|
|
How to Earn More by Visualizing Your Marketing Success
Did you ever imagine yourself lying on a beach enjoying the sun or spending the holidays relaxing with relatives? We all daydream and picture ourselves in places we'd like to go to, or doing things we enjoy or have always wanted to try.
What...
Internet Marketing Idea: Publish an Ezine
Chances are if you surf the net much you have noticed that almost every website offers a free newsletter or ezine in some form or other. Wonder why someone would go to so much trouble to publish a newsletter and offer it for free? The answer is...
Marketing-Minded Financial Planners Get Free Publicity by Choosing the Right Outlets
Sure, any publicity is good. But don’t invest time and effort to be in “Lucky: The Magazine for Shopping” if your major topic is planning for college. Go where your market is! Which media outlets are the best for you? Easy answers – and the Home...
Marketing Through Mobile Marketing
What can mobile marketing do for your business? Really what you should say is what can it not do for you? This high tech, amazingly simple marketing plan can transform virtually any business. Without marketing, what does your company have? As any...
Taking the Mystery out of Marketing
Knowing where to start to improve your marketing can be a bit of a mystery. Is it your marketing message, the places you advertise, your web site or what? By measuring the results or your marketing efforts and collecting feedback, you can...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Contrarian Marketing at Benetton's
Perhaps, with apologies to Dale Carnegie, we should call this article: "How to make enemies AND influence people."
The subject: United Colors of Benetton's campaign to promote its clothing, using photos and stories about death row prisoners in the U.S. It's what journalist James Bone of the Times of London called the "latest in a string of deliberately provocative campaigns".
In an age when most advertisers try their hardest to avoid offending anyone, this company takes a clearly contrarian approach. A cynic might call it a cheap trick to get attention and free media coverage (like this article). But, Benetton has run campaigns like this for quite some time, and important communication lessons come out of them, regardless of how we feel about the subject matter.
Let's start with focus. Obviously, if the company willingly offends the moral sensibilities of many potential customers, it must focus on a particular part of the market, specifically people with liberal social and political attitudes.
In marketing terms, that suggests Benetton segments with psychographic criteria. Psychographics refers to the lifestyles, values, and attitudes of consumers, including social and political viewpoints.
Given that it has run campaigns like this one for some 20 years, we have to believe that Benetton knows this segment well and focuses on it intently.
Turning to positioning, just about every other clothing company uses warm and fuzzy advertising themes. Advertising that makes you feel good about yourself because you look good, which makes you attractive to others, and therefore popular, and all of that should satisfy some of your important goals.
Benetton, on the other hand, apparently wants its customers to feel good about themselves because they have a social conscience, because they feel moral outrage about one of the hot-button issues of our time.
This positions the company very
distinctively. While no end of warm and fuzzy strategies may get mixed up in consumer minds, Benetton has a clear and unequivocal position that won't be mistaken or soon forgotten.
Diversity is the next issue: we who live in North America sometimes forget other large markets exist beyond our immediate borders. Benetton, an Italian company, probably recognizes those markets.
Voters in all major industrialized countries, except the U.S., have rejected the death penalty since World War II. That includes people in the powerful economies of Western Europe.
So, from Benetton's bottom-line perspective, it can afford to offend some potential American customers as it builds or maintains markets in Europe and Asia. Not that Benetton has been reticent to offend Europeans either. Another recent ad campaign showed a nun and priest kissing, which raised many hackles among European consumers.
As you can imagine, this contrarian strategy could backfire easily, if used by a firm with that couldn't carry it off well. To succeed with it, you need to know your marketing and markets very well indeed.
In summary, a contrarian positioning strategy like Benetton's, one that might offend some potential customers while increasing the loyalty of others, presents a high-risk, and possibly high-reward, option.
Robert F. Abbott writes and publishes Abbott's Communication Letter. Learn how you can use communication to help achieve your goals, by reading articles or subscribing to this ad-supported newsletter. An excellent resource for leaders and managers, at: http://www.communication-newsletter.com
About the Author
Robert F. Abbott writes and publishes Abbott's Communication Letter. Learn how you can use communication to help achieve your goals, by reading articles or subscribing to this ad-supported newsletter. An excellent resource for leaders and managers, at: http://www.communication-newsletter.com
|
|
|
|
|
KnowThis: For Marketing, Market Research, Internet Marketing ... |
KnowThis.com offers a wealth of information, forums, and resources for professionals, academics and students in traditional and internet marketing, ... |
www.knowthis.com |
  |
Marketing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Marketers depend on marketing research, both formal and informal, ... The next big thing is a concept in marketing that refers to a product or idea that ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
  |
Marketing - Marketing Strategy - Marketing Plan - Marketing ... |
Learn about marketing careers, the stages of developing a marketing plan, how to begin marketing research, create a marketing strategy, and how to market ... |
marketing.about.com |
  |
Marketing.org - Home of the Business Marketing Association |
Serves the professional, educational and career development needs of business-to-business marketers. |
www.marketing.org |
  |
Welcome - American Marketing Association - www.marketingpower.com |
Dedicated to serving the educational and professional needs of marketing executives. |
www.marketingpower.com |
  |
Advertising, Marketing, Media and PR News - Brand Republic |
Find the latest Advertising, Marketing, Media and PR news from Brand Republic, the online resource for up to the minute advertising and marketing news and ... |
www.brandrepublic.com |
  |
Marketing Magazine - Marketing News - Brand Republic |
Marketing Magazine - Marketing News - Brand Republic. |
www.brandrepublic.com |
  |
Marketing (Canada) |
Offers a Canadian source of news and articles on marketing, advertising and media. |
www.marketingmag.ca |
  |
BidVertiser - Pay Per Click Advertising On Sites Of Your Choice. |
Pay per click advertising - online advertising directly on sites of your choice, internet marketing solution for online advertisers. |
www.bidvertiser.com |
  |
Online Behavioral Contextual Advertising and Marketing. |
Promote your business with today's most effective online advertising technology, contextual advertising at a cost effective metric of CPC, PPC, CPM or CPV. |
www.clicksor.com |
  |
Sales Jobs / Marketing Jobs / Advertising Jobs - MarketingJobs.com |
Employment site for marketing and sales professionals. |
www.marketingjobs.com |
  |
The Chartered Institute of Marketing |
The Chartered Institute of Marketing is the world's largest international marketing professional body and helps with career support and information ... |
www.cim.co.uk |
  |
Marketing: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
See all blog posts tagged with marketing on Technorati. |
www.technorati.com |
  |
Marketing Profs - Marketing Concepts and Strategies: Expert ... |
Marketing knowhow from professionals. Newsletter, articles and how-to's. |
www.marketingprofs.com |
  |
Guerrilla Marketing Online - The Official Site |
Guerrilla Marketing Online is anonline magazine for small business, entrepreneurs, sales people and marketers of all kinds. |
www.gmarketing.com |
  |
Business Marketing - Small Business Marketing |
Business marketing - Read everything your need to know about small business marketing. |
www.entrepreneur.com |
  |
All About Marketing |
Adapted from Field Guide to Nonprofit Program Design, Marketing and Evaluation ... Inbound Marketing Includes Market Research to Find Out: ... |
www.managementhelp.org |
  |
Pages tagged with "marketing" on del.icio.us |
USA Network Announces a NASHVILLE STAR Marketing Partnership With ... - Yahoo! ... Direct Marketing Association: Telephone, Mail & Internet Marketing ... |
del.icio.us |
  |
ClickZ Internet Marketing Solutions for Marketers |
Includes columns with commentary and analysis on a wide variety of internet marketing subjects ranging from B2B marketing to search engine marketing. |
www.clickz.com |
  |
Direct Marketing Association: Telephone, Mail & Internet Marketing |
Trade association for users and suppliers in the direct, database and interactive marketing fields, offering seminars and resources, and lobbying for ... |
www.the-dma.org |
  |
|