Mango’s clothes on the streets
THE PROJECT / METHODOLOGY / KEY ISSUES / CHARTS / ABOUT THE DATA / RELATED POSTS
Coolhunters have traditionally roamed the streets, trendy clubs or art galleries, and from their knowledge and intuition help fashion brands to set the trends for the coming seasons. It seems clear that by this simple definition, we are not talking of a science; maybe it is an art itself, but definitely not an exact science.
For us, the interesting concept around fashion trends and the social web is the consumer and trends panel 2.0.
This project could be defined as a netnography study on Mango, the clothing brand. We have researched the potential of fashion streetstyle web sites Lookbook.nu, Chicisimo.com and Chictopia.com to create trends panels, in this case, within the clothing sector, trying to go beyond existing panels that monitor the mentions on blogs, Twitter, Google searches and so on. We want Coolhunting to become a scientific art.
DOWNLOAD THE REPORT AS PDF
For the development of this project we obtained 3,160 pics uploaded at chicisimo.es, lookbook.nu and chictopia.com during June 2011, on one condition, we picked those which were tagged with at least one garment by Mango. The split between the websites analyzed was as follows:
• Lookbook (697)
• Chicisimo (744)
• Chictopia (1,719)
After the extraction and refining process we came up with a total of 12,684 garments from many different categories and corresponding to many other brands apart from Mango.
From each look obtained and analyzed, we extracted the following data:
• Number of comments
• Number of rating points given by other users
• Country of origin of the users (75 different countries)
• Brands for every garment tagged (more than 1,300 different brands)
• Category of the garment tagged (69 different categories)
To compare the bias of this study regarding the reality of the presence of Mango in the major countries analyzed, it is interesting to observe some data 1.0, comparing it with the data 2.0 that we have collected.
All the extracted data has been refined with Google Refine and the charts built with Google Charts.
Mango’s bags rock in Spain and Germany, but no news of them in the UK
Bags are the most worn garments in looks where Mango is present both in Spain and Germany. On the other hand, for British fashionistas, Mango’s bags are not so cool as they do not appear among top-10 garments of looks uploaded. In the case of France, bags ranked in the 6th position of Mango’s most worn garments. In the UK, Mango seems to be more successful when it comes to dresses, as they were worn in almost 20% of looks with a Mango product. In the case of France, this first position was occupied by shorts, followed by dresses, jeans and shirts. For Spaniards, bags are clearly the coolest of Mango’s products, followed by shoes.

Fashionistas wearing Mango bags (chicisimo.es)
We can see how Mango’s most preferred garments change depending on the country, and most of the times variations are not minor. We wonder if different preferences for Mango’s garments showed by fashionistas do match with store’s sales in these respective countries.
Combining with Mango: a Zara vs H&M war
Fashionistas wearing a Mango’s garment have it quite clear, in general terms, they like to combine them with Zara or H&M’s clothes and accessories. However, whilst in Spain the leading position of Zara is total, in France H&M is quite close to Inditex’s flagship brand. On the other hand, in Germany the leadership of H&M as top-combination-brand over Zara is out of discussion. In the case of the UK, the British Topshop holds first position as the preferred brand to combine with Mango’s garments, over H&M, with Zara occupying a less relevant third place.
Apart from larger clothing brands, it is remarkable the position of 2nd hand and DIY clothing in the UK, where this type of clothes hold 8% of the total, whilst in Spain and Germany this percentage does not reach half this figure.
In Spain, different brands by Inditex represent more than 35% of total brands, and the presence of Bimba & Lola in the 9th position is the first case of small fashion brand combining with Mango.
Dress, shoes and bag: the Spanish outfit by Mango
For Spain, the percentage of Mango’s tagged garments is highly concentrated on just a few categories. On the other hand, competing brands like Zara, H&M or Blanco show a more balanced percentage of tagged garments.
For Mango, bags, jeans, dresses and shoes are almost 40% of total tagged products, in the case of H&M, these garments represent 24%. Taking into account that the analysis has been made upon all looks with at least on Mango’s garment tagged, this concentration seems to show a specific users’ preference for a few certain items against other brands. For instance, in the case of Blanco, even though the brand has lesser items tagged, these are much more spread among categories.
These differences in the spreading of tagged garments among brands might be the evidence that consumers decide which brands they purchase depending on the garment. They associate their preferences on garments to brands.
Shoes and bags the most trendy garments for Spaniards
In Spain, fashionistas tag shoes and bags in a greater number than any other garments. This has a positive and negative impact for Mango, as the brand holds a good position in the bags segment but it is not one of the most tagged brand for shoes. From all shoes tagged in the analyzed looks, Mango’s shoes only represent 9% of the total, against 24% by Zara, 20% by Stradivarius and 15% by Blanco. Only H&M with 6% is ranked under Mango. In the case of bags, Mango occupies second position with 12% of total, just behind Blanco, which represents 22%. Stradivarius holds 11%, Zara 7% and H&M 6%.
Blanco is performing especially well in some of the most tagged garments (shoes, bags, belts and blouses), being one of the brands showing a fastest growth among fashionistas.
In the US, Mango goes with vintage/2nd hand clothes
When analyzing the combination of Mango’s garments with other brands in the US, it is highly remarkable the fact that vintage/2nd hand clothes stand in second place, almost holding the same percentage that the leading brand Forever21.
Vintage and 2nd hand clothes are the most common among looks analyzed for several garment categories such as accessories, belts and dresses. The presence of vintage and 2nd hand clothes in the US is, by far, the most relevant among all other countries analyzed, especially compared with Spain.
Philippines and Indonesia crazy for Mango’s tops
Despite not being two of the countries with a higher number of Mango’s stores, Philippines and Indonesia stand for second and third position in the ranking of Mango’s looks by country, right above the US, France or Germany, and only behind Spain. The case of the Philippines is especially remarkable as this country accounts for more of 16% of total looks with a Mango garment tagged.
In the Philippines, tops are the most worn garment by Mango, followed at more than 10 points of distance by dresses and bags. In the case of Indonesia, top garment by Mango is held by tops as well, closely followed by jeans.
Trendsetters set the style
Trendsetters stand out as a what-to-wear reference for many fashionistas, and at the same time, they are increasingly becoming a key element for brands in order to analyze their impact on social networks.

Fashionistas wearing different Mango garments (lookbook.nu)
Among the Top 10 most rated looks with a Mango garment tagged, skirt is the item with a higher presence. That is remarkable as among garments tagged by all the community of fashionistas, skirt ranks just on the 6th position. However, in the case of Top 5 trendsetters (the 5 users with a higher number of looks uploaded), bags, dresses, jeans, tops and shoes stand out as the most worn clothes by Mango, showing in this case the exact same patterns to those showed by overall fashionistas.
Therefore, we can see how those users who have a more active role in these fashion sites have a strong influence over the rest of users, leading in many cases to set which garments and brands are more popular and consequently more sold.
Asian countries take the 2.0 lead
Comparing the number of Mango stores located in those countries where more users have uploaded looks, someone will find how Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia have a higher percentage of looks uploaded against the number of stores located. In the case of Philippines the comparison is shocking; 1.1% of worldwide stores but 16.2% of all looks uploaded. In the case of Indonesia, 4.9% of looks for 1.1% of the stores. These figures might show how consumers in these countries lack a larger number of Mango stores in their countries, or at least, that they love Mango’s clothes in proportion more than traditional markets such as France, Germany or the UK.
Apart from the Asian countries, where 2.0 presence of Mango is larger compared with physical, Spain and the US have also a higher percentage of looks. However, in these cases, conclusions should be taken with caution. Some of the web sites analyzed are almost exclusively focused on Spain and for the US, traditionally, the amount of Internet users is higher. In any case, the number of Mango stores in the US is pretty low.
- We analyzed 3,160 looks uploaded at chicisimo.es, lookbook.nu and chictopia.com during June 2011 and with at least one garment by Mango tagged.
Data sources: chicisimo.es, lookbook.nu, chictopia.com, mango.com

