Kate Dai's Blog

Ever wonder why Zara always has most of its clothes on hangers? Ever wonder why they don’t have stock in the back when they run out of sizes? Ever wonder why Zara only has small quantities but huge variety? There is a reason: it’s all part of a grand marketing plan.

Zara beats its competitors in variety and speed. It’s clothing is fashionable and up to date with the latest trends. All the designs and most of the manufacturing are in Spain. Twice a week, designers must come up with new designs, most of which are from new and developing trends found in the media, fashion magazines and fashion shows and high-end brands. These designs can be manufactured locally there in just a few days and distributed world wide in just a few days as well. Surprisingly, from designing to getting the products into the stores, the entire process can be done within only a week.

The production distribution is so fast because of the following reasons:

1. They design and manufacture locally.

2. They distribute their products world widely using airplanes and trucks.

3. The design, production and distribution cycle happens twice a week.

Zara gives out outsourcing, pay high prices for distribution, create low quantity, huge variety and lower cost to beat its competitors. Competing brands would think manufacturing locally is crazy becuase they usually consider outsourcing to China to lower the costs. They also think using airplanes and trucks for distribution instead of ships and trains is crazy because the cost is so high. However, Zara has proven to be successful despite these high costs. Applying this unique marketing strategy, Zara attracts customers to visit them more frequently and makes their cutomers buy at the time they see the products because customers know that these is only limited number of the product and they won’t make the same thing again. It is hard for Zara’s competitors to compete with Zara with this marketing strategy and it is hard for them to copy.