Marketing Communications: United Colors of Benetton - Essay Example

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United Colors of Benetton is a fashion apparel brand that is targeted towards the masses. By masses it does not mean that the brand is for everyone but instead it means that the brand is targeted towards almost every community. It is ironic that the famous global brand did not go for the traditional forms of advertising and yet have been able to touch the peak of success. For United Colors of Benetton uniqueness is what counts. The brand does not want to go down the same lane as all the other global brands. It knows how to stand out. The company has intentionally gone for the non-traditional ways of advertising its brand. And it is through these advertising campaigns that the brand has formed its brand identity. United Colors of Benetton is referred to as the “Colors of the World”. This is how the brand’s slogan came into being. From the very start the company focused on the global target market (UNITED COLORS OF BENETTON 2011; HOFMEYR.J & PARTON.G. 2006) The advertising campaign of United Colors Benetton is a controversial one. It has raised many controversies and the company has dealt with these controversies with great determination.
It is their fortitude that has led to the survival of the brand despite being convicted again and again of raising precarious controversies all over the globe. As mentioned earlier whatever United Colors of Benetton has tried to portray through its advertisements has not been a mere mistake or coincidence. Everything from the background to the front picture story is the work of the marketing department of the United Colors of Benetton. ...
The brand thinks that it can only be through the advertising that they can connect with its global audience. The ad campaign of United Colors of Benetton reveals controversial events that raise brutal reactions most of the time from the audience. Considering this, one more thing can be applied is that usually the firm is targeting the markets that are open to controversial issues. With the same ad campaigns they cannot go into the market boundaries which have inflexible social structure and culture (FROSTHOLM.P & ANDERSEN.T. 2011) In the past United Colors of Benetton came up with ad campaigns addressing the issues like AIDS and racism. These campaigns will further be discussed in the semiotic analysis section. A point of conflict that has been arising for years is that United Colors of Benetton comes up with such ads but a part of the target audience considers that the portrayal of such ads depicts the indifferent nature of the brand towards the sentiments of the human beings. But on top of all of this indifferent brand identity that United Colors of Benetton has created, it is satisfied with its advertising campaigns because it believes that after seeing such ads, it becomes the centre of attention for all the consumers and non-consumers. This simply enhances the brand awareness (GIROUX.H.A.1994; MAGUIRE, M. 2003; BARELA, M. J. 2003) United Colors of Benetton claims that its ads conform to the global parameters. Their ads show that there is no difference between religions, races and country boundaries. All human beings are equal and the brand offered by the United Colors of Benetton is for everyone irrespective of their identity. Most of their ad campaigns also present with social issues. These social issues are mostly global ...Download file to see next pagesRead More