ve touched upon US consumer reactions to the new ad campaign. Overall, it is not being accepted well in the United States and an already weak market will continue to weaken as long as Benetton refuses to change its US advertising techniques. According to the Washington Post, Benetton is standing by its campaign. In fact, its US director of communications stated, “Once again, it’s very hard for people to see what we’re doing and understand that it’s not advertising, that it’s a way to get people to think.” Perhaps this is the problem with Benetton’s campaigns in the United States, US consumers do not want to think about AIDS or the death penalty when they are shopping for pants, maybe they just want to shop for pants. Overall, the new campaign seems to be high-risk for Benetton as its market value continues to decrease. A January 24, 2000, article in the New Statesman stated the dangers to Benetton seem insignificant. Benetton is used to unfavorable publicity, and for all its undoubted worthiness, the whole campaign is expressly designed to provoke outrage. 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 bec...
