The company that never advertised. ZARA

The common belief underlines how the most relevant Spanish brand, the fashion business that revolutionised the industry in our country, has never spent one euro in advertising.

This is a controversial statement.

We should agree on this: Zara does not use the traditional media in advertising (we cannot find its ads printed in female magazines, aired on TV or broadcast in the radio).

But we cannot give either all the credit to word of mouth.

Marketing (questions such as defining the retail experience and carrying on a strong PR and communication strategy) has always been a key point for this brand.
Lately, through a very consistent and powerful online strategy  and because of its very smart use of the social networks, Zara (in Nov, 2011, Zara has almost 10.500.000 fans in Facebook) is not so far away from the persuasive communication.

What is Zara´s unique selling proposition? Low cost and fast fashion for any kind of woman or man of any age, babies and kids included (perhaps slighly more mature than other brands such as H&M, perhaps more stylish and versatile than brands such as Sfera).

Easy to wear, easy to combine clothing which looks specially appealing since, most of the time, is simply replicating high fashion designs. Low cost replicas -made in China, Morocco or Tunisia most of the times- is Zara most distinctive characteristic.


Rythm is another brand value: short collections are one of Zara´s features. Every two days the stores receive new products that are constantly being evolved and redesigned to fit client´s tastes and new trends.

Zara itself is sporadically introducing new sub-brands such as Zara Home, Zara Kids, Maternity and so on...

Lately, the brand has introduced a new concept of interaction with its publics. Zara People. The trick -one of the biggest trends in social media nowadays: autogenerated content by users-

Zara People mechanics are simple: Users should take a picture of themselves wearing and combining with taste and attitude Zara clothings and the most atonishing looks will get a prize in money (300 euros) to spend in one of the almost 2.000 Zara stores around the world.