Global Branding Strategies: An Analysis of Zara Fashion Retail

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Zara Fashion Retail's global branding strategies and market positioning. It begins with an introduction to global branding and its importance for multinational companies. The report then presents company information, including Zara's history, global presence, and financial performance. A detailed analysis of Zara's competitive strategies, focusing on speed to market, product variety, and store location, is included. The application of theories and principles, such as value proposition and market participation, in Zara's global branding approach is also examined. The report further discusses Zara's global brand structure, strengths, opportunities, and provides recommendations for future growth. Finally, the report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing Zara's success in establishing itself as a fashion leader in the clothing industry. The report references several academic sources to support its analysis.

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Introduction
Global banding is an important aspect to multinational companies in international marketing. An
effective global branding gives global businesses competitive edge to compete in the global
market (Armstrong, et al., 2015). Global branding refers to a slogan, name, sign, design, or
symbols that identify a company or its products in the markets (De Mooij, 2013). Companies
brand their products to differentiate their products in the market. A successful global brand
requires adaptation, aggregation, and strategies. Global branding requires positioning strategies
to create a perception on how customers and potential customers perceive the brand relative to
other brand in the market.
The following write up is an analysis of global banding and position a case study of Zara Fashion
Retailer.
Company information
Zara fashion Retail is a multinational clothing and accessories company based in Arteixo Galicia
in Spain. The company was started in 1974 in Spain by Amancio Ortega. The Company has 2169
stored in different countries and cities around the globe. The Company earned US$ 15.9 billion
of revenue in 2016 financial year. Zara is led by Pablo Tejera as the CEO. Zara main product is
clothing for men, women, and children. The company products are supplied as per the
consumers’ trends. The company has a very responsive supply chain that enables shipping of a
new product within a week. The company also takes two weeks to produce a new fashion after a
design creation. Zara Fashion Retail produces more than 450 million items in a year. Zara also
launches an average of 10000 new designs per year. Zara is known for its zero adverting strategy
and instead opening new stores (Oliveira, 2014). The Company main competitors are Topshop,
H&M and Uniqlo.
Analyses of Zara Fashion Company
Zara competitive strategy is an implemented through a marketing strategy that focuses on the
speed to market, product variety, and store location. The speed to market strategy involves
shortening the time period between producing to chain store from six months to two weeks. The
minimum time to market enables the company to provide trending fashion in the clothing

industry. The company is also able to invest in fast fashion and be flexible (Medina, and Vu,
2014). Secondly, the company adopts product variety strategy to enable variety in their stores.
The company produces more than 400 different garments to ensure product variety. This leads to
uniqueness of the products in the company stores. Customers are attracted to the stores to find a
variety of clothes (Oliveira, 2014). Lastly, the Zara Fashion Retail adopts a store location
strategy as a competitive strategy. The company prefers to invest in opening new stores instead
of advertising. The company also prefers opening their stores in most luxurious locations and
capital cities CBDs. The company has stores in all top biggest capitals around the globe. This
strategy enables to communicate about their products through display. These strategies have
enabled the company to be a market leader in fashion (Halkias, Davvetas, and Diamantopoulos,
2016).
Analysis of Zara application of Theories and Principles
Zara Fashion Retail has been successful in global branding and global positions. This has
enabled the company to expand rapidly over the years and be a market leader in clothing industry
around the globe. Zara has adopted the theories and principles of aggression and adaptation in
formulating global strategies for global branding. The company specializes in value preposition
and market participation. The company applied value proposition and market participation in the
following ways;
Value proposition
Zara Fashion Retail strategies for global branding are operational excellence and product
leadership. The company operations are effective and efficient though close management. The
company has employed a management system that monitors clothes in the store ensuring that
there are minimal losses. On the other side, the company specializes on being the product leader.
Product leadership is enhanced by extensive market research that provides constant product
development. This company is also focused on quality, creative designs that are trending in the
industry (Xie, Batra, and Peng, 2015). This product leadership has enabled the company to
establish a global brand in fast fashion.
Market Participation

Zara engages in global strategy of aggregation through market participation. The company has
both segmented and positioned itself in the market in order to be more competitive in the global
market. The company has segmented it market to target adults of 18-40 year. The company has
also segments it market to people living in urban areas or luxurious places. This enables the
company to get customers from urban areas that are 18-40 years of age who reside in cities. On
the other side, the company has positioned itself in the market as a luxurious spot, uniqueness,
and of latest fashion. The company stores are shopped by celebrities who are viewed by the
society as fashion leaders leading to increased reputation of the company (Guo, 2013). The
company has also positioned itself as place of latest fashion as a result of its ability to urgently
produce a new fashion.
Global Brand Structure
Zara Fashion has been able to establish it brand around the globe in main cities. The global brand
structure of Zara is product dominant. The company is the fashion product leader in the globe by
ensuring that it uses the shorten time period to avail new designs in the market. This enables Zara
to have all the products in stock before it competitors can produce and display the same fashion
in their outlets. Therefore, Zara Fashion product dominant brand enables them to attract fast
fashion customers around the globe.
Zara strengths and opportunities
strengths Opportunities
Resource availability
Strong Brand name
Operations efficiency and effectiveness
Increase productivity
Venturing to new markets
Increasing profit margins
Recommendations
The Company should invest in new markets by opening new stores in all capital cities
around the globe. This will enhance its global position in providing fashion around the globe.
Zara should integrate vertically to increase operations efficiency (Taylor, and Okazaki,
2015).

Conclusion
From the analysis in this write up, Zara Fashion Retails have successfully applied the theories
and principles of global branding and position. The company has been able to establish itself as a
fashion leader in the clothing industry. The company has a strong brand name and has stores in
all big cities around the globe targeting people living in urban areas. The company has an
opportunity of venturing new markets in countries where they are not present. On the other side,
the company is facing increasing threats as a result of increasing competitors in the industry.
Therefore, the company should use it strength to improve it global brand and minimize the
threats that the company is facing.
References
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction.
Pearson Education.
De Mooij, M., 2013. Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes. Sage
Publications.

Halkias, G., Davvetas, V. and Diamantopoulos, A., 2016. The interplay between country
stereotypes and perceived brand globalness/localness as drivers of brand preference. Journal of
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Guo, X., 2013. Living in a global world: Influence of consumer global orientation on attitudes
toward global brands from developed versus emerging countries. Journal of International
Marketing, 21(1), pp.1-22.
Oliveira, C.., 2014. Zara: Marketing in Fast Fashion: A case-study (Doctoral dissertation).
Medina, S. and Vu, T.T., 2014. Storytelling Marketing and its impact on Developing Company
Brand Identity.
Taylor, C.R. and Okazaki, S., 2015. Do global brands use similar executional styles across
cultures? A comparison of US and Japanese television advertising. Journal of Advertising, 44(3),
pp.276-288.
Xie, Y., Batra, R. and Peng, S., 2015. An extended model of preference formation between
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