Digital Marketing Plan for Zara: Strategies and Analysis Report

This report presents a comprehensive digital marketing plan for the fashion brand Zara. It begins with an executive summary and table of contents, followed by an introduction that provides an overview of the company and its current market position. A thorough situational analysis, including a SWOT ...Read More

Digital marketing plan for Zara
Digital marketing plan for Zara
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1Digital marketing plan for Zara
Executive summary
The report intends to provide a digital marketing plan while analyzing the existing marketing
plan of an organization. For the purpose of the report, the popular clothing brand Zara has been
chosen. The whole course of the discussion includes situational analysis, identifying the current
market trends and the issues faced by the company in terms of marketing. Meanwhile the report
also elaborates on the marketing mix under the digital marketing plan. The study proceeds to the
most important part of the discussion that is developing digital marketing plan for the company.
Hence separate marketing strategy for earned media, paid media and owned has been given.
Finally the report gives monitoring measures and then sums ups the entire discussion.

2Digital marketing plan for Zara
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................4
1.1 Overview of the company......................................................................................................4
2. Situational Analysis..................................................................................................................5
2.1 SWOT analysis......................................................................................................................5
2.2 Current market trends and the issues faced by the company.................................................6
3. Digital Marketing Objectives...................................................................................................7
4. Identification of Target market(s) and relevant Branding and Positioning strategies..............8
4.1 Target market.........................................................................................................................8
4.2 Branding and positioning.......................................................................................................8
5. Summary of recommendations for Product, Price, and Distribution strategies.......................9
5.1 Product...................................................................................................................................9
5.2 Pricing....................................................................................................................................9
5.3 Distribution............................................................................................................................9
6. Digital marketing communications plan................................................................................10
6.1 Marketing over owned media..............................................................................................10
6.2 Marketing over earned media..............................................................................................10
6.3 Marketing over paid media..................................................................................................11
7. Relevant Evaluation and Monitoring approaches..................................................................11
8. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................11

3Digital marketing plan for Zara
9. References..............................................................................................................................12

4Digital marketing plan for Zara
1. Introduction
Over the past few years, Digital marketing has been a recent phenomenon in terms of
marketing (Ryan, 2016). Thus the paper begins by conducting a situational analysis through
which the digital marketing trends will be discussed in addition with the issues and challenges
faced by the organization in terms of digital marketing. The situational analysis is done with a
reference of SWOT analysis from the perspective of marketing. Meanwhile, the paper clearly
states the objectives of the digital marketing plan while identifying the target audience for that.
While discussing the target market, the study also mentions branding and positioning of the
brand. The report gives suggestive measures in terms of target audience. At the same time the
study also gives separate suggestive measures along with the digital marketing plan which
includes different aspects like media strategies, search engine optimization suggestion and so on.
The report concludes with the suggestive measure to monitor the process of digital marketing.
1.1 Overview of the company
The Spanish fashion brand Zara is one of the leading brands in the fashion industry.
Offering its services across the globe the company has its outlets in every metro city all over the
world. Founded in the year of 1975, the company is the main brand of Inditex group. Since 1988,
the company has started expanding its business over different parts of the world. Beside of retail
outlets, the company also has taken initiative of making its products available over online in the
year of 2010 (Zara - inditex.com., 2018). Initially the online website of the company was
available only in the countries of Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Germany, France and
Italy. Later on in the same year, it expanded the services over other major countries as well. The
company has been named among the 30 fashion best brands across the globe. Offering both

5Digital marketing plan for Zara
men’s, women’s and children’s clothing, Zara launches more than 12000 new designs every year
(Zara - inditex.com., 2018). However, the company follows a unique strategy by opening new
retail outlets instead of investing in advertisements.
2. Situational Analysis
2.1 SWOT analysis
Strengths
 Good reputation in the industry for
quality, style and product availability.
 Strong financial position of the
company makes it able to invest in an
adequate manner.
 The company manufactures its own
products and saves the cost of
outsource manufacturing.
 Strong delivery network of the
company makes it business process
smooth.
 Through web portal the company
reaches out to maximum customer base
(Hammoudeh, 2014).
Weakness
 High price of the products is the major
weakness of the company for which a
very significant portion of customers
can purchase its products.
 The company does not compromise
with the quality of the product for the
sake increasing product sale.
 The market share of the company is
extremely low since the company do
not do not market their products.
 In case of marketing strategy is applied
time and proper management will be
required (Hammoudeh, 2014).
Opportunities
 The company can extend its business in
Threat
 Threat of similar brands in the industry

6Digital marketing plan for Zara
the Asian markets in a more extensive
manner.
 Innovations keeping the market trend in
mind can be incorporated in order to
attract wide range of customer base.
 Adoption of technology in production
can help the company in reducing the
cost so that more customer base can be
achieved.
 More focus on customer service will
make the brand more trustworthy.
 Most importantly the company needs to
invest on promotional strategies in
order to increase its product sale
(Hammoudeh, 2014).
with low price strategy is likely to be
high.
 Low purchase power of the customer
can impose immense threat on the
company in the near future.
 Non-availability of the raw materials
seems to be major threat due high
number of buyers.
 Supplier’s can easily shift to other
similar brands if they find more cost
effective deals (Hammoudeh, 2014).
Source: Created by author
2.2 Current market trends and the issues faced by the company
As observed there is a huge demand of online purchase. Customers nowadays prefer
purchasing over online portals to get rid of the physical hassle of buying products from retail
stores (Cortez et al., 2014). It has been observed that most of the companies focus more on
digital marketing in order to reach maximum customer base. In order to do so, organizations use
social media marketing sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and etc. Several ways are adopted
in the marketing strategy over digital media (Okonkwo, 2016). For example, using engaging

7Digital marketing plan for Zara
contents posts are shared over online portals in order to assure that customers are persuaded to
buy the products that are being offered by the companies. In adiition, different photos, videos etc
are posted to drive the customers to purchase products. Moreover, the companies use the digital
marketing way in order to easily attract the target customer. Since these above mentioned social
media sites allows the customers to give feedbacks and communicate directly with the company,
the digital marketing especially over social media sites is considered extremely beneficial (Lea-
Greenwood, 2013).
Thus in this regard, it needs to be mentioned that the global brand Zara does not market
its products and branding in spite of having the reputation of providing quality product. The
company rather invests in opening of new outlets. Thus it is observed as the issue since the rival
companies like H&M, John Lewis and etc. use effective marketing strategy in order to promote
its branding. As observed, the popular brands like H&M, John Lewis, and New Look etc focus
more on digital media marketing with special use of social media platforms such as Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram (Hammoudeh, 2014). Therefore it is apt to state that the brand needs a
digital marketing plan with special emphasis on the use of above mentioned social media
platforms in order to increases competitiveness in the fashion industry (Khan & Siddiqui, 2013).
3. Digital Marketing Objectives
As per the identified current market trends and issues faced by the company, the primary
aim of this digital plan would be increasing the company’s sales margin by 12% within the next
3 years (Hammoudeh, 2014). However, the secondary objectives of the digital marketing plan
are:

8Digital marketing plan for Zara
 Maximizing the brand awareness using digital marketing strategy with specially focusing
on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
 Achieving the target of 467000 likes against its Facebook page and 544000 likes on
Instagram page of the company.
 Achieving the growth rate of the company to 6% to 8% within first year, 9% to 11%
within second year and achieving 12% growth within third year with sustainability on the
growth rate.
 Expanding more in the Asian markets in an integrating manner.
4. Identification of Target market(s) and relevant Branding and
Positioning strategies
4.1 Target market
The existing customer base of the company is mainly the higher middle class to affluent
class of the society. It has been obser
ved that in the middle class level customer base is little ignorant of the brand since the
company do not use the marketing strategy (Okonkwo, 2016). Thus with the digital marketing
plan the company will aim to increase its brand awareness within the customer base of middle
class. On the other hand, the fashion lovers of Asian countries are the major target area of the
digital marketing plan (Yasmin, Tasneem & Fatema, 2015). The common factor of the target
customer of the company would be the ‘internet-savvy’ people mainly the teenage group.

9Digital marketing plan for Zara
4.2 Branding and positioning
For the purpose of positioning, the digital marketing plan will aim to change the
perception of the customers towards the brand. As the digital marketing plan will be targeting
the middle class customer base, the company will be using the social media like Facebook and
Instagram in order to promote the products at lower price range than it currently offers (Mohr,
2013).
When a high priced brand offers its products at lower price, customers normally perceive
that the company compromises with the product quality. According to Nagle & Müller, (2017),
in order to retain the brand image, additional offers and discounts by 15% -50% might be
introduced so that customers do not have any misconception regarding low quality products.
The main purpose of the digital marketing plan will be focusing on the Asian customers
in order increase the sales margin in the Asian countries (Kim, Fiore & Kim, 2013). Since most
of the Asian countries are developing countries, the major customer base of these countries has
low purchasing power (Nagle & Müller, 2017). Thus in order to create the brand awareness as
well as to promote the products within the teenage people, social media marketing will be highly
beneficial.
5. Summary of recommendations for Product, Price, and Distribution
strategies
5.1 Product
The digital marketing plan will promote the different ranges products ranging from
men’s clothing to women’s clothing and the children’s clothing (Okonkwo, 2016). Since the aim

10Digital marketing plan for Zara
of the digital marketing will be increasing the brand awareness in the Asian countries, emphasis
will be more on Asian trend of fashion while designing the products.
5.2 Pricing
The company presently follows a higher pricing strategy. However, the Asian market
demands products at lower price than the present pricing range of the company. Hence, the
digital marketing strategy will focus on promoting lower pricing strategy in order to assure a
12% increasement in the sales margin within 3 years (Nagle & Müller, 2017).
5.3 Distribution
Zara has many retail stores in the Asian market, but the major focus of the digital
marketing plan would be promoting the product sale over the online portal of the company (Cao,
& Li, 2015). Thus in order to do this, the company needs to organize the entire marketing plan
mentioning the schedule of the offer or discounts to be provided.
6. Digital marketing communications plan
As per Kant Hvass, (2014), in order to develop the digital marketing plan, it deserves
mention that emphasis will be given on the social media networking sites Facebook and
Instagram. In addition, strategies will be developed for other mediums as well.
6.1 Marketing over owned media
 Company websites, social media profiles owned channels and blog contents are referred
by owned Medias (Jutkowitz, 2014). Thus in order to promote offers and discounts,
engaging contents will be posted over the networking sites (Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014).
Persuasive videos, photos and text contents will be developed and shared in order to

11Digital marketing plan for Zara
attract the customers. As part of the social media marketing plan, the customers will be
allowed to give direct feedback and communicate.
 Direct engagement can be build by publishing company newsletters through official
company emails will be effective to draw the attention of the employees (De Mooij,
2013).
 Content marketing over blogs on company websites is another way which will be the part
of digital marketing plan (Halvorsen et al., 2013).
 Search Engine Optimizing contents will be developed so that customers can easily by
reading the content get attracted to the brand (Moran & Hunt, 2014).
6.2 Marketing over earned media
Third party owned media is generally referred by earned media (Tuten & Solomon,
2017). Thus the marketers need to communicate with the customers to make satisfied so that they
give positive referrals, testimonials either on social media platforms and maintain their loyalty
towards the brand.
6.3 Marketing over paid media
Meanwhile, the paid media like publishing contents over web portals, online channels or
paid social media posts will be included in the digital marketing plan of the fashion brand Zara
(Harrison, 2013).
However, along with the above mentioned strategies, the website of the company and the
official shopping portal of the company will be designed in a way that visually attract the
customers to buy the products. Several technical tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, Sublime Text,
GitHub, etc can used to design web portals in an innovative manner (Tuten & Solomon, 2017).

12Digital marketing plan for Zara
7. Relevant Evaluation and Monitoring approaches
The entire digital marketing plan needs to be monitored in an effective manner and thus
a special marketing team comprising the technological experts will be appointed. Weekly follow
up and necessary actions accordingly will be taken by them in order to ensure successful
implementation of digital marketing plan.
8. Conclusion
Thus to conclude, it is apt to state that digital marketing plan will be extremely
beneficial for Zara since the company do not market its products. Digital marketing plan is
considered as the cost effective, easy and fast growing marketing way of marketing. Thus the
company using digital marketing plan will be able to reach out to maximum number of
customers within minimum time.

13Digital marketing plan for Zara
9. References
Cao, L., & Li, L. (2015). The impact of cross-channel integration on retailers’ sales
growth. Journal of Retailing, 91(2), 198-216.
Cortez, M. A., Tu, N. T., Van Anh, D., Ng, B. Z., & Vegafria, E. (2014). Fast fashion
quadrangle: An analysis. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 18(1),
De Mooij, M. (2013). Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes.
Sage Publications.
Halvorsen, K., Hoffmann, J., Coste-Manière, I., & Stankeviciute, R. (2013). Can fashion
blogs function as a marketing tool to influence consumer behavior? Evidence from
Norway. Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 4(3), 211-224.
Hammoudeh, R. (2014). Zara, from Spain to the big wide world. Company analysis, markets
and competition.
Harrison, F. (2013). Digging deeper down into the empirical generalization of brand recall:
Adding owned and earned media to paid-media touchpoints. Journal of Advertising
Research, 53(2), 181-185.
Zara - inditex.com. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.inditex.com/about-us/our-brands/zara
Jutkowitz, A. (2014). The content marketing revolution. Harvard Business Review, 1.
Kant Hvass, K. (2014). Post-retail responsibility of garments–a fashion industry
perspective. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 18(4), 413-430.

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Khan, F., & Siddiqui, K. (2013). The importance of digital marketing. An exploratory study
to find the perception and effectiveness of digital marketing amongst the marketing
professionals in Pakistan. Journal of Information Systems & Operations
Management, 1.
Kim, E., Fiore, A. M., & Kim, H. (2013). Fashion trends: analysis and forecasting. Berg.
Lea-Greenwood, G. (2013). Fashion marketing communications. John Wiley & Sons.
Mohr, I. (2013). The impact of social media on the fashion industry. Journal of Applied
Business and Economics, 15(2), 17-22.
Moran, M., & Hunt, B. (2014). Search engine marketing, Inc.: Driving search traffic to your
company's website. IBM Press.
Nagle, T. T., & Müller, G. (2017). The strategy and tactics of pricing: A guide to growing
more profitably. Routledge.
Okonkwo, U. (2016). Luxury fashion branding: trends, tactics, techniques. Springer.
Ryan, D. (2016). Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the
digital generation. Kogan Page Publishers.
Tiago, M. T. P. M. B., & Veríssimo, J. M. C. (2014). Digital marketing and social media:
Why bother?. Business Horizons, 57(6), 703-708.
Tuten, T. L., & Solomon, M. R. (2017). Social media marketing. Sage.