So while design houses are falling over each other to promote celebrity fashion, Spanish fashion house Zara is sitting smug, basking in its 'speed-is-the-mantra' theory.
Zara refuses to be in the rat race for celebrity-designed, movie star look-alike fashion. It doesn't desire to be in the limelight of such high-profile advertising. Instead, it believes in timely delivery of goods.
"It's all about speed," says a Zara executive, sitting in his huge boardroom in Arteixo. "Celebrities may work for other brands, but not for us," he adds.
He highlights Zara's unique business model that has enabled it to expand and compete with quality brands at affordable prices. It is said that Zara needs just two weeks to develop a new product and get it to stores and launches around 10,000 new designs each year.
Fashion analysts give a thumbs-up to this formula. Luca Solca of Bernstein consultancy agrees that stars are mere substitutes for design, speed and quality. Marian Salzman of JWT advertising agency in New York says in the same breath, "Zara is right to stay away from celebrities."
Another fall out of using stars is that a wrong message may be conveyed if the celebrity endorsing a brand has a tainted personal life.
Zara's marketing strategy and popularity hardly calls for celebrity endorsements. In just over a decade, Zara's parent company Inditex has become world's second-biggest selling fashion retailer after Gap lnc. Zara drives two-thirds of sales.
Zara's customers are more than happy with what the fashion house has in store for them. According to 25-year-old Dawn Gough, Zara offers "good colours and good fabrics that are reasonably priced".
"The clothes you get are slightly different to mainstream clothes.... they are affordable," adds another Zara enthusiast.
Zara refuses to be in the rat race for celebrity-designed, movie star look-alike fashion. It doesn't desire to be in the limelight of such high-profile advertising. Instead, it believes in timely delivery of goods.
"It's all about speed," says a Zara executive, sitting in his huge boardroom in Arteixo. "Celebrities may work for other brands, but not for us," he adds.
He highlights Zara's unique business model that has enabled it to expand and compete with quality brands at affordable prices. It is said that Zara needs just two weeks to develop a new product and get it to stores and launches around 10,000 new designs each year.
Fashion analysts give a thumbs-up to this formula. Luca Solca of Bernstein consultancy agrees that stars are mere substitutes for design, speed and quality. Marian Salzman of JWT advertising agency in New York says in the same breath, "Zara is right to stay away from celebrities."
Another fall out of using stars is that a wrong message may be conveyed if the celebrity endorsing a brand has a tainted personal life.
Zara's marketing strategy and popularity hardly calls for celebrity endorsements. In just over a decade, Zara's parent company Inditex has become world's second-biggest selling fashion retailer after Gap lnc. Zara drives two-thirds of sales.
Zara's customers are more than happy with what the fashion house has in store for them. According to 25-year-old Dawn Gough, Zara offers "good colours and good fabrics that are reasonably priced".
"The clothes you get are slightly different to mainstream clothes.... they are affordable," adds another Zara enthusiast.
