zara trailblazing strategy challenges age-old retail marketing practices. It product policy emphasizes goods of reasonable quality, adaptability, and high fashion. The company uses little advertising or promotion. Its founder, Armancio ortega, long regarded advertising as a "pointless distraction;" indeed, he has never given an interview and rarely allows his picture to be taken. Zara spends just 0.3 percent of sales on advertising, compared with 3 to 4 percent for most fashion retailers. Its bare-bones marketing department avoids flashy campaigns, relying instead on word of mouth among its legions bare-bone marketing department avoids flashy campaigns, relying instead on word of mouth among its legions of loyal shoppers. Like its founder, it does not promote itself, it leaves that to satisfied customers. zara specializes in lightning-quick turnarounds of the latest designer trend-many item you see in stores didn't exist three weeks earlier. Explains Marcos Lopez of Inditex "The key driver in our stores is the right fashion. Price is important, but it comes second zara aggressively prices its products, and adjusts pricing for the international market, making customers in foreign markets bear the costs of shipping products from Spain. On average, its prices are 10 percent higher in other European countries, 40 percent higher in northern European countries, 70 percent higher in the Americas, and 100 percent higher in Japan zara's stores present the company's face to the world and function as grassroots marketing research agents. Indeed, if there is marketing at Zara, it's done via high-profile real estate. The stores command high-profile slots in historically appealing, premier shopping venues such as the Champs-Elysées in Paris Regent Street in London, Fifth Avenue in New York, and Nanjing Road in Shanghai. Its location strategy has created interesting tensions. Noted a consultant, "Prada wants to be next to Gucci, Gucci wants to be next to Prada. The retail strategy for luxury brands to try to keep as far away from the likes of Zara. Zara's is strategy is to get as close to them as possible.