Marketing Opportunity Need

[ZARA -Virtual Fitting Room ]

Organization/Brand overview

Zara was founded by Amancio Ortega in 1975 and is owned by Inditex Group. The fashion group is the

largest apparel retailer and is made up of eight different brands. The largest is Zara, with over 2047 stores

in 96 countries. The company operates with a lean organizational structure, which emphasizes high

performance and works to reduce the number of managerial hierarchy levels and decentralize

decision-making. Zara is also a vertically integrated company which means that they have control over

several or all of the production and distribution steps involved in the creation of their product at their

textile dye house. From design to delivery, it takes the company only five weeks for a garment and only

two weeks for an existing model. This method shortens the product life cycle, which allows for greater

success in meeting consumer needs.

Marketing Opportunity

“ Identify the marketing opportunity (product or service) your chosen organization/brand can take advantage of and use as leverage to improve their business. Along with a detailed description of the opportunity, you should discuss why this opportunity is relevant in the current context and is also

important for the company. This opportunity shouldn't already be provided by your chosen brand. That said, the product/service may already be in the market and offered by a competitor. But your chosen

brand shouldn't already be offering that product/service.”

Zara is one of the most prominent fashion organizations and its expertise is dealing with the fast

fashion which is demanded both in the local and international regions. Zara has gained dominance as the

biggest retailer because of specializing in assorted products for customer satisfaction. It was founded in

Spain by a Spanish fashion icon and gradually grew to a global merchandise distributor (Lee & Xu,

2020). Zara stays afloat in the international markets through establishing various opportunities which can

be positively manipulated primarily for profit maximization. The virtual fitting room is the current

trending technique in the business world which can have a positive impact on Zara when incorporated.

Virtual fitting room expounds having clients fit in their desired clothes or jewelry without physically

touching the fabric. It is an advanced technology which functions by capturing a client’s image and using

it to virtually fit the clothes according to their mentioned tastes and preferences.

Zara should use the technique because it will elevate their online markets and attract new clients.

It saves time because customers will make their purchases and fit in the virtual rooms thus minimizing

face to face selling. That is an excellent strategy especially for clients working on a tight schedule and

need a change of clothes and other accessories. Another benefit is that it will reduce physical fitting which

tampers with the cloth’s fabric (Lee & Xu, 2020). People have different shapes and sizes thus will

negatively impact the fabrics due to expansion. The virtual fitting rooms ensure that an individual has a

clear view of how the selected cloth will look before they accept the delivery. It reduces chances that an

individual will reject the placed order because most time has been allocated in ensuring that they have

made an informed decision before placing a purchase.

Reference

Lee, H., & Xu, Y. (2020). Classification of virtual fitting room technologies in the fashion

industry: from the perspective of consumer experience. International journal of fashion

design, technology and education, 13(1), 1-10.

Marketing Communication

“Market Communication: Use two concepts from Chapter 3 and two concepts from Chapter 4 to propose a communication strategy for your new opportunity. Along with a detailed description of your strategy,

you should discuss why these strategies are suitable for your recommended opportunity.”

[CONCEPT 1] Chapter 3

One major weakness of advertising on a virtual platform is not being able to produce a physical and normal reaction, in a way, they won’t see the product unless it is right in front of them. One idea that I was able to produce to encourage a virtual fitting room for Zara is building a virtual “store”. People would like to navigate a set source of clothes on themselves, the main point of a virtual fitting room, but the

point is that the technology overall is not yet advanced to produce pinpoint accuracy of the product. If they were to set up a virtual fitting room, they could produce something bigger. The idea is to utilize augmented reality and virtual reality. A good strategy is to allow customers to not only recognize the brand but the store layout itself. Although it may vary, each store has a style to produce for customers. Virtual Reality could allow users to walk around and see categories of clothes when they walk up to a specific section. From there, they could use augmented reality to debate the well-being of the clothes for themselves. It may not solve the accuracy but it could help people be introduced to where they could walk to find the product or see a bigger category from the in-person store.

[CONCEPT 2] Chapter 4

An idea that Zara could implement is the use of classic conditioning. With a specific sound being played after purchase through the virtual fitting room. The idea is that the sound would produce Positive Reinforcement when the consumer would buy their product. There would be an incentive to purchase and utilize a virtual fitting room when the consumer is offered use of ease and possibly better deals. When asked to purchase an item online through the application, if you were not going to use one of the deals, the purchase would not include a sound. If one were to give in to the exclusive deals you would hear the simple sound that customers can remember and be influenced to continue. “It’s like a reward”.

[CONCEPT 3] Chapter 3

Another concept that Zara can highlight is the process of attracting the attention of its consumers. A way the company can do this is by focusing on individual and personal selection factors that are to be considered when looking at decisions consumers make. These are the unique characteristics which distinguish one individual from another. In this specific case, the virtual fitting room simulation will allow customers to distinguish what they want to wear and how it will potentially look on them and aid their decision making process. This feature would also allow the user to quickly transition from product to product in comparison to the “trying on” process that occurs in a tangible setting. This would greatly benefit Zara as a company because their website is known for being confusing for consumers. Additionally, Zara is well known for their large selection of fashion merchandise which can become overwhelming for customers as they navigate their options on the website. This feature would also provide the opportunity for Zara consumers, who are known to be very fashion forward, to put together different articles of clothing to create their own individual outfits. Essentially, virtual fitting rooms would help Zara capitalize on their main consumer market by making the clothing selection process more efficient through implementing technology.

[CONCEPT 4] Chapter 4

Looking at chapter 4 lecture material, it is evident that there are two ways consumers process information. These ways include short term and long term memory. Implementing this virtual fitting room for Zara, it would be best to take advantage of imagery processing that occurs when consumers process information with their short term memory. With this added feature, consumers are exposed to sensory information

such as images and are able to make conscious clothing choices through this function. This imagery can then affect product liking and choices that the consumer makes. Hopefully, with the virtual fitting room feature, customers will appreciate their ability to see how clothes will look on them and remember their favorite pieces from their selections. As a result, our idea for the company will improve on increasing attention in the consumer's mind and making their fashion experience shift from their short term to long term memory. In layman's terms, if we get consumers to pay more attention to how the clothes look on their bodies uniquely, the information will be processed much more efficiently. We can also keep in mind that familiarity will increase the company's chance for consumers to remember their clothing options–so having styles and pieces that are seen in trends on social media and other aspects of our daily lives will give us a better chance.