Chapter 4. Research and Analysis
4.3 Interviews with Zara store assistants
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fashion consumers because people can usually find what they like (“I like the pattern but with a different fabric. It’s alright, you can find your preferred fabric with the pattern you like!”), but mainly because, without the necessity to purchase, customers learn how to combine clothes and accessories. They know what’s the fashionable combination of the current moment (not just simply the season), in order to create their own clothing style. “Be different, but still, into fashion wave”.
4.3 Interviews with Zara store assistants
During the search of Zara store assistants to interview, I personally visited the stores but the attempt was unsuccessful. Eventually, through friends, I got the great chance to contact two store assistants who accepted to be interviewed via mobile phone. One works at Zara Kaohsiung and a second one at Taipei 101. Both interviews were conducted in Chinese.
From now on, the first one is referred as assistant A and the second one as assistant B:
1) I would like to understand the profile of the Taiwanese consumer in Zara. In Taiwan there are currently five stores, and the profile is varied. Could you please describe this profile?
According to assistant A, “to illustrate the profile of the consumer of Zara in Taiwan is difficult, as it depends on which area of Taiwan, location of the store and section (man, woman, TRF, kids).” Assistant A also describes about the situation in Kaohsiung:
In Kaohsiung, for example the consumer is mostly from Kaohsiung, nearby towns and provinces, generally speaking, from the south of the country. Regarding to the location of the store, we can say that we have also a small percentage of tourists who come to visit the south.
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Regarding to the section of clothes, for instance, in TRF the age of the consumer ranges between 20 and 30. There are also maybe consumers aged between 17 and 18, but in a smaller percentage.
Similarly, assistant B comments that “the customers who go to Taipei 101 are mostly tourists: half of them from Mainland China, and the rest are European or Americans.” This is reasonable due to the touristic spot of the second highest building in the world. In contrast,
“the Zara in Dongqu is more addressed to Taiwanese customers and mostly women aged between 20 and 30, because it’s the area for local shopping and a popular place to hang out.”
2) I would like to reaffirm the fact that Zara store managers report every day to the headquarters in Arteixo. Afterwards, it would be interesting to see if these reports reflect later in further collections in Zara Taiwan, as well as other Zara stores around the world.
Assistant B confirms that they make reports, statistics and records everyday. And assistant A adds, “we not only report to Arteixo, at the same time, we send the reports to the headquarters in Taiwan, located in Taipei.” Regarding the models designs in Zara Taiwan, according to assistant B “in the end, the designs of the clothes follow the European-American style.” On the other hand, assistant A says that, “the number of the pieces may vary depending on the colors. Those colors that are very welcome by the customers may increase in quantity. As well, the quantity of sizes of each model depends on the purchase of the customers. Hence, we will report all this to Arteixo and together we know how many items must be placed in store in the following days.”
Assistant B adds, “It is well known, among both costumers and the general public, that Zara has a rapid turnover of collections. We bring items (either restock on particular items or
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new models) twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. Also, we usually introduce the new arrival of models to the customers.”
Apart from the two questions above, I included a more personal one: “What are the reasons you think that Taiwanese consumers like Zara?” Assistant A responds as followed:
Taiwanese like Zara because it is a brand that comes from abroad and they know it is a very successful brand worldwide. The image of an international brand attracts them. As well, the concept of mass fashion is very well accepted among Taiwanese consumers. More and more people like it, as it offers affordable prices to everyone. Taiwanese consumers can accept it (both the style and the price).
Regarding the Zara’s popularity in Taiwan, this assistant agrees with what Zara customers told us before. Firstly, because Zara is a foreign brand that has achieved a reputation abroad; and secondly, because it offers affordable prices.
From our store assistants’ responses we can observe that it’s hard to describe the general consumer profile in the Zara stores in Taiwan, as each of the stores are addressed to different target consumers. For example, the one in Taipei 101 is focused rather on tourists and the one in Dongqu, on Taiwanese consumers.
The store assistants confirm that the everyday reports influence in the twice-a-week items introductions: both new and basics that need to be restocked. As for the question whether these reports influence in the designs of models, which are later imported to Taiwan and other stores in the world, we are unable to provide any information. However, we have watched the documentary Planeta Zara (Planet Zara), which was broadcast in Spanish Canal+, and coproduced with Sogecable and Capa LatAm in 2002. In the documentary,
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producers have had direct access to Inditex, store openings, and staff, from designers and architects, to manufacturers and store managers. Here, we have learned that against the general belief that consumers can find the same models in every Zara store they stepped in, it’s not true. The majority of the models is identical everywhere, but a small percentage changes in each country to adapt to all cultures. Therefore, we suppose that the everyday reports that store managers send to Inditex headquarters both in Arteixo and Taiwan influence, indeed, in some models introduced in Taiwan.
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