Growing Old Gracefully
In the book The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully, Chittister gives an overview of growing old. The book targets the elderly and those approaching the elderly but still want to stay healthy and young. This book is important for people who aim at exploring the effects of growing old in their lives as stated in the introduction. Moreover, Chittister chose to enlighten the older generation who have an impact in the society, yet they are not already old. Theerefore, as one person who had a real effect in the lives of many, this paper reflects on the life of Mother Teresa as narracted by Chittister (2008).
As Chittister notes, we should reflect on the life we have lived and ask ourselves what impact we will leave when we are one. This is one of the aspects that is not in our modern society where people seem to live a very busy life. We often forget to consider our achievements and failure in life. By assessing ourselves, we can consider if this is our most ideal moment for giving back to the community. As a person ages, they become more concerned on what contributions they have made so far in life. As such, one might be concerned on what will their obituary read. Mother Teresa is one of the individuals who aged gracefully through many contributions to the society. As a religious lady determined to shape the society, she lived a mark that we can all remember her for. It is through assessing her life as argued by Chittister (2008) that decided to impact significantly in the society.
The early life of Mother Teresa traces back in a convent run primary school followed by a state run high school where she lived as a normal girl. It was at the age of twelve years that she felt a religious calling, hence, decided to be a succinct catholic believer (Mother Teresa, 2017). With the conviction that this was her destiny, she was eager to explore her ambitions; hence she set off to Ireland six years later to join Sister of Loreto in Dublin. It was at this new location that she was given the name Sister Teresa. Although Mother Teresa had experienced several challenges as a kid from having her father die to being raised by a single mum in a dire environment, she was not brought down by these challenges. As stated by Chittister (2008), we should cherish the blessing we possess in our life rather than frequently bemoaning on the challenges and difficulties we are exposed to. At old age, the act of giving back to the rest of the world is the most important thing to partake in our lives.
Along staying connected socially, Chittister (2008) strongly encourages community outreach and volunteerism. Based on this assertion, Mother Teresa dedicated her life to serving the community. Chittister argues that giving ourselves to the needs of other people is the best choice. As a kid, she was raised while seeing her mother giving back to the society (Mother Teresa, 2017). Even after her father’s death, her mother used to call poor people within the environs to share the little that they had. Instead of anticipating for the world to come to us, we should reach out to the world as stated by Chittister (2008). This is the initiative that Mother Teresa took upon agreeing to join Sister of Loreto in Dublin. Based on her volunteering work, she was able to remain socially connected and live a philanthropic mark within the society up to date.
A year later after joining Sister of Loreto in Dublin, Sister Mary Teresa traveled to India where she made her first vows in the profession. She was later sent to Calcutta where she was assigned the role of teaching Saint Mary High school for girls (Teresa, 2016). This school was established to encourage teaching girls from the poorest locations within the city to speak in Hindi and Bengali fluently. The school was run by Loreto sisters, hence, it was one way of giving back to the society. By opting to alleviate the poverty that the girls lived in through education, Mother Teresa was able to grow socially and learn Bengali and Hindi fluently since these were the primary education languages within the school. In 1937, Sister Teresa took the profession vows to a life of obedience, chastity, and poverty (Mother Teresa, 2017). After these vows, she took the title mother as it was ordinary among all Loreto nuns. Due to unfailing commitment, she was made the principal of Saint Mary High School in 1937. Her main prayer was to ever light upon the lives of the poor girls and finally led the students to God.
One of the questions in our culture that should be answered is whether the existence of people at an old age has a meaning to other people lives or not. “We see our existence now as having meaning for others, as well as ourselves (Chittister, 2008, p. 46).” Based on this statement, Mother Teresa’s life has a meaning to not only herself but the life of many people. As a principal in this school through volunteering, she shaped the lives of girls to fight poverty which affected the lives of many people in India. With a new calling, Mother Teresa translated into helping the poor people in the cities. This was after her convent gave her permission to explore her new calling since she could not do so without permission (Teresa, 2016). With the urge to give back to the society, she established an open air school and a home for the destitute in a dilapidated building. By convincing the city government to donate to her cause, she was able to establish these facilities to cater for the poor in the city. Later, she was able to establish the Missionaries of Charity with the aid of pupils and former teachers in St. Mary High School. This depicts the relevance of being social as explored by Chittister (2008). The charitable activities of Mother Teresa expanded exponentially with the swelling donation from India and other parts of the globe.
It is at an old age that a person’s life is truly liberating. It is at this age that the person explores and tires the rest of the world. As depicted from Mother Teresa, it was not until 1950’s that she was able to fully realize her calling at an old age. She was able to establish several facilities for the poor at this age. It is at an old age that we can put all we have learned in life to impact the society. As such, old and senior people have the responsibility of mentoring other generations hence we should make the right choices at this age.
References
Chittister, J. (2008). The gift of years. New York: Blue Bridge.
Mother Teresa. (2017). Biography.com. Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/people/mother-teresa-9504160
Teresa, M. (2016). No greater love. Novato: New World Library.
STARBUCKS MARKETING
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STARBUCKS MARKETING
Founded in Seattle, Washington in 1971, Starbucks is arguably America’s largest coffee house. The primary product served by a chain of coffeehouses is darkly roasted coffee characterized by its taste and quality. The company was among the second wave of American coffee makers; however, with time, competition sprung up in the third wave. The changing times have, therefore, necessitated diversification and ingenuity from the company. The various moves made by the company have led to the unprecedented success of the company being valued at US$14.89 billion plus in revenue by the end of 2013 (Geereddy, 2013). Consequently, the various marketing strategies used by the corporation raises two central questions.
Is Starbucks a product or a service?
The power house is a relatively old dog in the coffee business. Given that the company was founded in the early 1970s, the target demographic of the time must be elderly in the 21st century. It is with this thought in mind that the corporation sought out to lure in the youth through many marketing strategies, some of which have worked tremendously (Dudovskiy, 2017). Among these strategies is segmentation, targeting, and positioning with the main aim of identifying appropriate groups of people among the general population as future customers (Kotler, 2012). It involves introduction of products and services that resonate well will the particular segments wants and needs (Haskova, 2015). Thus, the company directly employed a method of dividing the market and conquering it.
The named strategy is visible in several ways. First off, the coffee chain giant utilizes mono-segment positioning. Here, they mainly target premium customers who pay more to receive quality products and services. Adaptive positioning has also been an influential strategy (Haskova, 2015). The company closely monitored emerging trends and utilized them in marketing; for example, increased health awareness led to the production of low calories coffees like Chai Tea Latte, Caffe Misto and Iced Americano (Dudovskiy, 2017). The other method is standby positioning where the company makes products that outlast market changes to find demand, for instance, Frappuccino (Dudovskiy, 2017). Therefore, the company uses these strategies as services meant to deliver its products.
How do the discussed approaches factor in the development of the Starbucks brand?
The various positioning strategies can be interpreted as services by the customers. For the premium customer, for instance, the technique used to roast and brew the beans is as much of a product as the final coffee presented in the mug. The company has capitalized more on selling its quality services than the tangible coffee because at the end of the day, people can just make their coffee at home. The intangible resources in the company are instrumental in attracting and keeping customers. Additionally, diversification plays a crucial role in building the corporations brand. Currently, their diversification pack includes the coffee beans and equipment, fresh brewed coffee cappuccino and espresso, lattes, music CDs, Wi-Fi, juices, food items, and efficient employees to deliver the needed services (Geereddy, 2013). Therefore, in as much as the principal product sold by the company is coffee, the various marketing strategies employed position Starbucks as a service brand above all else.
How can companies use the principles of marketing?
Businesses can gain a lot from the adoption of service marketing as evidenced by Starbucks. The primary function of marketing is to sell consumer packaged goods (Hota, 2008). Given that the service industry in America has phenomenally grown to include a noteworthy portion of the gross domestic product, companies should consider diversification of their products to take advantage of the growing industry.
Services are delivered by a person, and thus, homogeneity may vary (Kotler, 2012). Businesses should consider taking appropriate measures to ensure the services are as similar as possible. Considering Starbucks, for instance, their customers have the same level of service expectation no matter where in the world they are being served. This experience helps market the enterprise further through word of mouth as well as other means. The employees do not own the service in any way but are trained and encouraged to serve every customer despite their racial orientation, gender, religion or financial situation the same way. Thus, by standardizing the company’s services, clients in turn help with marketing them.
The other marketing principle is the pricing of the product. Putting an exact value on a service is a tricky affair when compared to goods (Kotler, 2012). For services, the price of the product being served, say in restaurants, has to be factored in, as well as labor and overhead costs. For effective pricing, companies should avoid exaggeration of prices and under charging in equal measure. The quality of the service should be reflected in the bill as the consumer is after the entire experience. Thus, pricing determines also the success of the company involved in service delivery.
Moreover, services can be easily replaced. A crucial part of service marketing, therefore, involves a continuous process of promotion (Kotler, 2012). This process helps keep fresh the idea of the service in mind while differentiating it from others. A good example is the overwhelming number of Starbucks logos and advertisements virtually everywhere. Accordingly, part of service marketing involves investing in promotion
People form the corner stone of the entire organization in the service industry (Kotler, 2012). A company willing to improve in service delivery should create environments that are employee friendly. Additionally, they should structure the enterprise in a way that the stuff consistently works on improving the quality of the services as much as possible as a company culture. Referring to Starbucks, among its defining characteristics is a quality workforce with the freedom to express their ideas. This situation shows the value of its staff. Consequently, a good workforce influences service marketing.
For companies like Starbucks, branding is essential in generating consumer loyalty (Haskova, 2015). As a service marketing companies have to learn to create a dependency in the consumer. This method fundamentally involves a combination of the other discussed factors to build a brand for the consumers. These elements are the quality of the products and services and the friendliness of the environment: One without the other is futile in creating brand loyalty. Starbuck customers, for instance, have been reported claiming that they do not know how they would live without the product. The devotion can be credited to the creation of value for their customer in a friendly in-store different from other fast coffee houses (Haskova, 2015). Accordingly, companies should inspire dependability as a service marketing plan.
Conclusion
Indeed, Starbucks is an industry giant in the US. Since its inception, the company has grown into a billion dollar coffee chain stores by ingenuity in the service sector. Its adaptability to changing times has helped build a name as a service brand by targeting specific individual groups on which they capitalize. Other business should emulate the strategies utilized by the coffee giant in marketing its services, which mainly include product homogeneity, appropriate pricing, constant promotion, heavily investing in employee service delivery culture, and creation of brand loyalty.
References
Dudovskiy, J (2017). Starbucks Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning – Targeting Premium Customers with Quality Products and Service. [online] Research-methodology. Available at: http://research-methodology.net/starbucks-segmentation-targeting-and-positioning-targeting-premium-customers-with-quality-products-and-service/ [Accessed 29 Jul. 2017].
Geereddy, N. (2013). Strategic Analysis of Starbucks Corporation. [online] Harvard Scholar. Available at: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/nithingeereddy/files/starbucks_case_analysis.pdf [Accessed 29 Jul. 2017].
Haskova, K., 2015. Starbucks Marketing Analysis. CRIS-Bulletin of the Centre for Research and Interdisciplinary Study, 2015(1), pp.11-29.
Kotler, P., 2012. Kotler on marketing. Kuala Lumpur: PTS Professional.
Analysis of Inditex Company
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Executive Summary
The fashion industry is one of the growing industries across the world. The increased growth of this industry is because of the changing customer demands, tastes, and preferences of clothes. Therefore, most of the companies in this industry are moving to the international market where they face changing economic, political, legal, and environment issues that, in turn, shape their practices in these areas. The reviewed literature has revealed that sustainability development in this industry is crucial to the success of these organizations. Technology is one of the effective ways of promoting innovation, which is essential to the attainment of socially responsible practices. In the quest of assessing the impact of the various dimensions on the performance and operation of Inditex Company, the study exploited the case study methodology. This methodology was important in understanding these dimensions of this company. The study found that various political, economic, legal, and environment rules in different countries influence the practices of Inditex Group. Therefore, the study recommends that the company should maintain an efficient communication system that informs its customers the operation changes that are because of these regulations. In addition, the study found that technological advancement is an important tool for maintaining competitiveness and enhancing innovation.
Table of Contents
Analysis of Inditex Company. 3
List of Figures
Figure 1: An analysis of the market share of Inditex Groups. 8
Figure 2: Role of technology in the fashion industry. 9
Figure 3: Economic factors affecting Inditex Company globally. 12
List of Tables
Table 1: Future growth rate of Inditex Group. 7
Analysis of Inditex Company
1.0 Introduction
Fashion industry represents one of the dynamic industries across the globe. The advent of technology has promoted the growth of this industry and its venture to the global market. This growth rate has enabled these companies to meet the demand of the customers across the globe. However, the urge of moving to the global market for most of the companies in the industry has faced various issues right from political, social, economic, legal, cultural, and environmental issues that shape the operation of these companies. The ease of coordinating these factors is one way of promoting the growth of these companies in this industry. To understand the impact of these dimensions, the paper will focus on the Inditex Group Company. Since its establishment in 1975 as a single shop in Spain, Inditex has grown as the world’s largest fashion retail collection. The company now has 5527 fashion stores and operating in 82 nations. The headquarters of this company are located in Spain. The Inditex Group comprises of more than 100 organizations used to design, manufacture, and distribute its products. Besides, Inditex faces competition from Benetton and H&M. The well-established market of this company allows it to sponsor its development and continuous development. In quest of understanding the operation and performance of this company, the paper focuses on assessing the various dimensions of this company such as location, technology, environment, legal, and political aspects as well as their influence the performance of this organization. To accomplish this goal, the paper provides a review of available pieces of literature on this topic, a methodology of finding the impact of these factors on the performance of this company. Later, the paper provides detailed results from the collected data as well as a discussion, recommendations, and a conclusion.
2.0 Literature review
Chan, Ngai, and Moon (2016) proclaim that responding to the customer needs is an indispensable requirement for the fashion industry. Moreover, these authors affirm that global fashion industry is influenced by myriad factors such as social, political, and economic issues (Chan, Ngai, & Moon, 2016). Therefore, the industrial players of this industry should take the initiative of balancing the demand and supply affected by these factors. Adding on the same, the authors proclaim that seeking to reduce the prices of the fashion products is a complicated operation that impacts the supply chain. Macchion, Moretto, Caniato, Caridi, Danesem, Spina, and Vinelli (2016) comment that supply chain management of the fashion industries should consider sustainability practices to improve their efficiency. Macchion, et al., (2016) further add that the product life cycle for the fashion products is short, while the differentiation of products is implemented in the product style and brand image, which can be easily imitated. Therefore, it is important for the companies to take a key consideration of remaining sustainable by avoiding unsustainable practices. The study recommends the use of innovation to promote and adopt sustainable practices in the fashion industry. Innovation is more adoptable in this industry from the effective exploitation of technology. Turker and Altuntas (2013) back up these claims by asserting that the fashion clothing companies should engage in sustainable practices to promote their supply chain management. The use of standard designs should be used to promote better designs that meet customer requirements (Turker, & Altuntas, 2013). Globalization of sourcing and distribution should be used to enhance sustainable practices of this industry. Macchion, et al., (2016) recommend fashion companies collaborate along the supply chain and establish sustainable practices that should guide other practices in the industry.
3.0 Methodology
The study exploited the case study methodology. The basis of this study was to understand the various aspects of the Inditex Company. Therefore, the study was interested in finding out the various aspects of this company by assessing the various dimensions such as political, environment, legal, and political views of the company. To accomplish this goal, the paper used the explanatory type of the case study whose role is to explain these dimensions of the company. Thus, the case study methodology in this study focused on the few dimensions of the company that would facilitate the understanding of its operations.
The study relied on the available documents and studies on the subsequent parts of this company (Baxter, & Jack, 2008). Searching for the existing studies on these dimensions was exploited to enrich the study with relevant data on the operation and performance of the company. Direct observations of the organization’s operations from its website and online stores were as well used to offer deeper insights of the performance of the company (Baxter, & Jack, 2008). This was important in providing supportive performance data to the study. The fact that the study used an explanatory case study ensured that the study had provided qualitative data in the form of explanations. This was made possible by assessing insightful information from the various literature and studies that addressed the various dimensions of the company. At the end of the study, the researcher collected relevant data on the different aspects of the company from the existing studies, pieces of literature, and the company’s websites (Baxter, & Jack, 2008). The ability to source data from different sources enabled the researcher to converge them in the analysis process. Each of the data sources has unique contributions in helping the researcher understand the phenomenon under evaluation.
4.0 Results
4.1 Location
Inditex Groups is located in various parts of the globe with the prominent ones being Europe, America, Asia, and Africa. Initially, the company was located in Spain that controlled most of its operations such as administration and production. In addition, the company has eight stores Zara, Oysho, Bershka, Zara Home, Stradivarius, Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti, and Uterque that are used to offer its products (de Jorge Moreno, & Carrasco, 2016). The location of this company in various countries has enabled it to serve a wide and diversified population while creating room for expansion. This is an important practice of establishing a competitive advantage by allowing the company to identify new markets and serve different culture (de Jorge Moreno, & Carrasco, 2016). Moreover, the company has diversified its production unlike in the early days where Spain was the only country used for production activities. Consequentially, the company has focused on the countries with low cost of production such as China in carrying these activities. Such low costs allow this company to offer its products at a standardized price and making its products affordable (Vincent, Kantor, & Geller, 2013). Conversely, allocating its stores in different countries has paved the way for the Inditex Groups to move from local to the international market. This is evident from the way the company has diversified its practices in these countries depending on the available resources.
Inditex has focused on opening as many stores as possible. The ability to open these stores has enabled the company to expand in the global market since it opens 500 stores per year (Vincent, Kantor, & Geller, 2013). Such a high rate of expansion will enable the company to grow at a rate of 6% to 9% in the coming ten years because of the upcoming opportunities in Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe (Vincent, Kantor, & Geller, 2013). This expansion is important in enabling the company to favorably compete in the global market due to the improved supply chain and low-cost labor in these regions. As such, the market share of this company can be analysed by the Figure 1 below.
| Stores | Growth Rate (10 years) |
| 500 per year | 6-9 % |
Table 1: Future growth rate of Inditex Group
Figure 1: An analysis of the market share of Inditex Groups
4.2 Technology
Technology represents one of the key feature of every fashion house that promotes development. This is made possible by using technology to create new opportunities, enhance production, and solve business problems (See figure 2 below). Technology supports innovation that is important in facilitating the growth of an organization. Therefore, Inditex Groups utilizes technology in various ways as a way of promoting its growth. First, Inditex uses a business model that relies on the quality design and creativity, which are important in responding to the market demand (Gockeln, 2014). Moving to this model was after it abandoned the traditional model and focused on the intensive advertisement (Escalona Orcao. & Ramos-Pérez, 2015). This advertisement is used to support the communication between the customers and the designers who later design products that are in line with the customer needs. Therefore, technology is used to maintain communication between the designers and customers (Escalona Orcao. & Ramos-Pérez, 2015). Moreover, technology is used to maintain a network among its stores where the essential information about information such as items sold, color, and size is exchanged and stored.
In addition, technology is used to develop and support online stores. The increase in e-commerce has posed a chance for the organizations to move online. Consequentially, Inditex Groups has used online marketing as a key area of expanding its operations. For instance, the Zara store is the most developed online store available in 21 countries (Vincent, Kantor, & Geller, 2013). This follows the exploitation of social media and websites used to increase the customer access to these stores and provide valuable customer data used to shape its practices and operations. Gamboa and Goncalves (2014) add that Zara store uses social media precisely the Facebook as a vehicle for winning and cultivating customer loyalty. In addition, Zara uses Facebook to enhance customer relations meant to increase their loyalty through customer satisfaction, trust, and commitment (Gamboa & Goncalves, 2014). Therefore, the use of social media and websites is used to attract and retain a pool of customers. Moreover, Inditex exploits technology to advertise its products and facilitate e-commerce, which has served a key role in supporting the company to move to the international market (Wang, Tan, Kao, Tao, & Shen, n.d.). Technology is also used to support vertical integration used by this company to facilitate coordination and management of all its stores. Besides, Inditex Company relies on the computerized inventory system to predict and respond to the upcoming trend in the fashion industry.
Figure 2: Role of technology in the fashion industry
4.3 Political
Politics play a vital role in shaping the business world. The political dimension of the countries that Inditex functions is another crucial issue that shapes its performance and operations. The political aspect of this company differs in various ways since the company operates in different regions whose political structure differs. As such, it has become a key aspect of the company to keep track of the politics and political decisions made at each subsequent countries that it operates. This is important in avoiding business closure that may result from unfavorable political rules. For instance, Zara store has stabilized from the stable political situation of its host country. Moreover, political unrest in some countries has affected the performance and operation of Inditex Company. This is especially for the Middle East countries that have civil unrest. However, other political standings of other countries have facilitated the operation of this country such as the free trade policy of the European Union that promotes its operation. Conversely, the relaxation of the import quotas of Europe and the USA has promoted the supply chain of this company (Vincent, Kantor, & Geller, 2013). This has resulted to the increased importation from China, Spain, and Portugal, which has enabled the company to maintain a responsive and manageable supply chain.
The existence of such deviating political aspects of the operating region of the company has impacted its operation in the global market. The way government intervenes in the operating policies of the businesses resulting to the changing business practices. However, Inditex Group adjusts its operations depending on the changes made by the subsequent government of its stores (Nijmeijer, 2015). Besides, the political aspect has a direct impact on its operation where favorable practices promote the organization while unfavorable ones impact its operations in a negative way. The global existence of this organization in the form of various stores used to supply has enabled Inditex to counter the unfavorable policies and laws and, in turn, facilitate its operation.
4.4 Economic
The economic factor represents a vital feature affecting the growth of organizations worldwide. This relates to the influence of these factors on the decision-making process that is influenced by the inflation rates, exchange rates, and interest rates of the operating nations (See figure 3). These rates or factors affect the cost of importing and exporting goods, which directly determine the purchasing power of the target customers. For instance, Zara does not target the lower class customers; thus, their brand is affordable to the middle and high-class customers (Hammoudeh, 2014). Moreover, various tariffs and duties in different nations influence the price of products in these countries. For instance, the increase in fuel prices in the Middle East increases the cost of transport, which later affects the margin of the company. In addition, the crisis in the Europe Euro affected weakened the currency of the European countries, which has caused exchange losses to the company.
Understanding the economic factors affecting the fashion industry is an important aspect. The Inditex Company uses the economic factors to understand the issues affecting the purchasing power of its customers (Vincent, Kantor, & Geller, 2013). Most of the production of this company is done in Spain due to the nearness of its suppliers together with the low transport costs. This has resulted in low prices for the products of the Spanish market, which has been used as a key factor in increasing the competitive advantage of this company, as it increases the purchasing power of its buyers. This is different from other countries such as the Middle East countries that are far away from the production site as well as other additional costs that are transferred to the consumer (Hammoudeh, 2014). The changing economic factors have impacted Inditex Company in the global face where the low prices in the market with lower income customers. Therefore, understanding the economic factors is important in determining the impact that this has on the purchasing power of the customers.
Figure 3: Economic factors affecting Inditex Company globally
4.5 Social and Cultural
It is important to understand the social factors that affect the spending of the potential customers as well as the factors affecting the demand for their products. Moreover, it is important to understand the spending behavior and the dynamic nature of the fashion industry. Understanding the social and cultural trend of the different population served by this company is important in deciding the clothes to be produced and distributed in its market Nijmeijer, R. (2015). Further, surfacing the social-culture factors of the diverse population served by this company also helps in understanding the changing market tastes of this population. For instance, the Bangladesh customers have a culture of wearing bright colored clothes compared to other regions. The Europe and the USA, on the other hand, have a growing trend where the younger population has a passion for new and trending designs, an aspect that favors the growth of Inditex in these areas (Vincent, Kantor, & Geller, 2013). Likewise, the low growth rate in Europe adversely affects the growth of Inditex, since there is a diminishing market in this region. Therefore, it is apparent that the population structure, cultural beliefs, and spending behaviors in the different countries affect the progress of this company in different regions. However, the ability of the Inditex Company to adjust its designs and prices depending on the social-cultural factors has enabled the company to maintain a competitive advantage. Moreover, Inditex utilizes franchisors with the local businesses to adjust its practices depending on the different cultural practices of its operational area.
4.6 Environmental
In the current business world, customers are well informed of the need for sustainability and organizations that are socially responsible for their practices (Shen, Wang, Lo, & Shum, 2012). Likewise, the organizations that are violating the environmental safety measures encounter a hard time in the global market while risking their closure in some countries. As such, Inditex Company needs to produce environmental friendly garments to avoid any environmental harm that may arise from these products (Crofton & Dopico, 2007). Moreover, the management is aware of the strict policies guarding the disposal of the waste products. Such emphases on the need for environmentally friendly products have enabled Inditex to establish sustainable practices that have led to the sustainable development of this organization (Lozano, 2013). This has enabled Inditex to establish a competitive advantage by being socially responsible as a way of appreciating the green value of its customers. Similarly, the willingness of the customers to pay for the products is determined by the environmental factors, which also impacts their preferences. These practices promote the performance of the Inditex Company in the international market by creating a positive reputation that supports its operations (de Jorge Moreno, & Carrasco, 2016).
4.7 Legal
Legal factors play an integral role in every organization. It is an essential requirement of each organization to observe and adhere the legal obligations while at the same time making profits and maintaining its operating costs. Zara has utilized this aspect to create a positive image and reputation in the promotion of its practices (Crofton & Dopico, 2007). This has encouraged its movement to the international market since its ability to fulfil the legal obligations has enabled the company to attract and retain a pool of loyal customers (Hammoudeh, 2014). The current customers understand the need for the products that are socially responsible for its actions, which is accomplished by adhering to the rule of the land. Therefore, Inditex responds to this by following the different rules and laws safeguarding the business practices in different countries. Therefore, the Inditex responds to every legal law in these countries to ensure that it does not face barriers associated with failure to honor the rule of land where it operates.
5.0 Discussion
It is apparent that Inditex Groups was once a local company operating in Spain. Through expansion attempts, the company has managed to move to the international market with its presence in the global region extending to 82 countries. The global availability of this company has impacted most of its dimensions as revealed by the study. For instance, the different political standings of these countries have influenced some of its stores. The civil unrest in the Middle East countries has affected the performance of the Inditex stores in this area. However, the availability of this company in different parts of the globe has favored its performance in different ways. For example, its presence in Morocco and China has simplified the cost of production, which is low in these countries. This has made it possible for the company to diversify its production sites in different parts; thus saving the performance of the company.
In addition, the study has found that technological advancement is important to the increased performance of the company. This is because the company has opened numerous online stores such as Zara that is available in 21 countries. Promoting the e-commerce practices is one way of moving to the global market and having access to a wide range of clients. Numerous economic factors affect the progress and performance of this company with the closeness of the production to the suppliers being a major factor reducing the production costs. The ability to reduce the production and distribution cost is key to the reduced costs of goods, which is used to establish a pool of loyal and satisfied customers. The different culture of these countries is another factor affecting the performance of this company. Therefore, the company seeks to understand the culture and behavior of its target customer and design and implement products and business practices supported by these behaviors to maximize the returns.
6.0 Recommendations
The fact that Inditex Group is an international company, it is important to develop strategies that support its operation in the international market. This should be done by critical evaluation of the various dimensions of the company and come up with the practices that promote the operation of the company in these areas. Moreover, the company should attempt to understand the different cultures of its customers from the various corners of the world and design clothes that support their culture. This assessment should be in line with the spending behavior of these customers that should be used to determine the price of the products. The company should not stop at this point. Rather, it should carry more researcher on the factors promoting its sustainability in the industry and exercise such practices. Continued researcher should be used to facilitate new designs as well as the development of sustainable practices that promote the performance of the business in the international market.
7.0 Conclusion
Indeed, it is evident that Inditex Groups has many tasks to accomplish in maintaining its global image and competitive advantage. The presence of other companies offering similar goods and services is a call for the company to offer better and improved services to maintain the customer line. Besides, the company should aim at understanding the various aspects that influence its production and distribution and later it’s pricing. Therefore, the company should venture in research and development for all of its stores in the quest for understanding the various approaches to enhancing its performance. In this case, the company will evaluate all factors influencing its growth. The study has also revealed that Inditex Company should engage in sustainable practices in all the regions it is operating by remaining socially responsible and adhering to the economic, political, and legal requirements of each country that they operate. This should be used to establish a competitive advantage as well as attracting and retaining a pool of loyal customers. The study has also clarified that technology in the fashion industry plays a key role in promoting the success of the companies. This relates to the way technology supports innovation, creation of new opportunities and enhance production. Inditex has appreciated this fact by moving to the online marketing and e-commerce through the establishment of the online stores. Political unrest is another factor that adversely affects the progress of Inditex in different countries. Therefore, Inditex Groups should seek to establish their future stores in areas with the conducive environment. The company should be responsive to the changing economic rates and maintain a timely communication system that informs its customers of the current economic changes influencing its pricing.
References
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