Photos: ZARA Barcelona branch, Avda. Puerta del Angel

ZARA is the most important brand in the portfolio of Inditex, one of the world's largest textile groups. A network, originating from the headquarters in the Spanish town of La Coruña in 1975, has since expanded to over 1500 stores in 44 countries - 600 of which are under the ZARA label.

The international success of ZARA is based on unusual concepts: on the one hand, there is a strict, logical "verticalisation", i.e. all value-added stages from manufacture to retail are integrated within the company; on the other, is a communication strategy that completely does without any printed advertising, relying instead on uniform shop architecture and "corporate light" to create the brand's typical shopping experience at the point of sale.