Zara营销策略

Zara: Cool Clothes Now, Not Later

Ask any urban European female under the age of 30 and chances are she has shopped at Zara, the clothier whose inexpensive but stylish offerings have attracted a cult following. Zara also sells men’s fashions, again aimed at the stylish and youthful.

Mathieu Soto, a college tennis player from France with dark eyes and devastating good looks, was asked to compare Zara to The Gap, the U.S. - based clothing giant with a major presence in Europe. His response: “I don’t know. I’ve never shopped at The Gap.”

Most U.S. young adults have never shopped at Zara, but that seems likely to change in the near future. In the past five years Zara has grown from 179 stores mostly in Spain to 450 stores in 29 countries including the United States and Canada. Zara now has stores in New York, New Jersey, Miami, and Toronto—with more on the way.While Zara is unlikely to displace The Gap in the U.S. market, they are certain to offer U.S. consumers an option previously unavailable to them. They have a sound if unusual marketing strategy in which logistics plays an important role. Logistics also plays an important role in Zara’s growth plans, notably its expansion into the U.S. market.

Zara’s Marketing Strategy

Zara’s marketing strategy focuses on product variety, speed-to-market, and

store location. It is also notable for what it excludes. Zara does not advertise in the traditional sense. If you want to find out what’s currently available at the Zara stores you have two options: go to the web site or go to the store. Zara puts 10,000 different items on the store shelves in a single year. It can take a new style from concept to store shelf in 10-14 days in an industry where nine months is the norm. In its primary European markets, Zara locates its stores close together. Visitors comment that Zara in Madrid is like Starbucks in a major U.S. city—you see another store on every street corner.

Zara’s Toronto store is located just north of the center of downtown in a major shopping district dense with malls and lined with stand-alone stores and giant office buildings. The potential for intense competition is clear.

“These office buildings are full of the people we want as customers. We want them to stop in at lunch or after work. We want to see them often, so we have to change what we have on the shelves,” said Zara’s Toronto store manager. “They could shop in a lot of other stores, so we have to make it worth their time to come here.”

This also helps explain why the company does not advertise. If a Zara customer wants to know what Zara has, he or she must go to the store. The stock changes often, with most items staying on the shelf for only a month, so the customer often finds something new and appealing. By the same token, if the customer finds nothing to buy this visit, the store’s regular customers know that tomorrow or next week—sometime soon—new goods will be on Zara’s shelves.

That makes it worth another visit.

Zara relies heavily on store employees for market information. If a customer looks at a sweater and comments, “That would look really nice with a cowl collar,” an employee can relay that information to Spain where managers decide whether or not to produce the suggested item. If they decide to make it, they can put it on the shelf in Toronto in two weeks or less, partly because they ship by air. Ocean shipping would add at least another ten days to the time it takes to get the product in front of the customer, undermining the speed-to-market and product variety strategy.

The Role of Logistics

Putting the variety of goods on the shelves in Toronto and other North American stores requires an unusual, though not unique, logistics strategy for the fashion industry. Zara air expresses goods from its single distribution center in Spain, usually in small quantities. In the 1970’s, The Limited used a similar strategy to support its test marketing, air expressing small quantities of new styles from Asia to U.S. stores. In Zara’s strategy, however, the speedy shipments are part of the core strategy, not just test marketing. Zara also ships frequently, allowing lower inventories while serving its multinational market from a single distribution center in Spain.

“We receive shipments on Tuesday and Saturday, which means that we have different items in the store at least twice a week. While each shipment replenishes

items that sell well, each also includes new items. That’s why our customers come in often,” the Toronto store manager said. “We might get ten of one item and five of another. We’re constantly testing.”

The density of Zara’s store locations in Europe helps achieve logistics efficiencies. They can fill trucks for frequent shipment in markets close to production and ship larger quantities by air to more distant stores. Zara keeps transportation costs low on the supply side, since most of the production takes place in Spain. This contrasts radically to most large fashion manufacturers, which rely on low cost manufacturing in Asia and South America, but then pay higher inventory costs and move goods to market more slowly.

The air express strategy also allows Zara to maintain a multinational market presence with only one distribution center. They trade higher transportation costs for lower warehousing and inventory costs. Add to this the idea that fast transportation supports the product-innovation strategy that is the heart of Zara’s marketing, and the importance of logistics in Zara’s marketing strategy is clear.

The Results and the Future

Zara’s parent company, Inditex, reached $2.7 billion in 2001 revenue. This made it the fastest growing clothing manufacturer in the world. Zara, Inditex’s fastest growing division, turns its inventory twice as fast as major competitors, with an inventory-to-sales of 7% compared to an industry average of 14%. Their

profitability in European operations (15%) is fifty percent higher than that of its major competitors. Zara manufactures 80% of its clothing in Europe, with most of the remaining 20% is sourced in Mexico.

While top managers are understandably closed-mouthed about their plans, Zara seems ideally positioned to penetrate the U.S. market in a major way. With some manufacturing already in Mexico, they could easily open a second distribution center aimed directly at the U.S. market. This would make their youth-oriented styles widely available in the world’s most lucrative market.

Question – Zara’s Business Model and Competitive Analysis

Zara, the most profitable brand of Inditex SA, the Spanish clothing retail group, opened its first store in 1975 in La Coruña, Spain; a city which eventually became the central headquarters for Zara’s global operations. Since then they have expanded operations into 45 countries with 531 stores located in the most important shopping districts of more than 400 cities in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa. Throughout this expansion Zara has remained focused on its core fashion philosophy that creativity and quality design together with a rapid response to market demands will yield profitable results. In order to realized these results Zara developed a business model that incorporated the following three goals for operations: develop a system the requires short lead times, decrease quantities produced to decrease inventory risk, and increase the number of available styles and/or choice. These goals helped to formulate a unique value proposition: to combine moderate prices with the ability to offer new clothing

styles faster than its competitors. These three goals helped to shape Zara’s current business model.

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 12000 new items annually. This capability allows Zara to achieve their strategy of expedited response to consumer demand.

Value drivers for Zara are both tangible and intangible in the benefits that are returned to all stakeholders. Tangibly, Inditex, the parent company of Zara, has 11.02% net margin on operations and their market capitalization (Equity – market value) is €13, 981 (in thousands) in 2002. Their net working capital (current assets – current liabilities) is €133 (in thousands) . Additionally, the success of Zara can be demonstrated through their outstanding financial performance. From 1996 to 2000, Inditex SA tripled their corporate profits and in 2001, a year of overall economic downturn in the retail industry, Inditex SA saw a 31% increase in profits. Intangibly, customer loyalty and brand recognition have provided significant value to Zara. The number of consumers they attract continues to rise and their brand is synonymous with the cutting edge of fashion at affordable prices. The successful implementation of Zara’s business model provides great value to stakeholders and differentiates their business from their peers.

Competitive Advantage

Fundamental to Zara’s success is their commitment to rapid response in customer trends in fashion, producing clothing often and with short life spans. Their commitment to this goal and the capabilities that they have developed to achieve it, have provided significant competitive advantage to Zara especially in the areas of product development, strategic partnerships and cost of production, advertising and marketing, and information technology infrastructure. The efficiencies and processes developed in these four functions differ significantly from their competitors and stand out in providing additional value and profitability to Zara.

Product Development

Zara’s unique approach to product development is instrumental to their success. Zara gives store managers significant autonomy in both determining the products to display in their stores and which to place on sale, and relaying market research and store trends back to their headquarters in La Coruña. At headquarters there are teams of commercials who take this information into account to design and effectively plan and produce all of Zara’s products. Zara maintains a design team of 200 people, all of which produce approximately 12,000 new styles per year for Zara. The process of obtaining market information and relaying it to design and production teams expedites product development by shortening the throughput time of a product to 3-4 weeks from design to distribution. This process is very different from its competitors. Many competitors rely on a small elite design team that plans both design and production needs well in advance. Stores have little autonomy in deciding which products to display or put on sale because Headquarters plans accordingly and ships quantities as forecasted. 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 .Zara’s product development capabilities are essential to Zara’s business strategy and future success.

Strategic Partnerships and Cost of Production

In comparison to competitors, Zara’s business strategy, in regards to strategic partnerships and cost of production, provide for a strategic competitive

advantage. Zara, unlike its competitors such as Gap, Benetton, and H&M, does not use Asian outsourcing. Eighty percent of Zara’s materials are manufactured in Europe, with 50% made in Zara controlled facilities in the Galicia region of Spain near headquarters. Most of Zara’s competitors have 100% outsourcing to cheap Asian countries. Though the cost of production in Spain is 17-20% more expensive than Asia, Zara does have a competitive advantage over its competitors in regards to operations. The local strategic partnerships that Zara maintains with manufacturers in Europe allow for a product throughput time of 3-4 weeks from conception to distribution. To make this happen, the company designs and cuts its fabric in-house and it acquires fabrics in only four colors to keep costs low. Zara postpones dyeing and printing designs until close to manufacture, thereby reducing waste and minimizing the need to clear unsold inventories. The proximity of these suppliers gives Zara great flexibility in adapting their product lines based on up to date market trends and consumer behavior. It also decreases costs of holding inventory. Zara’s competitors, through outsourcing to Asian countries such as China, sacrifice the benefits of proximity for low labor and production costs. Though there is a cost advantage in their approach in regards to labor, the lack of flexibility in changing orders based on current trends hinders their operational efficiencies. Inventory costs are higher for competitors because orders are placed for a whole season well in advance and then held in distribution facilities until periodic shipment to stores. This proximity effect and the flexibility that it gives Zara is fundamental to their basic concept to respond quickly to shifts in consumer demand and has provided them with a competitive edge in comparison to their peers.

Advertising and Marketing

Zara’s unique approach to advertising and marketing is an additional factor within their business model that adds to their success. Zara spends 0.3% of total revenues on advertising and marketing. This is significantly less then their competitors who on average spend 3-4% of their total revenues on similar expenditures. Hence, Zara maintains a cost advantage to their competitors in marketing activities. In order to effectively complete with their peers Zara uses location, store layout, and product life cycles to act as their marketing tool to consumers. For instance, Zara strategically locates all of their stores in prime retail districts for visibility marketing. Additionally, because of the product development cycles mentioned earlier, customers are trained to visit Zara stores often because new items are presented weekly and are often not restocked. This feeling of scarcity encourages customers to come to the stores and buy frequently. Lastly, in order to keep the stores looking fresh and trendy; Zara invests heavily in their store layouts. They have a testing facility nearby their headquarters in Spain where different types of store layouts are tested. Each Zara store is remodeled every 5 years in order to keep up with current trends. Zara does not invest heavily in direct marketing, though their efforts in image/brand marketing do a great deal to attract a loyal customer base. Their cost advantage and ability to maintain brand recognition and customer loyalty are essential elements of Zara’s capabilities that build value in the company.

Information and Communication Technologies

Zara’s information and communication protocols are significantly different from its competitors. Zara spends less than 0.5% of total revenue on IT and IT employees account for only 0.5% of Zara’s total workforce. This differs from their competitors who spend on average 2% of total revenue on IT expenditures and have 2.5% of their total workforce devoted to IT. Zara utilizes human intelligence (from store managers and market research) and information technology (such as their PDA devices) in order to have a hybrid model for information flow from stores to headquarters. For example, managers at Zara stores use handheld devices to send standardized information regarding customer feedback and ordering needs directly to in-house designers. This not only keeps Zara's designers informed of fast-changing customer trends and demand, but also provides the company with insight on less-desirable merchandise. Unlike Zara’s hybrid model (which incorporates human intelligence and IT applications), competitors rely almost completely on information technology. Zara’s unique approach of human intelligence assisted IT solutions results in well-managed inventories, linkages between demand and supply, and reduced costs from obsolete merchandise; however, there is still room for improvement in their IT processes to realize more effective management of inventory levels. Hence, the hybrid information and communication system that Zara uses provides cost advantages to Zara’s operations and helps to abide by their fundamental principle to have the ability to rapidly respond to changes in consumer demand.

Zara’s concept, capabilities, and value drivers, as demonstrated through their business model, have proven to be extremely successful. Their resistance to outsourcing, concentration on core operations and production capabilities, and

focus on the pulse of fashion have made them one of the most successful clothing retails. In the event of future global expansion, their future success and sustainability will be drawn into history. They will need to adapt their business capabilities of product development, strategic partnerships and cost of production, marketing and advertising, and information and communication technologies in order to adjust to increasing global operations.

Zara:引领时尚潮流

问问欧洲任何一个城市30岁以下的女性，她们都有在zara购物的经历，设计师们的这些物美价廉又不失潮流的作品流吸引了一大批追随者。Zara还销售男士时装，同样专注于时尚，焕发青春的气息。

Mathieu Soto,一个有着乌黑双瞳非常英俊的法国高校网球运动员，被要求将Zara和Gap进行比较,这是美国与欧洲最主要的两大服装巨头。他的回答是：“我不知道。我从未在Gap买过东西。”

大多数的美国年轻人没有在Zara的购物经历，但是这种情况在未来很有可能会发生改变。在过去的五年中，zara从最初只在西班牙拥有的179家店铺发展到了450家，而包括美国和西班牙在内的29个国家中都有其店铺。现在，Zara以更多的方式，在纽约、新泽西、迈阿密和多伦多销售。当然，Zara不可能取代Gap在美国的市场，但是他们一定会向美国的消费者提供一种以前难以得到的自主选择商品的方式。他们有一个健全的，不同寻常的营销战略，在物流中起着不同寻常的作用。物流也在Zara的市场增长，特别是在美国市场开拓方面发挥了重要作用。

一、Zara的营销战略

Zara营销战略的重点在于产品的多样、市场传播以及存储位置三方面。这并不包括名人效应。从传统意义上说，Zara 并没有做广告。如果你想得知现在在Zara商店中销售的产品，你有两个方法：去其官网或者直接到实体商店。每一年，Zara都在商店中陈列出10，000种不同的商品。一个新产品从开始的创意到最后走上货架可以只需要10到14天，而通常在业界这个时间段是9个月。在其欧洲主要市场上，Zara将其商店位置排列得很靠近。游客评论说Zara在马德里就好像星巴克在美国的主要城市一样——你在每条街的拐角处都能看见。

Zara多伦多店位于多伦多市中心北面的一个主要购物密集区，在这里有很多大型商场、专卖店和高层商务楼。从这里可以很明显地看出，Zara在激烈竞争中非常有潜力的。

“这些办公楼里的所有人都是我们想要的客户群。我们希望他们能在午休或者下班后能来我们的商店。我们希望他们经常光顾，所以我们必须不断地更新我们陈列的商品。”Zara多伦多店的经理说，“他们可能会在其他商店驻足，因此我们必须让他们觉得花时间来我们这里是值得的。”

这也可以解释为什么公司不做广告。如果Zara的顾客想要了解现在Zara有什么商品，他（她）必须去商店。因为库存改变的缘故，Zara的商品在货架上只展示一个月的时间，因此，顾客常常会找到更有吸引力的新产品。出于同样的原因，如果这次顾客发现没有什么需要购买的，常客就知道明天或者下周或者不久后，新产品就会上市了，这就值得再次光顾了。

Zara非常依赖商店售货员收集来的市场信息。如果一个顾客看着一件毛衣说：“如果加上一个斗篷似的的领子就更好看了。”不管经理是否决定将这个建议加入到改进产品中

去，店员都会将信息反馈到西班牙总部。如果他们决定采纳这个建议，多伦多店就会在两周以内将改进后的产品陈列出来，这很大程度上归功于他们的空运系统。海运的话将至少比空运慢十天才能将产品送达顾客面前，这就将破坏产品品种和产品传播策略。

1、物流的作用

在多伦多，货架上陈列了品种齐全的商品，但是在北美的商店却并不如此。虽然对于时尚行业来说，物流战略并不是唯一的。Zara空运中心表示，商品通常是小批量地从西班牙单独配送中心发送的。在20世纪70年代，公司就使用了类似的策略来支持产品的试销。空运中心表示，亚洲和美国商店的新品主要采用这种小批量的运送。当然，在Zara的战略中，迅速的出货量只是核心战略的一部分，而且也不仅仅局限于试销过程中。Zara运输频繁，当其以西班牙的单一分布中心服务多国市场时就可以降低库存量。

“我们在周二和周六接到总部的发货，这就意味着一周至少有两次能让我们商店有不同的产品。这既能补充脱销的产品，又能增加新的产品。这就是我们的顾客经常光顾的原因。”多伦多店经理说。“我们可能获得在一种商品中获得10个顾客，在另一种商品中获得5个顾客。我们正在不断地尝试。”

Zara在欧洲密集地分布有助于实现物流效率。相近的商店之间通常采用汽运来运输商品,而空运则用于较远地区大批量商品的运输。由于产品大多是在西班牙生产，Zara一直都是一个低成本的供应商。而那些主要依赖于亚洲和南美的低成本制造的大型的时装制造商，却要支付较高的库存费用，商品运输时间也更缓慢，这些从根本上是无法与Zara相比的。该战略还允许航空快递维持了在跨国市场上只有一个配送中心的市场地位。这样就将低廉的仓储和库存成本转换成了高额运输成本。其带来的附加价值是，快速地运输有力地支持了Zara市场营销战略核心的产品创新战略，而其在Zara的市场营销战略中发挥的重要物

流作用也是显而易见的。

2、结果和发展

Indite,是Zara的母公司，在2001年的时候达到了2.7亿美元的年收入。这使得它成为了世界上发展最快的服装制造商。Zara，Inditex公司增长速度最快的一个子公司，相对主要竞争对手的库存翻了将近两倍，相比行业14%的库存量它的销售后库存只有7%。他们在欧洲市场的盈利能力比其主要竞争对手高了50个百分点。Zara 80%的服装都是在欧洲生产，其余20%的大部分来自西班牙。

高层经理人对于他们策略的保密使得Zara以理想的方式在欧洲的主要市场上得以渗透。对于一些已经扎根于墨西哥本土的制造商，为了打开美国市场，他们可以很容易的建立第二个分销中心。这使得他们的年轻潮流风能在有利可图的市场上广泛应用。

二、Zara的商业模式和竞争分析

Zara,是InditexSA公司最赚钱的一个品牌，西班牙服装零售集团，于1975年在西班牙的拉科鲁尼亚建立了第一家商店，这个城市，最终成为了Zara的全球运营中心总部。从那时到现在，他们扩张到欧洲、美洲、亚洲和非洲的45个国家，在超过400个城市的重要购物区建立了531家商店。纵观整个扩张过程，Zara一直专注于时尚理念，其核心创造力和设计质量的快速反应对市场需求将产生有利的结果。为了实现这些目标，Zara开发了一个商业模式，主要包括以下三个操作目标：开发系统要求交货周期短；减少生产数量以减少库存风险；增加可用式样的数量和/或选择。这些目标有助于制定一个独特的价值主张：与公道的价格相结合，比竞争者更快地向消费者提供新的服装款式。这三个目标，有助于塑造目前Zara的商业模式。

1、Zara的商业模式

Zara的经营模式也被分解为三个基本的组成部分：理念、功能和价值驱动。Zara的基本理念是维持设计、生产和分配过程，使Zara可以迅速回应消费者需求的变化。José María Castellano，Inditex集团的总裁说，“世界时装界是不断变化的，是由客户需求推动的并不是由供给推动。我们需要给予客户他们想要的，如果我去南美或者亚洲定做衣服，我根本就来不及。”这凸显了这种快速反应对于Zara运营的重要性。

Zara运用其自身的能力，或是利用所需资源来执行这种战略计划。Zara严格控制其生产过程以维持对公司内部或是在总部附近的一些战略伙伴的管理和完善。目前，Zara在欧洲维持着80%的生产，在接近拉科鲁尼亚总部的西班牙维持50%。他们与当地制造商签订战略协议，以确保交付和服务的及时性。通过这些战略合作伙伴和这种制造和运营流程带来的好处，Zara保持了所需的灵活性，来设计和生产每年超过12000项的新产品。这种能力使得Zara能够实现其快速响应消费者需求的策略。在向所有利益者返利的同时，Zara的价值驱动可以说是有形和无形的双重资产。从有形的方面来说，Inditex，作为Zara的总公司，运作过程中能获得11.02%的净利润率，并且他们在2002年形成了13981的市场资本。其净营运资金（流动资产-流动负债）为€133（千）。此外，Zara的成功可以通过其出色的财务状况证明。从1996年到2000年，Inditex公司SA增长了三倍的利润。在2001年，在零售行业整体不景气的一年，Inditex SA使集团利润增长了31%。在无形资产方面，客户忠诚度和品牌知名度为Zara提供了重要的价值。它们吸引的消费者数量不断增加，他们的品牌和适宜的价格成为了前沿时尚的代名词。Zara商业模式的成功实施给予其战略伙伴巨大的利益，同时将其与同类竞争者相区别。

2、竞争优势

Zara成功的基础在于他们承诺在市场潮流界对于客户的快速反应，往往比服装生产生命周期短。他们致力于这一目标，并认为他们已经实现了这一目标。这为Zara提供了显著的竞争优势,特别是在产品开发、战略合作关系、营销成本和信息技术基础设施等领域。这种效率和进程，在这四个功能开发上与竞争对手有很大的差别，同时为Zara提供了附加价值和利润。

3、产品开发

Zara独特的产品开发方式对其成功是非常有帮助的。Zara给予其商店经理们充分的自主权，他们有权决定在他们商店的哪个位置陈列商品、哪个地方销售商品、市场调研的回收以及商店回到拉科鲁尼亚总部的趋势。在总部，有设计团队，他们将收集到的信息纳入设计中并有效规划Zara所有的产品生产。Zara的设计团队有200人，每年，所有人为Zara设计大约12000种新款式的商品。获取市场并将它反馈到设计和生产中去，这样的流程加快了产品的发展，从设计到销售产品，将产品生产周期缩短到3-4周。这样的流程与其竞争对手是有很大差别的。许多竞争者只依赖他们少数的精英设计团队，但是生产却需要领先。因为总部制定相应的计划和商品销售的预测，各商店有绝对的自主权来决定哪些产品进行展示哪些产品出售。在产品发展上Zara的市场传播能力超越了其许多竞争者。其自身就可以给股东、客户提供额外的价值，而且商店能够以合理的价格销售优质的衣物。Zara的商业战略以及未来成功就取决于它的产品开发能力。

4、战略合作伙伴和生产成本

与竞争对手相比，在战略伙伴关系和生产成本方面，Zara的商业战略提供了更大的竞争优势。Zara并不像Gap、Benetton和H&M这些竞争者，它不使用亚洲外包。Zara80%的材料都是在欧洲生产的，50%在临近西班牙总部的加利西亚省的Zara控制中心制造。

而大部分竞争者将其所有业务都外包于廉价的亚洲国家。尽管其在西班牙的生产成本比亚洲要高出17%-20%，但是在接下来的运营中，Zara却比竞争对手有明显的优势。在欧洲，Zara与当地的制造商维持了良好的战略伙伴关系，这就使得Zara的产品从构思设想到分配发送只需要3-4周的时间。为此，公司设计并改变了纺织物内部构造，仅以4中颜色的织物来降低费用。在制造之前，Zara设计了印染，从而减少浪费，减少需要清理的未出售存货。因为有些这些关系紧密的供应商，提高了Zara的适应性，有助于更好的适应新市场趋势和消费行为。Zara的那些竞争对手，通过外包业务到了亚洲国家（比如中国），为了更接近低端劳动力和低生产成本而牺牲了利益。虽然这在劳动力有上有一个成本优势，但是基于当前的趋势却缺乏了订单的灵活性，从而影响了经营效率。因为整季的订单是提前预定的，然后再定期将服装装运配送至商店，因此对于竞争对手来说库存成本就高了。这种邻近效应和灵活性，代表了Zara响应顾客需求变化的最基本的理念，也为其提供了比竞争对手更大的优势。

5、广告及营销

Zara商业模式中另一个成功的因素是独特的广告及营销。Zara花费在广告和销售上的费用只有全部收入的0.3%。这明显低于平均花费总收入的3-4%的竞争者。因此，在营销活动中Zara就维持了一个成本优势。为了有效地区别于同行，Zara用店面位置以及产品生命周期作为吸引消费者的工具。例如，Zara在战略上将其所有的商店在最初的零售阶段都定位于视觉销售。此外，由于前面所提到的产品开发周期，顾客经常光顾Zara的商店时因为每周都有新产品介绍，并且旧款是不再重新进货的。这种稀缺的感觉鼓励了顾客频繁地来商店购物。最后，为了保持商店的新潮和新鲜感，在商店布局上Zara也投入了很多。在西班牙总部的附近有一个测试中心，在那里不同的商店布局都将被测试。为了跟上流行趋势，每隔五年，Zara的每个商店都要重新改变布局。Zara在直销上面并没有大量投资，尽管他们在图像/品牌营销上花费了大量的努力来吸引忠诚客户群。他们保持了成本优势、

品牌识别和客户忠诚度，这些都是创造公司价值必不可少的要素。

6、信息与通信技术

Zara的信息和通信协议与竞争者有显著的不同。Zara花费在IT的费用低于总收入的0.5%，花在IT员工的费用只占员工总劳动收入的0.5%。而那些竞争对手普遍都在IT上花费平均收入的2%以上，在人员费用上花费其总员工数总支出的2.5%，这些Zara是与众不同的。为了有一个混合模型将商店信息传送到总部，Zara利用人工智能（从店铺经理到市场研究）和信息技术（如他们的掌上电脑设备）。例如，Zara商店的经理们使用便携式设备将客户标准化的信息反馈给总部，并向内部设计师直接订购。这不仅使Zaea能持续地将客户需求和市场趋势通知设计者们，同时也能让设计师知道什么样的作品是不被需要的。不像Zara的混合模型（混合了人类智慧以及信息技术应用），竞争对手几乎完全依赖在信息技术上。在库存管理、供需联系以及从过时的商品中降低成本方面，Zara的人类智慧辅助了IT来实施方案。当然，这其中还有改进的余地，以实现更有效的库存管理水平。因此，信息和通讯的混合系统使得Zara能够提供成本优势，有助于其遵守基本的理念来迅速响应消费者们不断变化着的需求。

通过它的商业模式，Zara证明了自己的理念，能力和价值驱动，这已经取得了很大的成功。他们吝啬于外包，将注意力集中在核心业务生产能力上，且注重时尚脉搏的跳动，这使他们成为了最成功的服装零售商之一。如果未来要在全球扩张的话，他们的成功以及可持续发展将被纳入历史。但同时他们也需要调整自己的业务能力和战略合作伙伴关系，来进行产品开发、降低成本、市场营销、制作广告、建立信息和通讯技术，以此来适应日益变化的全球需要。