The success of Zara Psychology of Fast Fashion (and Cheap)

The success of Zara Psychology of Fast Fashion (and Cheap)

For a large number of people from rich countries around the world, shopping for clothing stores has become a very popular hobby, a pleasant and powerfully addictive activity, As with the social media. Both on the street and on the Internet, cheap clothing stores have proliferated where to make fast and affordable purchases to most pockets.

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  • Zara and the pleasure of buying cheap
  • The neurological process of the purchase
  • Zara and fast fashion consumption
  • Zara's success (and others)

Zara and the pleasure of buying cheap

Several studies have shown that the brain finds pleasure in the search for cheap things, which we tend to buy only for the simple fact of being well priced, although we do not need them and we were not even looking for them at that time.

This dynamic has significant consequences. Consumers run the risk of being trapped in a hedonistic routine in which the continuous search for new new things leaves them dissatisfied and dissatisfied. For most, the breakdown of this cycle is not so easy, it is not like simply committing to not buying anything. That is why it is no accident that purchases have become such an absorbent and compulsive activity: the reasons are in our neurology, economy, culture and technology.

When we observe a new article, the first thing we look at is the price of said article, weighing it. The medial prefrontal cortex considers the decision to be made, since the insula, which processes pain, reacts with the economic cost. Then the brain decides whether to buy the product or not, starting a Hedonic competition between immediate acquisition pleasure and the immediate pain of paying.  And our mentality is in line with the evidence that we get happiness in buying and obtaining new things, with the feeling of wanting something.

While pleasure is activated only from the act of looking, we must take into account that we also obtain pleasure in the purchase act, or more specifically, in Get a bargain. The medial prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that makes the cost-benefit analysis. It is sensitive not only at the price, but how much we may like this product. But that the comparison of the two: how much I like and what they charge me for it, is what is called "transactional utility," says Tom Meyvis, marketing professor at the Stern School of Business from the University of New York and expert in consumer psychology. "This looks a lot with clothes," he says. "Part of the joy that is obtained from purchases is not only that you have bought something you really like and that you are going to use, but also that you get a good result."

The neurological process of the purchase

Shopping is a complex process, neurologically speaking. In 2007, a team of researchers from Stanford, MIT, Carnegie Mellon and studied the brains of several test subjects using functional magnetic resonance while they took Decisions about the purchase of clothing. The researchers found that when they were presented to one of the subjects of the study of a desirable object for sale, The pleasure center, or acumbens nucleus in its brain light. In addition, the more that person wanted the garment, the greater activity the functional magnetic resonance was detected.

If just seeing desirable elements and thinking about getting a bargain waves of joy are generated thinking about its purchase, it is clear that a more pleasant than modern consumption culture could not be designed, that of cheap consumption and rapid transition.

From the left: activation in the acumbens nucleus (pleasure), the medial prefrontal cortex (cost-benefit analysis), and the insula (pain and disgust).
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Zara and fast fashion consumption

As we see, this fashion perfectly feeds this neurological process. First, clothes are very cheap, more and more, which makes it easy to buy. Second, the new Matketing deliveries of stores They are very effective, which means that customers always have something new to do and something to be desired. Famous stores like Zara, that "design" and make two new shipments of clothing every week, are famous for knocking out high -end designers, which It allows the client to obtain something similar to the original to a small fraction of the cost, With a markedly lower price than the rest of the market, so its products are perceived as a bargain.

Zara's success (and others)

So it is not surprising that fast fashion brands such as Zara or H&M, report sales record sales year after year.

Tentle price labels in fashion clothing and accessories to make affordable impulsive purchases are too "good" to resist.

Zara is successful because it is the best in a market segment called quickly. Look at the name of this market segment. FAST.

Even so, the only way to convert the sale of cheap clothing into a truly lucrative business is to sell a lot. That is exactly what fast fashion has been doing, and generating great profits in the process. He founder of Zara Amancio Ortega is recognized by Forbes magazine Like the "richest retailer in the world."On the other hand, the richer person from Sweden is Stefan Persson, president of H&M. And their companies continue to grow ..