THE SECRET OF ZARA’S ADVERTISING STRATEGY: HOW TO MAKE BILLIONS

WHILE SPENDING $0 ON ADS

It doesn’t matter how old you are, what fashion style you prefer, or whether you are female or male. The
likelihood that you haven’t visited a Zara store is 0, which is the same number as the amount of dollars this
company invests in its advertising strategy.

WAIT, ZERO? YOU SURE?

It’s not a joke! Zara is one of the most successful fashion brands in the world so it’s rather unusual that the
company doesn’t do conventional marketing. Although Zara’s founder, Amancio Ortaga, is one of the richest
people in the world and Zara stores are the busiest in the mall, the company spends only about 0.3 percent of
sales on advertising. Let’s see what happens behind the scenes!

Zara is a Spanish brand founded in 1975 by Amancio Ortega and Rosalía Mera. The first store offered low-
priced, similar-looking products of popular, higher-end clothing. In 1985, Ortega developed a new design,
manufacturing, and distribution process to shorten lead times and respond more quickly to new trends, which
he called “instant fashion”.

Over the next decade, Zara began to aggressively expand into global markets. Today, this clothing retailer has
nearly 3,000 stores, including stores for women, men, children, and the home. Zara has stores in 96 countries
and is the flagship of the Inditex Group.

And here’s a fun one: The brand’s founder, Amancio, has never spoken to the media or promoted Zara in any
way. So customer appreciation and desire are strongly driven by the brand experience.

USE STORY WINDOWS AS A POWERFUL COMMUNICATION TOOL

Did you know that Zara assembles 150,000 storefronts per year? Due to their philosophy of fast fashion, the
store windows are constantly changing, as they play the most important role in the presentation of the
collections. By preparing memorable and artistic window displays every two weeks and two additional
window displays during the summer and winter sales, Zara connects and communicates with its customers.
Behind the scenes, a team of the best neuromarketers and other window dressing experts test and modify
numerous variations to find the final window display, which is then exported to stores all over the world.
“FRESHLY BAKED CLOTHES”
From the very beginning, Zara became one of the most popular brands among its customers thanks to its
ability to keep up with rapidly changing fashion trends, or as they say, to produce “freshly baked clothes”.
Zara keeps track of fashion trends and styles, creates new designs, and gets them into stores within a week or
two, while other fashion brands take about six months. Thanks to its fast, stylish, and affordable clothing, the
company is able to outdo its competitors.

CONCLUSION: DRESS COOL AS ZARA

The secret of Zara’s 0% advertising strategy is hidden in its overall brand strategy. From the beginning, Zara
has been careful to build its brand based on the values of its ideal customers. The fashion company targets
people who are stylish and follow trends, offering them the trendiest clothes at the time they are looking for
them. So before you start a business, take a close look at your competitors, their strengths and weaknesses, and
your ideal customers to determine their pain points. Based on this data, choose the best approach to building
your brand. If you start with this, you may not need to advertise at all in a few years.

QUESTIONS:

1. What are the reasons for Zara's success? (describe)

2. Propose 3 marketing actions for Zara in order to incrice its sales in Peru? (one in each one: price,
product and promotion)