External Influences In Consumer BehaviorEssay Preview: External Influences In Consumer BehaviorReport this essayIntroductionThe Benetton Group is a native Italian company whose core business is clothing. Founded on 1945, Benetton has reached 120 countries with more than 5,000 stores located around the world. With estimated sales around 1.7 billion euros at the end of year 2004, Benetton is still one of the largest retail clothing companies in the world. But as stated in its own companys Website, sales of Benetton products have fallen from 2,098 billion euros in 2001 to 1,686 billion euros in 2004.
In this paper we will analyze, the role that some external influences have taken on the drop on sales for the Benetton Group. We will also try to find a link between Benettons controversial advertising campaigns around the world and consumers perceptions towards the brands products.
Benettons advertising campaignsIn 1989, Benetton became the first company to eliminate pictures of its products from its advertisements. In their place, Benetton uses images of AIDS victims, racism, war, and death row inmates. This campaign strategy and philosophy is the result of the combined efforts of company president Luciano Benetton and photographer Oliviero Toscani.
While trying to convince the public that this advertising strategy is legit and that it is not driven by economic purposes, Luciano Benetton (United Colors of Benetton co-founder) says that he is “only interested in the world and peopleI have always been sympathetic to peoples problems, to minority rights, birth control, disease, wars, racism, religious intolerance. I cannot offer solutions to these problems, but if I can make people more aware than that is all I offer” (www.benettongroup.com 2005)
Despite claims made by Benettons top management that profit was never a motive and raising social conscience is their single goal, Benetton ads have been widely criticized and banned worldwide. While some markets (like the UK and the Italy) have been more tolerant to Benettons advertising styles, other countries have reacted differently. Why? The answer could probably be found by analyzing how external factors such as Culture, Social stratification, Reference groups and Family can influence on the buyers perception of a brand or product.
Culture, reference groups and family and the Benetton adsCultureAccording to Blackwell, “Culture represents the behavior, beliefs and, in many cases, the way we act learned by interacting or observing other members of society.” In other words, culture is a learned behavior shared by members of the same country, community or society. When advertising a product or brand it is vital to understand the cultural values of the intended audience since cultural factors have a significant impact on customer behavior.
In 1991, when Benetton started its AIDS campaign, the world knew very little about this deadly disease. While in some developed countries, people where starting to understand the causes of the disease and how everyone was a possible victim, other third world countries visualized the concept of a gay men and drug-addicts problem.
Benettons first AIDS related campaign showed a photo of a man named David Kirby who at the time was dying of AIDS (See appendix I). While the same photo received praises from the public when it was first published by Life magazine, Benettons ad was perceived as “obscene”, “disgusting”, and “a despicable exploitation of a tragic situation” according to Britains advertising Standards Authority. Benettons move was criticized as exploitation of the victim as a way to gain brand recognition and sell more clothes.
In this case we can see how cultural values can make a society react differently to a same situation depending on the messenger. While Benettons ad was clearly trying to appeal to a mature, well informed and probably economically stable audience, it reached the society as a whole and caused a chain reaction against its brand that included their target audience and other society members who were not supposed to be reached.
Values and religionWhen Benetton realized that the message on their first AIDS campaign ad was not well received by the audience, they change the pictures in their ads for what they thought where more acceptable images for the public to handle. This is were they started their AIDS preventive campaign.
In this new campaign, Benetton ads presented pictures of condoms in an attempt to persuade people around the world to protect themselves against the deadly disease (See appendix I for Photograph) . Even though, Benettons new approach to the topic didnt received as much criticism as before, some of Benettons store owners in the US and around the world claimed in a legal suit that these ads with rainbow-colored condoms ruined their business because of several protests by religious entities in front of their stores.
Religious institutions values have a strong influence on individuals behavior. According to Blackwell, the Catholic Church have risen from tiny levels in 1776 to a quarter of the U.S. population largely because European and Hispanic immigration in the recent years. The Catholic Church has been actively conducting protests throughout the U.S. against abortion and birth control methods other than the rhythm method which is the only birth control method allowed by them. These rainbow-condom ads where perceived by the Catholic Church and other religious institution as an invitation to promiscuity and soon coordinated active protest manifestation against the brand and its stores around the world.
The Pew research also indicated that the Catholic Church’s “increasing level of social acceptance for women since the advent of marriage has been associated with higher level of levels of marriage participation in both countries, both within Europe and the American United States.”
These findings also revealed that, for instance, “the Catholic Church’s participation in the social welfare and policy debate on marriage in Europe has often been seen as linked with higher levels of social support for women.”
These findings of “feminization’s” correlation with “marriage” were also reported by several other scientists after they wrote about a 2004 case study by Thomas F. Moll on Moll et al. of their finding that higher levels of support for women when they began to divorce were linked to a higher number of births.
According to Moll in a 2009 study titled, “Religious Relationships and the Decline of Domestic Violence: The Relationship Has Not Changed in a Bizarro World.” Moll concluded, “The findings of the case studies provided, as some of them suggest, support for a change to the belief system that has led to higher levels of support for domestic violence. Although it would be very good if some of us can have some kind of conversation about this because I know that there definitely needs to be change in it.”
Moll concluded, again, with the following words:
“A number of studies that have taken place in recent years have found that there are some patterns emerging that are consistent throughout the Catholic faith, and then some of them are inconsistent between these patterns. A number of them, however, are consistent with other findings that it is not clear or significant that Catholic social welfare agencies support women in the very states that now have more restrictive abortion laws, or that it is not obvious that they support women in other states that have no laws which they regard as harmful.”
This report of women’s religious support for divorce has been in the news lately because of the recent rise of divorce (by marriage) in a number of countries worldwide. In particular, many countries are experiencing an increase in the share of nonmarital births taking place among unmarried women.
The Pope has been called the “Queen of marriage” in his teachings. He is described as a religious woman with a “great understanding, an ability to plan for future times and have an understanding of the problems confronting the family.” He has also been known as the “Grandmother of the Lord.” And on a recent show he delivered a talk entitled A Mother’s Day for the Pope – In God’s Hands.
The Pope’s personal ministry, he continues, has had profound effects on women and girls through his influence on them. Pope Francis has set himself up as the Pope of St. John Paul II , the first living pontiff as in Christianity in the Roman Empire
The Pew research also indicated that the Catholic Church’s “increasing level of social acceptance for women since the advent of marriage has been associated with higher level of levels of marriage participation in both countries, both within Europe and the American United States.”
These findings also revealed that, for instance, “the Catholic Church’s participation in the social welfare and policy debate on marriage in Europe has often been seen as linked with higher levels of social support for women.”
These findings of “feminization’s” correlation with “marriage” were also reported by several other scientists after they wrote about a 2004 case study by Thomas F. Moll on Moll et al. of their finding that higher levels of support for women when they began to divorce were linked to a higher number of births.
According to Moll in a 2009 study titled, “Religious Relationships and the Decline of Domestic Violence: The Relationship Has Not Changed in a Bizarro World.” Moll concluded, “The findings of the case studies provided, as some of them suggest, support for a change to the belief system that has led to higher levels of support for domestic violence. Although it would be very good if some of us can have some kind of conversation about this because I know that there definitely needs to be change in it.”
Moll concluded, again, with the following words:
“A number of studies that have taken place in recent years have found that there are some patterns emerging that are consistent throughout the Catholic faith, and then some of them are inconsistent between these patterns. A number of them, however, are consistent with other findings that it is not clear or significant that Catholic social welfare agencies support women in the very states that now have more restrictive abortion laws, or that it is not obvious that they support women in other states that have no laws which they regard as harmful.”
This report of women’s religious support for divorce has been in the news lately because of the recent rise of divorce (by marriage) in a number of countries worldwide. In particular, many countries are experiencing an increase in the share of nonmarital births taking place among unmarried women.
The Pope has been called the “Queen of marriage” in his teachings. He is described as a religious woman with a “great understanding, an ability to plan for future times and have an understanding of the problems confronting the family.” He has also been known as the “Grandmother of the Lord.” And on a recent show he delivered a talk entitled A Mother’s Day for the Pope – In God’s Hands.
The Pope’s personal ministry, he continues, has had profound effects on women and girls through his influence on them. Pope Francis has set himself up as the Pope of St. John Paul II , the first living pontiff as in Christianity in the Roman Empire
FamilyFamily is the dominant agent of transmitting values in most cultures. However, many changes are occurring in the traditional structure of a family that should be considered. With a society of working parents, children are increasingly learning their values outside the family from school, friends and media.