Marketing Report: An Analysis of Zara's Strategies and Environment

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Zara's marketing strategies, functions, and their interrelationships with other departments. It begins by outlining the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, with specific examples from Zara's retail environment. The report then delves into the significance of the interrelationship between marketing and other functional units, highlighting how effective marketing supports various departments. A comparison of Zara's and H&M's marketing mixes is presented, along with an examination of the tactics employed by Zara. The report concludes with a detailed marketing plan for Zara, including strategic considerations and evidence-based recommendations to increase its revenue. The report covers various aspects of marketing, including market research, market plan development, service development, brand promotion, communication, and relationship building, and their impact on Zara's success. The analysis also includes an evaluation of the elements of the marketing function and its interrelations with various departments.

Marketing Essentials

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
a) Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function........................................................1
b) Roles and responsibilities of marketing functions in marketing environment of Zara.....3
c) Significance of interrelationship between marketing and other functional units...............4
d) evaluation of elements of marketing function and its interrelations with various
departments ...........................................................................................................................5
LO 2 ................................................................................................................................................6
1) Comparison of marketing mix between Zara and H&M...................................................6
2) Tactics applied by Zara......................................................................................................7
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................8
1) Marketing plan of Zara......................................................................................................8
2) Detailed coherent evidence based marketing plan for Zara.............................................10
3)strategic marketing plan of Zara.......................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is essential in finding customer’s needs and wants. It assists in planning and
developing product and services that will help in gaining customers attention. Present study will
be based on Zara that operates in the field of retail and provide amazing cloths to consumers.
Study will be explained various marketing function roles and responsibilities such as gathering
information of market, designing and development of products and its planning. Furthermore, it
will describe role of marketing in the Zara. In addition, report will evaluate the implementation
of marketing plan with references to chosen firm.
LO 1
a) Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function
This concept states plan of action that is utilised by businesses in order to satisfy
customer’s needs, increase sale volume, maximizes revenue and for gaining competitive
advantage in the market place. Different strategy is executed from the stage of introduction of
services to people and asking their feedbacks, views and suggestions (Schmidts, 2018). Role and
functions of marketing are described as below:
Market researcher: This function performs role of researcher in the enterprises .it
conducts research and gather necessary detail about expectation of buyers so that entity can offer
them same products in order to satisfy their requirements. The marketing manager of Zara uses
marketing research report to identify target market for business at the initial stage of any
advertisement campaign. This report provides important information relevant to customers
demand. The secondary market research report aids to save the time of company (Gagnon,
2016). It assists in effective formation and implementation of policies regarding finance, quality
and cost. This may help in improving efficiency of all departments.
Market plan developer: It works as developer and support marketing manager in
developing suitable market plan. This function of marketing is a source of identifying the
consumer requirements. It also assists in evaluating whether the Zara will be able to achieve
those needs, fulfil the expectations of the target audiences. It brings clarity relating to usage of
marketing mix (7p's). the main aim of company is to achieve goals and objectives effectively
with in the competitive market environment. Effective marketing plan allows business to
increase their profitability, developing its mission, strategies and in successful implementation of
the action plan.
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Service developer: It act as a service provider in the Zara. That increases sales of business
by improvement of its services. The development process is performed by marketing department.
They introduce services to the customers by creating strategic messaging that attract consumers
and ultimately the growth of sales starts increases (Bahl and Chandra, 2018.). If the company
performs this services development function of marketing then it will be able to enhance the
sales volume and can achieve high profitability for firm that assist in achieving growth, gaining
competitive advantage in the market place.
Brand promoter: This function plays a role of promoter in the Zara. Promotion is
component in a companies’ marketing mix (7p's) that helps in informing, creating awareness
among target audience and reminding them about availability of companies’ services in market
place. Through this function business is able to communicate the product feature, benefits to the
prospective buyers (Liu and et.al., 2017). That led to increase in sales and number of customers
for the organisation. Ultimately the enterprises keep operating with the revenue generated by
increased sales and achieve a huge success in the business.
Communicator: It works as a coordinator in the firm. The companies meet customers or
clients personally via telephones, email, or personal interaction. If Zara provides better and
unique customer services to the clients or consumers that will help in enhancing loyalty of the
people towards the enterprises (Kaushik, 2018). It increases the demand for services. Business
can increase the volume of sale by creating the trust among the audiences for their brand that
assist in achieving competitive position in the market by enhancing revenue generation through
selling activities.
Relationship builder: This function of marketing helps Zara in three key areas-
messaging development, content marketing and increase brand awareness. Public relation (PR)
Plays crucial role in effective communication of key messages to the different public while
developing messaging for the next marketing program. Good content assists in gaining better
impressions on the reporter, bloggers that increase the chances for the content to go viral it aids
to create interest of the people in the services (Schmidt, 2018). PR helps in generating awareness
among large group, seeing the company name in trusted news make an impression that brand is
trustworthy. If they perform this function it can build faith, maximize the coverage of content
that will boost the return on investment of marketing. Increasing returns maximise the overall
productivity of the firm.
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The above-mentioned functions of marketing help Zara in increasing the awareness
among the target audiences regarding their offered services, in creating the demand, enhancing
the sales volume and revenues of the organisation and achieving overall productivity in the
operations of the business.
b) Roles and responsibilities of marketing functions in marketing environment of Zara
Success of Zara depends upon the successful marketing. It is essential for increasing the
demand of services of the business. The main impact of implementing marketing process is
presented below:
It performs a role of market plan developer in organisation. That helps marketing
manager in developing effective marketing plan by knowing and understanding the demands and
requirements of the target audience. This function is performed by actively listening to them,
asking various questions. This will assist in providing the superior services according to
consumer requirements. It aids to increase the satisfaction and loyalty of the customer. So, they
will become the frequent buyers of the firm.
The function of marketing works as market researcher in the Zara. It helps in satisfying
the consumer requirement by conducting market research and gathering required information
regarding the expectations of the peoples for the services (Role of marketing, 2017). That report
is utilised by the manager in order to identify the target market and also supply necessary content
related to customers demand. It assists in making and implementing effective policies regarding
offered services like quality, cost. By conducting such research, they come to know the area
where there is a huge demand for services. So, the enterprises are getting a huge advantage of
market researcher function in terms of improving the performance of each department and
increasing profitability, growth, revenue generation etc.
It also performs an essential role of services provider and carry through a function of
developing the process of offering of company. The process of alteration such as making
effective messages to attract the audiences is done by marketing department. If communication is
effective between customer and business with respect to services that will increase potential
buyers of Zara. Ultimately it increases sales volume and profitability of concern (Papadopoulos
and Heslop, 2014).
It plays a crucial part of brand promoter that has increased the competitive advantage of
company in market place. It does a function of promotion (marketing mix 7p's) that assist in
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revealing, increasing awareness among target audiences and prompting them for accessibility of
the services in the market. By this business is able to effectually communicate advantage and
attributes of the product (Rubenstein ,2018). Effective communication leads to increases chances
of converting people into the regular customer for the concern. That makes a huge positive
impact on revenue generation through sales and assists in gaining high productivity, growth for
organisation.
It acts as a services provider in the Zara. The entity interacts with the clients and potential
customers personally on telephone, emails. An effective mail that describes all information
regarding availability of offers and beneficial features, quality of product or services, can
enhance the rush of the customers. Like online stores use this technique to increase their number
of buyer and the popularity of the business concern (Ghosh, 2017). They make efforts to provide
unique and innovative services to audiences that aid to increase the commitment of peoples
towards the brand, loyalty. The customers will prefer their brand over any other trade name. This
will improve market share of enterprises.
It plays an important role of relationship creator with large audiences. these assist Zara in
three major regions such as content marketing, development of creative messages, enhancing the
brand awareness. A good content is required for providing information to reporter relating to
brand offering so that they will be able to better communicate with people and that also brings
clarity in the minds of the customers relating to available services of brand. This function of
marketing assists in providing innovative content for blogs (Papadopoulos and Heslop 2014). It
is beneficial in writing an effective blog that aids to maximize the chaos of persons on company
page and increase the popularity of brand on social media.
Because of that concern can enlarge their productivity sales and growth and can gain a
high market share. It performs an essential role of developing innovative messages for attracting
the persons via personal messages. That raises awareness among the various groups about
company’s offers and discount, newly launched services. People come to know offers that are for
limited period. That makes them excited for availing services as soon as possible. That
maximizes growth, sales revenue financial ability of business entity.
c) Significance of interrelationship between marketing and other functional units
Marketing information helps in identifying needs and wants of consumers and then
analyse internal strength and weakness as well as external environment of ZARA in order to take
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various decisions for achieving the success wile marketing firm product and services in the
market. If needs and wants are not properly identified then the marketing department will not be
able to segment the market effectively and the decisions related to marketing the product in the
target market cannot be done efficiently if there is improper analysis of available information
(Leonhardt and et., al, 2017). Market planning that helps in deciding the level of production,
promotions and execution of various programmes. If the level of production is not accurately
determined then the production department cannot utilize the resources optimally and it will also
increase wastage of resources.
 If standardization process is not done in a right manner. Then the production department
will not be able achieve the similarity and consistency in the final products. Grading
(standards for weight, size for products) function of marketing helps classifying the
goods on the basis of certain already determined characteristics. The improper grading of
product leads to take unsuccessful pricing decisions (Rubenstein,2018.).
 Marketing function includes packaging, labelling, branding. Good Packaging and
labelling assist in promotion of the products. An improper packaging will not help HR
department in attracting or influencing the customer to buy the company’s product
(Ghosh, 2017). Marketing also perform the function of providing customer support such
as handling customer complaints. If the problems are not handled or resolved properly
this may increase the dissatisfaction of customer and can reduce the number of buyers for
the brands.
 Availability of finance for the marketing operation help finance department in order to
operated marketing activities.
d) evaluation of elements of marketing function and its interrelations with various departments
The business makes various plan of action to identify the needs and wants of the
consumers, to increase sales and revenue and for achieving competitive position in market. The
marketing function perform various functional activities in the ZARA that involve- Market
researcher, market pan developer, brand and services developer, relationship builder
(Papadopoulos and Heslop, 2014). It works as a coordinator in firm. as a market researcher it
helps marketing manager in identifying the target market at the initial stage of advertising
campaign. as a market plan developer, it helps marketing manager in developing marketing plan
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and well-developed marketing plan helps in achieve effectiveness in operations (Paley 2017). It
assists in maintaining and enhancing the image of Zara among customers by effective
communication of key messages to them through newsletter, brochures and magazines. so that
marketing department in order to maintain effective relations with public. All these functions
aids to increase brand awareness among the target audience relating to offering of goods. It
assists in creating demand, enhancing sales volume, and revenue generation and that lead to
achieve in overall productivity of the operational functions of the concern.
LO 2
1) Comparison of marketing mix between Zara and H&M
Marketing mix is the aggregation several components. Marketing is used by the
organisations to communicate the brand message to customers. Its various elements are
described as below:
Product
Zara offers services to various group like men, women and kids. Its product involves
trousers, jeans, T-shirts, Top, bags, and accessories. It is one stop shop for all. Whether people
want to buy formal or casuals. It believes in sustainable development and use ecological fabrics
like organic cotton in manufacturing process (Harrington, Ottenbacher and Fauser ,2017).
The core range of product of H&M includes clothing and accessories. The focus of the
brand is on quality and latest fashion and offer product at a reasonable price. Zara use organic
material in order to produce products and also provide fashionable clothes at an affordable rate
(Liu and et.al., 2017). Good clothing materials attract large number of people towards their stores
that increases the number of followers for Zara on social media in comparison with H&M.
Price
In all the international stores, Zara offers latest fashionable clothes art a low price. They
use low pricing strategies. They set market- based pricing strategy that include target prices
customer wants to pay and produce budget as per target price that fix margin of profit on each
item.
H&M provide high quality product at a premium price. As compare to Zara its prices are
relatively low. Because of their low production cost and transportation expenses (Liu and et.al.,
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2017). Also, it offers a large variety of product in comparison with Zara. That works as a great
advantage for H&M.
Place
Zara has large number of stores with in 88 countries and over 6500 outlets. And it also
offers products through social media channels. There supply chain provides them in gaining the
highest competitive advantage.
Company offers its goods and services through exclusive shops. its stores are located in
various cities around the world. It also sells product online and from there customer can select
product from the list of available items and can make payment online (Rubenstein ,2018). But
Zara has a greater number of followers on social media in comparison with H&M. Zara also has
large number of outlets in comparison with H&M.
Promotion
H&M use various promotional tools such as TV, YouTube, Digital marketing and public
relation. On the other hand, Zara barely spend any amount of money on advertisement. It only
depends on the word of mouth promotion and online channels rather doing expensive
promotions. They prefer to spend money on opening new store and its décor that attract the
audiences (Rubenstein ,2018). In spite of spending less amount on advertisement, their potential
customers are higher than H&M.
Process :
H&M is give the highly importance to customer relationship management. Workers are
highly trained to retain profitable consumer by providing them better services and offer. Any of
complaints, employees puts every efforts to resolve them at the earliest at the H&M. On other
side, Zara's employees resolve any of complaints at the online platforms which help to increase
the consumer attraction and their enquires.
People:
The employees at the H&M are trained at each and every level. The work culture is very
modern and workers are on rotation basis at each and every division and are motivated to
creative and come up with the best clothing wear. On other side, the employees at Zara come
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from the diverse background having the specific abilities which help to raise consumer
satisfaction.
Physical Evidence:
The decent looking clothing which is showed the physical evidence of H&M. Company
is diversifying their portfolio and entering into global market. On other side, the high quality
products, branding are presented the physical evidence of Zara.
2) Tactics applied by Zara
Zara has limited availability of stores across the world. Company apply selective
targeting strategy to ensure the availability of goods in marketplace. They use customer’s centric
approach for satisfying the demand of its several consumers. around the globe (Ghosh, 2017).
The business designs products as per changing requirement and new available trends in the
people’s demand. It spends very less amount on advertisement and use that money for stores
décor that assist in attracting large group of audiences. Zara use differential pricing strategy i.e.
offering discount. That assist in expanding the potential customers. they have used market
penetration strategy for its product line stretching. First it had started selling clothes then
accessories. this penetration strategy assists them in increasing demand and market share for the
company. that increase the overall growth and productivity of the business.
LO 3
1) Marketing plan of Zara
Marketing plan for the clothing and accessories products of Zara includes several stages:
Mission: the company mission is to provide its consumers exclusive options of clothing and
accessories by providing quick availability of new stock in store than other retailers. It assists in
gaining trust and loyalty of customers. Firm will achieve its vision through building a new digital
network and providing outstanding or personalised services to customers in stores that will
increase trust among audiences (Gagnon, 2016).
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
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 Zara has the largest coverage. It operates business across world that works as the biggest
strength for company.
 Firm is operating largest amount of retail stores, it has many retail outlets in visible
places (Entezari, Karimi and Kianfar, 2014).
 Its brand name is popular due to having strong online presence through websites.
Weaknesses:
 In comparison with other brands, Zara spends limited money on marketing and
advertisement and Due to that having high competition, it is achieving limited market
share.
Opportunities:
 Zara can explore many of the global markets and enter into new segment which are
highly chance of company.
 Company needs to online marketing for creating chance for entering into international
market.
Threats:
 The major threat can be high end fashion merchandise to the company.
 The large amount of consumer shifting taking place which is high threat of Zara.
Marketing strategies:
Segmentation:
 Zara is segmenting the market in order to acquire new customers as well as for increasing
future development. This segmentation will be based on demographic (income, age and
customers nature), geographic as well as (Ghosh, 2017). Every segment of market needs to be measurable, accessible, and significant for
delivering customers interest.
Targeting:
 Company is selecting target market for effectively compete with their competitors and for
making strong position in the fashion industry. Firm has adopted different targeting strategies and produced various services and product
for several segments by various tariffs (Paleys, 2017). business is using targeting strategy
of maintaining the collection of fashionable clothes and accessories and also organising
marketing campaign to pull the target market to Zara stores.
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Positioning: Zara has positioned its newly designed clothes as “made in Europe” in the market.
because many people in developing countries considers “made in Europe” goods as high-
end products. However, it sells its existing fashionable product at low prices. That attracts
large number of customers. The company has adopted strategy of direct sales mode in
order to control all stages of distribution of product, chain of supply, designing and
manufacturing of goods and services. Business has successfully implemented all the
marketing strategies turn its stores as largest apparel in the world. it has successfully
applied the marketing strategies by considering consumer positioning strategies, direct
sales.
Budget
 For development of marketing plan Zara first create a list of various segments through
market research and then estimation of cost is done to determine whether entity can
afford total price involved in marketing plan (Pomering and Johnson, 2018).
 The entity organize campaign related to communication and consider costs involved in
creative designs of websites and advertisements and packaging. For organising such
campaign company will spend 0.3% of sales. business estimates cost in order to monitor
efficiency of communication process and average expenditure involve 3.5% revenue.
Cost Amount
Operational cost $30000
Salary cost $20000
Storage cost $30000
Expansion cost $30000
Implementation and controlling
Zara has successfully implemented its strategies and implement innovative ideas for
gaining competitive advantage.
The company is monitoring and controlling its brand by considering its goals and
objective. Management is working efficiently with proper communication skill that included a
new business model for entity. Zara is implementing its marketing plan by building strong digital
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