Inditex

This case study examines Zara’s current retail strategy and digital transformation. It details Zara’s current in-store and eCommerce retail strategy, the impact of digital on the retail environment and customer experience, and the growth opportunity provided by eCommerce. By providing a competitive analysis of the current market, this paper presents key opportunities, strategic questions, and possible solutions for retail brands to improve their digital strategy.

This paper received First Class Honors in the Digital Marketing Strategy course at Trinity Business School.

This article deals with the influence of the country brand in the fashion industries. It explains how some Spanish fashion companies have achieved a prominent position in the international market without the support of a positive ‘country-of-origin effect’ and why their success has not generated a reinforcement of the image of Spain in the fashion market. The paper examines the evolution of the image of Spain and the Spanish fashion abroad, and the internationalisation of the main Spanish fashion companies, highlighting the keys of the limited influence of the country brand in the success of these companies. Free online copy: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/6ID9YX5FXX97KITEUR4Z/full?target=10.1080/00076791.2017.1374370

The Covid-19 pandemic has deeply affected working life. Workers who have to earn money to proceed with their lives have had to work during this time, even if they did not want to do so. Consequently, the question of whether adequate protective measures have been taken in the workplace for workers who have had to work during the pandemic is a critical one. In this article, the measures taken especially in respect of employees of multinational companies are examined in view of a survey of employees of Inditex, the Spanish ‘fast fashion’ company. Following a review of the literature on the place of multinational companies, along with their supply chains, in the engine room of global capitalism and on research into the working conditions of shopping mall employees, setting an appropriate context for the survey findings, the article explores what the findings reveal. Malls might well be new venues of insecurity in terms of the threat posed to the need for workplaces to be safe and secure for employees, but Covid-19 has ruthlessly exposed both the lack of protection and the risks which workers in such environments face on a day-to-day basis.

This paper primarily aims to analyze two business models within the garment industry: Zara Inc., a Spanish owned company that produces most of its product within Europe; and Gap Inc., a company that is known for its outsourcing of garment manufacturing. Many debates accompany the business models of these two fashion giants. Although outsourcing is not necessarily unfavorable, because it encourages economic interdependence and globalization, socially irresponsible outsourcing, such as Nike’s use of sweatshops in the 1990s, demonstrates an end goal of solely economic gain and a disregard of human rights. Consumers and companies today should value both economic gain and social responsibility within the garment industry as related to global outsourcing, because it will ultimately lead to more profitable business and respect of global human rights.

This article is an in depth analysis of Zara´s communication system to stablish relationship with the stakeholders. Even though some os them must be unconcious even for the company they get, as a result, a very comprehensive and attractive brand image created through market orientation.

Spanish firm Inditex, specially known for its brand Zara, has been listed among the three bigger corporations of fashion industry in world market. It held the second position in profits after the Swedish Hennes & Moritz, and the third one in sale levels after the North American Gap or H&M itself. During last known fiscal year Inditex exported the 60.2% of its output, although the bigger part of its sales (40.6%) were focused in the European Union, excluding the domestic market.

This paper analyzes how the technological innovation improved by the firm contributed to grant a higher level of flexibility to its production and distribution processes and therefore helped to improve its international competitiveness. In the first part the identification of the best competitive advantage of the firm, flexibility and just in time policies, are treated. Associated to these we find knowledge of consumer preferences, vertical integrations from design to the commercialization of final outputs, offer segmentation in several international brands, and heterodox customer fidelization through sophisticated marketing techniques. This last one includes specially the establishment of the called social audits among its suppliers mainly in developing countries but also in developed ones, which monitor the fulfilment of a series of rights regarding workers and customers.

Once competitive advantages are examined, in the second part of the work main technological innovations promoted by the firm are identified. These allowed the firm to improve competitive advantage and promoted it among the leading ones in fashion business of the world market. Among main innovations the ones associated to Information and Communications Technology (ICT or IT) must be emphasized. In this case, commercial and financial information transfers provide the firm with real-time knowledge of its financial highlights. Innovations in the fields of logistics and robotics are also analyzed. Besides this last one, which implies a high investment, the rest of innovations are paradoxically associated with huge cost savings.

The basic information used for the elaboration of this paper comes from official reports on fashion industry in Europe and in Spain, from the Annual Reports of the firm itself and its competitors, and from several interviews with managers of the firm. Porter methodology has been used, as well as his diamond framework for the study of textile sector with the support of later works sharing this perspective.

This paper traces the foundations, growth and expansion, and future scope of the fast fashion brand, Mango. First launched in 1984, Mango today is the second-largest exporter in the Spanish textiles sector behind Inditex. With their Concept, Team and Logistics System the three pillars on which they have built this successful retail brand, their history and evolution is examined. The Mango store and the Franchise system are integral to the Barcelona based retailer, and their metamorphosis into the Megastore, with almost 50 percent own stores has been studied. Mango's global growth and expansion into various emerging and developed economies is examined while its entry into the US market is closely looked at. Mango " s various lines and collections, its two new brands H.E. and Violeta, and its alliances with various international designers is also touched upon. The " What should I wear? " ad campaign in the UK, its first major global branded content initiative, is a novel concept to target 30 something women, promoting Mango clothing as stylish work wear. How Mango survived the 2012 recession and managed to increase its turnover is examined and the Rana Plaza tragedy, considered the industry's worst ever, is also discussed.

Although born globals (BGs) have now been studied for over a decade, theory and practice are still evolving. This article was written to clarify the definition of a Born Global (BG) firm and to describe the three phases—introductory, growth and resource accumulation, and break-out to independent growth as a major player—through which BGs progress. Drawing from empirical evidence, it was found that the risks, resource development, channels/networks and organisational learning of BGs develop during the three phases through which successful BGs pass. However, this process deviates considerably from that followed by traditional internationalising small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Born Global entrepreneurs and academics can learn much by studying the causes of these differences.

Vor einigen Jahren weckten einige AutorInnen der Global Labour Studies die Erwartung, dass die Globalisierung des Kapitals und die neuen Möglichkeiten der elektronischen Kommunikation bald zur Hegemonie der Arbeiterklasse führen könnten. Dafür übersahen sie großzügig die politischen Hindernisse, veränderte technische und ökonomische Bedingungen wurden als hinreichend angesehen. Diese optimistische Sicht provozierte den harschen Widerspruch von Michael Burawoy, der statt einer heraufziehenden Hegemonie des Proletariats nur vereinzelte partikulare Widerstände sah, was eine erbitterte Debatte zwischen beiden Seiten hervorrief.

Der Optimismus im Hinblick auf international koordinierten Arbeiterwiderstand angesichts der fortlaufenden Internationalisierung des Kapitals und die ihm folgende Ernüchterung angesichts der Schwierigkeiten einer effektiven transnationalen Vernetzung bilden einen Zyklus im Diskurs, der sich regelmäßig wiederholt. Bereits in den 1970er Jahren gab es eine ähnliche Debatte aus Anlass der Einrichtung der ersten weltweiten Betriebsratsstrukturen in einigen multinationalen Konzernen.

Neben den offiziellen weltweiten Strukturen der Branchenföderationen und der verschiedenen globalen Gewerkschaftsverbände entstanden in den letzten Jahrzenhnten zahlreiche Formen der Kooperation von Arbeitenden über Kontinente hinweg. In dieser Studie werden anhand von vier Beispielen die Organisierungsformen von Arbeiter/innen in Deutschland mit Arbeiter/innen in anderen Ländern vorgestellt. Dies kann keine repräsentative Darstellung sein, da es weniger noch als in anderen Bereichen keine einheitlichen Modelle der transnationalen Organisierung von Arbeiter/innen gibt.

Die Auswahl repräsentiert nichtsdestotrotz «typische» Modelle: Als solche sind die Organisierung innerhalb eines Weltkonzerns (Bayer, Coca-Cola) und die Organisierung in Bezug auf das Produkt (Textilien, Eisenbahn) anzusehen. Bei der konzernbezogenen Organisierung wurde sowohl eine durch oppositionelle Betriebsratslisten (Bayer) als auch eine über einen globalen Gewerkschaftsverband (Coca-Cola) ausgewählt. Die Organisierung bei H&M, Zara und Esprit geht über die Grenzen der traditionellen Branchengewerkschaften hinaus (Textilindustrie und Einzelhandel), orientiert sich aber an den Lieferketten der Konzerne, die die Textilien verkaufen. Der Zusammenschluss von Bahngewerkschaften orientiert sich dagegen an der Bereitstellung derselben Dienstleistung in verschiedenen Ländern: Transport durch Schienenverkehr.

In der Studie werden die mit den jeweils entstandenen  Modellen der Organisierung verbundenen Widersprüche herausgearbeitet, die oft auch in der Branchenstruktur begründet liegen. Anhand der Beispiele wird die Diskussion um einen social movement unionism und um die Organisierung von Arbeiter/innen entlang von Lieferketten sowie um die widersprüchliche Position von Gewerkschaften aufgegriffen und weiter entwickelt.

The Covid-19 pandemic has deeply affected working life. Workers who have to earn money to proceed with their lives have had to work during this time, even if they did not want to do so. Consequently, the question of whether adequate protective measures have been taken in the workplace for workers who have had to work during the pandemic is a critical one. In this article, the measures taken especially in respect of employees of multinational companies are examined in view of a survey of employees of Inditex, the Spanish ‘fast fashion’ company. Following a review of the literature on the place of multinational companies, along with their supply chains, in the engine room of global capitalism and on research into the working conditions of shopping mall employees, setting an appropriate context for the survey findings, the article explores what the findings reveal. Malls might well be new venues of insecurity in terms of the threat posed to the need for workplaces to be safe and secure...

Resumen: El objetivo de este artículo es evaluar la eficacia comunicativa de la portada del portalde empleo de Inditex (www.inditexjobs.com), que constituye un ejemplo de discursoinstitucional en entorno digital. Mediante algunas herramientas teóricas del análisis deldiscurso, la pragmática, la lingüística textual, el análisis crítico del discurso y la semiología,analizaré las estrategias discursivas de Inditex. En concreto, aplicando los criteriospropuestos por Renkema (2001) para el análisis de la efectividad de la comunicación ins-titucional, investigaré si la página de Inditexjobs es adecuada o si contiene errores de correc-ción, consistencia y correspondencia.

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to assess the communicative efficacy of the Inditex job portal(www.inditexjobs.com), which constitutes an example of institutional discourse in thedigital setting. By means of some theoretical tools of Discourse Analysis, Pragmatics, TextualLinguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis and Semiotics, I will analyze the discursive strate-gies of Inditex. More specifically, applying the criteria proposed by Renkema for the analy-sis of the efficacy of institutional communication, I will research if the Inditexjobs homepage is adequate or if it contains correction, consistency or correspondence errors.

Ingresos is a multiliteracies approach to teaching Business Spanish for Intermediate-low to Intermediate-mid Spanish speakers, centering around three key areas of business interest in Spain: Economic Sectors, Marketing, and Finance.  Each unit is capped with a cultural object that highlights the theme as it manifests itself in sound and image.  For the first unit on Economic Sectors, we follow jamón ibérico, cheese, and wine as they make their way through the extractive, transformative, and commercial sectors.  For the second unit on Marketing, we look at the 7Ps as they relate to Inditex and the fast fashion revolutionized by Amancio Ortega, especially via his internationally recognized brand Zara.  In the final unit on Finance, we consider the different options for financing a business and focus in specifically on the worker-owned coop model as successfully practiced now for decades by Mondragón.