and brand name to acquire maximum profits and collect revenues.
The objectives of the research are as follows:
 To identify the factors Zara Company needs to identify their brand in an international
level
 To create awareness about their brand and its products and services
 To ascertain their level of quality, quantity, and satisfaction the customer should get from
their products and services
 To analyse certain strategies to improve their brand image ‘
 To adapt correct promotional strategies to increase their brand value
 To analyse the negative factors that affect their positioning of brand
 To determine the proves they need to implement in their operations to successful increase
their brand value


Reference List
American Marketing Association , 2019. Resources, M., Success, H., Strategy, F., Buy-It-for-
Lifers, R., Throne?, S., Report, T., Quiz, D., searching, P., Strong, T., Networking, G., Z, H., The
ROI of Great Content: How to to Double American Marketing Association. [online] American
Marketing Association. Available at: https://www.ama.org/ [Accessed 26 Jun. 2019].
Andrews, J.C. and Shimp, T.A., 2017. Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated
marketing communications. Nelson Education.
Forbes.com, 2019. Why B-To-B Branding Matters More Than You Think. [online] Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mckinsey/2013/06/24/why-b-to-b-branding-matters-more-than-
you-think/#3764efbf59dd [Accessed 26 Jun. 2019].
Jung, S. and Jin, B., 2017. Cross-cultural Investigation for Slow Fashion Branding Strategies:
UK, Hong Kong and Korea.
Lee, J.W. and Cavanaugh, T., 2016. Building your brand: The integration of infographic resume
as student self-analysis tools and self-branding resources. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport
& Tourism Education, 18, pp.61-68.
Lucidpress, 2019. Free report: The impact of brand consistency. [online] Available at:
https://www.lucidpress.com/pages/resources/report/the-impact-of-brand-consistency?
source=blog [Accessed 26 Jun. 2019].
Shakiba, M., Zavvari, A., Aleebrahim, N. and Singh, M.J., 2016. Evaluating the academic trend
of RFID technology based on SCI and SSCI publications from 2001 to
2014. Scientometrics, 109(1), pp.591-614.
Trinh, G., Romaniuk, J. and Tanusondjaja, A., 2016. Benchmarking buyer behavior towards new
brands. Marketing Letters, 27(4), pp.743-752.
Zara.com., 2019. ZARA United Kingdom | SALE. [online] Available at:
https://www.zara.com/uk/ [Accessed 26 Jun. 2019].