MACRO & MICRO FACTORS AFFECTING ZARA

MACRO FACTOR: CAN AFFECT ANY BRAND 
MICRO FACTOR: SPECIFIC TO BRAND 

MICRO

Supplier: 2011 the number of audits of suppliers and external manufacturers doubled/
Intidex has over 1,300 suppliers/ 50% of the products are manufactured in Spain, 26% in the rest of Europe, and 24% in Asian and African countries and the rest of the world/ Basic products are outsourced to low-cost suppliers, mainly in Asia and Turkey.

Publics: Owned by Inditex – CEO Jose Rios –  the biggest shareholder of which is Garter, S.L. (owns 50.01%) / Intidex has over 60,000 shareholders.
          
Intermediaries: social media as part of marketing strategy. Sophisticated tech, such as PDAs with wireless transmission, used by managers to track and report which products are selling well in store. Stores use DOS-based POS system by the company IBM.

Competitors: Mango, Topshop, River Island (positioning map) 

MACRO

Political: After 1,100 people died in a Bangladesh factory on April 24^th, companies signed a safety agreement on building and fire safety 

EU rushing out to reveal corporate tax and profits on country by country basis

Technological: Advances in wireless technology allow stores to avoid roadblocks and improve in areas such as supply chain management, inventory management, customer experience and loss prevention. 

 Economic: 16-24 have high economic pressures due to rising tuition fees and high levels of unemployment/ Minimum wage to increase as of 1st October 2013 to £6.31 from £6.19/ Number of under 24 female neets (not in education, employment or training) rose by 28,000 since 2012 in Britain. This is all 3 of our brands target age group/ Britain avoided the triple dip recession with a 0.3% GDP growth.  

Social: 6% forecast decline in the number of 15-24 year olds in the UK population. This affects all our brands directly as that is their target market. / Mintel has shown 16-24 prefer to shop at brands that introduce collections more than once a season, which is why the traditional format is not working well – our brands could break out of this.  / Women aged 25-34 years old forecast to grow by 8% to reach 4.5million by 2017 – this age group are most willing to pay more for premium sub brands. / Under 25s are more cautious with spending. Compared to 2012 there has been a 7% increase in the number who choose to save a percentage of their disposable income. / Release of Great Gatsby influencing collections and sales.

Legal: Rise in the number of UKIP MP’s in Parliament, who are the main pushers behind the UK leaving the EU. This if it came to fruition would greatly affect import, export and other laws/ Primark to offer financial aid to all Rana Plaza workers (Bangladesh) putting social pressure on other brands for industry change.

 Environmental: Weather cycles disrupt the natural pattern of shopping, for example cold wet weather does not induce customers to buy spring/summer clothing/ 

(Reflection : Need to link SPICC to PESTLE more.)