Fashion and Zara

In the past, JCP had, on average, one price campaign every day. The stores were full of sale signs and retail rise was getting out of control. JCP partnered with numerous exclusive collaborations which was hoped to bring about an expansion for the firm. However, due to the economic slump, the oversaturation of the market, and an expected lack of quality in the goods from the consumer perspective, JCPenney’s success was degrading in contrast to its competitors. (Sloan, 2010).

In 2002, CEO of Levi Strauss, Phil Marineau was faced with a tough decision: whether he should sell product at Wal-Mart. In the last five years, Levi-Strauss had lost sales and had to close US plants to move production to cheaper offshore areas. Levi's really needed to revive the brand image to gain back some lost sales and was using marketing to create new advertisements and product placement to broaden their target market. Levi's had tough competition on every level of the price-point spectrum, whether it be high end retailers like Diesel or Calvin Klein, middle vertically integrated retailers like Gap or American Eagles, and on the bottom, private-label brands like Wal-Mart and Target.

For decades, J. Crew has been a staple of middle-class America’s wardrobe. The company targets upper-middle class customers, selling Ralph Lauren-like designs at a lower price point. However, in recent years, the company, in addition to numerous other middle-tier American retailers, has struggled to find it’s niche in an industry often focused on the extremes. J. Crew’s executive and marketing teams have implemented new strategies to regain market share.

Zara is a high-end street store offering the latest tastes in fashion for women, men, and children alike. Amancio Ortego, Zara’s founder, has made the store grow with rapid success in both its home country, Spain, and internationally. One of the distinct reasons why Zara is such a unique company compared to its competitors is its foundation of the quick response system. Today, Zara’s cycle time is six weeks, in which it responds to its customers’ demand very quickly, unlike most stores that take half a year. Overall, Zara is distinct from most apparel stores in its ability to travel globally and from its international strategy.

A long-time leader among discount stores, Wal-Mart began experiencing the effects of competition from a variety of sources with 2006 seeing the company reach all-time-low performance (Ferrell, Hirt& Ferrell, 2013). Grocery competitors, such as Kroger and Safeway, have had an impact in the grocery sector, which makes up 40 percent of Wal-Mart’s business. Perhaps most damaging, however, has been a closing of price gap in household and fashion lines between Wal-Mart and fashionable low-price retailer Target. Wal-Mart’s answer to Targets inexpensive yet chic fashion lines was to launch George clothing. The company took out ads in fashion magazines and held a showcase for the new line, but was unable to maintain stock of popular sizes and styles

Old Navy’s history goes right where The Gap, Inc. was founded by Donald.G in 1969. Fisher, who founded his own clothing store out of frustration, when he couldn’t find a pair of jeans that would perfectly fit him. And since that time, The Gap’s retail clothing brand has been one of the most successful in United States history. Before Donald Fisher launched the first Gap store in San Francisco, he had been a prosperous real estate developer. It is fair to say, that Fisher’s first store was an immediate sensation. Young adults from the neighbouring San Francisco have flown to the stores to get low-priced jeans. And in just a few short years, the first Gap store became a huge retail chain composed of 200 stores, in over 20 states, and valued at an estimated $100 million dollars. By the late 1970s, GAP was growing at a rate of almost 80 new stores each year and generating about $300 million annually, which worth mentioning is a lot of money that days. In 1983, Millard Drexler was put in a position of a president of the company and was expected to lead the company into another decade of phenomenal growth. Dexter was a former president of another

The world 's largest clothing retailer has been able to cope with the financial crisis better than most of its rivals, helped in part by the expansion of shops in fast, growing commercial centres and also by offering affordable fashion at a fraction of the cost of designer fashions. This case provides information on Zara and its major rivals in the industry to highlight the challenges and opportunities facing companies who are competing on a global basis. Zara is the biggest player in the clothing retail sector and leads the way in sales and consumer growth whilst being recognised

The core concept of Zara 's business model is they sell "medium quality fashion clothing at affordable prices", and vertical integration and quick-response is key to Zara 's business model.  Through the entire process of Zara 's business system: designing, sourcing and manufacturing, distribution and retailing, they presented four fundamental success factors: short cycle time, small batches per product, extensive variety of product every season and heavy investment in information and communication technology.  These four elements are involved in every aspect of the business.

Quick response of Zara leads it to be successful in the fashion clothing industry. Zara adopts international strategy for its operation. With vertical integration, it benefits Zara in cost aspect, however, it involves some risks. Due to our anaylysis on Zara’s operations, some of the recommendations are made to facilitate its further improvements.

To better understand how Zara developed its business strategy, we should look into the fashion industry competition via Porter’s five forces model.

Sportsmen and women wear specific clothing for particular reasons, which include freedom of movement, physical protection of the body, personal identification, performance enhancing purposes, comfort and also fashion (Barton, 2015). Sportswear is defined primarily as apparel made for sports participation, however there now seems to be growing trend of consumers purchasing these garments as casual clothes worn for day-to-day activities. The connection between sportswear

Zara, one of the world’s largest apparel retailers, was founded in 1975 in La Coruna， Spain. With its successful rollout in the Spanish market, it began to expand its stores around the world, and became one of the most profitable brands in the appalling market. Zara was famous for its ability to quickly respond to the market demands, which provides a useful lesson in terms of competitive advantage with its competitors. But confronting to the fast-paced and constantly changing market, if a company wants to consistently increase market share in order to survive in the competitive market, it is irrefutable that it needs to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, since the achievement of sustainable competitive advantage can be expected to lead to higher performance.

In recent year, Zara is well-known as the world’s largest retailer and the most favorite fashion brands in the world to the people in their 20s-30s and children. Its success doesn’t come from just only what it sells but how it sells them.

Gap Inc., a leading global specialty apparel retailer, continued to lose market share and revenues as customer loyalty declined across the company’s five brands. Struggling to deliver a consistent product and customer experience, Gap Inc. was challenged to redefine its strategy once again. Going forward, the company is focused on driving long-term growth by expanding its customer base.

Next, the essay will concern about five performance objectives that help Zara achieve competitive advantage in business. About quality, beauty, affordable prices and fashion are factors leading to magic success of Zara as well as other brands of Inditex, but it is not easy to do that. Amancio Ortega is president of the corporation with 32,000 employees, but he still has habit of operating as a family company with a clever and simple style. Zara operates with closed model from research, design, production, distribution and retail. Diversity, abundance and frequent changes of clothing design have become the biggest competitive advantage of Zara. The competitors expect to have the attraction like Zara. Most customers feel loss or lack