Market Orientation as a Branding Strategy Charina Montemar Hägglund Supervisor: Olivia Kang Bachelor.s Thesis . Företagsekonomi CAutumn Semester 2007Department of Business Studies 2ABSTRACT This paper studied the impact of market orientation strategy on brand awareness. Zara, aSpanish leading fashion retailer and an example of a brand using the above mentioned strategy,is being compared with three other multinational brands operating in Stockholm, Sweden,namely; Topshop, Mango and United Colours of Benetton. The latter brands are knownto be using advertisement to create brand awareness.Fashion magazine.s attention were used as a measure of brand awareness. Data on the brandawareness were gathered by browsing three leading Swedish fashion magazines - Elle, Glamourand Damernas Värld - and the fashion section of the biggest Swedish tabloid, Aftonbladet.It was found out that market orientation can compete with advertising as a marketing strategyto create brand awareness, but only in some parts of the market segment. This was concludedfrom the fact that Zara was featured in some of the magazines, but not all of them.3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to thank our thesis adviser, Ms. Olivia Kang, who gave me unconditionalsupport and understanding to complete this paper. Second, I would like to thank my lovingfamily and friends for continuous trust and support in my capacity. Lastly, I would like tothank my classmates for sharing to me their constructive criticisms and comments to improvemore this paper. CHARINA MONTEMAR HÄGGLUND 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 5 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK................................................................................................................. 7 BRAND AWARENESS ........................................................................................................................... 7 FASHION JOURNALISM / MEDIA........................................................................................................ 8

ADVERTISING...................................................................................................................................... 9 MARKET ORIENTATION STRATEGY............................................................................................... 11 CUSTOMER FOCUS ...................................................................................................................................... 12 COMPETITOR FOCUS ................................................................................................................................... 13 INTERFUNCTIONAL COORDINATION ................................................................................................................. 14 MARKET ORIENTATION AND BRANDING............................................................................................................. 15 MODEL................................................................................................................................................ 15 METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................................................... 16 MARKET ORIENTATION STRATEGY............................................................................................... 16 ZARA....................................................................................................................................................... 16 ADVERTISING STRATEGY ................................................................................................................ 19 BENETTON ................................................................................................................................................ 19 MANGO ................................................................................................................................................... 19 TOPSHOP .................................................................................................................................................. 20 METHOD ............................................................................................................................................. 21 FASHION MEDIA ........................................................................................................................................ 21 DATA GATHERING ....................................................................................................................................... 22 ANALYSIS OF DATA.................................................................................................................................. 22 DIFFERENT TYPES OF MEDIA........................................................................................................... 23 DIFFERENT TYPES OF EXPOSURE ................................................................................................... 25 ADVERTISEMENTS............................................................................................................................ 27 CONCLUSIONS........................................................................................................................................... 29 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH......................................................................................... 30 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................. 31 APPENDICES............................................................................................................................................... 33 5 INTRODUCTION The fashion industry has evolved noticeably over the past few decades. Fashion products thatused to be luxury items are now considered as basic commodity products and bought by almostall segments of the society.1 Factors that may contribute to this growing demand forfashion products is the continuous low prices that may be brought about by an increasingnumber of target markets2 and transferring the production sites to developing countries.Due to the booming numbers of customers, more and more stores sell fashion items, leadingto stiffer competition. Consumers are also more conscious of fashion trends. Furthermore,they are not only conscious of the style but also the quality and the price attached to it. Becauseof these factors, it is getting harder and more difficult for the sectors involved in fashionto stand out in the industry. Nowadays, it is very vital to create value for a product byusing successfully proven marketing tools.Moreover, it is now also equally important for the customer to recognize the existence andavailability of a company.s product or service. This is called brand awareness. Creating brandawareness is one of the key steps in promoting a product. The product that promotes the highestbrand awareness compared to its competitors usually get the highest sales.3

Advertising is one of the basic ways of promoting a brand. Many companies spend millions inadvertisement just to introduce a new product or even to remain competitive in the businessindustry. In fact, it is the primary way of communicating a new product/brand/concept in themarket. United Colours of Benetton, MANGO & Topshop are the few examples of fashionretailers which focus a lot on advertising.This paper will also cite one marketing strategy that can be an alternative to advertising. It isthe market orientation strategy, popularly used by leading fashion retailer Zara (Inditex).

1 Mazaira, González & Avendaño (2003)2 Ibid.3 Brand Awareness n.d.6Zara is one of the world.s top leading clothing companies in terms of sales, profits and leadtime. Despite this success, Zara claims not to have a formal marketing department, and doesnot use advertising to promote its products. To maintain its sustainable competitive advantagein the retail clothing industry, Zara uses the .market orientation. strategy instead.4

Market orientation refers to .the organization-wide generation of market intelligence, disseminationof intelligence across the departments and organization-wide responsiveness to it.according to Jaworski and Kohli (1993, p. 2). It is also when the aim of the organization isfocused to the continuous creation of superior customer value.5 The strategy is not just a marketingstrategy but it involves the organization of both the company and its customers.6

In the Zara case, market orientation is not only used as the most important strategy to gaincompetitive advantage, but also as a branding strategy. We want to investigate whether marketorientation as a branding strategy works as well as advertising in creating awareness of thebrand. Our research question will be: .Can market orientation as a marketing strategy evokethe same amount of brand awareness as advertising?..Media attention will be gathered from three Swedish fashion magazines, Elle, DamernasVärld and Glamour, and the fashion division of the leading Swedish tabloid, Aftonbladet, as ameasure of brand awareness. Then as a reference, Zara will be compared to three other multinationalclothes retailers which have few stores in Sweden and which use advertising to createbrand awareness, namely; United Colours of Benetton, MANGO and Topshop.To get a better understanding of the whole paper, the following concepts will be clearly defined:brand awareness, fashion media, advertising and market orientation. Then the modelused in this study will be featured.4 Mazaira, González & Avendaño (2003)5 Slater & Narver (1994, p. 22)6 Mazaira, González & Avendaño ( 2003)7 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK BRAND AWARENESS“A product is something that is made in a factory; a brand issomething that is bought by a customer. A product can be copiedby a competitor; a brand is unique. A product can be quicklyoutdated; a successful brand is timeless.”7

There are so many definitions of a successful brand. According to the book .Brands Tailoredfor Retailers., a successful brand is .an identifiable product, service, place or relationship,augmented through brand processes in such a way that the brand buyer or user perceives relevant,unique, sustainable added values from or together with the brand supplier and seller thatmatch their needs most closely..All the above mentioned concepts emphasize on the uniqueness of the brand. This is veryimportant in able to build a brand different from all the others, a brand that can be an asset of

the company. A strong unique brand is an asset that needs to be taken cared of otherwise itwill depreciate or totally decline. This constant brand evaluation should be done by the companyto maintain the status of the brand in the market. To understand more, a company shouldknow the four levels connected to the brand.The above book mentioned the four levels of the brand, connected to the needs of the customer,namely; the generic, expected, augmented and potential levels. The generic level is thepart of the brand that meets the customer.s basic needs and the expected level consists of theminimum level of product and service conditions customers expect when they buy that specificbrand. The augmented level of a brand is a further development of value added that aimsto satisfy both the non-functional (can be emotional) and functional needs. The functional partof the brand is what the product or service actually does (features, performance and quality)and the emotional value is the psychological component in relation to the brand user.s motives,situation, role needs met by the product or service (e.g. reliability, empathy and respon-7 Ossiansson (2004, pp. 67-68)8siveness from employees). This level can be expanded further by the potential level by alsofocusing on innovation.8Then, it is also equally important that the brand will be known by its target market. Brandinga product is useless unless the prospect customer recognizes it. The mass public should beaware that a certain brand exists offering certain type of products. This is called brand awareness.What is brand awareness? Brand awareness can be defined in the following ways:9

Getting the brand.s name into the target audiences’ minds (building momentum)Remaining in one.s target audiences’ minds (sustaining momentum)Getting people to talk about the brand, consistently (and in a positive light)Building brand.s credibility... through positioning the brand itself as one of the bests in theindustryCreating an automatic association between a brand and its services/productsCreating an image that the target audience will find appealing and engagingBuilding brand awareness in the minds of the public is not an easy task to do. Some companieshave to stay in the business for quite awhile just to establish its brand name, while othersuse the marketing communications. tools such as advertising and public relations to introduceits brand to the target market. Brand communication can also be projected via mass mediaattention. Media attention can be exposure in magazines or newspaper, which will be the focusof this study. It is also vital to understand why we choose exposure of fashionbrands/products in fashion magazines/tabloid in order to measure brand awareness.FASHION JOURNALISM / MEDIAMedia as expressed through fashion journalism is not new these days. People of different agesbuy fashion magazines / gazettes just to be up to date of the latest trends or just for pure entertainment.Lately, it.s not only the women who read fashion segments in a magazine or tabloid/ newspaper, but men do too. As Susanne Janssen has stated in her paper .Fashion Reporting8 Ossiansson (2004, p. 69)9 The New Age of Brand Awareness ( 2005, § 1)9in cross- national perspective 1955-2005. (2006, p. 384) , .Experts in the field of fashion andmedia claim that in the twentieth century, fashion has become one of the cultural forms- likefilm, photography, jazz and pop music . that have gained substantially in editorial prominence

in the serious press..Janssen (2006, p. 384) further added that .fashion gets more coverage in the media than anycomparable area of human interest or endeavour. There are more articles written about fashioncompared than those about art, education, theater, literature, environment or technology.Newspapers also give fashion stories a higher profile than they did two decades ago.. An eyecatchingcatwalk can be noticed nowadays to be featured in the front page of an ordinary dailynewspaper, than any ordinary event. Due to the above, fashion journalism is also a boomingindustry now a days.Fashion journalism is a composite term used to describe all aspects of published fashion media.It is a way of communicating the aspects of fashion industry to the mass public. Peopleworking on this area are sometimes called as fashion writers, fashion critics or fashion reporters.Good examples of fashion journalism are not only the fashion features in magazines andnewspapers, but the term includes books about fashion, fashion related reports on television aswell as online fashion magazines, websites and blogs.10

Fashion write-ups is a form of publicity and will help the fashion retailer in exposing theirproducts to the concerned public, and thus in the end, promote brand awareness. However, itis very important that the brand should first get the attention of fashion analysts as primarypromoters or customers of the product. Thus, fashion media exposure is not only a valuableway of branding strategy, but can be also an expression of the success of a marketing strategy.This study will use the latter function of fashion media to measure the effect of two differentbranding strategies; advertising and market orientation.ADVERTISINGWhy do many companies spend millions in advertising? What benefits can advertisement giveto retailers especially in fashion? Does a fashion retailer really need to advertise to increasesales?10 Wikipedia 2008, Fashion Journalism, § 110Advertising is a message paid by a specific sponsor and released through some medium ofmass communication. It is a persuasive way of communication, not neutral, not unbiased andsays; .I am going to sell you a product or an idea..11 Advertising is only one of several marketingcommunication options available to the company.J. T. Russel et al. (1996) mentioned it is often is difficult to determine why a companychooses to advertise at a particular level. However, there are a number of situations that usuallydictate a higher proportion of advertising to sales than might otherwise be the case:1. To introduce or promote a new product or service.2. To be always competitive.3. To maintain a top position in the industry.4. To put emphasis on a new price.5. To keep up with a fast-growing industry.Moreover, advertising.s primary role is concerned with building brand awareness and preference. both of which are communication functions.12 As noticed from the above enumerations,advertising is a basic tool to promote a product holding a certain brand name, carrying acertain price in order to compete with other products available in the market. Russel Colley(as stated in De Fleur & Dennis 1998) claims in another book that if advertising is successful,it results to closed sales, and to do that it must carry consumers through the four levels of understanding:

(1) awareness of a brand or company, (2) comprehension of the product and whatit will do for them, (3) a conviction that they should buy the product, and (4) action - that is,buying the product.13

Furthermore, one of the vital things that advertising does is offering high and better qualityproducts to the consumers. Here, branding comes in. Branding is very important in order thatthe customer can identify the product.s manufacturer and thereby, buyers tend to associatethe quality of the product with a certain brand. On the other hand, advertising helps the con-11 Russel & Lane (1996, p. 32)12 Russel & Lane (1996, pp. 31-32)13 DeFleur & Dennis (1998, p.326)11sumers in the decision to choose from the wide array of brands / products available in themarket. .Without advertising, businesses would not be able to bring new products to the attentionof enough consumers fast enough to make the enormous cost of creating, developing,manufacturing and distributing these products a rational business decision..14 And withoutbranding, it.s is difficult to choose from many same and analogous products available in themarket. This study will measure the ability of a branding strategy based on advertising tomake fashion journalists recognize and choose the advertised brand.MARKET ORIENTATION STRATEGYThe main interest in this thesis is to know if market orientation succeeds in getting brandawareness without using advertising. According to articles about one of our subjects, Zara,this strategy is widely used by the said brand, and the brand owner Inditex proudly declaredthat it hardly used advertising to sustain competitive advantage in the fashion industry.15

Satisfying a customer has been one of the basic objectives of a business. According to A. Mazairaet al (2003) quoting Drucker (1954) in his paper, this market orientation strategy whichoriginated in marketing orientation (developed in the 1950.s), has also the same basic aim.The customers are the main focus of the business in order to attain competitive advantage andprojected profitability.But market orientation is broader than marketing orientation because the former is interfunctionaland requires coordination of the culture and behaviour of the whole organization.16

In market orientation, it is not the sole responsibility of the marketing department to accomplisha marketing goal, but the company as a whole. Every part of the unit has its role in thefulfilment of the organization.s main objective which is the satisfaction of the customer.Kohli and Jaworski (1990, p. 3) further discussed that market orientation entails (1) one ormore departments engaged in activities geared toward developing of understanding of customers. current and future needs and the factors affecting them (2) sharing of this understand-14 Rusell & Lane (1996, pp. 37-38)15 Mazaira, Gonzalez & Avendaño (2003)16 Ibid.12ing across the departments, and (3) the various departments engaging in activities designed tomeet selected customer needs. In other words, market orientation refers to the organizationwide generation, dissemination and responsiveness to market intelligence..17

A business is then considered market-oriented when the organizational culture is focused andhas one primary aim, which is the continuous creation of superior customer value18, which we

can conclude is one of the important components of a good brand. This includes collectionand coordination of information on customers, competitors and other significant market influencelike suppliers and regulators.19 A continuous study of a company brand.s valuation isalso one of the important aspects of market orientation.Furthermore, the three main components of a good market orientation strategy are customerorientation, competitor focus and inter-functional coordination and two decision criteria longterm focus and profitability.20 Customer orientation and competitor focus includes all the activitiesinvolved in gathering information about the buyers and competitors in the target marketand disseminating them to the businesses. Inter-functional coordination is the businesscoordinated efforts which resulted after getting all necessary customers. and competitors.information, typically involving all the departments in order to create superior value for customers.21

Customer Focus Customer focus is often on the top of the list of an enterprise primary.s objective. As the sayinggoes, .Customers are always right!.. This saying seems to be the simplest guideline for allbusinesses, regardless of its size. But customer focus goes far beyond than traditional customerresearch according to Kohli and Jowarski (1990, p. 4). Being customer oriented involvestaking into consideration also market intelligence and what customers say or dictate.Market intelligence is a broader concept that includes consideration of (1) exogenous market17 Jaworski and Kohli, (1993, p. 2)18 Slater & Narver (1994)19 Ibid, (1994, p. 22)20 Narver & Slater (1990, p. 4)21 Narver & Slater (1990)13factors (e.g. competition and regulation) that affect customers. needs and preferences and (2)current as well future needs of the customers.22 The said concept only means that marketorientedbusiness should understand not only its direct customers, but also the chain involvedin the customers. business. In short, it should know the cost and revenue dynamics not only ofits immediate target buyers but also of all markets beyond, for demand in the immediate and.upstream. markets is derived from the demand in the original .downstream. markets.23

Businesses that have implemented this kind of strategy are always on the endless studies forupcoming ways to satisfy their customer.s wants and needs and this can include the servicethat they can offer before and after sales. Because of this reason, collaboration between thetop management and its subordinates is very important. Managers and employees shouldwork as a team in order to maintain superior customer value. Employees play a vital role inthis concept, so the company should be paying more attention when they hire their staffs.Regular training is also important to retain the best people in the company.24

Competitor Focus Focusing on competitors might not be equally important as customer focus, but as mentionedabove, to understand more the behaviour of a customer, one should look through the otherfactors surrounding the latter. It is vital to consider who are the competitors, what marketingapproaches they use, how effective are their products and services and at what prices they areoffered. Competitors should be studied upon whether they can be perceived as alternate suppliers

by the customers. Using target rivals as a frame of reference, competitor-focused firmstry to identify their strengths and weaknesses to keep pace or stay ahead of them. 25Constantvariations of the competitors. strategic policies may occur so close monitoring of the latter isimportant in order to understand more their capabilities.26 In this way, the company is always22 Kohli and Jowarski (1990, p. 4)23 (Slater & Narver, 1994, p. 22).24 Slater & Narver (1994)25 Ibid.26 Heiens 200014ready and flexible to respond for further improvements of its products and thus maintainingits brand.s position in the market.Heiens (2000, p. 2) also stated in his article that .when market demand is predictable, thecompetitive structure is concentrated and stable and there are few powerful customers, theemphasis on competitors is more important. Moreover, the lesser the degree of competitivehostility, the greater the positive impact of competitor emphasis on performance..To add, in market-driven businesses, continuous meetings among employees and managementdiscussing about their competitors are needed. Supervisors should frequently discuss competitor.s strengths and weaknesses as a guide for future actions. The competitor.s weaknesses areoften used to obtain more competitive advantage. In some cases, they keep competitors fromdeveloping an advantage by responding rapidly or anticipating their actions.27 An example ofthis is the launching of .online Zara Home. in many countries including Sweden this October,before H&M has launched its H&M Home division.Interfunctional Coordination Being the last component of market orientation strategy, this involves .the coordination of thepersonnel and other resources from throughout the company to create value for the buyers.according to Slater and Narver (1994, p. 23). The role of every unit in the organization mustbe clearly defined and every employee, regardless of its position must recognize his role inorder to help the company achieve its objective. 28

Due to the above, market orientation simplifies the focus and vision of an organisation.s strategy.29 It provides a unifying focus for the efforts and projects of individuals and departmentswithin the organisation. It also provides psychological and social benefits to the employees.The latter can then develop a sense of pride in belonging to an organisation in which all departmentsand individuals work toward the common goal of serving customers. The latterauthors further add; that responsiveness is important to make this market orientation conceptto work out.27 Slater & Narver (1994, p. 23)28 Ibid.29 Kohli & Jaworski (1990)15Market orientation and branding The connection between market orientation and brand awareness is quite not so obvious withthe above discussions. But I think that brand awareness is so related to the ultimate goal ofmarket orientation which is . the creation of superior customer value.. By proper combinationof the above three components (customer focus, competitor focus and interfunctional coordination),the end result is that business can be able to establish a brand that can be noticed by

the target market. This way, brand awareness can be a result of the coordination and combinationof the above three components. This paper will investigate whether this market orientationway of communicating to its target customers works as well as advertising in creatingbrand awareness.MODELIt has been stated above that brand awareness is one of the aims of a company.s marketingstrategy, as it increases the brand.s value and could result to closed sales. Creating brandawareness is clearly one of the primary purposes of advertising. Some companies, such asZara in this case, use market orientation instead as an alternative to the specific marketingtool, advertising.The question that will be posed is: .Can a company using market orientation as a marketingstrategy create the same level of brand awareness as those companies using advertisements?.On an industry, where competition of customer attention is high, such as in clothes retailing,brand awareness is a vital competitive advantage. Hence, we hypothesize that equally successfulcompanies, of approximately the same size, and which target the same customers,should aim to get the same level of brand awareness.Media attention is quite related to brand awareness. They both draw more attention to thebrand and as an indicator of brand awareness, the media people needs to notice the brand inorder to feature it. The hypothesis will be then, that market orientation as a branding strategycan attract same level of media attention compared to advertising, as the media attention isused as an expression and a way to measure their respective brand awareness. The main structureof our model is as follows:16This model shows how the effects of advertising and market orientation strategy can be comparedin relation to the level of media attention that the brand gets, which impliedly connotesbrand awareness. The representatives of brands using market orientation or advertising thatwe have chosen are approximately equally big and successful, and targeting the same group ofcustomers. According to our hypotheses, these brands should get the same levels of mediaattention.METHODOLOGY In order to investigate the branding aspects of market orientation, we will use Zara as caseobject and United Colours of Benetton, Mango and Topshop as objects for advertised brands.MARKET ORIENTATION STRATEGYZara Inditex, or Industria de Diseño Textil, and its eight subsidiaries is an international fashion linethat focuses on the design, manufacture and sale of clothes, footwear and accessories for bothmen, women and children including cosmetics and leather goods. The flagship brand of Inditexis Zara, and the remaining seven brands are Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka,Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Kiddy’s Class / Skhuaban. Zara Home which is the latestwing included in the Inditex group which caters to home furnishings specializing in textiles,glassware, cutlery, tableware and decorative items. 30

30 Inditex n.d., ConceptsAdvertisingMarketorientation

Level of mediaattentionLevel of brandawareness17The primary brand, Zara, offers the latest trends in international fashion and distributes men.s,women.s and children.s clothes tagged at medium to low prices, with quality being mediumto high. At present, Inditex has a total of 3.674 stores located in 68 countries.31 Out of these,Zara is present in 1129 stores including Sweden.32 They opened their first store in Stockholmin 2003.33 There are eight Zara branches located in Sweden; four in Stockholm, two inGothenburg, one in Sundsvall and one in Malmö.Zara has gained attention in business academia for its successful implementation of marketorientation. The market orientation is the strategy of creating customer value by a focusing onthe customer throughout the vertical organization of the company. The whole business modelof Inditex is characterised by a high degree of vertical integration and very short lead times.The company states that it hardly uses advertising. It just spends 0.3% of its revenues to advertisingand marketing. This is significantly less compared to the industry.s average of 3-4%.Instead of spending on advertising, Zara positions itself in primary locations, invests more onstore layouts and shortens its lead time. All its stores are also located in prime locations in bigcity districts.34 The average store size is 1,376 square meters and make-over of old stores aredone every 3-4 years.35

Moreover, Zara.s drawing power focuses on creating artificial scarcity of its products and fastresponse to fashion trends. The company produces fewer quantities for a certain design.36

They manufacture instead clothes of different designs, the latter average 12,000 pieces annually37.Products. lead time is the shortest in the industry which averages only to 15 days.38

The stores are also replenished two times a week to create constant freshness of its ambiance.Customers will be forced to buy the product directly when they visit the store and not delay it31 Inditex. n.d., Our Group32 Inditex, n.d., Stores Around the World33 Nilsson & Carlsvi (2004)34 Zara.s Business Model, Information and Communication Technologies, and Competitive Analysis:, n.d.35 Ghemawat, & Nueno (2003)36 Dutta (2003)37 Zara.s Business Model, Information and Communication Technologies, and Competitive Analysis:, n.d38 Dutta (2003)18in the future otherwise the product is not there anymore. 39In this way, it is relatively easy forZara to know the slow moving items, cancel future planned production of a certain designthereby reducing probable product write offs.Zara is continuously monitoring how its individual stores are doing. Frequent conversationswith store managers are important with regards to communicating sales. and orders. data tothe headquarters. To be also more flexible to the fashion trends, the store managers are givenautonomy on its area, and feedback system is properly acted upon by the people in the headquartersfor the coming designs. 40The company is also on a close watch of the current trends.Sources of new information include industry publications, TV, Internet, and films. Furthermore,

Zara.s trend-spotters focus their attention on venues like university campuses and discotheques.To add, Zara’s young and fashion-conscious staffs also have great inputs of newideas.41

Furthermore, Zara’s designers even attended trade fairs and ready-to-wear fashion shows inParis, New York, London, and Milan, browsed through catalogs of luxury brand collections,and worked with store managers to begin to develop the initial sketches for a collection .42

This vertical integration allows Inditex to a supremely quick response to market fluctuations.43

For Inditex, this is the key method of gaining competitive advantage. Zara even claims not tohave a formal marketing department, as they use market orientation as a marketing strategy.44

Given the hard climate on today.s fashion market, this is a remarkable statement from a verysuccessful business.39 Ferdows, Lewis & Machuca (2005)40 Zara.s Business Model, Information and Communication Technologies, and Competitive Analysis:, n.d41 Ghemawat, & Nueno (2003)42 Ibid.43 Inditex n.d, .Press Releases44 Mazaira, González & Avendaño (2003)19ADVERTISING STRATEGYThe brands to be compared to Zara to are United Colours of Benetton, MANGO and Topshop.These were chosen for being comparable to Zara in various ways, and using a marketingstrategy different to Zara.s. These brands focus more on advertising among others to getbrand awareness.Benetton First, United Colours of Benetton was chosen because it has a relative small number of storesin Stockholm . three, comparable to Zara.s four . while being a large multinational brand.45

Benetton is also well-known for its lavish advertisements, which on occasion has been intentionallyshocking to draw attention to the brand.46 Finally, Benetton produces garments for atarget group similar to Zara.s, so that they can compete for the same slot in the fashion reportages.Today, the Benetton Group is present in 120 countries around the world, quite more expandedthan that of Zara.s. Its garments usually cater to kids and adults who just love to experimentthe different shades of fashion. Its core business is being represented with a group whosestrong Italian character in style, quality and passion are clearly seen in its brands, the casualUnited Colors of Benetton, fashion oriented Sisley, Playlife leisurewear and Killer Loopstreetwear. To add, the Group produces around 150 million garments every year. Its retailnetwork of 5,000 contemporary stores around the world, offers high quality customer servicesand generates a total turnover of over € 1.9 billion.47

MANGO MANGO has a history comparable to Zara.s, being a Spanish company with approximatelythe same number of stores in the same number of countries worldwide, and a recent history ofgreat success . the first MANGO store opened in 1984.48

45 United Colours of Benetton n.d., Overview, §146 Website of Marknadsetiska Rådet n.d.47 United Colours of Benetton.s n.d., Overview,§148 MANGO n.d., Economic dossier

20It is a prestigious multinational company dedicated to the design, manufacturing and marketingof garments and accessories for women. It has over 6,500 employees, and have more than1,000 stores in 89 countries located on the five continents.49

Like Zara, all the MANGO stores are located in prime locations, whether in the main shoppingcenters or in premises located in city squares. Stores are of a sufficient size to display itscollections. The products of MANGO are quite similar to Zara.s in style, pricing and quality.However, MANGO is very different from Zara in organisational strategy as MANGO is basedon a franchising system, and in marketing strategy, relying heavily on advertising campaigns;one example is the autumn/winter 2007 collection with international movie star PenélopeCruz as the model. There is only one MANGO store in Stockholm. Topshop Topshop is also comparable to Zara because of its size in Stockholm and its target market.Although not of same international magnitude as Benetton and MANGO, Topshop operates in28 countries. There are two Topshop stores in Stockholm, of which one is notable for beingthe biggest Topshop flagship store outside UK.50

On the British high street, Topshop is known to be the fashion destination . It sells an averageof 30 pairs of knickers a minute, 6,000 pairs of jeans a day and 35,000 pairs of shoes everyweek; thereby it is considered as one of the promising brands of today. Offering pursefriendlyprices with its trendy style, Topshop attracts women from teens to the 40s who arefashion conscious . 51

Topshop showed its in-house design collection Unique (created in 2001) as part of the officialLondon Fashion Week schedule in September 2005 and subsequently forged exclusive partnershipswith international boutiques Opening Ceremony in New York, Colette in Paris andTokyo’s 10 Corso Como Comme des Garcons. Last summer 2006, Barneys in the US started49 MANGO n.d., Behind the brand, §1,2,450 SO UK n.d., Topshop51 Topshop n.d., About Topshop, §1.21selling Topshop’s best selling Baxter jean in its flagship stores. It has also plans to expandinternationally with stores in Moscow and St. Petersburg due to open in 2008.52

Furthermore, the promotion of Topshop is based on advertising and sponsoring of events.Topshop also gained much media attention in 2007 when they released a collection designedin collaboration with international top model Kate Moss.METHODIn the analysis, market orientation will be compared to advertising in getting brand awarenessusing a quantitative method. The exposure of each of the chosen brands in the fashion mediawill be tallied as a measure of public awareness of the sampled brand. Year 2007 is the periodchosen because it is easier to explore the current situation, and the time constraints of thestudy did not allow us to cover a bigger scope. The exposure of the group of brands usingadvertising (Benetton, MANGO and Topshop) will be compared to the brand using marketorientation (Zara).The fashion media attention is not only a measure of the brand awareness that marketing iscreating, but also important for the company.s sales through the journalists. impact on the

consumers. This study will use the fashion division of one of Sweden.s biggest tabloids,Aftonbladet, and the three most significant Swedish fashion magazines; Elle, Damernas Världand Glamour. The question, whether Zara.s marketing strategy can attract the attention offashion journalists in Sweden, in competition with advertised brands, can then be answered.Fashion Media Aftonbladet was chosen because it has very popular fashion divisions that reach great numbersof readers - Aftonbladet.s fashion website has 176,000 unique visitors per week. Furthermore,813,000 people also have access to the fashion articles in the paper editions of the said newspaper.53 What makes the newspaper interesting, is that the fashion brands seldom have specificadvertisements in the fashion divisions directed toward fashion consumers. In the analysis,all exposures from 2007-01-01 to 2007-12-07 are included.52 Topshop, About Topshop, §3 of Brief History53 Aftonbladet.s advertising website n.d.22The fashion magazines, on the other hand, are full of advertisements from various fashionbrands. Even though the journalists most likely do not sell the advertising space themselves,there is a risk that they are being influenced to give more attention to those brands. We aretherefore going to give notice to any advertisements of the brands in the magazines, eventhough we lack knowledge of their advertising histories. The three magazines Elle, DamernasVärld and Glamour were chosen because all three of them have a pronounced fashion profileand are likely to attract readers with a fashion interests, and because they are popular magazineswith monthly editions of about 85,000, 112,000 and 65,000, respectively.54, 55, 56 Every2007 issue from all three magazines is included in the analysis.Data gathering The research will be conducted by browsing the said magazines and newspaper and countingthe number of times these four brands are mentioned during the year of 2007, and in whatform or context they are being featured. Only women.s fashion will be included in the analysis,because of primary reason that our knowledge of fashion is more restricted to the saidsegment. Secondarily, women still hold the crown as the top readers of these fashion magazinesor fashion segments of a tabloid so most of these fashion magazines are inclined towomen.s fashion. Thirdly, one of our subjects, MANGO, only offers ladies. wear fashion. ANALYSIS OF DATA The data exposed major differences between the different magazines as well as the differentbrands. When considering only the total number of exposures for the different brands, onemay get the impression that Zara is doing well in the competition. Topshop is the clear winnerwith 58% of total media attention. Note that .total exposure. in this case means only the totalexposure of these four brands.54 Elle n.d.55 Bonnier Tidskrifter n.d, Damernas Värld56 Bonnier Tidskrifter n.d., Glamour23Zara and Benetton seem to be equally successful with 17% and 19% respectively, andMANGO gets the least media attention with only 6% of total exposures. The mean exposureof the advertised brands is 28% of the total exposure, somewhat higher than Zara.s 17%, butstill a comparable level. However, when looking at the numbers from each of the four fashion

media, the ambiguousness of the results is obvious.Zara gets half of its total exposures from the tabloid section Aftonbladet Mode, while Benettongets more attention from the magazines. It was also so striking why during 2007 Zara wasnever featured with a picture in the magazine Damernas Värld! The only attention Zara got inthis magazine during the whole year was a mention in text, and only once.DIFFERENT TYPES OF MEDIAThe three magazines and the tabloid fashion section are likely to have slightly different targetgroups, which should be reflected in the collection of brands that they choose to feature. Nev24ertheless, as the four brands in this investigation have approximately the same target customers,we did not expect such big differences between the magazines.Topshop is the most popular brand in all four papers, albeit tying with Benetton in DamernasVärld at 28 exposures. Topshop is clearly one of the .trendiest. brands for the moment. Thesuccessful brand positioning is not only due to superiour advertising, but also to how Topshophas affiliated successful designers and celebrities. One of those is Swedish designer Ann-Sofie Back, who was awarded with .Guldknappen., Damernas Värld.s prize for best Swedishdesigner in 2007, and has designed her own collection for Topshop. Topshop has succeededin creating an image of the brand being trendy and fashionable.Aftonbladet Mode differentiates from the others by giving Zara many exposures, andfeaturing Benetton and MANGO quite seldom. Damernas Värld is different from the othersfor giving Benetton the same amount of attention as Topshop. Mango is the third brand withonly 8%, as Zara is hardly featured at all. But for Glamour and Elle, the distribution ofexposure between brands is very similar.25To explain those differences is difficult. There are most likely many explanatory factorsinvolved. Differences in price or style cannot explain Aftonbladet.s heavy focus on Topshopand Zara, as they are comparable in the said criteria to MANGO and Benetton.Aftonbladet Mode does not display any fashion-specific advertisements, neither in the paperissue nor at the website. Perhaps this is favourable for Zara! In an environment with there isvery less advertisements, it is reasonable to think that the marketing strategy not based onadvertising can succeed. This would imply that Zara.s marketing strategy is sufficient forbuilding momentum in the target group, but not sustaining same momentum in competitionwith advertised brands.Even more remarkable is why Damernas Värld did not feature Zara at all in 2007. There wasnot even one picture of a Zara garment during the whole year . the only exposure of Zara wasa mention in text. This cannot be due to the lack of advertising only, as Damernas Världfeature many new and unheard-of designers. The only reasonable explanation one can think ofis that, Zara has failed enormously in creating an image that is trendy and classy enough forDamernas Värld. This magazine has a strong focus on design and may dislike the fact that thedesign of Zara.s garments are not original, but they still feature other budget alternatives withunoriginal designs. The target group of Damernas Värld is also older than those of the threeother papers, and the editorial staffs on Damernas Värld seem to think that, they areincompatible with Zara.s image. The branding strategy of Zara must have failed here, notonly, by not having advertising, but also in doing the proper marketing actions.DIFFERENT TYPES OF EXPOSUREAll kinds of media attention in magazines and newspapers cannot be assessed in the sameway. Different costs for the media must be considered, as well as different probabilities that

the reader will notice the mentioning of the brand. In the analysis, three different types of mediaexposure are recognised:1. Photo shoots with model. These pictures usually cover a whole page. They are the typeof exposure which is the most expensive for the papers. The featured garments get26much space and attention, but the text that lists the featured brands is usually small.This kind of exposure is probably highly desired by the retailers.2. .What to buy.. This is the name we have given to pages where those garments that arechosen by the editorial staffs, are being exposed. No model is also being used. Comparedto the photo shoot, more articles are shown in this page. We expect this to be thesecond most desired type of exposure.3. Others. The remaining types of exposure may or may not include a picture of a garment.In most cases they represent a simple mentioning of brand in some kind of text.There were many interesting similarities, between both brands and media, in the ratios of thethree types of exposures.We consider here only the cases were we have enough information for percentages to bemeaningful. We estimate > 15 exposures to be a good threshold. This is motivated by the factthat the smallest of the three groups of exposures typically range from about 7%. With lessthan 15 exposures, the expected number of this type of exposure would be less than one. Witha statistical security buffer of one exposure, we demand more than 15 exposures to calculatethe percentages.27Unfortunately, this means that Topshop is the only brand from Elle that we can use for comparison,and that MANGO cannot be compared to Zara in any of the papers. However, Topshopin Elle is still in line with the ratios in the other magazines. Photo shoots are typically10%-30% of the total exposure, what-to-buy between 45% and 75% and the other types ofexposure make up 7%-25%. This is true for all four brands with more than 15 exposures inGlamour and Elle (Benetton, Topshop and Zara in Glamour and Topshop in Elle).Aftonbladet, with less advertisement than the magazines, can as expected not to afford thoseexpensive photo shoots. The exposure type ratios of Topshop and Zara in Aftonbladet Modeare close to the typical ratios, but with fewer photo shoots and more of the two other categories.Damernas Värld, the magazine with most advertisements, has more photo shoots than theother magazines. Benetton in Damernas Värld is particularly noticeable with more than 70%photo shoots, but this is only a single observation. In other words, the distribution of exposuresof the various kinds does not differ notably between the advertised brands and Zara.ADVERTISEMENTSThe advertisements of the four brands in the three studied magazines are not being counted asmedia exposure, but are noted for comparison to exposure data. It seems that the spring andthe autumn are the right periods for campaigns, as all advertisements were in the periodMarch to May or September to November. All advertisements are a whole page or spread.Total number of advertisements in spring and autumn MANGO Topshop BenettonMagazine Elle Elle Elle Damernas Värld GlamourSpring 1 11 2 2 1Autumn 1 10 2 2 1

As can be seen in the above figure, Benetton seems to be the brand that aims for advertisementswith a broad impact, as it is promoted in all three magazines. MANGO is more modestwith only one advertisement in Elle in the spring and one in the autumn. Topshop, on the28other hand, seems to aim for a big impact in a focused target group, as they put up 11 advertisementsin the spring and 10 in the autumn.To see if there was any relation in time between advertisements and exposures, we looked atthe distribution of exposure over time.None of the advertised brands had exposure patterns that exactly corresponded to their periodsof advertising, or that differed remarkably from the exposure pattern of Zara. Considering theperiods of advertising, there were no conclusive evidence for a direct response in mediaattention to advertising.The main results from advertising are probably seen from a bigger perspective. It has alreadybeen stated that Topshop has a very successful branding strategy, and the intense advertisingis of no doubt part of it. It would be easy to blame MANGO.s failure in getting mediaattention on the parsimonious advertising (for a marketing strategy based on advertising), butthere are likely other factors involved as well. 29CONCLUSIONS When looking at the figures, it looks like market orientation strategy as represented by Zara(17%) is doing okay in the competition with the three other advertised brands; Benetton(19%), MANGO (6%) and Topshop (58%). However, when looking more into details, it isobvious that Zara reaches only some target markets as represented by magazines and not all.The two brands Topshop and Benetton which has the most advertisements. exposures in thethree investigated magazines are also the ones that get the most media attention in the magazines.All three advertised brands are furthermore rather constant in their share of total exposuresin the magazines. This continuity is something that Zara lacks.The answer to the research question: . Can market orientation as a marketing strategy evokethe same amount of brand awareness as advertising?. is:... that a company using market orientation as a marketing strategy can in general create thesame level of brand awareness as those companies using advertisements in some target groupsas represented by magazines, however, advertisement seems to be a more effective tool to getmore control over the brand and of course to promote the image of the brand.Advertising (Benetton,MANGO andTopshop)Market orientation(Zara)

Level of mediaattentionLevel of brandawarenesssTopshop -58 %Benetton -

19%Zara - 17%MANGO6%

30The hypothesis which is: that the four brands would get approximately the same amount ofmedia exposure, because they are approximately equally successful and target the samegroup of customers, is not supported by the data.SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH This study has so many limitations. First, we do not know exactly how the magazines workwith the different brands. We don.t have any idea how they choose what brands to feature andwhether there are any contacts between the magazines and the featured brands and if there ismonetary compensation involved. Second, we only limit our scope of study for a year andonly for women.s segment of fashion. We also only base our data from secondary data.Furthermore, we cannot conclude that fashion magazine exposure is a good representation ofbrand awareness of the target market. Further research should look more into the relationshipsbetween fashion magazines and fashion retailers, and the connection between fashion magazines. exposures and customer.s brand awareness. It would also be more useful to conductinterviews of the concerned personnel of the sampled brands on how they are using advertisingstrategy and marketing orientation. Moreover, an interview too of the fashion magazinespersonnel will of great help to understand more, the reason behind the exposures of certainbrands / products. Lastly, it will always be more interesting to have a deeper study on thistopic, expanding the market segment group.31LIST OF REFERENCES Aftonbladet.s advertising website n.d. Retrieved December 3, 2007, fromhttp://annonswebb.aftonbladet.se/Bonnier Tidskrifter n.d, Damernas Värld. Retrieved December 3, 2007, fromhttp://www.bonniertidskrifter.se/tidningar/damernas_varld/Brand Awareness n.d. Retrieved December 13, 2007, fromhttp://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/brandawareness.aspBonnier Tidskrifter n.d, Damernas Värld. Retrieved December 3, 2007, fromhttp://www.bonniertidskrifter.se/tidningar/damernas_varld/Bonnier Tidskrifter n.d., Glamour. Retrieved December 3, 2007, fromhttp://www.bonniertidskrifter.se/tidningar/glamour/DeFleur, M & Dennis, E 1998, Understanding Mass Communication, Houghton MifflinCompany, Boston.Dutta, D 2002, Retail and the Speed of Fashion. Retrieved November 15, 2007, fromhttp://www.3isite.com/articles/ImagesFashion_Zara_Part_I.pdfElle n.d. Retrieved December 3, 2007, from http://www.elle.se/?id=2097Ferdows, K, Lewis, M & Machuca, J 2005, Zara’s Secret for Fast Fashion. RetrievedJanuary 16, 2008, from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4652.htmlGhemawat P& Nueno, J L (2003) in Zara: Fast Fashion, CD-ROM, Harvard BusinessSchool Publishing, Boston, MAHeiens, R 2000, .Market Orientation: Toward an Integrated Framework., Academy of MarketingScience Review, vol. 2000, no. 1, pp. 1-5.Inditex, n.d. ,Concepts . Retrieved January 16, 2007 from

http://www.inditex.com/en/who_we_are/concepts/zaraInditex, n.d., Our Group. Retrieved January 16, 2008, fromhttp://www.inditex.com/en/who_we_are/our_group#Inditex, n.d., Press Releases. Retrieved December 3, 2007, fromhttp://www.inditex.com/en/press/press_releasesInditex, n.d., Stores around the world. Retrieved January 16, 2008 fromhttp://www.inditex.com/en/who_we_are/stores. 32Janssen, S 2006, .Fashion reporting in cross-national perspective 1955-2005., Poetics, vol.34, no. 6, pp. 383-406.Jaworski, B J & Kohli, A K 1993, .Market Orientation: Antecedents and Consequences., Journal of Marketing, vol. 57, no. 3, pp. 53-70.Kohli, A K & Jawoski, B J 1990, .The Construct, Research Propositions and Managerial Implications., Journal of Marketing, vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 1-18.MANGO n.d., Behind the brand. Retrieved January 10, 2008 fromhttp://www.company.mango.com/e/index.htmMANGO n.d., Economic dossier. Retrieved December 3, 2007, fromhttp://www.company.mango.com/e/comunicacion/dossiereconomico.htm.Mazaira, A, González, E & Avendaño, R 2003, .The role of market orientation on companyperformance through the development of sustainable competitive advantage: theInditex-Zara case., Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 220-229.Narver, J & Slater, S 1990, .The Effect of a Market Orientation on Business Profitability.,Journal of Marketing, vol. 54, no. 4, pp 20-35.NetLine Corporation, The New Age of Brand Awareness 2005. Retrieved December 13, 2007,from http://www.netline.com/Library/article0305.html.Nilsson, M, Forén, P & Carlsvi, S 2004, .Kulturinverkan på modekonsumenter - en studie avZara och H&M.s: image i Sverige och Spanien., BA Thesis, Lund University.Retrieved January 4, 2008, from Lund University Undergraduate theses.Ossiansson, E 2004, Brands, Tailored for Retailers , Studentliteratur Lund, Sweden.Russel, J T & Lane, R W 1996, Advertising Procedure, Prentice-Hall, Inc., New Jersey.Slater, S F & Narver, J C 1994, .Market orientation, customer value, and superior performance., Business Horizons, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 22-28.SO UK n.d., Topshop. Retrieved December 3, 2007, fromhttp://www.souk.se/brands.aspx?brand=i15.Topshop, n.d., About Topshop. Retrieved January 10, 2008 fromhttp://www.topshop.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StaticPageDisplay?storeId=12556&catalogId=19551&identifier=ts1%20about%20topshop#para1.United Colours of Benetton n.d. Retrieved December 3, 2007, fromhttp://www.benetton.com/storelocator/storelocator.jspUnited Colours of Benetton n.d., Overview. Retrieved January 10, 2008, fromhttp://www.benettongroup.com/en/whoweare/overview.htm33Website of Marknadsetiska Rådet 1994. Retrieved December 3, 2007, fromhttp://www.marknadsetiskaradet.org/united-colors-of-benetton.

Wikipedia 2008, Fashion Journalism n.d. Retrieved January 16, 2008, fromhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashion_journalismZara.s Business Model, Information and Communication Technologies, and CompetitiveAnalysis: n.d. Retrieved January 16, 2008, fromhttp://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=97642.

APPENDICES Below follows graphics of all individual exposures for each brand and magazine.343536