How is Zara's fast fashion made?

Core tip: As a leader in fast fashion, how does Zara refine it?

① Cottage: Big Brand Company's creative release not a few days, Zara shop appears similar figure;

② fast: A Zara fashion from design to sales, only 2-3 weeks;

③ Less: Each store clothing style three weeks all updated;

④ Cheap: The price is big brand about 1/7;

⑤ Oil Pollution mode marketing: Almost no advertising, store is its best advertising.

Excerpts from the 21st Century Economic Report:

August 7, 2012, according to the Bloomberg billionaire index, Inditex Group founder Amancio Ottega, who owns a fashion brand such as Zara, replaces Warren Buffett as the world's third-largest millionaire. Within a day, the Spaniard's wealth grew by 1.6 billion dollars to $46.6 billion trillion, while Buffett's net worth was 45.7 billion dollars.

At present, he founded the Inditex Group in recent years, surpassing the gap in the United States, Sweden's h&m to become the world's first apparel retail group. The company operates 8 brands including Zara, Massimo Dutt and Stradivarius, and has 5,000 stores in 77 countries and regions worldwide. Florida, Madrid, England, London, Lisbon, Portugal ... Ortega's properties are all over the place. He is also a shareholder of investment companies such as Gartler, Partler, Menlle and Pontegadea Inversiones, which involves all walks of life, equestrian fields, football clubs, natural gas companies, tourism and so on.

Although Spain and Europe are now the most severe global economic downturn, Ortega's personal wealth continues to soar without any macroeconomic impact, and his main wealth comes from fashion retailing, the world's hardest-known business. But by opening new stores in emerging markets such as China, the Inditex Group has achieved profit growth for 12 consecutive quarters.

A pioneer in the business of suspending school

It belonged to the Spanish state of Galicia, a place where smugglers, pirates and tailors of medieval kings were made.

The father of the railroad worker was seconded to the railway in 1944, where a railroad from Santiago to Zamora had just been repaired, and Amancio Ottega, who had just reached the age of 8, followed.

At that time, it was Spain's traditional textile and apparel industry center, where residents have many opportunities to master fashion from the design, processing, wholesale, retail full set of business processes.

Four years later, Xiao Ortega really dropped out of school. For the first year, he was running around and everyone was refusing his job request because he was too young. So when he signed his first contract at a clothing store called William Gallas, he was ecstatic, though only as a handyman.

So, in the one named "Sarrión" bar in the Ortega, people will see the young clothing delivery staff often talk about the business with friends.

A few years later, he went to a more upscale clothing company as a salesman. In the company called La Maha work is simply to participate in Ortega family gatherings, sister Bebita, brother Antonio, sister-in-law Primitivadu work here. The clever Ortega quickly stood out and was promoted to the head of the department, and a few years later he married the girl Rosalia Mella Geyenace, who had been squeezed out of her position as the manager-his first wife.

When the clothing store manager, Amancio Ottega for his future to do what gradually have a clear vision. The boss put him in charge of selling a beautiful and exquisite lady's cotton robe, which is widely favored by female consumers, but its price is too expensive for most people.

Ortega's whim--the idea that later became the core business idea of Inditex--was to use cheaper materials to copy fashion and sell at a lower price. He bought a very cheap material from Barcelona and designed it himself, sewing a similar robe on his living room table and cutting the price by half. With the help of his brother and sister-in-law, he began to make a cheap fashion robe, and sent it to the local store to sell, the result is very popular.

Ortega tasted the sweetness. More than 10 years of work experience has made Amancio aware that a piece of clothing from design to production, and then placed on the store shelves, which hides gold. In contact with local textile manufacturers, while accumulating their clients, plus the Bank 2500 pesetas (equivalent to 25 U.S. dollars) of loans, 27-year-old Amancio Ottega and his brother opened a small workshop to produce female household clothes: linoleic clothing. Naturally, wife and designer sister-in-law are the first batch of employees in the workshop.

In this simple workshop, the popular female cotton home clothing quickly produced, sold, and even exported to foreign countries. In ten years, Amancio's staff expanded to 500 people, and their own design team, with no retail channels.

Marketing of "Oil Pollution model"

In the new City Plaza shopping centre in the New territories of Hong Kong, Zara's glass window showcases the latest fashions of the season, with huge signs gripping the eye, and next door is George Amarni, one of the world's most famous luxury brands.

This is Zara's fault, it only chooses the best location to open the shop, surrounded by the top brands. Zara has greatly satisfied the girls ' showing off mentality: after the price of the luxury shop with enough stimulation and style of temptation, turned into Zara, do not have to empty purse, can also get bright, why not?

But the beginning of the story is not so beautiful fairy tales. Everything is doomed. A German client temporarily canceled a large order in 1975, Amancio Ottega opened the first Zara store (according to Wu Xiaobo, the richest man) in order to dispose of the pajamas already produced. The store is located opposite the most famous department store on Central Avenue in La Coruna City.

The location of the first store, revealed Ortega for the location of the chain store vision, and his design of the simple and concise storefront continued, for the world's praise.

Unlike many fashion brands, Zara hardly advertises, and in Amancio's view, stores are the main market tool for Zara, the best advertising.

Zara, which has nearly 5,000 stores in more than 70 countries and regions, has grown almost every week to open a new store. In the metropolitan area of the busiest section of the shop opened, and then reach the surrounding smaller cities, in the case of advertising, let the brand influence radiation nationwide. The marketing strategy of this "grease pattern" makes Zara the most studied brand in Europe by HBS, and Wharton sees it as a classic case of future manufacturing.

Fast fashion or "cottage"

Fast fashion, another killer of Amancio Ottega's business strategy.

The first Zara shop because of sales and marketing of high-grade high-end fashion imitation hit, welcomed by customers, one can not accept. Ortega knows the mysteries. Zara is a fast-fashion brand, and it is not a creator but a quick response to the trend, its spokesman said.

In Milan, Paris, New York and other fashion week, the lights, brand models gathered, and Zara designers are shuttling in a fashion show, looking for inspiration. Collection of fresh out of the trend of information, and then pick out the likely customers will be welcomed the style, after the revised design, quickly put the whole new product into production and sales. A Zara fashion from design to production, logistics, and finally into the sales link, on average, only 2-3 weeks, faster than the competitors 10 times times more than. The introduction of more than 20,000 new fashions a year in the fashion industry is a pretty impressive number.

The production of the new product reached the scheduled 50% to 60% when sent to the store, if the first week after the poor performance, will be immediately removed, also no longer production; if the sale is good, then in the next few weeks to complete the scheduled production. However, even the best-selling money will not stay in the store for more than 4 weeks, which makes customers in the fancy of a certain clothes do not hesitate too much, because it is likely to see it in a few days. Three weeks is the time to update all the clothes in Zara's store.

"Shanzhai", a Chinese-made word, seems to be Ortega to use flexibly. Fashion Big Company's leaders to his teeth itch, because of his new ideas, always in the press conference after a few days in Zara shop appeared similar figure. "Zara may be the most innovative, but also the most disruptive," said Daniel Piette, fashion director at LVMH. ”

Thus, he received a derogatory title: Fashion Terminator.

Even if Zara pays tens of millions of euros a year of tort fines, Zara has not given up, and natural Zara is making a much higher profit from it than a fine.

"Zara's aim is to democratize fashion," said Inditex Group's annual report. Unlike fashion privilege, we are inspired by the tastes, pursuits and lifestyles of modern men and women, and we offer clothing that we can afford to wear. "Some savvy designers may be dismissive of Zara's cheap fashion shows, but they acknowledge that Zara has nurtured a nation's fashion taste and revolutionized the wardrobe of a generation," he said.

India's Businessworld magazine praised Zara's speed: "Traditional fashion makers are always trying to influence consumers by predicting trends, but Zara does not." It is just a fashion follower, it focuses on catering to the tastes of consumers, what they want, what it makes, and then the fastest speed to put the product on the shelves. ”

Amancio still insists on putting most of its production in Spain, the most puzzling decision, as the global business tide rolls on. Whether it's clothing or electronics, most of the world's manufacturers are moving their factories to third countries, with a natural cost savings. But Amancio seemed to disagree. He believes that his own fashion profits are not low, the purchase and production in Europe, although increased costs, but this is not a serious problem.

Adhere to the "European manufacturing", can guarantee speed, so that the company in the shortest possible time to introduce new fashion. As a result, Lnditex's flagship store, Zara, and branded clothing outlets such as Pull&bear, Massimodutti, Bershka and Stradixarius, have 80% of garments still made in Europe, 50% from Spain.

Insist on not moving factories, but the smart Amancio does not ignore emerging markets such as China. Zara opened its first chain store in Hong Kong in May 2004. This is the 18th branch of Inditex Group in the Asia-Pacific region, marking the group's 2000 retail outlets in 50 countries in Europe, America, Asia and Africa. Later, the Inditex Group also set up 3 companies in Hong Kong, such as Inditexasia, Vastgoetasia and Zaraasia, to procure and collect fashion information, especially the needs of young consumers.

Keep a low profile but never say it back

July 1 11:15 A.M., in an industrial zone in the port of Amancio Ottega, northwest Spain, the 65-Year-old limped out of his office and into a room with a TV. 15 minutes later, his company was listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange. This small shop called Zara has become the world's third largest clothing company named Inditex. After another 15 minutes, a share price soared from 14.70 euros to 18.00 euros, and already had a fortune of 6 billion dollars he walked out of the house and went straight to the corporate restaurant, eating a simple lunch as usual.

Many media reports of this scene, people are amazed. Let a lot of people be amazed. Inditex's stock gains are seen as a marvel of the world's apparel industry. However, the good friend still can only in the factory workshop clothes pile to see has entered the old age Ortega. He still goes to the design area every day to talk to a designer who is only more than 20 years old.

Financial writer Wu Xiaobo in the preface to "the Richest man" that describes the richest people in all regions of the world: they are low-key, calm, mellow, like a different shape but function similar to the gold coins. Incredibly rich, incredibly low-key, Amancio Ottega is definitely one of their typical representatives, even the most low-key of the few. It is no exaggeration to say that he seems to "make every effort to obscure himself".

It's hard to find a piece of news about Amancio Ottega by browsing the local Spanish newspapers. He rarely interviewed in the media, and before 1999, his photos never appeared in the media. It was not until 2001 that Inditex first published his annual report that he had the first official portrait. Enter his name in Google search, only to find about 260,000 results, and Buffett, can find about 3.73 million results.

Ortega's subordinates say he is a man who avoids the high society and the rich circle. The most typical example is that, in 1998, the crown Prince of Spain Felipe to the company to receive his representative, Ortega, the crown prince did not see himself.

Now, Amancio Ottega and his second wife are still living in an inconspicuous apartment building in the centre of La Coruna. Foreign media commented that he is a veteran American billionaire Rockefeller's loyal followers. Rockefeller, who declined to write a biography after refusing to die, said: The best exposure in the newspaper is a brief summary of your birth, marriage and death.

In 2011, the 75-year-old Amancio Ottega announced his resignation as CEO of the company. No media cameras, no farewell parties, he issued a short statement to 98,000 employees announcing the appointment of Inditex as Vice president and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Pabro Aira successor. He said, dear friends, now is the time.

It was said that this suggests that Inditex is no longer a hereditary family business, but it is also said that, because of the age gap within the family, this will ensure that the family business is thriving under a loyal manager, until his favourite 27-year-old daughter, Marta, is able to take over.

The only certainty is that the old Amancio Ottega will not retire, and he will walk into the plant and stick it in the clothing heap. It was just that the 12-year-old boy, now a white-haired old oldest.

Original: Entrepreneur Magazine