“If there is one lesson we can take away from the success of these non-advertisers, it’s that a winning strategy—even without advertising—comes down to product and people. These brands focus on making high-quality products. They trust people and the power of word-of-mouth to do the rest.”
Mega-brand Zara is one of the biggest brands out there that we all can learn from. The brand is placed in the 51st position of Forbes’ list of ‘The World’s Most Valuable Brands in 2017’, but it is considered as the world’s largest apparel retailer. The clothing brand has the net worth of 11.3 billion dollars while having 17.2 billion dollars revenue. And as of 2017, the Spanish brand has already managed to create 2169 stores throughout the world.
More amazingly, Zara succeeded to obtain all those big numbers mentioned above without any advertisement. Unlike brands that spend billions for advertising like Google, Zara is known for not paying any penny for advertisement. From that statement, a big question pops out; “How is it even possible? How is it possible for a brand to gain such huge name and revenue without any advertisements?”
Firstly, Zara strategically placed their stores in the best locations and even in the most expensive real estate areas in the world. This also could be the reason why you would find Zara stores in high-end malls or boulevards. The stores are placed in the spots that are known for fashion, the place where the big fashion brands have already settled in.
Secondly, the items that are being sold in the stores are relatively cheaper than the items the big brands surrounding Zara sell while having almost the same designs. Although cheaper, the quality is nowhere near bad. This strategy attracts costumers and creates an image of ‘high-quality clothes with more reasonable price’.
Thirdly, Zara gets new designs in faster than most of their competitors! They only need just one week to get new products and get it to their stores. Also, they launch around 12,000 new designs each year. This helps the customers choose the designs whatever suits them the most!
The strategy Zara developed shows us that advertising isn’t everything; you can also build a strong brand by pleasing your customers and trusting word of mouth, because, in the end, it’s all about pleasing your clients when it comes to building a strong brand.
