1.

0 Introduction
Creativity and innovation lies at the heart of entrepreneurship. When it comes to fashion and
designing, creativity and innovation is the core element of the industry and a highly-valued
skill. According to Research and Markets (2020), the global fashion industry was worth $35.8
billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at 6.7% CARG till 2023. In this multimillion dollar
fashion industry, the apparel market alone reached the market value of $527.1 billion in 2020.
The concept of fast fashion is a highly demanded and profitable business model. When it
comes to fast fashion, Zara is the pioneer in the industry. With its high agility, Zara is the
most fashionable and the world's largest fast fashion company (Lee, 2019). The company has
revolutionized the fashion market by bringing in the "fast fashion" craze. With about 3000
retail stores in 98 countries, Zara's global business is worth $20 billion. However, with
increasing concern towards environmental sustainability, Zara has been lashed by severe
criticism owing to its negative impacts on the environment. Fashion brands are increasingly
seeking sustainable alternatives in their material standards. With this challenge, Zara should
introduce their new women clothing which will be built on sustainable practices. This new
product will incorporate the use of 100% recycled materials and natural fibres for churning
out their fashionable items. Hence this business report will focus on Zara's new product
development.

2.0 Stages of the new product development

Businesses in order to sustain needs to constantly foster creativity and produce innovative
things. New product development (NPD) is the key to achieve increased business profitability
and for achieving competitive advantage in this highly competitive fashion industry
(Silineviča et al., 2016). The process of NPD involves a sequence of interrelated steps
starting from the initial idea generation to the product being tested and launched in the
market. Among the various NPD models, the model by Booz, Allen and Hamilton (1982) is
the most widely accepted NPD model in NPD literature (Bhuiyan, 2011).

Figure 1 : Stages of NPD model

 (Source : Kim et al., 2016)

The stages involved in the new product development are as follows :

1. New Product Strategy

This is the first step of the NDP process that defines how the new product will align with the
company objectives. Zara has a very simplistic vision that is to give customers what the want
(Zara, 2021). Since the current fashion market is being challenged with sustainability issues
and customers are increasingly seeking environmentally friendly products, this new product
made from natural fibres and recycled materials will completely align with Zara's objectives.

2. Idea Generation
In this stage, several ideas are created and brainstormed to find the best suited idea for the
company. This is the stage where a self-assessment is made in order to identify the key areas
of interest (Kim et al., 2016). Having done so, the environment is scanned in order to find
growth potential. This is the stage where numerous ideas are considered like whether or not
the product will use recycled old clothes, or it will use fibres from citrus food. There can be
other ideas such as natural fibres from flaxseed to be used for Zara's new product or they can
also consider using Apple pectin as an alternative to leather made from goats and sheep. The
key aim of the idea generation stage is to foster a wealth of ideas.

3. Screening and Evaluation

In this stage, the Zara's business executives must analyse all the generated ideas to identify
which ones need further investigation. In this screening and evaluation stage, each idea must
be envisioned as a product in the target market and must be assessed on what contributions it
makes to the market (Kim et al., 2016). Zara needs to focus only on those ideas which have
the greatest potential for success. Only those ideas which are highly promising goes into the
next stage of business analysis.

4. Business Analysis
In the fourth stage of NDP, all the promising ideas sorted from the screening and evaluation
are thoroughly scrutinized in order to identify their maximum potential to transform into
viable offerings in the market (Kim et al., 2016). In this business analysis stage, hypothetical
business plans are developed to determine the product attributes, entry barriers, the
competitors in the market, the target market as well as gather information about market
growth, promotion, financial projections. These investigations are made to verify the strength
of the project prior to investment as well as to develop preliminary recommendations
(Bhuiyan, 2011).

5. Design and Development

After the product ideas have successfully met the business criterias and have proved to be the
most successful, Zara's development team will move forward to translate the ideas into real
product offerings (Kim et al., 2016). This stage encompasses various activities extending
from development of prototype to test marketing. In this stage the product also goes through
many changes. For instance, Zara must make sure the biodegradable materials, apple pectin
or the fibers derived from citrus foods are suitable for all skin types or not. The alterations
continue in the following stages as the product is readied for the customers. In this stage Zara
has to constantly keep altering the product in terms of its material used, dyeing material or
packaging etc. so as to completely fit the market. Also Zara must ensure that they lessen the
total time period of the product development stage to decrease the risk of changes in the
development target.

6. Testing
The testing stage aims to validate the product before entering the market. In this stage, the
product is made suitable for the market after several trials which makes it ready for the
marketplace. Testing stage is of vital importance since it helps in improving the product and
minimizes the chances of market failure (Bhuiyan, 2011). Testing also confirms whether the
product caters to the needs and wants of the customer by continuously seeking customer
feedback. Indeed, customer acceptance is vital to measure whether or not the new product is
accepted by them, to gauge the level of customer's interest and their purchase intentions.

7. Commercialization
The commercialization stage encompasses the full-scale introduction of the newly developed
product into the market. With the entry into the market, any errors reported by the customers
must be remedied instantaneously. Zara must ensure that their new product gets trouble free
access into the fashion industry and should also track the competitors performance to respond
to their counterpart's competitive forces.
3.0 Creative Techniques for sustaining the launching of the new products.
The success of Zara's new product will greatly depend on the creativity of the marketing and
sales technique. Babu et al. (2013) claimed that creativity is characterized by the ability to
foster imaginative skills and bring into into existence a new form of something or something
new.

Zara needs to evaluate at define the marketing mix of its new innovation. Timbadia &
Khavekar (2017) claimed that the creativity of new products can be enhanced with an
effective marketing mix. Marketing mix are strategic tools that helps in influencing
customer's demand for products in the market and thereby is the most important tactical tool
for enhancing the success of the new product development (Kotler & Keller, 2016).
Marketing mix for Zara's new product are as follows :

● Product - products are the most critical element of the marketing mix tool as it is the
key item which shall compete with its market rivals. Zara's new women collection
made of 100% sustainable and natural fibers must include all products that caters to
the needs and wants of their women customers. They should include in their product
portfolio women's tops, shirts, jeans, bags, trousers, skirts etc everything to keep their
customers in the latest trend along with environmental sustainability. Further their
product designs should also take into consideration the cultural and local taste of the
products in various regions.

● Price - Zara is a premium brand and therefore and it's pricing are region-specific. The
price tags are made in each respective markets in which they operate. They take the
customer's purchasing power into consideration while determining their prices at
specific market zones. Nevertheless its pricing is much less compared to its market
rivals. They offer products high in fashion yet low in price compared to its
competitors. This makes Zara more attractive in the fashion industry.

● Place - Zara is the world's most fashionable company. It operates in more than 98
countries and have about 3000 retail stores all across the world. Further Zara's new
products will also be sold in their own online stores besides being sold in their retail
stores. Zara is vertically integrated with very stringent supply chain that offers them
additional competitive advantage.
● Promotion - Zara mainly do not