Such strategies have become the Benetton signature. Although
Benetton wants to call attention to the reality of capital punishment, is
provoking outrage a good strategy for a market that obviously does not take
social issues lightly? Benetton should learn from past US experience. In 1992
the Wall Street Journal stated that Benetton had 700 stores in the United States
in the early 1980s, which five years earlier was the biggest market outside
Europe. However, today those numbers have decreased significantly to 200. This
could be attributed to the failure to design a consistent marketing strategy
from the outset.
Most storeowners in the US closed their Benetton doors because
of personal conflict with the company’s campaigns. The past seems to be
repeating itself with the Sears conflict. The marketing issue for Benetton
becomes the decision of whether to continue its current ad campaigns in the
United States despite the risk of loosing more market value or to redesign the
campaigns to better suit the US consumer’s frame of mind. As a group, we feel
that Benetton needs to rethink its US market strategy to increase its presence,
better its reputation, and increase its market value. In order to do this, we
have come up with some consumer behavior factors that Benetton needs to be aware
of and recommendations that they should seriously consider to turn around the US
market.
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