Benetton Group S.p.A. is a global fashion
brand, based in
Treviso,
Italy. The name comes from the
Benetton family who founded the company in 1965. Benetton Group is listed in
Milan ().
Benetton has a network of around 6,000 stores in 120 countries. The stores are managed by independent partners and generate a revenue of over
€2 billion per year.
Early years
In 1960,
Luciano Benetton, the eldest of four children, was a 30-year-old salesman in Treviso. He saw a market for colourful clothes, and sold a younger brother's bicycle in order to buy his first second-hand knitting machine. His initial small collection of sweaters received a positive response in local stores in the
Veneto region, and soon after he asked his sister and two younger brothers, Gilberto and Carlo, to join him. In 1965, the entity known as the "Benetton Group" is formed.
[ Benetton Group Official Webpage]In 1966, the Benettons opened their first store in
Belluno and three years after in
Paris, with Luciano as chairman, his brother Gilberto in charge of administration, their younger brother Carlo running production, and Giuliana as a chief designer.
Products
The company's core business remains their clothing lines. Casual clothing is marketed as the "
United Colors of Benetton"; there are also a fashion-oriented "
Sisley" division, "
Playlife" leisurewear. Their products include womenswear, menswear, childrenswear and underwear and they have expanded into toiletries, perfumes, and items for the home such as kitchen accessories and baby products.
By the year 2000, the group was selling 150 million garments worldwide, annually in 6,200 stores and many countries.
Marketing
The
1983 season Tyrrell 011, showing the company's logo at the time.
The company is known for sponsorship of a number of sports, and for the provocative and original "United Colors" publicity campaign. The latter originated when
photographer Oliviero Toscani was given
carte blanche by the Benetton management. Under Toscani's direction, ads were created that contained striking images unrelated to any actual products being sold by the company.
These graphic, billboard sized ads included depictions of a variety of 'shocking' subjects such as a deathbed scene of a man (
AIDS activist David Kirby) dying from AIDS, a bloodied, unwashed newborn baby with umbilical cord still attached, two horses mating, close-up pictures of tattoos reading "
HIV Positive" on the bodies of men and women, a collage consisting of genitals of persons of various races, a priest and nun about to engage in a romantic kiss, pictures of inmates on
death row, and picture of bloodied, shot up pants and t-shirt of a soldier killed in
Bosnian War. The company's logo served as the only text accompanying the images in most of these advertisements.
Sponsorship
Benetton Group entered
Formula One as a sponsor of
Tyrrell in , then
Alfa Romeo in ; this arrangement was extended to both Alfa and
Toleman in .
Benetton Formula Ltd. was formed at the end of 1985 when the Toleman and
Spirit teams were sold to the Benetton family. The team saw its greatest success under
Flavio Briatore, who managed the team from to .
Michael Schumacher won his first
Drivers' Championships with the team in and , and the team won their only
Constructors' title in 1995. From , the team raced under an Italian licence although it continued to be based, like Toleman, in
Oxfordshire in
England. The team was bought by
Renault for US$120m in and was rebranded
Renault F1.
In 1979 Benetton first sponsored their (then amateur) local rugby team, A.S. Rugby Treviso.
Benetton Rugby has since become a major force in Italian rugby, with 11 league titles and supplying many players to the national team.
In 1982 the company bought its local basketball team,
Pallacanestro Treviso, now commonly known as Benetton Basket. Their Sisley brand sponsors the local volleyball team,
Sisley Volley Treviso.
Criticism
Benetton has faced criticism from
Mapuche organizations, over its purchase of traditional Mapuche lands in
Patagonia. The Curiñanco-Nahuelquir family was evicted from their land in 2002 following Benetton's claim to it, but the land was restored in 2007.
See also Benetton’s position regarding the Mapuche in Patagonia.
Benetton aroused suspicion when they considered using
RFID tracking chips on clothes to monitor inventory. A boycott site alleges the tracking chips "can be read from a distance and used to monitor the people wearing them." Issues of consumer privacy were raised and the plan was shelved.
See also Benetton’s position on RFID technology.
PETA launched a boycott campaign against Benetton for buying wool from farmers who practiced
mulesing. Benetton has since agreed to buy nonmulesed wool and has further urged the wool industry to adopt the PETA and Australian Wool Growers Association agreement to end mulesing.
See also Benetton’s position regarding the controversy on mulesing between the Australian Wool Industry and PETA.
Results
Benetton achieved 983 million euro in sales of its brand “United Colors of Benetton Adult”, that is 50 % of the total sales in 2008. Another 30 % of sales have been achieved through sales of the brand “United Colors of Benetton Kids”, that is 589 million euro. The third highest percentage of 18 %, that is 358 million euro grossed the brand “Sisley”. The brand “Playlife” grossed 43 million euro.
Fabrica
Fabrica is a communication research centre financed by the Benetton Group. It was created in 1994 with the aim of combining culture with industry and offering young people from around the world an opportunity for creative growth and multicultural interchange. Fabrica is based in Treviso, in a complex restored and enlarged by Tadao Ando.
Fabrica invites young artists/designers to its centre, offering them a one-year study grant and providing them with a professional training opportunity and a wealth of resources and relations. The young resident artists develop cultural and social communication projects in the areas of design, visual communication, photography, interaction, video, music and publishing under the guidance of experts.
