The peak of its negative publicity is achieved in 1994, when showing a bloody uniform of a Croatian soldier, who died in the Bosnia war. Benetton is not prepared for this strong criticism. They expected critics, but the loud echo was in general, that Benetton instrumentalises the war for profit making. Especially in France there are strong reactions to these billboards. The French minister asks the population to boycott the shops of Benetton.
The daily newspaper “Oslo bodhenie” from Sarajevo on the other hand asks for 10.000 billboards to hang them all around town, which Benetton delivers immediately.
Again in 1999´s campaign Toscani provokes the audience by showing faces of prisoners who have been judged to death. From Amnesty International this campaign receives respect, the state of Missouri on the other hand sews Benetton for this series of advertising. One week after the process against Benetton has been won, Sears cancels its contract.
Toscani leaves Benetton three months after releasing the campaign “We, On Death Row”. He gave his position to an external manager. He justifies his leave in the future competitiveness of the family enterprise.
2. Theoretical orientation
The exchange of information is in general described as communication. This can be divided into two parts: First there is the direct and indirect communication, second the internal and external communication of a corporation. Relevant for this paper is the indirect international and external communication concerning the sales market. This can be for example advertisements in magazines or advertisements on billboards. Indirect communication does not cause an immediate reaction by the targeted person.
The aim of an international communication politic equals the national communication. It can be subdivided into economic, psychological and diversification goals. Economic goals are for example revenue, profit or costs. A cost saving within an international campaign can be achieved by a standardisation of the communications politic.
Attention, brand awareness and image for example are psychological goals of a corporation. Within an international corporate identity policy a corporation strives for a standardised and international image to avoid irritations by the customer.
Diversification goals are to maximise the number of the people reached. In this context the existence of international media should be mentioned. With media it is possible to apply corporate communications in several markets simultaneously. When formulating the goals of an international communications policy a corporation has to ask themselves, if it makes sense to strive for the same goals in different countries or not.
2.1 Conditions of international marketing
The most important global factor in international marketing that concerns Benetton, is the socio-cultural factor. The focal point hereby is in fact the culture itself. Culture is understood as everything that human beings, within a society, possess, think and do. Culture also includes values, habits, aesthetic, language, confession and education.
For the advertising campaign “United Colours of Benetton” different values and norms as well as the idea of aesthetic are of great importance.
In order that an advertising campaign is accepted by the consumer, the company should be aware of the existing different ideas about values, norms and aesthetic. How different the reactions within the population to a billboard of “United Colors of Benetton” in 1991 are, are demonstrated in the rejection of a picture on which a priest and a nun are kissing. In the USA this billboard was rejected, in France Benetton won a price.
The habits in each country are irrelevant to Benetton, as clothing in every country is used for the same purpose and therefore the product benefit is the same.
In many other corporations the language can be a significant hurdle for the communications policy. For example a slogan in English that is translated into Japanese gets a totally different meaning and leads to misunderstandings for the consumer. This problem is not relevant to Benetton as their advertisement is picture dominant and translation problems should not occur.
3. Alternatives for communications politic
The alternatives for national communications are also available as international instruments. The different meaning of these instruments for the national and international communications policy is significant.
In general the communication mix consists of corporate identity policy, advertisement, product placement, sponsoring, sales promotion and direct communications. The first four mentioned instruments have the greatest importance in international marketing.
Sales promotion and direct communications are limited to the country, as they mostly only have a regional importance. Therefore only corporate identity policy, advertising, sponsoring and product placement will be mentioned in the following section.
The most important concept of communications politics is the corporate identity. This consists of corporate mission, corporate design and corporate behaviour. Corporate identity serves to make a company unmistakable to the consumers.
More details about international corporate identity politics and international advertisements related to Benetton are found in the following chapter.
A further element in the communications mix is sponsoring. Sponsoring is based on the principle of exchanging performance. A company, in this case Benetton, provides an institution or a person with money with the intention to receive an economic benefit in return. Usually sports, culture and social activities are sponsored objects. Benetton currently sponsors the local sport club, a museum and a library. It is no longer sponsor for the formula one team.
3.1 International corporate identity politics
International corporate identity policy and advertisement are options within international communications. There are different basic strategies for a worldwide communication: a global (standardised) strategy and a non-global (differentiated) strategy. In the first case one communications politic is applied worldwide. In the second case there is a differentiation between the communication politics in different countries.
To achieve the goals of corporate identity a company can make use of following instruments:
Corporate design, corporate communications that includes corporate advertising and public relations, and corporate behaviour. Corporate design is the identical design of the company name and company sign in advertisements, letter heads and facilities. Concerning the corporate design Benetton follows a global strategy. The green logo with white letters is used globally by Benetton. Also the interior design of its retail stores are globally on the same level.
In terms of corporate communications this is not always the case. The task of corporate advertising is to achieve an image increase. In general, a company is perceived in different ways by different countries. In this case it is advisable to follow a differentiated corporate advertising strategy.
After the shocking advertising in the USA, Benetton had to accept a strong image loss. They decide to change their strategy and introduce conventional advertising to the US market. Based on the problems and protests within the population, that mostly store managers and franchise partner in the USA have to face, Benetton begins to deliver local adjusted advertising.
Public relations also aim to improve the corporate image and are linked to different external groups, such as banks or suppliers. They are strongly heterogenic, which means that they depend on cultural and social forces. Therefore public relations can hardly be standardised.
Corporate behaviour should “provoke” an employee behaviour that equals the corporate identity. The standardisation of corporate behaviour is limited by socio-cultural conditions. The core elements of corporate identity are based on security and trust. It is doubtful in this context if Benetton achieves these requirements with its “United Colors of Benetton” campaigns. The consequence of this campaign is that 400 contracts, which lead to the opening of retails stores, are not finalised. The corporate identity is linked in this way with the visual advertising campaign, which is presented through media.
With the increased publicity about the controversial advertising campaign, Benetton becomes one of the five most well known brands in the world.
3.2 International advertising
Luciano Benetton has the idea in 1983 and 1984 to change the advertising strategy of the company. The strategy should be understood globally. The aim is to put problems in the spotlight, in order to move the public to reinforce further information from the responsible institutions. Consciously the company puts a lot of money into photography, because according to Luciano Benetton, product advertising is achieved through the shop windows. If advertising puts social provocation in the centre, the company wants to achieve publicity. This instrument can lead to far less costs and leave a more staying impression within the public than conventional advertising. The images used in advertising should create attention in the first place and increase the company or brand awareness. The aim is to create sympathy. Therefore commercial advertising often uses images that have a positive influence. Benetton goes with its advertising the opposite way and tries to stay with provocative and partially rejecting advertising in peoples mind. Luciano Benettons aim is no doubt to spread Benettons name.
In contrast to the mentioned influences he assumes that the advertising campaign “United Colors of Benetton” has no influence on the revenues. According to him he believes that the consumer decides for the more known product, if this product is able to compete.
3.4 Image loss or increase of popularity through aggressive advertising
There is hardly one company that polarises the population through its image more than Benetton does. Image is understood as the sum of all attitudes, feelings, wishes, knowledge and experience, that are related to an object, for instance an enterprise, person or product. According to a survey among 72 people, the image is perceived as partially “young” and “hungry for sensation”. Benetton is seen either positive or negative. These results can be brought back to the advertising campaigns, which are seen differently. The consumers either find the advertising “United Colours of Benetton” attracting or inappropriate.
The path that Benetton chooses to go in order to recover and improve its image is unusual. Apart from small sponsoring they do not make use of the usual “brand-enrichment-tools” such as co-branding, product placement or testimonial.
However, market experts ask themselves why there is no relation between the advertising campaigns and the future purchase estimations. One explanation is from Benetton themselves: In the beginning of the 90s Benetton splits their advertising activities. On the one hand there are still traditional sales advertising with conventional billboard ads, on which models present Benettons fashion. On the other side Benetton starts together with Oliviero Toscani, creative director, the advertising concept “communication”.
This concept includes every print campaigns, which splits the opinions of the consumers. For example the priest and nun ad (see picture 2 and 3), the military cemetery or the person suffering from aids among his family.
Picture 2 Picture 3
This advertising campaign, according to Benetton, should not include any advertising function. It should document the non healable events in the world for example war, violence, deadly diseases or destruction of nature.
The question, if this advertising is an image loss or win, can not be answered clearly. Benetton can not expect any image loss in the future, as long as they publicise their campaigns without targeting specific groups, i.e. without orientation about gender or age.
3.5 Current developments
The times, in which Benetton puts outrageous and partially morally doubtful print campaigns in scene, seems to end with the “We, On Death Row” campaign in 1999/2000. Also the collaboration between Benetton and its creative director Oliviero Toscani is over. The revenue in USA dramatically fall and the company can not longer deny the image loss. The figures of the profit can be taken into account, that display that it was between 1994-2000 significantly higher.
It can be speculated if it is a co-incidence that the companys´ profit drops because of Toscanis leave. After separating from Toscani there are other freelance photographers, who produce similar print campaigns before the internal communications agency “Fabrica” takes over these tasks in 2003.
One reason for going a “more moderate advertising path” is certainly the separation from Toscani. A more significant explanation however may be coming to the realisation that their doubtful advertising campaigns come back like a boomerang and obviously damaged Benettons image. By reinforcing the collaboration between Benetton and humanitarian organisations, this thesis is supported. Back then they worked out a campaign for the World Food Program, to stress on the hunger suffering in many parts of the world.
4. Results and conclusion
In a sum it can be said, that the advertising campaigns “United Colors of Benetton” have created attention. Especially remarkable are the different reactions in the USA and Europe. The declared goal of Luciano Benetton, to achieve more brand awareness through advertising, could be reached.
The partially negative publicity and the resulting image loss influence Europe´s revenues only at the beginning of the campaigns.
According to a market survey asking about following the continuation of the political adverts or conventional advertising, it revealed that with increasing age the conventional adverts are preferred.
The brand awareness with 93% is very high. However, the advertising campaign does lead only a few of the asked persons to purchase Benetton products.
Benetton follows with its international advertising politic an unusual way. This unusual way seems to be Benettons key to success.
Index of literature
Benettongroup Press (2005): About Benetton- Culural and Social Activities, [http://press.benettongroup.com/ben_en/about/cultural/]
Benettongroup (2004): Annual Report 2003, [http://benettongroup.it/investors/encorporate_governance.htm]
Jain, Subhash C.: International Marketing-Management, 3rd ed, Boston, 1990
Keegan, Warren: Global Marketing-Management
Laroche, Michel: Service Quality Perceptions and Customer Satisfaction: Evaluating the Role of Culture, No. 3, 2004, p.
Magala, Slawomir: Under Construction. Identities, Communities and Visual Overkill, 2001
Toscani, Oliviero: Advertising is smiling, Paris, 1995
Oliviero Toscani, Advertising is smiling, Paris 1995
Warren J. Keegan, Global Marketing Management, p.774
Subhash C. Jain, International Marketing Management, p. 564
Warren J. Keegan, Global Marketing Management, p.506
Slawomir Magala, Under Construction.Identities, Communities, and Visual Overkill, p.34
Benettongroup Corporate Governance Annual Report 2003 (2004), p. 18
