ZARA | Identifying Customer Needs in Fashion

IDENTIFYING CUSTOMER NEEDS IN FASHION
• Target consumers are young, fashionable city dwellers.
• Their taste in clothing changes rapidly and is hard to forecast.
• “In vogue” styles can emerge rapidly based upon, for example, what a rock star wears at a concert.
• Traditional fashion companies have lead times of between 6 to 9 months from designing items to getting the item in store.
• ‘Spontaneous’ fashion needs of urban city dwellers are therefore not being 100% fulfilled by traditional fashion designers.

MEETING CUSTOMER NEEDS
• Zara’s vertically integrated manufacturing capabilities allow it to constantly introduction new products and cuts lead time down to 3 weeks.
• Large group of people called “commercials” are responsible for traveling the world and observing trendsetters in order to identify hot fashion trends.
• “Commercials” were allowed great discretion in deciding what items to produce, and an item could be designed, manufactured, and in stores within 3 weeks.
• Zara pioneered concept of “disposable fashion”, manufacturing items that are sold at low price points allowing consumers to “keep up with the latest trend” by purchasing Zara clothes intended to “be worn 10 times”.
• Could respond directly to shifts in consumer taste and deliver trendy items to stores while the item was still “hot” allowing consumers to always be in the “latest trend”.

** Information in this document provided in part by “Zara: IT for Fast Fashion” case published by Harvard Business School. September 6, 2007.