Marketing communication: principles and practice

C O M M U N I C A T I O N I D E O L O G Y
92
Benetton remain unapologetic about their campaigns, claiming that all they ever wanted 
to do was help people to understand their point of view, recognizing that there will always
be a cynical point of view and that they have never expected everyone to be with them on
all issues.
Colours have a strong impact on peoples’ feelings, moods, and thought processes. The
corporation sponsors a range of sports that represent their values and interests of dynamism,
loyalty, and competition. In 1991 a magazine entitled 
Colours
was launched. The Benetton
corporate brand personality is based on colours. The ‘World of Colours’ theme has rocketed
Benetton to an international retail brand based on beliefs and values centred on equality
and social responsibility. Members seek to influence those who dislike racial inequality
and unfairness in the world. This ‘cause marketing’, which stresses harmony among the
races, has been the basis for the long-term corporation–customer relationship.
It is the corporation that is seen as the presenter of a strong and extremely heterogeneous
main message of pure emotion, for an existential generic positioning in the minds of
consumers, that, nonetheless, is highly persuasive. Personal peer-group influence has
augmented the frequent advertising. This social diffusion of the advertising message 
has been mostly by word of mouth, but also visually when customers are seen wearing 
the distinction label by others in their reference group. This promotional approach has 
been financially very successful worldwide, except in the USA. In the early 1990s profits
world-wide grew by 24% but fell to nearly break-even in the USA, where many felt they
overstepped the mark of decency.
The corporation saw rapid international development in the 1970s and 1980s, built on an
elaborate network of suppliers, agents, and independent retail outlets, with a retail franchise
based on a core marketing strategy with a clearly defined brand proposition. The network
is a highly responsive supply chain distributing 50 million items of clothing each year, linked
and supported by an international electronic data interchange system. The information
system, managed by a subcontracted specialist facilities management company, has become
the bedrock of their continued success by allowing continuous monitoring of global daily
sales. This information is processed every day and analysis is translated into reprogramming
of production. The lag between events in the shops and corporate response is kept to a
minimum. Wikström and Normann (1994) point out that such a system is close to the idea 
of mass customization of products, and is leading to a blurring of the traditional functional
distinctions between producer, marketer, purchaser, customer, wholesaler, retailer, media,
supplier, and so on. Benetton operations are organized as a unique partner system between
the central corporation and a very large number of subcontractors and around 6,500
franchised shops in 100 countries. 
Founder Luciano Benetton and 200 staff tour the stores to exercise leadership and to gather
personal impressions of trading conditions. Gummesson (1999) explains that this is both a
close and distant relationship. There is lots of personal contact, state-of-the-art IT, and
streamlined logistics in the network.
Marketing management decisions are based on fast learning about current customer
response to products in-store, rather than on abstract ritualized ‘market research’.
Seemingly, it pays to be the expert and knowledgeable marketing operation for a complex
network of small producers rather than trying to control the whole value chain in a fixed
hierarchy. Supply chain management, both supply side and demand side, has been a source
of defensible competitive advantage.
More recently, the photographer whose collection of photographs has been the basis of

---