Marketing Report: Zara Fashion Brand Analysis and Strategies

This marketing report offers a comprehensive analysis of the Zara fashion brand. It begins with an executive summary outlining the current state of the fashion market and provides an overview of the Zara brand, including its segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies. The report delves into a detailed competitor analysis, identifying key players and Zara's unique approach. A SWOT analysis highlights Zara's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report then examines in-store communication techniques and the marketing mix, including product, place, price, and promotion strategies. Appendices with supporting data and references are included, providing a thorough examination of Zara's marketing practices and its position within the fast-fashion industry. The report emphasizes Zara's innovative strategies and its ability to adapt to the dynamic fashion market.

Zara Fashion Marketing Report
Student’s name
Institution Affiliation(s)
Zara

Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
The current state of the fashion market...........................................................................................2
Overview of the brand.....................................................................................................................2
Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning.......................................................................................3
Detailed Competitor Analysis..........................................................................................................3
SWOT Analysis...............................................................................................................................4
Strengths.......................................................................................................................................4
Weaknesses..................................................................................................................................4
Opportunities................................................................................................................................4
Threats..........................................................................................................................................4
In-store communications techniques...............................................................................................4
Marketing Mix.................................................................................................................................5
Product.........................................................................................................................................5
Place.............................................................................................................................................5
Price.............................................................................................................................................6
Promotion.....................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7
Appendices......................................................................................................................................9
Appendix (A)...............................................................................................................................9
Appendix (B)................................................................................................................................9

Executive Summary
Consequences and trends in the fashion industry are being considered as dynamic and
short-lived in nature. Fashion is a collective summation of a periodic succession of fads and short
term trends. In simple words, it can be said that the longevity of a particular fashion trend is
being directed by its popularity, its impact on the value system of social members and value
proposition of fashion brand. Fashion industry mainly consists of three segments like apparel
(clothing), textile and footwear. Due to the short-lived nature of a particular fashion trend,
fashion marketers feel the pressure of continuously upgrading inventory and product offering to
customers. Otherwise, it will be difficult for fashion marketers to ensure sustainable relevance to
the customer based value proposition being offered by them. This essay will consider the Zara
brand which offers fashions in clothing.
The current state of the fashion market
Zara continues to experience good performance in its stalls, and a 2013 report indicated
that its stalls in India were performing better than the country’s most profitable jeweler chain
Tanishq. On the other hand, the Inditex group’s annual sales have reached 13 billion dollars and
expanded its employee enrollment for more than one hundred thousand in the year 2011.The
company has more than 1500 stores in over 70 countries around the globe (Johnson et al., 2013).
The company projects an increasing number of new stores to be opened as well as the expansion
of its market to other destinations in America, Asia, and Africa.
Overview of the brand
Zara is a brand of fashion under the Inditex Group. Amancio Ortega created the brand in
1975 from when it has used clear strategies to beat the tight competition and gain world
recognition. The company thrives on innovation, mostly coming up with new concepts that

pioneer the industry trends. The company uses lucrative strategies, choosing not to advertise its
products and channel the funds to other projects. Since its inception, the company has
experienced tremendous growth and has a tremendous market share in the fashion industry. Most
market researchers call the brand a devastating competitor and the coverage of this product is
wide, serving markets all over the world (Liu et al., 2019).
Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
According to the British Council Clothing and footwear makes up the largest segment of
the fashion industry as shown in appendix (A). Zara is an independent retailer, preferring to open
stores in most of the cities where they think they can get the most customers. The company does
not use any advertisements for the products or stores, mostly preferring to utilize the resources to
open more stores and develop the business to meet the ever-changing demands in the fashion
industry (Camilleri, 2017). However, the company may also prefer to use franchising techniques
as the route of expansion when the legal requirements forbid the company to open independently
owned stores. The franchised stores operate just like the other company-owned stores, with
specific terms of the contract being outlined at the signing of the contract.
Target Segment 1- women, who prefer to purchase fashionable accessories, bags, beauty
items, and gift items. Target Segment 2- men, who prefer to purchase accessories and apparels.
Target Segment 3- homeowners, who prefer to purchase fashionable furniture, bed sheets, rugs,
blankets, and lighting equipment. Target Segment 4- parents, who prefer to purchase apparels for
their children (Alhomaidi et al., 2019).
Detailed Competitor Analysis
The major competitors include Marks & Spencer, French Connection, Next UK, Arcadia
Group and Jigsaw among others. Zara’s strategies are unique, preferring to be an upscale

department store. The company least seeks to popularize itself or publicize its success or that of
the Inditex group. In addition, its founder and former chairperson were reluctant to give any
interviews or attend any corporate functions. The company operates in a laid-back perspective,
relying mostly on the brands to attract more customers and market the other products. The
company’s center of operations in La Coruna presents a cool, serene environment, which speaks
more about the nature of its services (Albayrak, 2015). The company thrives on its innovations,
rising as one of the pioneers in the fast fashion industry. The company delights in designing
trendy products that are very decent, but affordable to the customers. This has made the uptown
retailer a king in its own league.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
a) Short product cycle
b) Innovative ability
c) Many stores
Weaknesses
a) Lack of marketing strategy
Opportunities
a) Technological changes may boost services
Threats
a) The threat of stiff competition
In-store communications techniques
Zara seeks to give more value than just luxury to the consumers. The company seeks to
produce decent clothes, in an innovative and creative way that adds value to the end consumers

of the product. Most of Zara’s clothing is trendy, embracing the current trends and fashion, but
are aimed at giving value to the customers.
The Inditex owned Zara is a leading player in the fast fashion industry, competing mostly
to produce and imitate the latest designs and fashion that the industry has to offer. Inditex brands
embrace a short product cycle to match the speed of creativity and innovation in the industry.
Zara seeks to offer its customers with new products in the shortest time possible but delivering
the most quality of products that the industry has to offer (Londhe, 2014). The fast fashion
industry requires the quick adoption and implementation of trends as the route towards success,
and this is what Zara embraces.
Marketing Mix
Product
Zara puts more effort in creating more value for the products rather than advertising.
Further, Zara has a very short product cycle to meet the demands of consumers in the fast fashion
industry, mostly being around two weeks. Zara develops areas of the superiority of their products
and maximizes their advantage in selected markets where they have a competitive advantage
(Drew & Sinclair, 2015).
Considering the matrix in Appendix (B), it can be said that Zara can choose the strategy
of diversifying product portfolio in accordance with the demand pattern in the home market. By
using this step, the fashion player can remain relevant among customers instead of getting
obsolete due to the arrival of new fashion trends.
Place
Zara engages in retail store business as the route towards availing the products to their
customers. Zara mostly locates its stores depending on how fast products can be delivered to the
stores to reduce the time taken between the manufacture and sale of products (McKelvey, 2015).

Price
Zara offers lower prices for its products, which are affordable, and customer friendly. For
example, a T-shirt in a Zara shop may go for $30, being sold in a more trendy form in other
companies for double the price. However, Zara is open to revising its prices at any time, a move
towards remaining competitive and maintaining their customers (Lee et al., 2014).
Promotion
Zara is conservative in using any means of promotion, mostly focusing their energies and
resources towards the creation of more products and opening other stores.

References
Albayrak, T. (2015). Importance Performance Competitor Analysis (IPCA): A study of
hospitality companies. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 48, 135–142.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2015.04.013
Alhomaidi, A., Hassan, M. K., Hippler, W. J., & Mamun, A. (2019). The impact of religious
certification on market segmentation and investor recognition. Journal of Corporate
Finance, 55, 28–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2018.08.012
Camilleri, M. (2017). Market Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49849-2_4
Drew, L., & Sinclair, R. (2015). Chapter 25 - Fashion and the Fashion Industry. In R. Sinclair
(Ed.), Textiles and Fashion (pp. 635–647). https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-1-84569-931-
4.00025-8
K P Johnson, K., Lee, M., Choi, D., Jung, M., Mun, & Yoo, N. (2013). Journal of Global
Fashion Marketing Trends in research addressing fashion and social responsibility.
Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 4. https://doi.org/10.1080/20932685.2013.793514
Lee, C. H., Ko, E., Tikkanen, H., Phan, M. C. T., Aiello, G., Donvito, R., & Raithel, S. (2014).
Marketing mix and customer equity of SPA brands:Cross-cultural perspectives. Journal
of Business Research, 67(10), 2155–2163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.04.025
Liu, J., Liao, X., Huang, W., & Liao, X. (2019). Market segmentation: A multiple criteria
approach combining preference analysis and segmentation decision. Omega, 83, 1–13.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omega.2018.01.008
Londhe, B. R. (2014). Marketing Mix for Next Generation Marketing. Procedia Economics and
Finance, 11, 335–340. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2212-5671(14)00201-9

McKelvey, K. (2015). Chapter 30 - The Marketing of Fashion. In R. Sinclair (Ed.), Textiles and
Fashion (pp. 763–797). https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-1-84569-931-4.00030-1

Appendices
Appendix (A)
(S
ource: British Fashion Council, 2013)
Appendix (B)
(Source: Albayrak, 2015)