In clothing, we consider three types of Product Life Cycles, Style, Fashion and Fad. Striking difference between the three is the length of Product Life cycle, it being longest in style and shortest in Fad. In our Solar System, which is the fastest planet? The answer is Mercury. Zara has successfully established itself as a preferred Brand among today’s millennial shoppers that are frugal, value-minded, and demanding quick, speedy and on-trend fashion. Inventory management model of Zara focuses on agility and flexibility. And they are swift at adapting too. Zara is known as the creator of fast fashion. And this is one major differentiator on which the marketers of Zara have positioned their Brand successfully. They refresh their stocks much faster than any other store. While a dress displayed in a fashion show may take months to reach any other fashion store, it is replicated in Zara stores in a few weeks.
Now let’s analyze the above in terms of Management Astrology. Core Business of Zara is fashion clothing and the planet which rules this Business is Venus. Mercury is a close friend of Venus and is the most agile Planet. Product life cycles in fashion industry are among the shortest of all product categories and hence speed plays a key role in this industry. The segment in which Zara operates is more oriented towards fad whose PLC length is the shortest. By making speed as a key differentiator, Zara have actually given the portfolio of differentiation to mercury. In Management Astrology, when we calculate the net resultant impact of all key Business processes, the planet which rules the differentiation for that particular Business (company/enterprise/Brand) plays a key role. Does this mean that only mercury can be a differentiator for fashion Brands? The answer is no. Fashion brands can be positioned in terms of a few other planets also. However, the key feature of mercury is that it is friendly with Venus and Sun, neutral to Saturn, Jupiter and Mars and enemy only to moon. However, moon likes mercury and doesn’t give negative effects to Mercury. This means that by promoting a differentiator ruled by Mercury, Zara has created a path of minimal resistance to its Positioning strategy. This partly explains the success of Zara. We will continue with our analysis of Zara in our future articles.