Over the last decades' clothes retail stores, Zara became one of the most popular and loved all over the world.
Starting from a small shop opened A Coruna, Spain, founder Amancio Ortega, with the initial help of his wife, who has been able to build an international powerhouse.
Zara is not only one of the most potent brands nowadays, but its massive success landed its founder Amancio Ortega among the wealthiest people in the world with a net worth estimated at 66 billion$.
The mission statement of Zara, as well as its vision, had a massive role in the creation of the company, keep reading to discover why.
Zara Mission Statement Analysis
Zara's mission statement is: “Give customers what they want, and get it to them faster than anyone else.” (source)
From Zara's mission statement, we can already have a glimpse of what has been the strategy of the company and why it has been so successful.
- “Give customers what they want,” while many fashion brands that you can find at Milan's or Paris's fashion weeks tend to create and launch their own way every year, and let customers adapt to their will, Zara's strategy has been different. Shops all across the world are careful about noticing what their customers request and fast at producing them, which leads us to the second point in the mission statement.
- “and get it to them faster than anyone else.” This second part of the mission statement is what has handed the Spanish brand the title of “Founding father of fast-fashion.” It isn't impossible that if many people request a certain kind of clothes and model to a Zara shop, or if there's a particular trend for among their young customers (i.e., camo pants), that in a month all Zara shops in town will carry this kind of clothes. This is accomplished by having a shorter supply chain. While your usual fashion brand created the models for the next season in Summer for the upcoming Winter and vice-versa, then send the apparel for production in large quantities, Zara works with productions sites closer to the final retail point (i.e., in Morocco for Spain, instead of China like Ralph Lauren) to more quickly serve their customers.
Zara Vision Statement Analysis
Zara's vision statement is: “Through Zara's business model, we aim to contribute to the sustainable development of society and that of the environment with which we interact.” (source)
When it comes to the vision statement, of Tara we can see how the focus is vastly on having not only a successful and sustainable business but also taking care of all the human beings and nature involved.
Over the last decades, all the most famous apparel brands have been under pressure for misconduct in how their workers in third-world countries were treated, and because of the fact that creating and selling new clothes all the time isn't suitable for resource re-use and pollution. That's why companies like Zara want to firmly state their effort in being as sustainable as possible, with many campaigns.
Zara History
Zara was born in 1963 from humble origins back in A Coruña, Spain, the city where founder Amancio Ortega grew up.
Ortega initially started a garment manufacturing company called Confecciones GOA. His wife later started to design lingerie and quilted robes, and the couple decided to start selling these in their first Zara shop in 1975.
The name Zara was inspired by the famous book and movie ‘Zorba the Greek. The store was indeed initially called ‘Zorba,' but because that was the name of a popular bar in town, the couple decided to change the name in Zara.
They expanded outside of Spain for the first time, with their store opened in Porto, Portugal, in 1988, not so far from A Coruña. The first U.S. Zara store opened in 1989 on Lexington Avenue in New York City.
Amancio Ortega is nowadays the head of the holding company in a bigger group called Inditex global retail brands, also include Pull&Bear, Bershka, and Stradivarius, among the others.
