2. Emily Wiley Zara: A Blue Military Coat
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Retailer: Zara
a. Market position
b. Operations
c. Competition
d. Core Customer
3. Garment
4. Colour Pallette
a. Zara’s process for finding key colors relevant for their target customer.
5. Yarn and Fabric Fairs
a. How Zara employees choose fabrics that are relevant for their target customer.
6. Presentation of Trends/ Mood Boards
a. An explanation of how Zara researches trends.
b. An example of what a Zara trend board might look like.
7. Garment Design
a. Garment sketches from Zara
b. The design process
8. Sample Collection
a. The process in which Zara creates and decides on a sample collection
9. Buying
a. An explanation of how Zara presents their customers with their sample
collection.
b. Customer profiles
10. Delivery
a. The Delivery Process
11. Sales
a. Zara’s past sales
12. Media Impact
a. Media coverage of similar products
13. Conclusion
14. References
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3. Emily Wiley Zara: A Blue Military Coat
The first time I walked into Zara on Oxford Street, I was officially in love. As far as I
know, there isn’t a Zara near my hometown in Texas, so this was a rare treat for me. Once I
started my classes in London and started to learn more about this retailer, I knew they would
be my first choice for this assignment. They are one of the largest international retailers, and
they belong to Inditex, also very large, and an international distribution group (Zara). Inditex
was founded by Amancio Ortega Gaona, a clothing manufacturer who grew the business over
a decade until he owned many factories and distributed merchandise all over Europe. The first
Inditex store was Zara, which is originally Spanish, having begun in A Coruna, Spain in 1975.
It has now spread to over 400 cities in Europe, both North and South America, Asia, and
Africa. Shortly thereafter, due to Zara’s success, more stores are opened in some major
Spanish cities. Inditex and Zara approach fashion with “creativity, quality design, and rapid
turnaround to adjust to changing market demands,” which is just one of the reasons Zara is so
successful. Their business model is fully focused on being innovative and flexible, also
attributing to their success. Throughout this report, I will be exploring the design process of
Zara, and how they probably created a royal blue military pea coat.
Zara’s position is in the middle to high end of the
market, due to the fact that it is affordably priced, but not
necessarily based on value. This is proven by Zara’s price,
which is between $6.90 for a pair of socks to $399 for a coat.
It competes directly with Benetton, The Gap, The Limited,
and Top Shop, along with many others as you can see on the
London high street (Sovereign). As for its operations, Zara
sticks to the term fast fashion. It takes 4 weeks for an idea to
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4. Emily Wiley Zara: A Blue Military Coat
hit stores, with feedback from store managers sent back to the corporate office to let them
know how their products have been selling, and what would make the customers happier.
Spain, Zara’s founder, is under control of all its stores, keeping the lead times shorter,
avoiding issues that can arise from importing and exporting from a different country, and
allows Zara to keep to its roots (Lariviere, 2011). These are just a few of the reasons why Zara
keeps such a large client base. Zara’s core customer tends to be a sophisticated, fashion
conscious woman aged 18 to 35. Zara also caters to fashion conscious men of a similar age
range as well as kids.
The coat that I chose is a royal blue military coat, definitely a
stand out item that embodies the current military trend as well as the
color blue, a newer trend for the Autumn/Winter 2011 season. It is a
part of the Zara basic line, and was positioned with the rest of this line
against the back wall near a similar coat in black. It was made in
Morocco, has a black lining and gold plastic buttons. The composition
of the coat includes an outer shell made out of 60% polyester, 34%
viscose and 6% elastic. The black lining is made of 100% acetate,
giving it a satin-like feel. The fit is similar to a pea coat, with a slightly
higher, stand up collar with buttons going all the way to the top, as well
as a slightly fuller skirt.
The vibrant blue color of this coat is one of the reasons I was
drawn to it, and I was curious as to how Zara chooses which colors to
use for their customer base. Looking at the color palette for Zara, I
noticed a lot of beige and nude colors, as well as pops of burnt orange,
different shades of sage green, black, dark and a slightly lighter purple, and gray. Bright
colors appeared shortly thereafter, with blues similar to the blue of the coat, reds, purples,
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5. Emily Wiley Zara: A Blue Military Coat
yellows, greens and pinks (Color Hunter). Colors like those listed previously are chosen by
Zara are not only based on their customer profiles, but also on the moods of their customers.
Retailers are beginning to choose colors to create an environment, also known as color
psychology, in order to enhance the likeability of the garments and increase their chances of
selling. By creating the desired environment for customers to shop in, which includes the
garments for sale, customers feel comfortable, and the store will then reflect the typical Zara
customer (Retail Customer Experience.com, 2009).
Like colors, Zara chooses fabrics in order to create garments that will reflect their
target customer best. However, they also have to keep up with their fast fashion model, which
is why they choose fabric that is less expensive. Zara chooses about 10,000 designs to go into
stores, of which they have to make in possibly “five to six colors and five to seven sizes,”
creating a realm of approximately 300,000 units in stock (Ferdows, Lewis, & Machuca,
2005). Zara’s design team gets their fabric from their parent company, The Inditex Group,
who completes the marking, cutting, and final finishing of the garments. External suppliers
are given the fabric and other necessities from Zara when creating garments for Zara (Fashion
Gear). These fabrics need to entail the typical
customer of Zara: sophisticated, fashion conscious
and high quality. This is why Zara takes production of
fabrics into their own hands, and when not producing
garments on their own in Spain, provides all of the
necessary ingredients to their suppliers to create
garments that they know would sell.
Next in the design process is mood and trend boards. Zara would create these after
researching trends to decide which trends their customers would be looking for, and how to
put a unique spin on them. Zara’s design employees attend “trade fairs and ready to wear
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6. Emily Wiley Zara: A Blue Military Coat
fashion shows in Paris, New York, London, and Milan” while also referring to “catalogs of
luxury brand collections” in order to decide which trends would be best for their customers
(Ghemawat & Nueno, 2006). From this research, Zara designers would then be able to create
initial sketches based on what they think the typical Zara customer would like to see in stores.
Creating trend boards is another way Zara would present ideas to managers as well as
organize their ideas for production. A
Zara trend board would probably look
something like this:
(The Attic People, 2011). Trend boards
help designers to visualize their ideas,
and put all of the trends that they would
like to incorporate in one place. Also,
trend boards are useful when it comes
to presenting ideas to a manager or customer, helping them to get an idea of what the designer
intends to create, and what the basis for the design is.
Next in the design process is the actual design of the garment. The design process
begins with researching of the trends, color choice, fabric choice, trend board creation and
presentation, garment sketches, sample collection creation, buying, delivery, and finally sales.
This is all done by Zara’s team of 200 buyers (Harvard Business School, 2005). After creating
a trend board, Zara begins to create the initial sketches for a garment. In these sketches, they
will include the trends that they have researched, with a Zara twist to them, in order to
embody what the typical Zara customer is looking for. A garment sketch from Zara would
probably look like this:
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7. Emily Wiley Zara: A Blue Military Coat
(Garroni, 2011). It is sophisticated, while still being fashionable, and is still in its first stages.
Garment sketches could have notes explaining the fit, what it should be worn with, production
ideas, color ideas, and possibly swatches of fabrics, or at least an idea of which fabric should
be used. This helps the designer to visualize their ideas, and to show the production team what
it is that they are looking for and how they the coat should be created. After this, the coat goes
into production and a sample is created.
Sample collections are necessary due to the fact that the designer needs to see what
they garment would look like after it is created, in order to be able to make adjustments
necessary to make the garment sellable. Also, the sample of the garment can be shown to
buyers as well as managers in order to be sure that the garment, in this case a blue military
coat, is acceptable to be sold to customers. A sample is a good way to provide a prototype of
what will be in stores in the coming season. Without a sample of the coat, the designer would
not know if there are any necessary changes that need to be made, such as color, fabric, trim,
and embellishment alterations, as well as changes in the shape and fit of the coat. After the
sample is produced and approved, it can be presented to buyers and orders can start filing in.
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8. Emily Wiley Zara: A Blue Military Coat
The buyers from Zara play a large role in selecting products for stores in Zara. They
have to consider “customer demand, market trends, store policy, financial budgets,” fashion
trends, and what their customer wants in order to choose the right products for their customers
and increase sales (Prospects). Zara’s buyers review current collections and bring in new
products by deciding which ones are appropriate for their target customer. The designer of
this coat would have presented to buyers of this nature in a meeting, and the buyer decided
that it was appropriate for sale and purchased the sample. Shortly thereafter, the coat would
have been mass produced and put on the sales floor. Since Zara only sells their products in
their own stores, there are not buyers from other stores attempting to buy Zara’s products.
Zara’s buyers are solely there to decide which items are appropriate for the target customer
and whether or not they will sell well. They have been quite successful at this, given that
Inditex “recorded a 9% increase in sales to €2.21 billion in the first quarter of its financial
year” (Keeley & Clark, 2008).
Once these goods have been approved for the sales floor, they are mass produced, and
then delivered into stores. Zara has a reputation of bringing new products into stores every
two to three weeks. Zara products are primarily manufactured by their corporate headquarters;
therefore delivery lead times tend to be shorter, since a lot of their products are manufactured
in Spain. This makes replenishing the store with faster selling items easier. Stores receive
deliveries at least twice a week of new goods to replenish sold out products or simply to be
put on the shelves for the first time. Goods are sent from the manufacturing hub to stores to be
processed by the employees in the store and compared against what the corporate office had
ordered. This process has to happen quickly and relatively often in order to keep up with
Zara’s reputation for changing their products so quickly (Casium, 2010). Customers look
forward to walking into Zara and seeing all new products every couple of weeks.
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9. Emily Wiley Zara: A Blue Military Coat
Zara’s sales tend to be very high despite the problems with the economy due to their
high popularity with customers, but have also showed signs of wavering every now and then,
due to some customers cutting back and showing concerns over spending (Wallop, 2011).
However, in the first quarter of 2011 Zara did extremely well, showing an 11% rise to €2.96
billion. Zara is now worth “an estimated €32 billion,” which is amazing considering it was
“founded on just €30” (Hume, 2011). Zara’s great design is
one of the main reasons it manages to be so successful,
simply by providing the customer with what they like.
Media coverage is another secret to Zara’s success,
simply by promoting the products and getting the word out
about new products and advertisements. Media coverage
for products similar to the blue military coat that caught my
eye include Polyvore, a website that allows you to put looks
together in a way similar to a trend board (Polyvore).
Zara’s fall campaign for 2011 also included a coat similar to the one I chose, showing the
luxurious coats that Zara offers for an affordable price (Fashionizers.com, 2011).
Researching Zara’s design process for this coat gave me insight into what is involved
in designing for a major retailer, from choosing the right colors and fabrics to putting the
product on shelves. The design process for this coat involved a large amount of research, and
allowed me to see the amount of work that goes into one garment. The fact that Zara
manufactures their products themselves was an interesting fact as well, proving Zara’s
products are worth the money.
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