Mango Clothes: A Trendy High Fashion Brand with Unique Business Principles

Let us discuss a few things about the world’s second Spanish fashion retailer—Mango. Although Mango and Zara have the same target market, their business model and strategies are different in many ways.

Mango was established in 1984 with the opening of their first store in Passeig de Gracia in Barcelona. One of the founding brothers, Isaak Andic, who is currently also the president, is in control of the company which is 100% family owned. Given the fact that it may enlarge the company’s financial base, there are no plans of selling Mango shares in the stock market so far.

 The Franchising Strategy

Mango’s franchising strategy allows the company to achieve worldwide presence without shouldering the costs of store ownership. Its international expansion began in 1992 with the opening of two stores in Portugal. In 1997, half of its revenues were already coming from stores outside of Spain. This figure has reached 77% in 2008. The brand has now over 1700 points of sale in 100 different countries and is still growing.

 Zero Manufacturing

Unlike Zara, the company does not manufacture any of its Mango clothes. They rely on more 140 suppliers worldwide, with each region specializing in a certain type of clothing that it can manufacture at a competitive price. With a huge number of suppliers and sales in 90 countries, it can be imagined how powerful and well-designed their supply chain information system is to support their current success and future expansion.

 Communication Focus

Mango’s target market is exactly defined and comprised of women who love fashion and want to wear the latest fashion trends. The company believes that 30% of the passersby are actually within their target market. This way the brand’s essence is not diluted and is very focused on the target market.

Unlike its other Spanish rival, Zara, Mango is actively focused on its image, communications, campaigns, PR events and celebrities to support its fashion presence and promote the brand.

Celebrities are the center of each communication campaign of their Mango clothes fashion line. They are the best people to embody the brand’s essence which include Penelope Cruz, Monica Cruz, Scarlett Johansson and newcomer Olivia Palermo from the MTV show “The City.”

Mango also uses events like the Mango Fashion Awards to recognize its fashion sense. John Paul Gaultier was made chairman of its third edition which featured young designers from different parts of the world to compete in a fashion design contest. This kind of initiative is both interesting and exciting in the sense that it builds the framework for the future of ready-to-wear fashion design, and it also paves the way for the discovery and development of young designers.

Mango has a fashion blog called “Keep the Beat” that it utilizes to keep in touch with its customers and take every opportunity to promote and market the brand.

In conclusion, it is safe to say that Mango has its own distinctive positioning and strategy that is supported by a supply chain that needs to be as lean and fast as possible.