Marketing Campaign of Benetton - Assignment Example

Overview of marketing campaign of Benetton of the School] of the Benetton is one of the famous brands in the world; they always carry some shocking advertisements. Those advertisements pick up some issues that people really do not want to discuss or face, it does not help force the customer to purchase their clothes, but it successfully build-up their brand awareness. This report will identify the current and future market in Taiwan, and also identify the message they wish to convey and associate with the brand. Finally, the report provides an appropriate proposal. Whose aim is to increase the sale performance, such as appropriate media and set up the budget. Most of the companies use all forms of advertising media. The mass media is often used for advertising, such as radio, Magazine and TV; those medias are important aspect, it transfers the message that companies want their customers to know, and directly supports the selling efforts for the sales team; normally they support the advertising, so we may focus on some particular media, the reason is that the customer would like to know which brand is the most popular, so they may consider to purchasing their products. This report will consider the current and future market in Taiwan and provide an appropriate budget for Benetton; it can help Benetton to rebuild their brand image to target customers, even to purchase the products of Benetton. Table of Contents Objectives 5 Initiatives 5 To achieve the aims, research objectives should be set up, and then it can be plan for it. There are several initiatives: 5 Identify the Current Market 5 Target Market 6 A Critical evaluation of Benetton's Campaign 8 The Communications Process 8 Increase the Advertising Budget 11 Improve the Promotion 11 It would be popular to carry out the ideal of member card in Taiwan. Whenever customer purchases the products from Benetton, they can receive the voucher every time, the customers can collect it and exchange to a member card, it will give a discount whenever customers purchase the products from Benetton. 11 Improve the Customer Service 11 Cooperate with Sport Events 12 Packaging Strategy 12 References 17 Benetton: The Brand Name and Its History Benetton is a world famous clothing producer which launched in 1984 by Luciano Benetton. The family has an annual turnover of 2.0 billion euros. Benetton presents their products in 120 countries in the world. Except for "United Colors of Benetton", they developed other brands, such as Sisley, Playlife and Killer Loop. Almost 90% of the products are manufactured in Europe. Its distribution network is around 5,000 stores around the world, and there is an increasing trend on large floor-space point of sale offering high quality customer services and new generates. (www.benetton.com) The company has great negotiating power over its subcontractors, about 80 per cent of the manufacturing is done by 600 subcontractors in Italy. Benetton just focus on it's design and dyeing. Most of garments are produced in white and dyed by Benetton's fashion experts who decide the colors of the season, the company produces over 100 million garments every year, so there are keen competition between the suppliers. They both wants to be Benetton's suppliers. (www.benetton.com) Benetton's Campaign Objectives and Initiatives Objectives This report aims to look at the current and future market of Benetton Group, and evaluate the marketing communications strategy in Taiwan; it will identify the problems or positive issues and provide a recommendation of the communication mix. Furthermore, it will build a communication strategy and set up milestones for the plan which includes appropriate media and provide a budget for the company. Initiatives To achieve the aims, research objectives should be set up, and then it can be plan for it. There are several initiatives: To identify the message they wish to convey and associate with the brand To discover more customers in different age ranges in the Taiwanese market To develop a marketing communication strategy to increase the sale performance about 50 per cent per season To produce an appropriate proposal (use appropriate media and budget) Research of the market situation Identify the Current Market Age (Men and Women) The age ranges: 1828 years old Occupation (Men and Women) Occupation: most of them have part-time or full-time jobs, others are student. Consumption Level Men: 200010000 NT$ per month ( 36 182) Women: 200013000 NT$ per month ( 36 236) Student: 20008000 NT$ per month ( 36 145) Consumption Pattern Young people like to spend they money on "cool" products. Young people enjoy showing off their wearing, so they may not have strong loyalty to some brands, people who have part-time or full-time jobs may have stronger loyalty. Children's Wear Children's wear of Benetton is difficult to improve the sale volume in Taiwan, because there are many children's clothes are produced in Taiwan, they might have the same quality, the same style, and the same color compared with Benetton's children's wear. Most of them are cheaper than Benetton's. Its people's traditional ideas that they think the children's grow up very fast, so they do not want to spend too much money on children's clothes. Only some high income families will purchase children's wear of Benetton. Target Market The target market can be divided into several sectors, such as men, women, child's accessories and foot wear. The target market will focus on the men's and women's wear, because the adult and youth people have more ability to purchase the product following the product characteristic, it is easy to attract adult and youth people between 18 and 30. People in this age group like to spread out their personal character, so Benetton's wear can be easier to reach their mind, because of the colourful and multiple options of the product. "The concept of being distinguished" is part of Taiwan's culture. It might have been affected by Japan's culture that so many people would like to wear clothes with famous brands; they tend to prove that they are different with others, the reason why you can find many imitations in the night market. Benetton might focus on the branding image and price strategy; it might attract more customers to purchase the products. Advertising Campaign Benetton advertises with some surprising issues, such as new born baby caked in blood, murderers on the death row, and naked arms emblazoned with "HIV Positive". Benetton's communication strategies always bring some controversial issues, and it always want to choose some subjects to attract the customer's focus, especially some subjects that people really do not want to discuss or face. Those communication strategies only attract people's attentions and build up their brand, but it does not push the customer to purchase their clothes. In 2002, Benetton opened two more large stores in Paris; Both two stores locate in Paris, one in Place de l'Opera and the other in Champs Elysees, both two stores occupy more then 1000 square metres. They provide a quality of in-store customer service that can satisfy their unconscious desires. In the future, Benetton is going to present even more new megastores around the world. (www.fashionunited.co.uk) Benetton started to launch a food and life communication campaign in 2003. Benetton has been investing more than 15 million euros in over 30 countries to develop a special supplement of Colors 54 Food; it presents the dietary habits and the time to eating, drinking. It aims to re-establish the concept that hunger is the fundamental problem of the world. At the same time, Benetton realizes that an exhibition called"Visions of hope" with their colors magazine, the concept of the exhibition is around an idea with high visual impact. They carry out the market research for people around the world, what was their idea of hope and photographed them, they imagined the future. (www.fashionunited.co.uk) A Critical evaluation of Benetton's Campaign The Communications Process According to the authors such as Smith and Taylor (2002), there are several communication tools available for the marketers, as shown below: Selling Advertising Sales promotion Direct marketing Publicity (and public relations) Sponsorship Packaging Point-of-sale and merchandising Word of mouth E-marketing Corporate identity There are many competitors in the market, such as Esprit, Mango, Mexx and Morgan, so it has been making different with the other brand. First, we may rebuild the brand image and re-position the brand through the communication tools; it may use the sales promotion, advertising, packaging and sponsorship to achieve the objectives. Customer service is an issue that we should look at. Taiwan's culture has been influence by Japan's culture for a long time, so the customer service should provide a suitable service with better efficiency and better attitude. In this case, we would like to focus on the advertising, sales promotion, public relations, sponsorship and packaging, more detail will be shown below: Advertising Advertising will be the main means to communicate with the people. Several appropriate media can be use to achieve the objectives, such as newspaper, magazines, journals, directories, radio, television, cinema and outdoor billboard. This report will use several media for example the newspaper, magazine and outdoor billboard. Sales Promotion Sales promotion has a high ability to target particular audiences and high management's ability to adjust the deployment of the tool as circumstances change, so it will be a part of the marketing communication strategy for the plan. Public Relations Public relations (PR) is the development and maintenance of good relationships with different publics. According to writers such as Smith and Taylor (2002), there are a range of the publics, such as employers, customers, distributors, suppliers, press group, investors and media even the competition. It is consider with many more publics, they have to increase media interest in business, new investor criteria and more effective pressure groups; it is becoming more and more important for the business. Packaging Packaging shows everything. Product design should match the customer preferences in terms of style, such as packaging, colour and size. According to the authors such as Kotler (1991), the packaging can play a major role, many marketers called packaging a fifth P, along with price, place, promotion and product. There are 6 elements of the packaging, such as size, shape, materials, colour, text and brand mark. It also can improve the brand image for Benetton. Sponsorship Sponsorship is offer more money than patronage, altruism and benefaction. According to the authors such as Smith and Taylor, it supports the activity with the cash and consideration in return for satisfying specific marketing or corporate objectives. It can be sponsors for the modern art exhibition to rebuild the brand image and re-position from leisure image to quality taste, or sponsor for the international golf event. First, it can transmit different image to customer's mind. In this case, Benetton can connect with some music concerts or out door activities to rebuild their brand image. Marketing Communication Plan for Benetton includes: Increase the Advertising Budget Benetton should increase the budget to advertise their brand image and product through the appropriate media; it might encourage the people to purchase the product from Benetton, some appropriate medias can attract the target customer. For example: Newspaper Magazine Moveable billboard Advertising board (IN TMRTS) Music or Sports Channel (Cable TV) The purpose for using the media is attracting people's attention and delivering the message to the public, and public can receive the message through the media; it can rebuild the brand image in customer's mind. Improve the Promotion It would be popular to carry out the ideal of member card in Taiwan. Whenever customer purchases the products from Benetton, they can receive the voucher every time, the customers can collect it and exchange to a member card, it will give a discount whenever customers purchase the products from Benetton. Improve the Customer Service Taiwan's culture is affected by Japan's culture, so it is more important to look at the customer service in every industry, it can be seen as a part of the brand image. For example if customer purchases a product with blemish on it from Benetton, the customer service should replace the product for the customer as soon as possible and with a polite attitude. It is not only solving the problem, but also improves the brand image at the same time, so Benetton should retrain their sales people. Cooperate with Sport Events To cooperate with some sport events or outdoor activities can be quite useful to merge with country's culture. it is very popular to cooperate with the baseball game, even to hold a beach volleyball event in the summer time. Benetton also can sponsor some music concerts; moreover it can sponsor with some music and sports channels. In this way, it will be easier to see the advertisement and check the rebuilding of the brand image for Benetton. Packaging Strategy When the customers purchase the products, Benetton should add value for their product. It simply means to extent of the value to make the product more competitive. The key point is the value for the customers, if Benetton provides a real value for the customers, the customers are not only purchase the product from Benetton, they also purchase the feeling when they purchase the cloth, they pay a price which reflects its worth to them, so Benetton need to consider some important elements in adding value, such as packaging. When the customer purchase some items of the clothes from Benetton, they use different paper to package the items, or different carrier bag, when the customers open the bag from the carrier bag that gives the customer different felling. For example Prada is quite good on packaging. Benetton may consider advertising their product by giving free gifts to their customers, such as bonus CD or the poster, when they purchase Benetton's products. Those gifts consist of the information about Benetton and special advertisement. Brand Positioning What are the impressions behind the brand Brand is a complex bundle of images and experiences in the customer's mind, so Benetton should associate with the brand to rebuild the brand images, the image come from the product and brands, including advertising, publicity, sales personnel and packaging. The other issue is the brand equity; it presents the added value about the product and the value created between brand and customers. (Keegan and Green, 2003) The previous shop owners set up their marketing strategy, the brand position has been set up to the leisure position for Benetton, and so the product has been sold in many department stores. It this case, it should rebuild the brand image for Benetton in Taiwan; it can be re-positioned in the market through the marketing communication mix, so I would like to give the consumer different image, for example the high quality of the product, high quality of service and high value of the product, re-position the brand from low price product to middle price product. Benetton's advertisements have shocked the world, but not in Taiwan, the advertisements are usually colourful and comfortable in Taiwan, but they are not very popular, they had a bad communication strategy, because there are many agents under the headquarters, they do not like to advertise in media, people can only find them in Magazines and department store, so people might not know that Benetton is a global brand. There is an increasing trend to set up megastores around the world, such as Esprit, Mango and Morgan Who also set up megastores in Taiwan, so Benetton has set up megastores in Taipei, it is not just a shop, and it can rebuild the brand image. Although poor prosperity situation in Taiwan at the moment, the consumer still has high purchasing power, so Benetton has to build their brand image to increase the sales volume. Recommendations Through the report, we have identified Benetton's current and future market in Taiwan, as well as Benetton's marketing communication strategies to date. It is clear that Benetton tried to rebuild their brand images. For example, they published the COLORS 56 magazine to against the violence, and it should translate the COLORS 56 in Chinese for Asia countries. They also sponsored for many sport events, such as F1, Benetton might consider sponsoring some popular sports in Taiwan. There is a poor sale volume in Taiwan, it might tale a long time to rebuild the brand image and re-position the product. It can be done by the advertising, sales promotion and sponsorship. Through the advertising could change the image in customer's mind in period of time. Sponsorship can be easier to rebuild the images; it can be done by the customer service, layout of the store, packaging and salespeople's attitude. Selecting an appropriate media can minimum the cost but maximum the effect, it is popular to advertising on the movable billboard in every bus stop. The cheapest advertising might be the advertising balloon or giving tissues with the advertisement on the packaging. However, it is not suitable for Benetton's brand images. Benetton should use some particular magazines to reach the target consumers. The magazines might narrow the readership, so reach the target consumer easily. Through the advertising, sales promotion, and sponsorship for a period of time, it might rebuild the brand image for Benetton in Taiwan. Some audiences might take a long time to change the image in their mind, but it can be seen in the future. After select the appropriate media, it should set up some milestones to measure of success for the implementation. Does it make a different after doing the advertisement Does it rebuild the image for Benetton Does it reposition the product for Benetton Which advertisement is the most impress to the customer Which customer is the first time purchase the product from Benetton The answer can be found from the market research and through the questionnaire. It shows the change of the brand image in consumer's mind after the advertising and sales promotion. Through the sales volume and market research can provide brief information. References 1. Aaker, D and Joachimsthaler, E (2000) Brand leadership, The Free Press 2. 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