LUCIANO BENETTON - the uniting innovator
Luciano Benetton was born on May 13, 1935 in Treviso, Italy. He was a Senator of the Italian Republic from 1992 to 1994. He is a father of four children. Together with his brothers Gilberto and Carlo, and his sister Giuliana he established the Benetton fashion house in 1965. Initially, the company produced topical knitwear at reasonable prices. Multicoloured jackets, pullovers and blouses turned quickly into a hit. Other articles of theirs, such as T-shirts, jeans, sport accessories and different clothes made in the practical and negligent style became also popular. Today, the company is a world leader in the production and distribution of clothes. It is present in over 120 countries with its trademarks United Colors of Benetton, Undercolors of Benetton, Sisley and Benetton 012. Luciano Benetton is a President of the Benetton Group, which is listed at the stock exchanges of Milan, Frankfurt, New York and the SEAO of London. He is also on the board of directors of Edizione S.r.l., a financial holding company, owned by the family. The activity of Benetton in the field of production of women’s, men’s and children’s clothing is related to the already known and established on the market labels United Colors of Benetton and Sisley. The group is also working in the sport clothing and equipment sector of the Playlife and Killer Loop brands. In 1998, the commercial network of the company included already 8,000 retail stores across the world, and its annual turnover reached 8 billion US dollars. It is growing all the time focused on the opening of spacious mega stores offering high quality service to customers. Annually, the company is producing over 110 million clothes, and in 2009 Forbes Magazine ranked Luciano Benetton among the 468 richest people across the world. During recent years, the profits from shares have grown significantly, which enables Benetton Group to introduce a clear policy of distribution of shareholders’ dividends.
Luciano Benetton is to a maximum degree an embodiment of the success in the contemporary fashion business and a proof about the need of combinative thinking, resourcefulness and creative challenge in this so important sphere. What would a brief look in some of his techniques and technologies of fashion entrepreneurship show? What is the unusual result achieved by the stunning advertisements of Benetton due to? Which is the cross-section between the business, art and communications? What does Luciano Benetton think about glory and youth culture? What tendencies are currently launched by the United Colors of Benetton? …
ADVERTISING WONDER NAMED BENETTON
It would be too elementary if the impressive advertisements of Benetton are called just scandalous or shocking. Yes, actually they often cause scandals and shock the conventional public opinion; however their characteristics cannot consist only of the brief stereotype qualification. In order to think out conceptually the value of the advertising communication of Benetton, one should grasp the philosophy of life of Luciano. The goal of the company's advertising strategy for over two decades has been to establish equality through its advertising images. Photographer Oliviero Toscani is in the basis of one of the most successful campaigns. In 1984, he was invited by Luciano Benetton to be responsible for the large-scale advertising activity. Initially, his idea was named All the Colors of the World, and later, in its final variety, the slogan became United Colors of Benetton. At the recommendation of Toscani, Benetton agreed to work with Eldorado, a small advertising agency from Paris. As written in the official site of Benetton, the process of setting up values and equal standing passed through three different phases: the cycle of differences, the cycle of reality and the cycle of free speech and the right to express it. The jolly groups of children from different races were replaced by couples, who are symbols of the new concept for discords between people: Palestinians and Israeli at one and the same place, a priest kissing a nun, among others. The company even took the responsibility to encourage living together of people with differences between them.
The advertisements of Benetton equalize differences and achieve equality in their own way. Their next step was directed towards what was common for everybody: an image of a cemetery – a sad result from the war in the Gulf (1991); a dying AIDS patient (1992); a soldier, holding a thigh bone and a ship, captured by assault of emigrants; all of them images spread in the beginning of 1990s. It is important to take into consideration the philosophy of this radical change in the image of an advertising communication. It is also good to know that the photos of the AIDS patient, of the soldier and of the Albanian emigrants were not made especially for the advertising purposes of Benetton, and were taken from media and information spread by them. These photos depicted reality and asked questions from the sort of: “Could advertisement communicate with its customers by focusing their attention on something else besides the offered products?”, “Where is it written, that advertising depicts solely and only the lack of conflicts and problems?”, among others.
In connection with these, to put it mildly, strange advertising images, a wave of protests and discontent rose. Initially, not all people managed to comprehend the innovation of Benetton, who changed the traditional attitude to advertisement as a flashy package of the desired image of a product or a service. Instead of this, he broke taboos, offered controversial ideas, display of pain and conflictness and rejected stereotypes. Why, after media are showing horrible tragedies, catastrophes, murders, genocide, disasters, among others, all the time, this could not be made in advertising as well? It turned out that the circumstance of such photos being used in advertising caused the negative feelings than the photos themselves.
The cooperation between Benetton and a number of prestigious international associations had also a contribution to coping with the negative response of the public. Such a large-scale project is the Empty Your Wardrobes campaign, which appealed to people to get their unnecessary clothes and bring them to the Benetton stores, from where they were forwarded to the Red Cross and other charity organizations to be redistributed to the poor and to those in need across the world. The central vision of the advertisement was Luciano Benetton himself, photographed nude (covered only by a Give Me My Clothes Back inscription). The result was that a total of 460 tons of used clothing was collected from 83 countries as a relief aid to many people living in misery. There was also another result, a need emerged to fill in the emptied wardrobes and, quite logically, with clothes of the Benetton brand. The-then Senator Luciano Benetton countered the criticism of his political opponents by saying that he was not undressing for pleasure but to help people. However, the goal of that campaign, as of the others, was not completely ideal and non-commercial. This became clear also from the book Benetton: The Family, The Business and The Brand by Jonathan Mantle, who says that Luciano Benetton himself liked to explain that the campaign had three goals: to help the poor who had no clothes; to help the rich, who had too much; and to help himself. After they had emptied out their wardrobes, the first thing many of the people would do, was to go shopping and fill them again.
BUSINESS, CREATIVE WORK AND COMMUNICATION
One, even a brief, scrutiny in the business profile of Luciano Benetton will show at least three significant specifics. The first is that he, as thinking, style and behaviour, had been formed in a sound family environment, where although under tight and pitiful living conditions, the future world entrepreneur received his first lessons in industriousness, will and strengthening of nature. The second is his system of values, where capabilities such as a sense for the different, global vision and flexibility in regards to market changes and technological innovation dominate. The third is the communication philosophy and the advertisement, according to which communication and understanding between people disregarding their religion, race, sex, living and culture is in the basis of everything. Many researchers of the Benetton legend remind the words of Luciano himself that the formula of the successful business is rooted in the concept that “communication should not be commissioned from outside the company, but conceived from within its heart.” The enterprising spirit of Luciano Benetton and the other members of his family as well as the boldness to conquer new market spaces assign this family a worthy place in the world of the biggest business structures. According to recent data of Forbes, Luciano Benetton is ranked 468th among the richest people of the world. His personal assets are valued at 1.5 billion US dollars. For some 40 years he has been at the head of a company, whose sales stand currently at 2.7 billion US dollars. The Benettons hold possession of the Autogrill chain of restaurants and have a significant stake of Atlantia, one of the biggest companies for collection of motorway tolls.
The development of the trade organization of Benetton has been supported by a large-scale important programme for promotion of investments in the construction of mega stores, some of which are managed directly by Benetton Group. Typical for them is that they are of a big area, are located in prestigious streets or in big malls and could be distinguished by the high value of service offered by them. The new stores of Benetton offer the full collections of women’s, men’s, children's clothing and underwear as well as a rich selection of accessories, supplementing completely the style and the quality of Benetton. As in the case with the trade network, the uninterrupted obligation for innovation, which in its turn is an extremely important factor for development, has always been characteristic for the Benetton Group business organization, from communications to international telecommunications, from research projects in the field of new materials to integration logistics. A special attention is paid to innovations in production, where all systems and equipment are renewed completely every five years. The heart of the production system of Benetton is the high technological facility in Castrette (Treviso), one of the most advanced complexes across the world. Over 160 million casual and sports pieces of clothing are manufactured there every year.
The capability of the Benetton Group to engage the public attention could be seen particularly clearly thanks to its Fabrica project, the communication research centre of Benetton. This is a way to bind culture and industry using communications, which do not rely any more on standard forms of advertising and transfer the industrial culture and the brightness of the company through other means: designs, music, cinema, photography, press and the Internet.
Fabrica aims at awakening the creative gifts of young artists from all over the world. After a careful selection they are invited to develop concrete communication projects under the leadership of some of the best professionals in the respective areas. The concept provides for the alternation of standard and conventional advertising campaigns with ones, which have a common human character and correspond with real life. In 2001, this was the Volunteers initiative, carried out jointly with the United Nations to celebrate the International Year of Volunteers. Another large-scale campaign of the Fabrica centre is Food for Life, carried out jointly with the World Food Programme, the United Nations frontline agency in the fight against global hunger. This campaign was carried out in 2003 and aimed at revealing the connection between food and social changes. Care for animals as part of studying and protection of environment was also in the focus of the Benetton Group. The campaign is called James and Other Apes and was organized in 2004. It included also an exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London with the cooperation of Jane Goodall Institute. All or almost all campaigns at the idea of Fabrica have been tied up with the printing of a special book, as well as with the distribution of the next edition of Colors Magazine.
EXTRAVAGANT PREMIERE OF BENETTON IN GREECE
The extravagant premiere of Benetton in Greece, one of the special occasions to which several Bulgarian journalists and including myself were invited, is among my memories related to presence and participation in Benetton’s special events. At that time, Luciano Benetton launched his latest 2002-2003 autumn-winter collection at a special party in the open for journalists around the swimming pool of the super luxurious Pentelikon Hotel in Athens. There were no top models and attractive mannequins, no catwalk and special effects and the reason for this as usual, was the original concept of presentation of Benetton. The representatives of the specialized mass media were presented the latest ideas of United Colors of Benetton (women, children and men), Undercolors of Benetton, The Hip site, Sisley and others, lying in a leisure manner on stalls, on the green grass of the hotel complex surrounded by impressive posters, in a liberal and informal manner.
What did the presentation of one of the most attractive brands of Benetton, Sisley label, show in Athens? More aggressive than ever is the use of the stretch fabrics, cuts are comfortable and tight and the conceptual accents are mostly focused on a number of styles, the city style, jazz club style, luxurious jeans, urban folk, love story, among others. The mini skirts of optical graphics and functional pullovers of the Barbarella series would be very topical in the autumn-winter season.
The women’s collection of the Undercolors of Benetton line gave preferences to fine and comfortable clothing worn under the jacket (a kind of a top, a combination of underwear and outer garment). The three groups of this line could be summarized as follows: Manager (finely stripped fabrics in dark colours), Romance (colourful embroidery on mesh, ribbed and striated fabrics) and Ironically (seamless underwear, knitwear and cotton).
The regional agency of Benetton Group and its President Alexandros Manos and Product Manager Loretta Atsonio hosted the event. Colleagues from many of the local fashion media, among which the Greek editions of Vogue, Mary Claire, L’Officiel, Cosmopolitan, among others, also attended the event.
INTERVIEW WITH LUCIANO BENETTON
One of my meetings with Luciano Benetton was on September 13, 2002, when he arrived in Bulgaria at an invitation of his official representative Iliana Alipieva (Manager of Delta Handel GmbH) in connection with the opening of his fourth store at 19, Vitosha blvd. in Sofia. At a special fashion show, the autumn-winter collections for 2002 – 2003 of Sisley, The Hip Site, United Colors of Benetton (for adults) and United Colors of Benetton (for children) were shown. Right after the show, Luciano Benetton was kind to answer my questions.
Lubomir Stoykov: Referring to the book of the same name, written by Jonathan Mantle, I would like to ask you about the connection between the family, the business and the brand?
Luciano Benetton: I think, of course, that there are common things between the company and my family name. Nonetheless, we are a family. I have always considered this fact as an additional bonus and also as a great responsibility. In case the work I do shall present me in a bad way, my name will become a laughing-stock. This stimulates me to make efforts and be ambitious because being successful in my work means a success for me as a personality. In any case this should be the policy anyone should adhere to. In cases where the family name is the business name, responsibility is enormous.
You are one of the most popular personalities in the world. What is the burden of fame?
Thank you but I do not consider this as something unusual. I do not see myself as an extraordinary person. I think I am just a normal person. My life philosophy is very simple: I am just like anyone else. I understand the problems of the others and I share my own problems. I also think that I am a very lucky person. Being a person of success in life when I talk to other people, especially with young ones, I am doing my best to encourage them. It is true that one has to be persistent and to believe in one’s idea in order to achieve the goals he has set before oneself and not think that other roundabout ways may lead you to success. Each single problem is hard and to settle it, one needs to devote a lot of time to it and to one’s own work. And something especially important: respect the others! Value your assistants and your audience!
From the point of view of garments and fashion – what is the most erotic part of the body of a woman and respectively of a man?
Oh, I do not know! I had devoted some of my time to a study of that kind years ago, but at present I cannot be categorical. It is different. Sometimes it is a question of improvisation and sometimes it is a matter of self-expression and focusing on the various parts of the body. Watching the behaviour of the young I think that they are of the age when one is trying to express oneself, to experiment and enjoy oneself through the body as well. In practice many of the fashion ideas are conceived in disco places and clubs under the influence of just these wishes and readiness for entertainment and self expression…
Do you go to night clubs and disco places?
It is true that I have not been going to disco places for a long time but my assistants regularly inform me what people wear there and what happens there, thus updating my information. So these places really let one forget about his studies or work and enjoy oneself expressing the entertainment in any possible way, including greater eroticism.
Do you agree with those authors who claim that fashion is close to its end? How do these forecasts correspond to the philosophy of the united colours, with the strategy of Benetton?
You see, to a certain extent I agree, as in the past we started our work with the idea to predefine fashion itself. At that time, in the very beginning, we told ourselves that beautiful colours, shapes must be used and in either case we should be in a position to produce an industrial product accessible by everyone. That is why we have always tried to be on a bigger number of markets, to have a bigger volume of sales and to reduce the prices of our products. I do not agree with fashion that is interpreted as something exclusive or as dissipated luxury. I cannot accept the fact that a piece of clothing costs two times more only because of being exclusive. If it is charged with a good idea, made of a good fabric and is a carrier of a nice message, it should be launched in big series and be accessible for everybody!
FREEDOM AS AESTHETIC CONCEPT
The right of choice, the possibility to identify yourself through the clothes you wear is a leading value in the philosophy of Luciano Benetton. It is not by accident that the word freedom is the key word in his collection spring-summer 2008. The freedom to create your personal style, the freedom to be dressed according to the mood you are in, to be able to ignore the conventional and to stand out among the others. The women’s collection combines a couple of lines. The formal one, named New Woman, is intended for ladies of greater elegance. Red is the strong colour in this theme and white, blue and beige gravitate around it. The collection pays special attention to sweaters that are in a rich palette of bright colours. Everything’s Ethno is the most variegated and lively topic that relies on femininity and offers the real recipe for spring mood. Colourful blouses and dresses with floral motives are combined with striped skirts and tights. Skirts are knee-length and slightly flared. Romantic embroidered bustiers are supplemented by small cardigans. The last topic, Her Like Him, interprets the woman Benetton in garments of men’s accents. Colours are graphic, i.e. black, grey and white. Trousers are wide, shirts are buttoned up and supplemented by thin neckties.
ENJOYMENT AND CHARM OF MINIMALIST PASSION
Simplicity and romanticism, aesthetic severity and minimalism are only few of the accents of the spring – summer collection of Benetton for 2009. The women’s line provides enjoyment and radiates charm of minimalist passion. The deceptive simplicity of its elegance is impressive. This is achieved through complex colours, moods and details. Styles which are carefully combined and charged with the pure feeling of mixing fashion. The comprehension of the summer proposals for women becomes clearer when one becomes acquainted with the individual topics: City Harmony, Space Power and Saint Tropez. The first one interprets the appearance of Audrey Hepburn in the Roman Holiday movie. Elegant coats and small dresses from the 1950s, floral shirts of chiffon, A-shaped short jackets and smooth knitted dresses are dominating. The second topic relies on strong colours and techno fabrics. Bright, sunny stripes and comfortable shorts and Bermuda-shorts are much in fashion. All possible types of denim of various methods of processing are the topic of the day again. The third topic marks a return to the 1950s: clothes are in white and green, white and blue, the pattern of bubbles being used. Besides the thematic structuring, it is worth paying attention to another accent, the romantic style. It supposes fruit colours and floral patterns. Very appropriate is pink in combination with grey, white and beige. The feeling of classic and retro is motivated by delicate fabrics and firm linen.
What is men’s wear for the summer of 2009 according to the fashion experts of Benetton? Nothing can replace the already imposed youth values in men’s fashion. Representatives of the strong sex reconsider their way of dressing experimenting with colours and untypical fabrics. The global world has big impact combining the past with the current vision of the fashionable man. Thematic trends are inspired by films like Lost in the Translation, the British influence and the style of horse riders, formations as The Foreign Legion and the influence of Jamaica and Florida. Japanese strictness and the minimalism of New York give a modern vision of the formal wear. Tailored but comfort lines are everywhere: short jackets with or without many details. Trench coats of knee-length may be combined with any trousers and coats are with two or three buttons. The light V-shaped sweater may replace the shirt. Colours are grey, white and beige with lime or lilac accents. Is it possible to leave the British style out of the menswear? The bright jockey colours of red, green, blue and white give the firm answer to this question. Appearance is supplemented by casual trousers and Bermuda shorts, military stripe, pique pollo shirts, hi-tech wind stoppers and tartan raincoats.
Topical for the warm season are the desert colours, the clothes that imitate military outfits and also the jackets of the Safari type, the suede bombers or blazers in the style of the 1940s. And more: silhouettes, cuts and colours inspired by the rhythms of salsa and reggae, the shadows of the palm trees, the cold drinks and all images dreamed of in midsummer. Wardrobe is totally focused on shorts and Bermuda-shorts in all colours and variants plus the shirts of floral motives. Cotton and muslin in bright, almost bold colours are the prevailing fabrics. Clothes inspired by Florida and its zenith marked by luxury and the chick of the 1960s are also in fashion. The style of the cotton-satin blazers and the tailored linen or cotton trousers is impressive as well. They can be combined with shirts or T-shirts in stripes or with applications, decided in pale pastel colours.
* * *
The achievements of Luciano Benetton in the sphere of fashion business and entrepreneurship are indicative for the relation between the creative potential, the communication management and the flexible market policy. His unabating energy, his sharp social thinking and his never-ending feeling of responsibility for his own family (which is the brand of the family company) are some of the most attractive characteristics of his image of a successful businessman and manager. The smile and the easiness, with which he faces the challenges of time, the new technologies and particularly of the communication mix, speak of novelty in the current corporate culture and corporate publicity. Thanks to personalities like Luciano Benetton, the meaning and the role of corporate social responsibility are even more clearly seen. The image of modern business that considers both its own commercial targets, the needs of society and of other people, the desires of the world as a whole is so clearly outlined thanks to persons like Luciano Benetton.
References
The following sources have been used for the article: Еджинс, Т. Краят на модата. W studio, С., 2000; Ермилова, Д.Ю. История домов моды, “Академия”, Москва, 2003; Information from the press office of Delta Handel GmbH; Мантъл, Джонатан. Бенетон. Семейството, бизнесът, марката. “Сиела Софт енд паблишинг”, София, 2000 ; The official web site of the Benetton Group: www.benetton.com ; О`Хара, Дж. Енциклопедия на модата. “Библиотека 48 “, С., 1995; Философията на Benetton за комуникацията. In: “Tune In”, 24/09/2008 - http://www.tune-in.info/?cid=10&id=915 ; De grote Mode-Encyclopedie.Éditions - Nathan. Paris, France,1989; Martin, R. The St.James Fashion Encyclopedia: A Survey of Style from 1945 to the Present.Visible Ink Press. Detroit, 1997; O`Hara,G.The Encyclopaedia of Fashion.From 1840 to the 1980s.Thames and Hudson. London,1986; Stegemeyer, A. Who`s Who in Fashion. Third edition. Capital Cities Media, Inc. Fairchild Publications, New York, 1996; The World's Billionaires # 468 Luciano Benetton. In: "Forbes”, 03.11.2009 - http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/10/billionaires-2009-richest-people_Luciano-Benetton_K35K.html
Photos:
1. Luciano Benetton.
Photo: © Benetton.
2. Advertising campaign of Benetton, 1989.
Photo: © Oliviero Toscani / Benetton.
3. A ship under siege by Albanian emigrants, 1992.
Photo: © Oliviero Toscani / Benetton.
4. An advertising campaign of Benetton, 1996.
Photo: © Oliviero Toscani / Benetton.
5. Food for Life - an advertising campaign of Benetton, 2003.
Photo: © James Mollison / Benetton.
6. Benetton family, 2006.
Photo: © Benetton.
7. and 8. Collection of Benetton – Paris, October 12, 2006.
Photo: © Benetton.
9. Luciano Benetton and Lubomir Stoykov during the premiere of Jonathan Mantle’s book - Sofia, 2000.
Photo: © Moni Fransez / © Personal archive of Lubomir Stoykov
10. Lubomir Stoykov interviews Luciano Benetton (Mrs. Iliana Alipieva, representative of Benetton in Bulgaria is between them) – Sofia, September 13, 2002 .
Photo: © Galin Nenov / © Personal archive of Lubomir Stoykov
11. and 12. Collection of Benetton, Spring-Summer 2009.
Photo: © “Benetton”.
Translator: Reny Ivanova
Read: 14036 times © Fashion Lifestyle Magazine, issue 22, June 2009
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