Preview

Zara Corporate Strategy

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1209 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Zara Corporate Strategy
Corporate Strategy – Zara

The core concept of Zara 's business model is they sell "medium quality fashion clothing at affordable prices", and vertical integration and quick-response is key to Zara 's business model. Through the entire process of Zara 's business system: designing, sourcing and manufacturing, distribution and retailing, they presented four fundamental success factors: short cycle time, small batches per product, extensive variety of product every season and heavy investment in information and communication technology. These four elements are involved in every aspect of the business.

Zara’s Business Model
Zara’s business model can be broken down into three basic components: concept, capabilities, and value drivers. Zara’s fundamental concept is to maintain design, production, and distribution processes that will enable Zara to respond quickly to shifts in consumer demands. José María Castellano, CEO of Inditex stated that "the fashion world is in constant flux and is driven not by supply but by customer demand. We need to give consumers what they want, and if I go to South America or Asia to make clothes, I simply can 't move fast enough." This highlights the importance of this quick response time to Zara’s operations.
Capabilities of Zara, or the required resources needed to exploit the opportunities and execute this conceptual strategy, are numerous for Zara. Zara maintains tight control over their production processes keeping design and manufacturing in-house or with some strategic partnerships located nearby Headquarters. Currently, Zara maintains 80% of its production processes in Europe, 50% in Spain which is very close to La Coruña headquarters. They have strategic agreements with local manufacturers that ensure timely delivery and service. Through these strategic partnerships and the benefits brought by this proximity of manufacturing and operational processes, Zara maintains the flexibility necessary to design and produce over

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Best Essays

    Airline and Zara

    • 2445 Words
    • 10 Pages

    ZARA has well known for its fast and low cost fashionable clothing. The success is built from its huge design team and information system linked the designers with the suppliers. ZARA has a more than 200 designers for its product development. They have to identify trends in fashion industry and design accordingly. Moreover, there is an effective information sharing system between Zara’s headquarter, its shops and its suppliers. In this way, all the three parties can gain the information, manage the inventory and make payment.…

    • 2445 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    INFO0331

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There are several ingenious steps taken by Zara that proves both profitable and unprecedented. Zara has used technology to revolutionize their business, from buying the unprocessed cloth to determining which color die to use and what to make with that cloth. The technology process continues on the manufacturing lines and all the way to the final sale. But it does not stop there, it goes beyond the point of sale to question the reasons why a purchase was not made after a client expressed an interest in an item. The point of sale system provides real time data which is given immediate attention. PDAs are actively gathering information which is constantly been taken into consideration. The design strategy is another intuitive step. They do not follow custom catwalk fashion shows, instead they design based on customer demand. Manufacturing and logistics is a key contributor to their highly acclaimed success. The ability to have a product ready and on the shelves in ten days vice the competitor’s time of approximately three to nine month is where the strength of flipping their dollar lies and is accomplished mainly through vertical integration and technology orchestrated coordination of supplies. Deliver to replenish and deliver new stock is an expedited process, in some cases deliver is made overnight. Items placed on the shelves are readily picked up and nothing is ever marked down in a sale. Zara identify and manufacture the clothes customers want, get those products to market quickly, and eliminate costs related to advertising, inventory missteps, and markdowns…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Zara Case Write-Up

    • 1277 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The business idea of Zara is to link customer demand to manufacturing, and to link manufacturing to distribution. And based on this general idea, Zara has several essential elements for its business model. First, speed and decision making, which means that in the external level, Zara need to respond very quickly to demands of target customers, and always keep in style. While for the inside, Zara treasure intelligence and judgment of common employees who enjoy a great deal of autonomy. Second, its marketing, merchandising and advertising strategy. Zara does not spend on virtually advertising, while it spends heavily on stores, and no selling online because of the nature of its DCs and complication of online selling. Also, Zara has clear positioning that its clothes are always in style and not for durable use. Third, Zara has lots of stores and large scales, which has promising financial achievements as well as potential growth point. In general, Zara has a business model of preferences for speed and decentralized decision making.…

    • 1277 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    zara case study

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The close relationship between manufacturing and retailing make Zara different from the others specialty apparel retailers. His motto could be « fast and fashion ». Zara controls all phases of production of its clothing from design to distribution. A choice taken by the will of the company to « adapt to the client's request in minimum time.», for Zara, the most important thing is time.…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Zara's Business Model

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Zara’s business model closely linked customer demand to manufacturing and distribution. Inventory depended largely on the location of the store and what particular customers were buying. They understood that their consumer had a penchant for trend driven pieces, and that marketing and advertising efforts lengthened the lead-time. Thus their marketing budget was usually .3% of revenue, and Zara was able to get high fashion looks in stores while they were still hot. Zara didn’t need to convince their consumers to buy with advertising and marketing efforts, rather they changed 75% of their inventory every three to four weeks, so consumers knew to constantly frequent the store for up to date items.…

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Zara Case Memo

    • 1034 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Let us first consider Zara 's main competitive advantage before analyzing how current and potential future strategies will affect this competitive advantage. Zara currently employs a "design-on-demand" retail model allowing the company to bring the latest fashion trends from conception through production and into the stores in less then 15 days. This advantage is harnessed through Zara 's high degree of vertical integration. Zara is involved with almost every aspect of the retail clothing value chain, from fabric cutting and dying through distribution and sales. Integral to Zara 's competitive advantage is its strong and distinctive culture, both at the production facilities and in the stores. This unique boutique-style culture entails a minimalist store design centering attention on the clothes, as well as very high throughput rates resulting in customers returning to Zara stores an average of 17 times annually.…

    • 1034 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Zara International was a retail shop originated in La Coruna, Spain in 1975. It was clothing and accessories shop and imitated the latest fashion trends and sold them at a lower cost. It became Zara International after entering Portugal in 1988 and then the United States and France in the 1990s. The distributor for this brand is Inditex and is considered the most successful retail chain in the world. Zara has a business strategy that is very different from the retailers nowadays. If a customer orders a product Zara’s distribution centers can have the items in the store within 24 to 48 hours of receiving the order, depending upon the country. The business plan that Zara’s executives made was very innovative and played a great part in the success of this retail chain. Not only has it been successful and profitable in the past, they are successful in the present and have been expanding their brand all over the world…

    • 992 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    Zara It Analysis

    • 1817 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Zara is a fashion brand that was founded in 1975 by Amancio Ortega, who believed that retailing and manufacturing must be closely linked to provide a speedy response to consumers’ demands. Unlike other fashion chains, Zara did not invest extensively with advertising and marketing to generate sales, instead, they set up their stores in prime locations. Zara’s selling strategy relies on fast turnover of their merchandise, aiming primarily at seasonal fashions. Their decentralised approach in decision making, allows store managers to make decisions on which items should be on sale, and which items should be replenished based on their experiences and feedback with local customers. The commercial team also observed local trends and communicated with store managers as to which line of clothing would sell, and so transferred those items to other stores where they would sell well.…

    • 1817 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Speed and responsiveness to Market, Zara has changed the way clothing industry works where deigning, production and delivery to the retailers requires period of six months. The design and distribution cycle of the company takes just 10-15days in the whole process. Zara’s speed to market in product development exceeds the capabilities of its competitors. This in itself provides additional value to stakeholders, customers, and stores in producing quality clothing at affordable prices. The proximity of their manufacturing and operational processes allows Zara to maintain the flexibility necessary to design and produce over 12000 new items annually. This capability allows Zara to achieve their strategy of expedited response to consumer demand. The process of obtaining market information and relaying it to design and production teams expedites product development by shortening the throughput time of their products from design to store.…

    • 4530 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    ZARA IT for Fast Fashion

    • 1545 Words
    • 7 Pages

    After reading and analyzing the Zara case we came several conclusions when it comes to Zara’s competitive advantage over its competitors. We understood that Zara is using totally distinctive business model compared to other more traditional fashion retailers. In our opinion there are three most important advantages that Zara has over its competitors. These are : IT Software/internal information flow, Factory locations/Geographic placement, Just in Time approach. We believe that these three factor are the main determinants when it comes to Zara’s strong current position on the market. Below I will go more in detail and explain every single factor individually.…

    • 1545 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Open a Zara Store

    • 4093 Words
    • 17 Pages

    Zara was founded by Amancio Ortega in 1963. The business began as a small outfit producing lingerie items. The first Zara retail store opened in 1975, and was known for selling low-priced imitations of more up market fashion trends. Today Zara accounts for approximately 80% of the total sales of its parent company, Inditex Group. (Brand Watch Zara, 2004, p.2). There are 4 main processes within Zara’s value creation: designing, sourcing and manufacturing, distributing, and retailing. Zara has several competitive strengths, such as a quick inventory response time. Most apparel retailers receive weekly shipments of new inventory; however Zara stores receive shipments biweekly. (Brand Watch Zara, 2004, p.4) Zara is also able to respond to emerging fashion trends very rapidly and as a result in some respects Zara is a leader in the fashion industry. Many believe that if you want to know today’s fashion trends, just go look at the window displays of a Zara store.…

    • 4093 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Zara Case Study Analysis

    • 1850 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Zara is a successful retail clothing company that expanded over the years due to its elaborate supply chain and excellent product mix strategy. The company established in 1963 opened its first store in 1975, in La Coruna. By 1989, the company had ninety-eight retail shops and production facilitates distributed around Spain. This followed international expansion where the company opened several other stores around the world. The company has a huge expansion around the world, making it the largest and most lucrative Unit of Inditex SA, manufacturer and distributor of Spanish clothes with over one thousand three hundred stores located around Europe, Asia, America, the Middle East and Pacific region. This brief overview highlights the strategic issues underpinning Zara’s buying decisions and the company’s product mix strategy.…

    • 1850 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macro Environment of Zara

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Zara is one of the most famous and popular high street brands in the world. It is a brand from Spain and it belongs to the Inditex group. Inditex group consist of seven different clothing chains of which Zara is considered as a fast fashion brand which aims at low inventory rule; just in time manufacturing; delivery and sales, flexible structure, low inventory rules and quick response policy.(Castellano, 1993). The first Zara store opened in 1975 in Spain. On product manufacturing basis, Zara strategizes by manufacturing majority of their clothes in Spain and Portugal unlike many other top brands, which outsource them to Asian counties such as China and India. (Castellano, 2002) One of Zara’s key marketing highlight has been in in zero advertising strategy, it instead markets its product by investing their percentage of revenues in opening new stores.. Zara is known to meet the customer demands and they are flexible in adjusting to the changing demands quickly. They are also variable when it comes to product design; as it keeps changing once in four weeks. (The Economists, 2005)…

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    ZARA places the customer in the central position of its marketing management and its entire business model, which consists of attractive design follow the fashion trend, manufacturing in a relatively high quality, distribution in an effective way and sales with a worldwide distribution network. (http://www.zara.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/category/cn/en/zara-I2011/11112/Company). Zara is aiming to democratize its unique concept by offering the latest fashion in relatively high quality at affordable prices. What differentiates Zara’s business model from that of its competitors which lead to success is the turnaround time, and the store as a source of information. Zara’s vertical integration of design, just-in-time manufacturing, delivery and sales, flexible structure, low inventory rule, quick response policy and advanced information technology enable a quick response to customer’s changing demands…

    • 1333 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Zara Oepration Management

    • 3472 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Tuesday, September 2, 2008 Zara operation management, A business case! 1- Executive Summary Operations management is in regard to all operations within the organization related activities including managing purchases, inventory control, quality control, storage and logistics. A great deal of focus is on efficiency and effectiveness of such processes. An example of successful operations management in retail sector is obvious in Zara business model which is elaborated and discussed here by a team of MBA Strathclyde students. From one shop in La Coruña, the Zara empire has expanded to more 50 countries. While other giants in the business squeeze their profit margins by manufacturing in bulk and lowering prices, Zara understood that most of the customers are willing to pay for clothes if they feel they are getting exclusive and fashionable clothes. The company can design, manufacture and get a piece of clothing on the shelves in almost two weeks. This rapid supply chain allows Zara's copies to be in their stores before designers even have them in theirs. In summary, Zara has closed the loop from manufacturing to customers¶ hands. They are obsessive about control. Mr. Ortega the CEO of the Inditex, the parent company of Zara, once said that the secret to retail success is to 'have five fingers touching the factory and five touching the customer'.…

    • 3472 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays