Analysis
ZMET
Zara produces apparels of good quality, and the brand’s target customer segments largely agree on this. They find Zara’s apparels durable and reliable. However, while Zara performs well in quality, there is a risk of word-of-mouth (WOM) and social media negatively affecting the public’s perception of the brand’s quality. This is because many non-users or infrequent users often dismiss the brand’s quality, saying that they do not find Zara’s apparels to be of better quality than lower priced alternatives, such as those from H&M. However, these negative perceptions from the non-users and non-target customer segments generally stem from poor product knowledge rather than the actual performance of quality itself. Also, media releases and social media can play a critical role in shaping the perception of quality.
As aforementioned, while this gap in quality exists among the non-users and non-target customers segments, it should not be overlooked because it poses a threat as to how the perception of quality among the target customer group might be affected.
Gap Analysis
1. Quality
2. Brand Communication
Zara is a brand famous for its production, not marketing. To Zara, advertising is unnecessary spending and having an excellent production line to deliver goods to consumers is sufficient to sustain its growth. With this lack of focus on marketing communications, two way conversation and engagement with its consumer is almost non-existent.
On social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube, Zara only exist as a feed for updates rather than a platform that consumers can interact. It is amazing how it has 16mil likes (as opposed to H&M’s 13mil) and a possible explanation would be the high brand awareness across many giant markets across the globe. It is evident that most comments posted are either irrelevant or negative, and Zara leaves these comments hanging and only replying to a random few. Sharing of YouTube videos on their Facebook page only helps them achieve about 0.3% of viewership (out of the Facebook fans) and this is a shame as these videos are powerful tools to express the Zara brand image.
With this, Zara is seen with a gap evolving between their brand proposition and consumer’s perception of the brand. With the independency in advertising, the brand is completely in consumers’ hands and word-of-mouth is the very tool that will make or break Zara’s branding. In the country of origin, consumers have higher familiarity with Zara and it is easy for consumers to tell that Zara is of designer quality. However as it expands out to Asian countries in Singapore, where consumers are blinded by heavy advertising and huge variety of clothing, the lack of emphasis on its quality and fast-fashion element has led to alienation by some. There seem to be a poor perception of value as Zara do not come across as “designer goods” and they are compared to mainstream retailers such as H&M, which focuses 80% of its products on the basic line and hence offered at lower prices on average.
Moreover, Zara charges higher by 15 - 20% on its products in Singapore, drawing it further away from its positioning as “affordable”. Even though Zara prides itself on its quality and fast-fashion, isolated cases of poor product quality are spread through word-of-mouth, influencing neutral potential consumers to become skeptical brand detractors.
Hence, with the lack of marketing communications, the disparity between brand positioning and consumer perception by the non-target segment is worsened. This is exacerbated by its considerable misaligned strategy in foreign markets such as in Singapore.
3. Mission and Values
Zara’s mission is to adopt environmentally friendly and sustainable practices through constant innovation. The company builds its social mission around 7 pillars as follow:
Despite the brand’s strong belief in social mission, only 11% of customers were aware that Zara subscribes to environmental and sustainable practices, as seen from our survey findings. We took a step further and asked customers if they would be more inclined to purchase from Zara should the brand support a social cause, and a significant 32% of respondents said they would either be inclined or very inclined. This aligns to what Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever said, “The concept of value is increasingly being associated with products that demonstrate social responsibility.”
Service staffs in Zara are dressed in black with the intention of looking professional and well groomed. However, this dress code has given many customers the impression that the staffs are cold and not initiative, especially since the staffs are also observed to be more reserved and less attentive to consumers. This also makes it difficult for the staffs to extend their product knowledge in which they might have already trained hard for. As supported from our survey findings, consumers seeking high-end fashion place greater emphasis on service quality, hence it is important that Zara explores ways to improve its customer service experience.
4. Customer Service
Upon inspection of the various elements CBBE pyramid, we realized Zara has a weak emotional route while the rational route is better established. In particular, there are significant gaps in terms of imagery and feelings. As a result, judgments and resonance fall short as well.
In terms of imagery, our findings have suggested that Zara performs poorly in terms of brand personality and values as well as brand heritage, history and experiences. Through our research, respondents gave vague definitions of Zara’s origins and struggled to describe Zara’s brand personality. Hence, they found it difficult to develop an emotional response with Zara, leading to weakness in terms of feelings. Zara should thus explore developing a story and purpose for their brand to create greater brand meaning for their customers.
1. Weak CBBE Emotional Route
Strategic Gaps
Tactical Gaps
Though Zara fares decently in terms of performance, this does not seem to translate to positive judgments. This could have been due to the poor imagery and feelings that influenced customers’ judgments of Zara.
Additionally, Zara does not partake in major advertising resulting in heavy reliance on word-of-mouth. As a result, potential customers’ perceptions may have been shaped by their family and friends opinions, even before forming their personal impressions of Zara. Hence, Zara needs to work on improving its marketing communications such that its value is properly communicated to its target segments.
2. Poor Imagery affecting Judgment
