What Makes Zara’s Join Life Branding Initiative Sustainable? (2024)

FAQs

How sustainable is Zara join life? ›

Join Life clothes are at least 50% sustainable fabric — which could be organic cotton, recycled polyester, or Tencel™, which is a fabric made from wood.

Here are a few commitments made by Zara on their website: In 2022, Zara promised to use 100% renewable energy in their own operations. In 2023 they promise to eliminate single-use plastics for customers. By 2025 they plan to introduce more sustainable 100% linen and sustainable or recycled polyester.

The Join Life project is the work of making all clothing and other products of the textile company in the Inditex group of companies, (i.e. Zara, PULL&BEAR, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, OYSHO, OTERAÜE) with sustainable raw materials or the best technologies.

Zara Supports ecological agriculture and uses organic cotton in the production of selected items of clothing (100% cotton, completely free of pesticide, chemical agents and bleaches). With a distinctive lable these products can be identified very easily at the stores.

Zara has sustained a competitive advantage globally by expanding into new markets and becoming more efficient. In a monopolistically competitive industry, Zara is expected to make profits in the short run but will break even in the long run because demand will decrease as average total costs increase.

Apart from being agile, its supply chain and production system are efficient and designed to deliver results faster. Another attractive aspect of ZARA's business model is the in-store experience. These stores are designed to offer a great in-store shopping experience and create highest satisfaction for customers.

For the purpose of this thesis, the following three main areas of sustainability will be focused on: profit, environment, and people.

A sustainable brand is one that looks beyond making profit and views other values, such as environmental impact and ethical supply chains, with equal importance. Your brand is what connects you to your customers. It's how they view your company and its values, and it's how they differentiate you from your competitors.

Customers feel better about buying from the company, and new customers are attracted to the company. A focus on sustainability attracts new employees, and current employees feel better about working for the company. Focusing on climate issues will help provide a livable planet for kids growing up today.

The fast fashion retailer first started releasing products that met its "Join Life" standard in 2015.

What is Zara brand identity? ›

‍ Zara is a Spanish fashion brand that has earned the loyalty of men and women since 1975. As a pioneer of fast fashion, the brand has flourished across the globe, creating clothing lines that are synonymous with the brand and recognizable.

The 'Join Life' label was introduced in 2015 “as a tool to raise awareness among our customers and our staff about the use of raw materials and processes that have a lower impact on the environment as compared to the more widely used practices in the industry,” as stated by Inditex.

3. Zara's Mission Statement. In brief, Zara's statement is "to give customers what they want, and get it to them faster than anyone else." An effective mission statement is something clear and concise, and Zara's mission statement definitely gets a check-in both these criteria.

Zara operates on its core values of beauty, clarity, functionality, and sustainability to “give customers what they want, and get it to them faster than anyone else.”

However, the brand has recently faced three main challenges: e-commerce, competition and sustainability. To sustain its global expansion, the brand made a step toward digital expansion even before the pandemic hit, and it paid off. So far in 2020, Zara reports a 74% jump in online sales alone.

The idea here is that if a firm is to maintain sustainable competitive advantage, it must control a set of exploitable resources that have four critical characteristics. These resources must be (1) valuable, (2) rare, (3) imperfectly imitable (tough to imitate), and (4) nonsubstitutable.

Seven Attributes of a Sustainable Competitive Advantage

1) Cost advantage 2) Value-added advantage 3) Focus advantage 4) Speed advantage 5) Maneuverability advantage Page 2 2 The culmination of building advantages is a set of sustainable competitive advantages (SCAs) for the business.

The three main types of competitive advantages are differentiation, cost advantages, and focus advantages.

Zara's Three Success Factors: Speed, Speed, and Speed.

A well-known example of a company with a sustainable competitive advantage is Walmart. Walmart maintains a sustainable competitive advantage in part because its strategies are specific to its organization and these strategies are known for creating a gap between Walmart's performance and that of its competitors.

What is an example of sustainability competitive advantage? ›

Examples of Sustainable Competitive Advantages

Strong brand reputation: Customers are more likely to choose companies like Coca-Cola, Nike and Apple because of their positive associations and perceptions. Intellectual property: Patents, trademarks and copyrights can give companies a sustainable competitive advantage.

ECOSOC operates at the centre of the UN system's work on all three pillars of sustainable development—economic, social and environmental.

Sustainability is often represented diagrammatically. The figure at the top of this page suggests that there are three pillars of sustainability – economic viability, environmental protection and social equity.

Following its success in 2020, Zara has set many goals relating to sustainability, including reaching net-zero emissions by 2040, 100% more sustainable procurement of cellulose fibres, cotton, linen, and other materials, and becoming free of single-use plastics—to name a few.

A sustainable brand simplifies the decision-making process when the company's values align. In an increasingly saturated market, a sustainable brand can help consumers make a decision when the company's values align with their values.

Additionally, by investing in sustainable solutions, brands can tap into growing consumer demand for products that align with their values. Sustainability can also help brands to improve their operations, which in turn can help to improve their bottom line.

Some of the cash will be spent on further expansion in the United States, with 30 new Zara projects planned from 2023 to 2025, including bigger stores in New York, Chicago, Miami and other cities.

Zara's owner, the Inditex Gropu, has been accused multiple times of greenwashing, exploitation, and environmental distraction. Yet, still, many consumers have absolutely no clue how terrible this highly unsustainable business model actually is to people and the environment.

How did Zara start their brand? ›

Zara was founded by Amancio Ortega and Rosalía Mera in 1975 as a family business in downtown Galicia in the northern part of Spain. Its first store featured low-priced lookalike products of popular, higher-end clothing and fashion. Amancio Ortega named Zara as such because his preferred name Zorba was already taken.

The Zara marketing strategy is built on the promise of instant fashion – giving customers the styles they want faster than competitors and still at an affordable price. Zara produces over three times the number of items each year than other fast fashion competitors, however in smaller quantities.

Zara's promotion strategy is focused on creating a strong online presence and engaging with customers through social media. The brand uses platforms like Instagram to showcase its latest collections and offer styling inspiration to customers.

ZARA's target consumer is often between the ages of 18 and 40, with a medium-high income. Furthermore, it targets customers based on their fashion awareness. They are frequently busy individuals, which is taken into account in ZARA's strategy, which aims to get customers to buy on impulse.

The Join Life label identifies the most environmentally-friendly products. Those that are made from the most sustainable raw materials, using excellent environmentally-safe textile production technologies.

Zara only uses a very small proportion of organic materials such as organic cotton, hemp, and linen, or recycled materials such as recycled cotton, recycled polyester, and regenerated nylon.

Fast fashion describes low-priced but stylish clothing that moves quickly from design to retail stores to meet trends, with new collections being introduced continuously. Innovations in supply chain management among retailers make fast fashion possible. Zara and H&M are two giants in the fast fashion field.

The Zara brand was created with a keen focus on customer experience - which leads to its ability to provide trendy fashion quickly at affordable prices. In addition to a super-effective supply chain, Zara also involves customers in the design process and provides a unique competitive advantage.

Zara's strategy is to offer a higher number of available products than its competitors. While most clothing retailers manufacture and offer to the public for sale 2,000 to 4,000 different articles of clothing, Zara's production has been markedly higher, at over 10,000 pieces produced per year.

How is Zara sustainable? ›

Here are a few commitments made by Zara on their website: In 2022, Zara promised to use 100% renewable energy in their own operations. In 2023 they promise to eliminate single-use plastics for customers. By 2025 they plan to introduce more sustainable 100% linen and sustainable or recycled polyester.

WE ARE MOVING TOWARD A CIRCULAR ECONOMY MODEL TO ENABLE A LONGER LIFE CYCLE OF OUR PRODUCTS, STARTING WITH THE WAY WE WORK IN THE DESIGN AND PRODUCTION PROCESS, AND THROUGH OUR REPAIR, RESELL AND DONATION PROGRAMMES. OUR COMMITMENTS CAN´T BE ACHIEVED ALONE.

Instead of advertising, Zara uses its store location and store displays as key elements of its marketing strategy. By choosing to be in the most prominent locations in a city, Zara ensures very high customer traffic for its stores.

Instead of making a big bet on a single style, let's say a floral dress, manufacturing it in large quantities only to find the demand is not there, Zara can avoid this by producing smaller quantities. This approach allows Zara to see what the demand is like before making a larger investment.

Overall, Zara's approach to achieving and sustaining competitive advantage is based on speed, flexibility, and customer-centricity.

Local Adaptation − Zara adapts its products and store designs to local cultural differences and customer preferences, ensuring that its products and shopping experience appeal to customers in each market. Partnerships and franchising− Zara use a combination of company-owned stores and franchising to enter new markets.

100% eco-efficient stores. The daily operation of Zara's stores is 'adapted to reduce our environmental impact with systems that allow us to adjust water and energy consumption to the real needs of the store. ' 100% training in circular design.

Is Zara Ethical? No, Zara is not ethical. It has a Code of Conduct designed for its manufacturers and suppliers and one laid out to abide by responsible practices. These standards guarantee that the brand is against forced or child labor and supports fair wages and safe working conditions.

The triple bottom line: Undertaking an economic, social, and environmental retail sustainability strategy. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management. ZARA Official Website (2022).

A sustainable business model is a company's plan for making a profit sustainably, i.e. protecting people and the environment. It identifies the products or services the business sells, its target customers and the associated costs, supply and distribution chain.

What is the most sustainable fashion brand in the world? ›

First on our list of the most sustainable fashion brands is Wholesome Culture, who is on a mission to make the world a kinder and more sustainable place with their eco-friendly apparel. Their designs are printed with eco-friendly water-based ink, made from 100% organic cotton, recycled plastic bottles and bamboo.

Zara's Sustainability Initiatives & greenwashing

Zara owner Inditex recently announced a new series of sustainability initiatives, including the goal for 100 percent of its cotton, linen, and polyester to be sustainable by 2025.

In 2019, Zara was ranked 29th on global brand consultancy Interbrand's list of best global brands. Its core values are found in four simple terms: beauty, clarity, functionality and sustainability.

The recommended options that should be applied by Zara are to improve distribution by opening regional distribution centers and to achieve increased online sales volume by creating a unique selling point.

The TBL dimensions are also commonly called the three Ps: people, planet and profits. We will refer to these as the 3Ps. Well before Elkington introduced the sustainability concept as "triple bottom line," environmentalists wrestled with measures of, and frameworks for, sustainability.

Unlike many clothing suppliers that actively use outsourcing, Zara manufactures a significant number of its products using its own resources. The brand itself is engaged in the processes of design, storage, distribution, and logistics.

Zara's business strategy relies on four key pillars: Flexibility of supply. Instant absorption of market demand. Response speed.

The secret to Zara's success lies in its unique business model. Zara can bring a new design from concept to store shelves in just two weeks, while most other retailers take months. This means that Zara can quickly respond to changing fashion trends and offer new styles to its customers at a lightning-fast pace.