Zara

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. By controlling the entire process from factory to shop floor, Zara can react quickly to changing fashion trends and customers' tastes, providing a "newness" that has taken Europe by storm. It designs, picks and cuts the cloth before sending it to workshops and co-operatives in northern Portugal and the surrounding area of Galicia for sewing.

. Shoppers addicted to the Zara brand know exactly when the deliveries will be arriving at their local shop and some even turn up before opening time on delivery days to be the first to pick up the latest lines.

.Zara shop managers report back every day to designers in La Coruٌa on what has and has not sold. The information is used to decide which product lines and colours are kept or altered and whether new lines are created. All this happens in the space of just a few days.

The efficiency of the system means the company can keep costs down by keeping stocks low. Their design teams produce an incredible 11,000 different designs a year.

Customers also have direct input into what the shops sell as their feedback is sent back to the designers too.

Castellano has called this the "democratization of fashion."

, Fashion retailers spend on average 3.5% of revenue on advertising their products, while Zara's parent company Inditex spends just 0.3%.

. The company believes that its shop windows, the contents of which are also decided in La Coruٌa, are all the advertising it needs.

. The company's founder, Amancio Ortega, believes advertising is a pointless distraction. Once when a famous Spanish actress asked to do a photo shoot in one of his shops, Ortega said no and scolded the newly appointed executive who suggested it would be good for the firm. "You haven't got the idea yet have you," he said.

With roughly 40% of Inditex shops, Zara brings in about 80% of the group's revenue. There are now about 1,100 Inditex stores in the world, and a new one opens every other day.

Based on product positioning: Zara is...