Marketing Communication – Promotion

Comparing with H&M, or other similar companies, Zara does not spend much money on promotion. It spends 0.3 per cent of sales on advertising compared to average of 3.5 per cent of competitors. Zara thinks that the store windows and the content is the most necessary advertising for them.

All H&M’s advertisements are produced centrally at the head office in Stockholm. This means that the advertisements are largely the same in all markets, but the media mix is adapted to local needs and circumstances. The centralized, organizational structure ensures a uniform branding of H&M in all markets. This means that customers will get the same H&M experience whether they enter a store in Stockholm, Paris or Hong Kong.

Community websites

To promote H&M and its product, H&M will use video advertisements, print advertisements and the concept of e-marketing. These promotion and communication strategy will tend to meet the consumers form different places everywhere, especially those target markets or the consumers in the working place. H&M engages consistently with consumers on Facebook, You Tube and Twitter to drive traffic to its online stores as well as the physical stores which continue to be H&M’s most important channel of communication as they give customers an immediate sense of what H&M is all about. H&M uses its online media more and more to communication its activities externally.

In different industries have been tried to use the internet as their part of marking strategy. H&M may invite some famous bloggers to update the fashion blog every day, and show the latest fashion news around the world. However, they are not the reporters. The fashion news is typing by their preference. It may attract more subscribers or fans and bring more real feedback from the customers. 

On the other hand, Zara also has taken advantage of this low cost advertising. They have a Facebook, a Twitter, and a Youtube channel account. The posts are about the photos of their merchandise, look books and activities. They focus on fashion, current trend and its new products. In 2012, Zara was ranked the 18th most liked Facebook company by business insider, which is slightly more than H&M which has 11 million.

Mobile Apps

Nowadays, mobile phone become the new channel of marketing promotion. Mobile Apps may help to get close with the customers and company. The customers can easily to touch their new products when they are launched. Moreover, it can be collected the updated feedback from customers.

Zara launched an App for Iphone, Android phone and Tablet. It can be founded the Zara’s latest fashion items, as well as the contents from Zara website. In addition, customers can purchase the product through the App. In the other words, people can purchase their products wherever and whenever. 

Current strategies of H&M also are marketing to its customers through a mobile marketing campaign. For this mobile marketing strategy, customers may receive SMS coupons, some mobile banner ads will places on major portals and media sites. H&M is using Mobiento to market this strategy and its sister company Adiento, which is an ad network. H&M launched their first campaign in 2006 and is still continuing to use this channel to cover a wide range of consumers. The main goal for this marketing technique is to promote the latest seasonal trends for that particular season and to drive membership of the H&M Club.

Moreover, H&M combines the mobile marketing strategy and social media website, to hold some marketing campaigns. Customers are encouraged to use their mobile phone to photograph examples of fashion items they find and like and unload them to the H&M Facebook site. Then, the customers can review the “hunted” items and vote for it by using the “like” function in Facebook. The items with the most votes will get the H&M’s prize. At the same time, H&M has direct access to everyone who has unloaded photos and voted, they have highly targeted and engaged audience to promote the suitable products to. It is essentially for customers to tell H&M what they want and then H&M sell it to them correctly.