Today, the development of fashion industry is characterized by the growing cooperation between companies operating in different countries of the world. At the same time, leading companies of the fashion industry attempt to expand their markets and increase their market share by means of international market expansion. In this respect, Mango is one of the leading companies which has started to implement the strategy of international market expansion and such expansion became the mainstream trend in the current development of the company. As the matter of fact, in spite of the international presence of Mango in many countries of the world, its expansion policy has been just started, taking into consideration the existing plan of the company to increase substantially its presence worldwide.In such a situation, a number of challenges naturally arise because the international market expansion inevitably confronts the company to problems which it has never faced before, while operating in the domestic market solely. Therefore, Mango has to cope with new challenges it is currently facing and the extent, to which the strategy of the international market expansion is successful, will define the future of the company in the fashion industry. At this point, it is possible to presuppose that a successful international market expansion will lead either to a considerable improvement of the competitive position of the company or undermine its current position and put the company in a very difficult position, taking into consideration the current economic recession and uncertain future prospects of the world’s economy.
On analyzing the current position of Mango, it should be said that the company occupies a strong, leading position in the fashion industry. Mango is based in Spain and, today, the company operates internationally. Even though originally, its target market was the domestic market in Spain, Mango has managed to overcome the boundaries of the national market and started to expand its presence in Europe and later in other parts of the world. At the same time, it is worth mentioning the fact that, in the past, the international expansion was not the ultimate goal of the company. It was not the mainstream trend in the strategic development of the company. Instead, it was rather a natural process of market expansion, when the domestic market had become too small and limited for the company, Mango naturally started entering markets of other European countries simply to increase the production and sales rates. At the present moment, the international market expansion is a conscious choice of the company and it has become the mainstream trend in the strategic development of Mango.


Today, Mango operates worldwide. To put it more precisely, the company’s main markets are located in different parts of the world. First of all, one of the major markets where Mango plays one of the leading parts is the European market, where the position of the company is traditionally strong for the company is based in Spain and its brand and products are popular and renowned in many countries of the continent. In addition, the company has started to enter new markets, including Asian markets which are one of the major goals of Mango currently. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that Mango’s international market expansion has gone as far as China, the Philippines, Republic of Korea and Australia, which are new markets for the company. At the same time, the company also expands its presence in North America, which is also a very important market for Mango, especially that of the USA, which potential and potential revenues are comparable to the European market. Thus, the company has over 850 stores worldwide. Mango operates in 81 countries located on five continents and has about 6,000 employees worldwide. Although it should be said that the company is mainly focused on European, American and Asian markets.
Furthermore, the administration of the company and its top executives attempt to accelerate the international market expansion that leads to the structural changes within the company affecting not only its organizational structure but also its products. Traditionally, Mango targeted at the young urban women as the main target customer group. Today, the company attempts to diversify its target customer group or, to put it more precisely, groups (Calder, 2002). As a result, Mango has launched the production of clothes items for men as well as for the wider range of women, along with traditional customer group of the company – young urban women.
In such a way, it is possible to speak about a considerable shift in the production process and clothes items which the company manufactures. On the one hand, the company attempts to maintain its tradition image of clothes manufacturer targeting at young urban women, while, on the other hand, Mango expands its target customer groups to improve its market position and facilitate the penetration of new markets. Thus, the company attempts to gain not only a larger market share in those countries where it has been already present, but it also attempt to offer new products which could attract customers in new markets, which the company is currently penetrating. At this point, this strategy is very important for entering new markets and it may be viewed as one of the forms of penetration in new markets.
Consequently, it is possible to speak about two major directions in the internationalization of the company. Firstly, the company physically expands its presence in international markets. This means that the company enters new markets, launches its business in new countries, such as China, for instance, opens new stores and points of sale, and so on. Secondly, the company is offering new products and involves a larger number of customers and diverse customer groups to facilitate the process of entering new markets. As a result, the company grows internationally and attempts to gain a larger share of the international market.
At the same time, it is important to understand the motivation of the company concerning its international markets expansion. As it has been already mentioned above, in the past, the international expansion of the company occurred in a natural way or, to put it more precisely, it was not really forced by the management of the company. In stark contrast, today, top executives of Mango accelerate the international market expansion. Obviously, they have their own motives to launch the international market expansion because such expansion needs considerable investments into the development of the company’s network worldwide. In time of scarce financial resources caused by the economic recession, such a strategy is apparently risky. Therefore, the motivation of Mango’s international expansion should be very strong.
In this respect, it is necessary to lay emphasis on the global trend in the fashion industry as well as economy at large. Today, the process of globalization affects practically all industries and the fashion industry cannot stay aside of global economic processes. As a result, the globalization leads to the strengthening of multinational corporations, such as Mango, because they operate worldwide and they occupy the leading position in the global market. In such a situation, the internationalization of the company is not only the question of the increase of the company’s revenues, but it is also and mainly the question of the survival of the company as one of the leaders of the fashion industry. Consequently, the maintenance or gaining the leading position of Mango in the fashion industry was one of the main motives of the company which determined the implementation of its strategy of the international market expansion. At this point, it is important to stress the factor of competition since it is the competitive struggle that stimulates and forces Mango to expand its markets internationally.
In actuality, the company cannot remain focused on the existing markets because its competitors, such as H&M, keep growing and expanding their presence in international markets. This means that Mango can potentially face a risk of losing its competitive power because its share of the market will become insignificant compared to the share of its competitors, if the company fails to grow and expand its markets internationally. As a result, the decrease of market share will make the company vulnerable to the pressure from the part of competitors. In this regard, the pressure can vary consistently, depending on the strategy of the competitive struggle selected by competitors in relation to Mango. For instance, competitors can use pricing strategies to push Mango out of the market or decrease its share of the market even more. Obviously, the company who has a larger share of the market can decrease the price and offer cheaper products of the same quality as the company that has a minor share of the market (Benfari, 1999). Naturally, customers will prefer less expansive products of the high quality, especially in the time of economic recession and a considerable decrease of the buying power of customers. Hence, Mango will become uncompetitive if it fails to expand its presence in international markets. Consequently, the international market expansion is the only reasonable strategy which Mango can apply in the contemporary business environment. At any rate, this strategy has good prospects for the company and the improvement of its market position.
As for the forms of entry, it is possible to say that, along with the direct expansion, when the company starts its business in a new country, opens its stores and develops its own networks offering both traditional and new products for young urban women as well as new target customer groups, there are other forms of entering new markets. One of the most effective is the merger and acquisition, which allows the company to acquire the facilities of companies operating on local markets and use them to develop its network in a new market. At the same time, the company does not always enter a new market under its own brand. For instance, Mango operates under the brand of MNG and Mango in North America. In such a way, to enter American market the company has to create a new brand to meet local requirements and preferences of local customers. In addition, the company has started to attract celebrities, who are known worldwide to promote its products and, thus, to facilitate the process of entering new markets. For instance, recently the company has announced that Penelope Cruz and her sister Monica will be designing a 25-piece collection for the chain to include accessories. In such a way, celebrities promote the brand of the company and draw the public attention to its products at the international level.
Furthermore, the international market expansion contributed to the structural changes within the company. In 2007, Mango created its first Board of Directors, chaired by Isak and Nahman Andik. All the members of the Board of Directors are partners and executive directors of Mango, who have been trained within the company (Garvin, 2008). In such a way, the company attempts to adopt the structure which is typical for multinational corporations to optimize its management and performance. At the same time, such changes are essential to maintain normal functioning of the company and maintain close contact between subsidiaries and the headquarter of the company. Subsidiaries are granted with certain autonomy but need to correlate its strategy with the corporate strategy.
Thus, in conclusion, it should be said that Mango, being one of the leading companies operating in the fashion industry, is currently focused on the international market expansion. Today, the expansion is one of the major strategic goals of the company which is determined by global trends and growing competition. At the same time, this strategy can improve the current position of the company and strengthen its position internationally.

References:
Benfari, R. C. (1999). Understanding and changing your management style. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Blanchard, K. & Bowles, S. (1993). Raving fans: A revolutionary approach to customer service. New York: Morrow.
Breneman, D. W., & Taylor, A. L. (eds.). (1996). Strategies for promoting excellence in a time of scarce resources. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Calder, S. (2002). No Frills: The Truth behind the Low Cost Revolution. London: Touchstone.
Garvin D. A. and Artemis M. (2008). A Note on Knowledge Management, Harvard Business School Case Study.

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