According to Wikipedia, ‘Benetton is a
global fashion Brand, based in Treviso, Italy’. It is also known as ‘United
Colors of Benetton’. Benetton uses a kind of Advertising that is often termed
as ‘Shock Value’ Advertising. It has been in the news a lot because of the
controversial advertising campaigns that it has been doing, such as, kissing
pictures of the Pope and Imam, Kissing pictures of President Barack Obama and
Hugo Chavez, and the like. Some time back, it used to have other kinds of
advertisements that people found inappropriate like having a criminal on it’s
banners, a man dying of AIDS, and so on. An obvious question that arises from
this is, how are they selling clothes through such advertisements?
Benetton tries to sell not just its
products, but it’s ideas. They try to showcase the current global issues that
are happening, and this is their selling strategy. They send out the message,
that no matter who we are, or what we do, ultimately, we all are the same. To
show this message, that all are the same, Benetton ads have different people
from different societal groups come together. Each issue that it bases its ads
on, people identify with them. Different people identify with the different
issues, and ultimately when they pay the money to buy merchandize of this brand,
they feel they are contributing towards those social causes. When they wear
those brands, they feel nice about themselves for supporting a social cause
along with the Brand.
There are other brands as well, who
base their strategies on social issues. A lot of times at grocery stores, we
find particular items that have a symbol of some charity on them like Breast
Cancer Society; when we go to stores, a lot of times they have fund raising at
the checkout counter – contribute a dollar or rounding off the change. These
other places, use a less shocking way of advertising this aspect, Benetton is
just different in its representation of values. But this can be both good and
bad.
Having controversial ads, Benetton’s
actual message sometimes gets lost. During it’s UNHATE Campaign, the kissing
pictures of world leaders was not taken well in Politics as well as in
Religious Societies. Benetton was forced to withdraw its ads, considering that
people found it hurtful of their sentiments. This obviously had a negative
impact on its Brand Value. It’s good to sell you Brand by attaching them to
ideas, it’s also good to sell them using the ‘Shock Value’ technique, but it’s
important to understand that the Brand will only sell, if people are able to
understand the message clearly. An idea that people don’t understand or are
unable to identify with, will not sell products.
Sources
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