Zara chooses a successful location for Cheats and a top fashion brand to be a neighbor

Nowadays, more and more top fashion brands have set their sights on China and invested in Shanghai. In May this year, the top fashion products industry summit hosted by the Financial Times and co-organized by the “Daily Economic News” was held in Shanghai; in June, the world’s most influential luxury goods exhibition landed in Shanghai; on July 5, Fudan University The “China-EU Brand Establishment and Fashion Industry Management” course jointly initiated by the School of Management of the University, the Bocconi University Business School in Italy, and the Higher School of Business and Business in Paris, France was officially launched. This is also the first study focusing on luxury goods and fashion industry management in China. International Cooperative Education Program.

In view of this, the newspaper officially launched the "Legend of Legends" column from today to discuss the current status and development path of the top brand industry, the successful way of world-famous fashion brands, the problems faced by Chinese fashion management, and solutions; The “Legend of Legends” series forum will be jointly launched with the School of Management of Fudan University, and readers are reminded to pay attention.

Build a legend

For designers, Zara may be a nightmare; but for business operations, it is a near-perfect example. After listening to the introduction of the Zara brand by Professor Stefania Savio, the master of fashion and design management at the Bocconi University Business School in Italy, more than 60 MBA and EMBA students from the School of Management at Fudan University issued such a lament.

Stefania Savolo, as the lecturer of the course "China-EU Brand Building and Fashion Industry Management", gave a series of definitions to "fashion": "Technically speaking, fashion is a textile fabric industry promoted by various market behaviors; from semantics It is said that fashion is a non-textual representation of individuals or groups through various symbols and signs; in the aesthetic sense, it is a picture depicted by a designer in a certain social and cultural background at a certain historical stage. Fashion trends in dress, accessories and fitments; for consumers, the most straightforward expression of fashion is looking beautiful."

Stefania pointed out that fashion was once synonymous with luxury, and social trends often originate from a certain detail in the aristocracy gathering; but today, fashion is already a national sport: wealthy people can buy Chanel and Dior, civilians also We can approach Zara or H&M. In Stefania's view, Zara, as the world's famous mass fashion brand, corresponds to the eternal and classic characters represented by luxury brands, and is a wonderful case in the era of rapid fashion consumption.

Looking back at Zara's history of development, we can see that Zara's success is based on two points: the establishment of a perfect management control system based on modern information technology, and the ability to quickly imitate. Zara founder Amancio Ortega Gaona's understanding of the concept of "fashion" can explain the problem. In his view, "Fashion is to meet the consumer's need for popularization in the shortest possible time."

Adjacent to luxury

In 1975, Ortega founded the first Zara store in LaCoruna, northern Spain. However, Zara at the time was not a fast fashion brand. Instead, it adopted the traditional classic style. However, this “cheap classic” model was quickly stricken by Waterloo, and Ortega was forced to adjust its thinking. The result was a great success. Zara now has 735 sales outlets in 31 countries.

Compared with other fashion products, Zara's market strategy is very unique: cheap fashion, but with luxury.

In terms of site selection, Zara is very picky. It only selects the best locations to open stores and is surrounded by top brands. Unlike many fashion brands, Zara barely advertises because they think that their stores are the best advertisements.

In New York, it chose Fifth Avenue; in Paris, it chose the Champs-Elysees; in Milan, Emmanuel Boulevard; in Tokyo, it was the Shibuya Shopping District; in Shanghai, it would be in the peaceful cinema on Nanjing West Road. Debut. Therefore, its neighbors are all LouisVuitton, Chanel, ChristineDior, Prada, GeorgeAmarni and so on. Moreover, Zara only choose the best models, such as AmberValletta is the most dazzling star in the Chanel show, BridgetHall is a regular guest of RalphLauren, they also speak for Zara. This greatly satisfies the consumer's spirit of showing off: shopping on Fifth Avenue without paying tens of thousands of dollars, but also with the same glamorous beauty and satisfaction, what better than that?

In terms of product quantity, Zara's seasonal products are determined based on market sales, but they are all controlled within a limited range. Products that sell well will increase production, but they will not increase too much. Like other limited-edition luxury goods, Zara conveyed this message to consumers: if the quantity is limited, they would like to purchase as quickly as possible, otherwise they would not show their worth.

Time is the key to fashion

Because it is both a manufacturer and a retailer, Zara has ample control and management of every aspect of production and supply chain. This allows it to quickly follow up on the latest trends and quickly correct after a mistake in a certain aspect.

We know that the chain of the fashion industry starts with design. When a new Zara style is determined, the relevant data is entered into the computer to guide cutting. In addition, Zara's outsourcing work requires very high timeliness. Products produced by third parties need to be completed six months before they are shipped to the store. The production of their own products usually takes 10 days from design to ready-to-wear.

Although Asia’s cheap labor costs have a strong temptation for apparel manufacturing, Zara’s outsourced products are mostly completed in Europe because Zara has strict requirements on the production time, quality, and transportation costs of the products. Would prefer to produce in Europe.

Delivery is one of the highlights of Zara's supply chain: Whether it is outsourcing or in-house production, all of Zara's products are ultimately concentrated in Zara's vast distribution center, where it is packaged and sent to various stores around the world. Zara's logistics center now handles 60,000 garments per hour.

Since "fashion meets the consumer's need for popularity in the shortest period of time," Zara's customers must be fresh every week, and they must make several purchases within a week. According to statistics, Zara's customers visit their stores at a frequency of about 17 times per year, which is 3-4 times the frequency of their competitors' stores; and Zara's quarterly price reduction products are only 15%-20% of the total product volume. , well below the industry average of 30%-40%.

Quick copy fashion

Today, Zara is able to launch 11,000 new styles every year, which is five times that of the average brand. The work of more than 200 designers of Zara company is to Paris, Milan and other places to see the haute couture show, from which to learn the wisdom and ideas of top designers, and then imitate manufacturing. Designers and store managers work in the same office, and information from the front line can be quickly fed back to designers and producers to adjust product details and production processes in the shortest possible time.

The frequency of updates was so frequent that Zara was called a designer's nightmare. For many designers, Zara is a monster, like a mindless but fast-growing money-making machine. Zara's imitation will undoubtedly devalue their creativity.

But on the other hand, this is also an important reason why Zara is popular with consumers: The rich buy Zara because it is fashionable; low-income people also buy Zara because it is cheap. When the big-name garments are still in the order stage, the latest elements of the season are already missing in Zara's stores around the world, although their originality is not high.

In Professor Stefania's opinion, such a contradiction seems to be difficult to solve: after all, fashion is a kind of creation that needs to be infused into the soul, but at the same time it should not be what the masses can't reach. However, Zara did indeed lead a popular fashion revolution for fashion management.