c

 


 
 

 


Charina Montemar Hägglund




   

 





  


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2
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T
his paper studied the impact of market orientation strategy on brand awareness. Zara, a
Spanish 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 known
to be using advertisement to create brand awareness.
Fashion magazine.s attention were used as a measure of brand awareness. Data on
the brand
awareness were gathered by browsing three leading Swedish fashion magazines - Elle,
Glamour
and 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
strategy
to create brand awareness, but only in some parts of the market segment. This was
concluded
from the fact that Zara was featured in some of the magazines, but not all of them.
3

%&'(")(c(%

First, I would like to thank our thesis adviser, Ms. Olivia Kang, who gave me
unconditional
support and understanding to complete this paper. Second, I would like to thank my
loving
family and friends for continuous trust and support in my capacity. Lastly, I would like to
thank my classmates for sharing to me their constructive criticisms and comments to
improve
more this paper.

CHARINA MONTEMAR HÄGGLUND

4

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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
c(-"').
/0
MARKET ORIENTATION STRATEGY............................................................................................... 16
ZARA....................................................................................................................................................... 16
ADVERTISING STRATEGY ................................................................................................................ 19
BENETTON ................................................................................................................................................ 19
MANGO ................................................................................................................................................... 19
TOPSHOP .................................................................................................................................................. 20
METHOD ............................................................................................................................................. 21
FASHION MEDIA ........................................................................................................................................ 21
DATA GATHERING ....................................................................................................................................... 22
%'.*"

DIFFERENT TYPES OF MEDIA........................................................................................................... 23
DIFFERENT TYPES OF EXPOSURE ................................................................................................... 25
ADVERTISEMENTS............................................................................................................................ 27
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The fashion industry has evolved noticeably over the past few decades. Fashion
products that
used to be luxury items are now considered as basic commodity products and bought
by almost
all segments of the society.1 Factors that may contribute to this growing demand for
fashion products is the continuous low prices that may be brought about by an
increasing
number 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,
leading
to 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.
Because
of these factors, it is getting harder and more difficult for the sectors involved in fashion
to stand out in the industry. Nowadays, it is very vital to create value for a product by
using successfully proven marketing tools.
Moreover, it is now also equally important for the customer to recognize the existence
and
availability of a company.s product or service. This is called ð


. Creating
brand
awareness is one of the key steps in promoting a product. The product that promotes
the highest
brand 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 in
advertisement just to introduce a new product or even to remain competitive in the
business
industry. In fact, it is the primary way of communicating a new product/brand/concept in
the
market. United Colours of Benetton, MANGO & Topshop are the few examples of
fashion
retailers which focus a lot on advertising.
This paper will also cite one marketing strategy that can be an alternative to advertising.
It is
the 

 





 , popularly used by leading fashion retailer Zara (Inditex).
1 Mazaira, González & Avendaño (2003)
2 Ibid.
3

n.d.
6
Zara is one of the world.s top leading clothing companies in terms of sales, profits and
lead
time. Despite this success, Zara claims not to have a formal marketing department, and
does
not use advertising to promote its products. To maintain its sustainable competitive
advantage
in the retail clothing industry, Zara uses the .market orientation. strategy instead.4
Market orientation refers to .the organization-wide generation of market intelligence,
dissemination
of intelligence across the departments and organization-wide responsiveness to it.
according to Jaworski and Kohli41993, p. 2). It is also when the aim of the organization
is
focused to the continuous creation of superior customer value.5 The strategy is not just
a marketing
strategy 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
gain
competitive advantage, but also as a branding strategy. We want to investigate whether
market
orientation as a branding strategy works as well as advertising in creating awareness of
the
brand. Our research question will be: .Can market orientation as a marketing
strategy evoke
the same amount of brand awareness as advertising?.O
Media attention will be gathered from three Swedish fashion magazines, Elle,
Damernas
Värld and Glamour, and the fashion division of the leading Swedish tabloid, Aftonbladet,
as a
measure of brand awareness. Then as a reference, Zara will be compared to three
other multinational
clothes retailers which have few stores in Sweden and which use advertising to create
brand 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:
ð


, 

,

 and 

 


. Then the 
used in this study will be featured.
4 Mazaira, González & Avendaño (2003)
5 Slater & Narver (1994, p. 22)
6 Mazaira, González & Avendaño ( 2003)
7

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›



³
product is something that is made in a factory; a brand is
something that is bought by a customer.
product can be copied
by a competitor; a brand is unique.
product can be quickly
outdated; a successful brand is timeless.´7
There are so many definitions of a successful brand. According to the book .Brands
Tailored
for 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
that
match their needs most closely..
All the above mentioned concepts emphasize on the uniqueness of the brand. This is
very
important 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 it
will depreciate or totally decline. This constant brand evaluation should be done by the
company
to maintain the status of the brand in the market. To understand more, a company
should
know 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  is the
part of the brand that meets the customer.s basic needs and the 
consists
of the
minimum level of product and service conditions customers expect when they buy that
specific
brand. The
 
of a brand is a further development of value added that
aims
to satisfy both the non-functional (can be emotional) and functional needs. The
functional part
of 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)
8
siveness from employees). This level can be expanded further by the 


by
also
focusing on innovation.8
Then, it is also equally important that the brand will be known by its target market.
Branding
a product is useless unless the prospect customer recognizes it. The mass public
should be
aware that a certain brand exists offering certain type of products. This is called ð



.
What is brand awareness? Brand awareness can be defined in the following ways:9
l Getting the brand.s name into the target audiences¶ minds (building momentum)
l 
 in one.s target audiences¶ minds (

 momentum)
l Getting people to

 about the brand, consistently (and in a positive light)
l Building brand.s credibility... through positioning the brand itself as one of the bests in the
industry
l Creating an automatic association between a brand and its services/products
l Creating an image that the target audience will find appealing and engaging
Building brand awareness in the minds of the public is not an easy task to do. Some
companies
have to stay in the business for quite awhile just to establish its brand name, while
others
use the marketing communications. tools such as advertising and public relations to
introduce
its brand to the target market. Brand communication can also be projected via mass
media
attention. Media attention can be exposure in magazines or newspaper, which will be
the focus
of this study. It is also vital to understand why we choose exposure of fashion
brands/products in fashion magazines/tabloid in order to measure brand awareness.
˜
  J

 / 

Media as expressed through fashion journalism is not new these days. People of
different ages
buy 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
Reporting
8 Ossiansson (2004, p. 69)
9 j 

2005, § 1)
9
in cross- national perspective 1955-2005. (2006, p. 384) , .Experts in the field of fashion
and
media claim that in the twentieth century, fashion has become one of the cultural forms-
like
film, 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 any
comparable area of human interest or endeavour. There are more articles written about
fashion
compared 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 eyecatching
catwalk can be noticed nowadays to be featured in the front page of an ordinary daily
newspaper, than any ordinary event. Due to the above, fashion journalism is also a
booming
industry now a days.

 
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. People
working 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
and
newspapers, but the term includes books about fashion, fashion related reports on
television as
well as online fashion magazines, websites and blogs.10
Fashion write-ups is a form of publicity and will help the fashion retailer in exposing their
products to the concerned public, and thus in the end, promote ð


.
However, it
is very important that the brand should first get the attention of fashion analysts as
primary
promoters or customers of the product. Thus, fashion media exposure is not only a
valuable
way 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
different
branding strategies;

 and 

 


.

  
Why do many companies spend millions in advertising? What benefits can
advertisement give
to retailers especially in fashion? Does a fashion retailer really need to advertise to
increase
sales?
10 Wikipedia 2008, 
 
, § 1
10
Advertising is a message paid by a specific sponsor and released through some
medium of
mass communication. It is a persuasive way of communication, not neutral, not
unbiased and
says; .I am going to sell you a product or an idea..11 Advertising is only one of several
marketing
communication options available to the company.
J. T. Russel 

O(1996) mentioned it is often is difficult to determine why a company
chooses to advertise at a particular level. However, there are a number of situations that
usually
dictate 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 a
certain 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 what
it 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
quality
products to the consumers. Here, branding comes in. Branding is very important in
order that
the customer can identify the product.s manufacturer and thereby, buyers tend to
associate
the 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)

11
sumers in the decision to choose from the wide array of brands / products available in
the
market. .Without advertising, businesses would not be able to bring new products to the
attention
of enough consumers fast enough to make the enormous cost of creating, developing,
manufacturing and distributing these products a rational business decision..14 And
without
branding, it.s is difficult to choose from many same and analogous products available in
the
market. This study will measure the ability of a branding strategy based on advertising
to
make fashion journalists recognize and choose the advertised brand.

 
  

The main interest in this thesis is to know if market orientation succeeds in getting brand
awareness 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
declared
that 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. Mazaira


(2003) quoting Drucker (1954) in his paper, this market orientation strategy which
originated 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 and
projected profitability.
But market orientation is broader than marketing orientation because the former is
interfunctional
and 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
accomplish
a marketing goal, but the company as a whole. Every part of the unit has its role in the
fulfilment 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
or
more 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.

12
ing across the departments, and (3) the various departments engaging in activities
designed to
meet selected customer needs. In other words, market orientation  






 




 



 OO

A business is then considered market-oriented when the organizational culture is
focused and
has one primary aim, which is the continuous creation of   
 
 ,
which we
can conclude is one of the important 

 ð
. This includes
collection
and coordination of information on customers, competitors and other significant market
influence
like suppliers and regulators.19 A continuous study of a 
ð
O


is
also one of the important aspects of market orientation.
Furthermore, the three main components of a good market orientation strategy are

 
 


, 

 and 
 

 

and two decision criteria
 

 
 

ð
.20 Customer orientation and competitor focus includes all the
activities
involved in gathering information about the buyers and competitors in the target market
and disseminating them to the businesses. Inter-functional coordination is the business
coordinated 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 is often on the top of the list of an enterprise primary.s objective. As the
saying
goes, .Customers are always right!.. This saying seems to be the simplest guideline for
all
businesses, regardless of its size. But customer focus goes far beyond than traditional
customer
research according to Kohli and Jowarski (1990, p. 4). Being customer oriented involves
taking into consideration also market intelligence and what customers say or dictate.
Market intelligence is a broader concept that includes consideration of (1) exogenous
market
17 Jaworski and Kohli,41993, p. 2)
18 Slater & Narver (1994)
19 Ibid, (1994, p. 22)
20 Narver & Slater (1990, p. 4)
21 Narver & Slater (1990)

13
factors (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
marketoriented
business should understand not only its direct customers, but also the chain involved
in the customers. business. In short, it should know the cost and revenue dynamics not
only of
its 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 for
upcoming ways to satisfy their customer.s wants and needs and this can include the
service
that they can offer before and after sales. Because of this reason, collaboration between
the
top management and its subordinates is very important. Managers and employees
should
work as a team in order to maintain superior customer value. Employees play a vital
role in
this 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
 
 


Focusing on competitors might not be equally important as customer focus, but as
mentioned
above, to understand more the behaviour of a customer, one should look through the
other
factors surrounding the latter. It is vital to consider who are the competitors, what
marketing
approaches they use, how effective are their products and services and at what prices
they are
offered. 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 firms
try to identify their strengths and weaknesses to keep pace or stay ahead of them.
25Constant
variations of the competitors. strategic policies may occur so close monitoring of the
latter is
important in order to understand more their capabilities.26 In this way, the company is
always
22 Kohli and Jowarski (1990, p. 4)
23 (Slater& Narver, 1994, p. 22).
24 Slater & Narver (1994)
25 Ibid.
26 Heiens 2000

14
ready and flexible to respond for further improvements of its products and thus
maintaining
its brand.s position in the market.
Heiens (2000, p. 2) also stated in his article that .when market demand is predictable,
the
competitive structure is concentrated and stable and there are few powerful customers,
the
emphasis on competitors is more important. Moreover, the lesser the degree of
competitive
hostility, the greater the positive impact of competitor emphasis on performance..
To add, in market-driven businesses, continuous meetings among employees and
management
discussing about their competitors are needed. Supervisors should frequently discuss
competitor
.s strengths and weaknesses as a guide for future actions. The competitor.s
weaknesses are
often used to obtain more competitive advantage. In some cases, they keep competitors
from
developing an advantage by responding rapidly or anticipating their actions.27 An
example of
this is the launching of .online Zara Home. in many countries including Sweden this
October,
before H&M has launched its H&M Home division.
*
#  
  
Being the last component of market orientation strategy, this involves .the coordination
of the
personnel 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
must
be clearly defined and every employee, regardless of its position must recognize his
role in
order 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 departments
within 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
departments
and individuals work toward the common goal of serving customers. The latter
authors further add; that responsiveness is important to make this market orientation
concept
to work out.
27 Slater & Narver (1994, p. 23)
28 Ibid.
29 Kohli & Jaworski (1990)
15
c

   5
 
The connection between market orientation and brand awareness is quite not so
obvious with
the above discussions. But I think that brand awareness is so related to the ultimate
goal of
market orientation which is . the creation of superior customer value.. By proper
combination
of 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
combination
of the above three components. This paper will investigate whether this market
orientation
way of communicating to its target customers works as well as advertising in creating
brand awareness.
 
It has been stated above that brand awareness is one of the aims of a company.s
marketing
strategy, as it increases the brand.s value and could result to closed sales. Creating
brand
awareness is clearly one of the primary purposes of advertising. Some companies, such
as
Zara in this case, use market orientation instead as an alternative to the specific
marketing
tool, advertising.
The question that will be posed is: .


 

 







 



  



ð





 



!.
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


"




 










 


 


ð


O
Media attention is quite related to brand awareness. They both draw more attention to
the
brand and as an indicator of brand awareness, the media people needs to notice the
brand in
order to feature it. The hypothesis will be then, that market orientation as a branding
strategy
can attract same level of media attention compared to advertising, as the media
attention is
used as an expression and a way to measure their respective brand awareness. The
main structure
of our model is as follows:
16
This model shows how the effects of advertising and market orientation strategy can be
compared
in relation to the level of media attention that the brand gets, which impliedly connotes
brand awareness. The representatives of brands using market orientation or advertising
that
we have chosen are approximately equally big and successful, and targeting the same
group of
customers. According to our hypotheses, these brands should get the same levels of
media
attention.
c(-"').
In order to investigate the branding aspects of market orientation, we will use Zara as
case
object and United Colours of Benetton, Mango and Topshop as objects for advertised
brands.

 
  

þ

Inditex, or Industria de Diseño Textil, and its eight subsidiaries is an international
fashion line
that focuses on the design, manufacture and sale of clothes, footwear and accessories
for both
men, women and children including cosmetics and leather goods. The flagship brand of
Inditex
is 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
latest
wing included in the Inditex group which caters to home furnishings specializing in
textiles,
glassware, cutlery, tableware and decorative items. 30
30 Inditex n.d., 

Advertising
Market
orientation
#




#ð




17
The 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
medium
to 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
Stockholm
in 2003.33 There are eight Zara branches located in Sweden; four in Stockholm, two in
Gothenburg, one in Sundsvall and one in Malmö.
Zara has gained attention in business academia for its successful implementation of
market
orientation. The market orientation is the strategy of creating customer value by a
focusing on
the customer throughout the vertical organization of the company. The whole business
model
of 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 advertising
and 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 on
store layouts and shortens its lead time. All its stores are also located in prime locations
in big
city districts.34 The average store size is 1,376 square meters and make-over of old
stores are
done every 3-4 years.35
Moreover, Zara.s drawing power focuses on creating artificial scarcity of its products
and fast
response 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 it
31 Inditex.n.d., p $ 
32 Inditex,n.d., %
  
& 
33 Nilsson & Carlsvi (2004)
'()

O*+ 




j 



,OO
35 Ghemawat, & Nueno (2003)
36 Dutta (2003)
37 )

O*+ 




j 



,n.d
38 Dutta (2003)

18
in the future otherwise the product is not there anymore. 39In this way, it is relatively
easy for
Zara to know the slow moving items, cancel future planned production of a certain
design
thereby reducing probable product write offs.
Zara is continuously monitoring how its individual stores are doing. Frequent
conversations
with store managers are important with regards to communicating sales. and orders.
data to
the headquarters. To be also more flexible to the fashion trends, the store managers are
given
autonomy on its area, and feedback system is properly acted upon by the people in the
headquarters
for 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 new
ideas.41
Furthermore, Zara¶s designers even attended trade fairs and ready-to-wear fashion
shows in
Paris, 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 to
have 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
very
successful business.
39 Ferdows, Lewis & Machuca (2005)
40 )

O*+ 




j 



,n.d
41 Ghemawat, & Nueno (2003)
42 Ibid.
43 Inditex n.d, .- 

44 Mazaira, González & Avendaño (2003)

19

   

The 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
marketing
strategy different to Zara.s. These brands focus more on advertising among others to
get
brand awareness.
 
First, United Colours of Benetton was chosen because it has a relative small number of
stores
in 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
intentionally
shocking to draw attention to the brand.46 Finally, Benetton produces garments for a
target 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
expanded
than that of Zara.s. Its garments usually cater to kids and adults who just love to
experiment
the different shades of fashion. Its core business is being represented with a group
whose
strong Italian character in style, quality and passion are clearly seen in its brands, the
casual
K
 

, fashion oriented %, -
leisurewear and . #

streetwear. To add, the Group produces around 150 million garments every year. Its
retail
network of 5,000 contemporary stores around the world, offers high quality customer
services
and generates a total turnover of over ¼ 1.9 billion.47
c%)
MANGO has a history comparable to Zara.s, being a Spanish company with
approximately
the same number of stores in the same number of countries worldwide, and a recent
history of
great success . the first MANGO store opened in 1984.48
45 United Colours of Benetton n.d.p , §1
46 Website of Marknadsetiska Rådet n.d.
47 United Colours of Benetton.s n.d., p / 
48 MANGO n.d., 0 
20
It is a prestigious multinational company dedicated to the design, manufacturing and
marketing
of garments and accessories for women. It has over 6,500 employees, and have more
than
1,000 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
shopping
centers or in premises located in city squares. Stores are of a sufficient size to display
its
collections. 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
based
on a franchising system, and in marketing strategy, relying heavily on advertising
campaigns;
one example is the autumn/winter 2007 collection with international movie star
Penélope
Cruz as the model. There is only one MANGO store in Stockholm.

 
 
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 in
28 countries. There are two Topshop stores in Stockholm, of which one is notable for
being
the biggest Topshop flagship store outside UK.50
On the British high street, Topshop is known to be the fashion destination . It sells an
average
of 30 pairs of knickers a minute, 6,000 pairs of jeans a day and 35,000 pairs of shoes
every
week; thereby it is considered as one of the promising brands of today. Offering
pursefriendly
prices with its trendy style, Topshop attracts women from teens to the 40s who are
fashion conscious . 51
Topshop showed its in-house design collection Unique (created in 2001) as part of the
official
London Fashion Week schedule in September 2005 and subsequently forged exclusive
partnerships
with international boutiques p  in New York, 

in Paris and

Tokyo¶s  $
. Last summer 2006, 
in the US
started
49 MANGO n.d., 
ð
, §1,2,4
50 SO UK n.d., j
51 Topshop n.d., ð
j, §1O

21
selling Topshop¶s best selling Baxter jean in its flagship stores. It has also plans to
expand
internationally with stores in Moscow and St. Petersburg due to open in 2008O
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
designed
in collaboration with international top model Kate Moss.
 
In the analysis, market orientation will be compared to advertising in getting brand
awareness
using a quantitative method. The exposure of each of the chosen brands in the fashion
media
will be tallied as a measure of public awareness of the sampled brand. Year 2007 is the
period
chosen because it is easier to explore the current situation, and the time constraints of
the
study did not allow us to cover a bigger scope. The exposure of the group of brands
using
advertising (Benetton, MANGO and Topshop) will be compared to the brand using
market
orientation (Zara).
The fashion media attention is not only a measure of the brand awareness that
marketing is
creating, 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
Värld
and Glamour. The question, whether Zara.s marketing strategy can attract the attention
of
fashion journalists in Sweden, in competition with advertised brands, can then be
answered.

 c 

ð

was chosen because it has very popular fashion divisions that reach great
numbers
of 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
specific
advertisements 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, ð
j, §3 of Brief History
53 Aftonbladet.s advertising website n.d.
22
The fashion magazines, on the other hand, are full of advertisements from various
fashion
brands. 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
are
therefore going to give notice to any advertisements of the brands in the magazines,
even
though we lack knowledge of their advertising histories. The three magazines 0,
1
 

23 and $
 were chosen because all three of them have a pronounced fashion
profile
and are likely to attract readers with a fashion interests, and because they are popular
magazines
with monthly editions of about 85,000, 112,000 and 65,000, respectively.54, 55, 56 Every
2007 issue from all three magazines is included in the analysis.
"   
 
The research will be conducted by browsing the said magazines and newspaper and
counting
the number of times these four brands are mentioned during the year of 2007, and in
what
form or context they are being featured. Only O
will be included in the
analysis,
because of primary reason that our knowledge of fashion is more restricted to the said
segment. Secondarily, women still hold the crown as the top readers of these fashion
magazines
or fashion segments of a tabloid so most of these fashion magazines are inclined to
women.s fashion. Thirdly, one of our subjects, MANGO, only offers ladies. wear fashion.

%'.*"
The data exposed major differences between the different magazines as well as the
different
brands. When considering only the total number of exposures for the different brands,
one
may get the impression that Zara is doing well in the competition. Topshop is the clear
winner
with 58% of total media attention. Note that .total exposure. in this case means only the
total
exposure of these four brands.
54 Elle n.d.
55 Bonnier Tidskrifter n.d, 1
 
23 
56 Bonnier Tidskrifter n.d., $
 
23
Zara and Benetton seem to be equally successful with 17% and 19% respectively, and
MANGO gets the least media attention with only 6% of total exposures. The mean
exposure
of the advertised brands is 28% of the total exposure, somewhat higher than Zara.s
17%, but
still 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
Benetton
gets more attention from the magazines. It was also so striking why during 2007 Zara
was
 featured with a picture in the magazine Damernas Värld! The only attention Zara
got in
this magazine during the whole year was a mention in text, and only once.
˜˜   ˜ 

The three magazines and the tabloid fashion section are likely to have slightly different
target
groups, which should be reflected in the collection of brands that they choose to feature.
Nev24
ertheless, 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
Damernas
Värld at 28 exposures. Topshop is clearly one of the .trendiest. brands for the moment.
The
successful brand positioning is not only due to superiour advertising, but also to how
Topshop
has 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
Swedish
designer in 2007, and has designed her own collection for Topshop. Topshop has
succeeded
in creating an image of the brand being trendy and fashionable.
Aftonbladet Mode differentiates from the others by giving Zara many exposures, and
featuring Benetton and MANGO quite seldom. Damernas Värld is different from the
others
for giving Benetton the same amount of attention as Topshop. Mango is the third brand
with
only 8%, as Zara is hardly featured at all. But for Glamour and Elle, the distribution of
exposure between brands is very similar.
25
To explain those differences is difficult. There are most likely many explanatory factors
involved. Differences in price or style cannot explain Aftonbladet.s heavy focus on
Topshop
and 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
paper
issue nor at the website. Perhaps this is favourable for Zara! In an environment with
there is
very less advertisements, it is reasonable to think that the marketing strategy not based
on
advertising can succeed. This would imply that Zara.s marketing strategy is sufficient for
building momentum in the target group, but not sustaining same momentum in
competition
with advertised brands.
Even more remarkable is why Damernas Värld did not feature Zara at all in 2007. There
was
not even one picture of a Zara garment during the whole year . the only exposure of
Zara was
a mention in text. This cannot be due to the lack of advertising only, as Damernas Värld
feature many new and unheard-of designers. The only reasonable explanation one can
think of
is that, Zara has failed enormously in creating an image that is trendy and classy
enough for
Damernas Värld. This magazine has a strong focus on design and may dislike the fact
that the
design of Zara.s garments are not original, but they still feature other budget
alternatives with
unoriginal designs. The target group of Damernas Värld is also older than those of the
three
other papers, and the editorial staffs on Damernas Värld seem to think that, they are
incompatible with Zara.s image. The branding strategy of Zara must have failed here,
not
only, by 

 advertising, but also in  the proper marketing actions.
˜˜   ˜  

All kinds of media attention in magazines and newspapers cannot be assessed in the
same
way. 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 media
exposure are recognised:
1. -


. These pictures usually cover a whole page. They are the
type
of exposure which is the most expensive for the papers. The featured garments get
26
much 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. O&


ðOOThis is the name we have given to pages where those garments that
are
chosen by the editorial staffs, are being exposed. No model is also being used.
Compared
to the photo shoot, more articles are shown in this page. We expect this to be the
second most desired type of exposure.
3. p
 OThe 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 the
three types of exposures.
We consider here only the cases were we have enough information for percentages to
be
meaningful. We estimate > 15 exposures to be a good threshold. This is motivated by
the fact
that the smallest of the three groups of exposures typically range from about 7%. With
less
than 15 exposures, the expected number of this type of exposure would be less than
one. With
a statistical security buffer of one exposure, we demand more than 15 exposures to
calculate
the percentages.
27
Unfortunately, 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, Topshop
in Elle is still in line with the ratios in the other magazines. Photo shoots are typically
10%-30% of the total exposure, what-to-buy between 45% and 75% and the other types
of
exposure make up 7%-25%. This is true for all four brands with more than 15 exposures
in
Glamour 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
those
expensive photo shoots. The exposure type ratios of Topshop and Zara in Aftonbladet
Mode
are 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
the
other 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
exposures
of the various kinds does not differ notably between the advertised brands and Zara.

  
The advertisements of the four brands in the three studied magazines are not being
counted as
media exposure, but are noted for comparison to exposure data. It seems that the
spring and
the autumn are the right periods for campaigns, as all advertisements were in the period
March to May or September to November. All advertisements are a whole page or
spread.
  5
 # 




   
MANGO Topshop Benetton
c 6Elle Elle Elle Damernas Värld Glamour

 1 11 2 2 1
1 10 2 2 1
As can be seen in the above figure, Benetton seems to be the brand that aims for
advertisements
with a broad impact, as it is promoted in all three magazines. MANGO is more modest
with only one advertisement in Elle in the spring and one in the autumn. Topshop, on
the
28
other hand, seems to aim for a big impact in a focused target group, as they put up 11
advertisements
in the spring and 10 in the autumn.
To see if there was any relation in time between advertisements and exposures, we
looked at
the distribution of exposure over time.
None of the advertised brands had exposure patterns that exactly corresponded to their
periods
of advertising, or that differed remarkably from the exposure pattern of Zara.
Considering the
periods of advertising, there were no conclusive evidence for a direct response in media
attention to advertising.
The main results from advertising are probably seen from a bigger perspective. It has
already
been stated that Topshop has a very successful branding strategy, and the intense
advertising
is of no doubt part of it. It would be easy to blame MANGO.s failure in getting media
attention on the parsimonious advertising (for a marketing strategy based on
advertising), but
there are likely other factors involved as well.

29
%'+*%
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
is
obvious 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 the
three 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
exposures
in the magazines. This continuity is something that Zara lacks.
The answer to the research question: . Can market orientation as a marketing
strategy evoke
the same amount of brand awareness as advertising?. is:
... that a company using market orientation as a marketing strategy   

create the
same level of brand awareness as those companies using advertisements in some
target groups
as represented by magazines, however, advertisement seems to be a more effective
tool to get
more control over the brand and of course to promote the image of the brand.


 

(Benetton,
MANGO and
Topshop)
c


  
(Zara)
#




#ð




Topshop -
58 %
Benetton -
19%
Zara - 17%
MANGO
6%
30
The hypothesis which is:



 ð
 

 








 ð



 

"









 , is not supported by the data.
+))(*%$+$-($$(($-
This study has so many limitations. First, we do not know exactly how the magazines
work
with the different brands. We don.t have any idea how they choose what brands to
feature and
whether there are any contacts between the magazines and the featured brands and if
there is
monetary compensation involved. Second, we only limit our scope of study for a year
and
only for women.s segment of fashion. We also only base our data from secondary data.
Furthermore, we cannot conclude that fashion magazine exposure is a good
representation of
brand awareness of the target market. Further research should look more into the
relationships
between fashion magazines and fashion retailers, and the connection between fashion
magazines
. exposures and customer.s brand awareness. It would also be more useful to conduct
interviews of the concerned personnel of the sampled brands on how they are using
advertising
strategy and marketing orientation. Moreover, an interview too of the fashion magazines
personnel will of great help to understand more, the reason behind the exposures of
certain
brands / products. Lastly, it will always be more interesting to have a deeper study on
this
topic, expanding the market segment group.
31
'*$(($(%(
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Bonnier Tidskrifter n.d, 1
 
23 . Retrieved December 3, 2007, from
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n.d. Retrieved December 13, 2007, from
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23 . Retrieved December 3, 2007, from
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Bonnier Tidskrifter n.d., $
 . Retrieved December 3, 2007, from
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DeFleur, M & Dennis, E 1998, K 

 *


, Houghton Mifflin
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%
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4% 
 


ORetrieved
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,55O
O5566
5 6 7
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 . Retrieved January 16, 2008 from
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32
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ð
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33
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O*+ 




j 




,n.d. Retrieved January 16, 2008, from
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33(%"*(

Below follows graphics of all individual exposures for each brand and magazine.
34
35
36Y