Fashion Brand Management

Comparative Study on Brand Identity of Esprit and United Colors of Benetton

By: Insiya Chinwala

BRAND IDENTITY

Brand Identity

The outward expression of a brand - including its name, trademark, communications, and visual appearance - is brand identity. The identity is assembled by the brand owner, it reflects how the owner wants the consumer to perceive the brand - and by extension the branded company, organization, product or service. This is in contrast to the brand image, which is a customer's mental picture of a brand. The brand owner will seek to bridge the gap between the brand image and the brand identity.

Esprit

Esprit is an international, young brand that offers its customers the smart, affordable luxury of constantly being able to enrich their life with something special and something new, which always corresponds to the current tastes and styles. This lifestyle concept is the central point of the Esprit philosophy. The Group operates more than 800 directly managed retail stores worldwide and distributes its products via more than 14,000 wholesale locations internationally, occupying total selling space of over 1.

The brand uses this to constantly communicate to its customers the security and guidance that they want on today’s markets, which are saturated by increasingly short-lived trends. Thus, it is no wonder that Esprit ranks among the brands with the highest level of repeat purchases, i.e. those with the most loyal regular customers. And this has nothing to do with age, but is more about this joint attitude, this feeling of togetherness that characterizes the Esprit target groups.

History

1968 San Francisco

Esprit, the brand was born, Susie and Doug Tompkinsstarted selling Esprit clothes out of the back of their station wagon.

Early 70s

Seven product lines. The company was incorporated under thename of Esprit de corp. and seven product lines were created.

1971 Hong Kong

Esprit Far East started business was born when Doug and Susie Tompkins met Michael Ying, the group’s former chairman and shareholder of Esprit.

1978 San Francisco

Late 70s, Esprit takes off. Sales topped US$ 100Mand international partnerships in Hong Kong and Germany were formed.

1979New York

Esprit triple-bar ‘E’ logo. John Casado designed the famous Esprit stencil-effect logo. The new logo became one of the most recognized in the international fashion

1986 Cologne

First Esprit store in Germany. First opening of an Esprit store in Germany. The store was designed by Ettore Sottsass with typical elements of the Memphis style.

1987 San Francisco

Engagement. Susie and Doug Tompkins urged the public to confront the growing AIDS epidemic. The company also expanded into Taiwan.

2000 Hongkong

New millennium. Esprit Holdings Ltd. Became a constituent stock of Morgan Stanley’s MSCI Hong Kong Index.

2001 Düsseldorf 

 Brand Awareness.

2002 New York

Global Reintegration. Esprit Holding Ltd. Unified the global Esprit brand by purchasing the US trademarks, bringing back control of asingle entity since the 70s.

2004 Ratingen

Ettore Sottsass exhibition.

2006 Ratingen

Global lifestyle player. The Esprit brand sold in five continents and more than 40 countries, more than 20,000 products for women, men and kids, plus variety of licence products.

2007 Ratingen

Esprit launches de.corp, the new Esprit division for 18-25year old customers, presented by de.corp ESPRIT URBAN CASUAL features.

2007 Munich

Edc by Esprit and MTV Networks announce extensivepartnership, Europe’s biggest

music event the MTV Europe Music Awards

2008

Esprit birthday celebration, 1968/2008.

2009

Flagship store on Hong Kong’s Peking Road Grand opening.

2009

Flagship Store, the first Westcoast store in Santa Monica GrandOpening

ELEMENTS OF BRAND

NAME- Esprit started out in California.

URL- www.esprit.com

LOGO-

In 1979 John Casado designed the famous Esprit stencil-effect logo. Despite worries that the triple bar E logo would not be legible to customers, the new logo became one of the most recognized in international fashion.

 SLOGAN- It’s an attitude not age

DAVID AAKER’S MODEL

CORE IDENTITY

PRODUCT THRUST- Casual elegant wear 

USER PROFILE- Age group from 16-40 with elegance

EXTENDED IDENTITY

BRAND PERSONALITY- Vibrant, lively and cheerful

SUB BRAND- Edc

ESPRIT AS A PRODUCT

 A team of international designers incorporates the attributes of Esprit in various fashion line rhythms with confidence, naturalness, modernity and sensuality: from Esprit Kids, Shoes and Esprit Sports, per year and product range 12 lines are created with six order dates. The lines including Women Casual, Women Collection, de.corp ESPRIT URBAN CASUAL, Men Casual, Men Collection, Accessories, as well as the complete edc ranges, can even be ordered monthly. Depending on the range, Bodywear provides 10 to 12fashion lines a year with four order dates. Esprit continuously invests in quality and fit. The constant focus: the unmistakable Esprit of the products and convincing value for money. This high standard also applies in the manufacturing of the products. the customers expect the brand to provide them with contemporary, high-quality and affordable products.

PRODUCT SCOPE- Clothing, accessories, footwear, fragrance

PRODUCT ATTRIBUTES- Vibrant, lively and cheerful

QUALITY/ VALUE- Wearable, good quality and sturdy

USAGE- fashionable casual wear USERS- Age group from 16-40

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN- USA

ESPRIT AS AN ORGANISATION

Esprit is an international youthful lifestyle brand offering smart, affordable luxury and bringing newness and style to life. It offers its customers the smart, affordable luxury of constantly being able to enrich their life with something special and something new, which always corresponds to the current tastes and styles. This lifestyle concept is the central point of the Esprit philosophy. The brand uses this to constantly communicate to its customers the security and guidance that they want on today’s markets, which are saturated by increasingly short-lived trends. The brand is present in 40 countries and operates more than 650 directly managed retail stores worldwide

ORGANISATIONAL ATTRIBUTES- Innovative, follows the trend, consumer communication, socially responsible

LOCAL V/S GLOBAL- Globally present in 44 countries around the world.

ESPIRIT AS A PERSON

There is no one perfect Esprit person because Esprit is about the individuality of many. About what's on the outside and what's on the inside. About variety of sizes, shapes, colors, faces. There is no one perfect Esprit person. There are many. He is the one everyone wants to be. He was born a human and just keeps getting younger. He doesn't lead and he doesn't follow,he's just out there if you can catch up with him. He believes that if you believe it, it will come. He believes that words haven't lost their meaning, like love and desire, like forever and a day, like different but the same, like life is what you make it.

PERSONALITY -youthful, smart, cool, vibrant, chic

BRAND CUSTOMER REALTIONSHIP- Distinct identity, accessible

ESPRIT AS A SYMBOL

In 1979 john Casado designed the famous Esprit stencil-effect logo. Despite worries that the triple bar E would not be legible to customers, the new logo became one of the most recognized in international fashion

Successful licence partnerships have transformed the Esprit brand into a global lifestyle group. Esprit has been working with companies with in-depth product expertise and a strong market presence since 1990 to create a large and, in some cases, global pool of licence producEsprit is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 1993 and is a constituent stock in the Hang Seng Index, MSCI Hong Kong Index, FTSE All-World Index for Hong Kong and S&P/HKEx LargeCap Index and S&P Asia 50 Index.

A team of international designers translates the Esprit attributes into regular collections in a self-confident, natural, stylish and sensual way: 12 collections are produced for six order dates per year and product line for kids & edc youth by Esprit, Esprit shoes and ESP Esprit sports. The 12 collections of women casual, men casual, women collection, men collection, de.corp ESPRIT URBAN CASUAL, edc by Esprit, edc men and accessories could be ordered monthly. Four collections are produced per year for Esprit bodywear.

  

Although the company focuses on the product and price/performance ratio, Esprit also invests continuously in quality and fit – high standards that are also maintained in manufacture.

The brand constantly communicates to its customers the security and guidance that they want in today’s markets, which have increasingly short-lived trends. Esprit provides an edgy and fresh look to its consumers.

United Colors of Benetton

Benetton is the Europe’s largest clothing manufacturer and the world’s largest consumer of wool in the garment sector. Today, the group is present in 120 countries, having 9 factories in different parts of the world and over 5,000 sales outlets generating a total turnover of 2.0 billion Euros, net of retail sales. It is a company with a strong Italian character whose style, design expertise and passion are clearly seen in the United Colors of Benetton and the more fashion-oriented Sisley brands, in The Hip Site, the brand for teenagers, and in sportswear brands Playlife and Killer Loop.  Despite its global spread, Benetton has maintained close relations to its local origins, especially through cultural activities of the Fondazione Benetton Studi e Ricerche and through programmes about sport. The group’s ability to engage with society is also evident in Fabrica, Benetton’s communication research centre, that backs young artists from all over the world. Fabrica’s challenge is both an innovative and international one. Benetton was established in 1965 as a partnership by the Benetton family (Luciano, Giuliana, Gilberto and Carlo) in Ponzano Veneto, Italy.

In spite of its transparency and impeccable conduct, the group has been surrounded by controversy especially as a result of its ‘Institutional Campaigns.’ These advertisements aim at publicising the entire company as a whole rather than one range of clothing. Through this marketing technique they aim not only to keep public attention for their corporate name, but also to associate Benetton with trying to raise awareness about certain issues, such as racial equity. But after a series of billboard posters showing images of a nun and a priest kissing, body parts labelled ‘HIV positive’ (for which the company was fined) or a military cemetery filled with crosses, complaints started to be made against Benetton. As a result, some of the campaigns were banned by the Advertising Councils in several countries, including Germany. The 2000 campaign showing death-row inmates stirred so much controversy that Oliviero Toscani, Benetton’s Creative Director for the last 15 years, was forced to leave the company to be replaced by James Mollison. Despite the ad controversy, Benetton managed to maintain an admirable corporate image during Italian goveernment investigations conducted in 1993 that involved more than 5,000 of the country’s political and business elite.

A constant commitment to technological innovation was always a characteristic of Benetton’s business organisation, from communication to IT, from research into new materials to integrated logistics. Special attention is given to innovation in production, where all systems and equipment are totally renewed every five years. The Benetton production system, coordinated by a high-tech facility at Castrette (Treviso, Italy), operates with a structure of computerised machines that are programmed to operate all knitting phases. One of Benetton’s innovations is the computerised knitting procedure capable of producing a complete, seamless sweater in half an hour thanks to a software program conceived by Benetton specialists

The unconventional irreverent image associated with Benetton as a result of their institutional campaigns means they have to target markets that are open to controversial issues. It has been suggested that the group should change their communications strategy if they intent to use this form of advertising in stricter or more religious markets because their campaigns are very likely to offend in these regions. This can happen because cultural barriers are far more inflexible, meaning that the advertisements could easily be banned or Benetton boycotted if the messages are thought to be controversial.

The fashion thrives on building images and attitudes. Nothing sales clothing better than provocative icon, emotional symbol, or brand image that is embedded into the customer’s minds. People identify with the advertising or ideology and therefore use that particular brand to express themselves. Benetton understood this since the beginning, and it used attitudinal and unconventional advertising, mixing political and social issues with their ad messages in their campaigns. In addition, something consistent in their advertising is their cosmo approach, using for example multiracial and unusual-looking models to deliver their message. Benetton supports and illustrates the unconventionality in their brand personality as their campaigns veer away from the pleasing aesthetics commonly associated with clothing/fashion brands. This has created an association with consumers in that they equate unconventionality and shock with the brand Benetton. Apart from their institutional campaigns, the group launched product advertising campaigns in which it actuallyshowed the products as they were, colourful, practical and full of energy. Together these two communication channels targeted the brand towards a specific buyer profile: stylish but casual, practical, modern and dynamic.

Only the independent-minded and creative people could appreciate their message and identify with it. In terms of prices, the brand focuses the upper-middle market. The consumers adopt a limited problem solving approach when buying the products, and their level of involvement may be both enduring (in the case of a loyal consumer that appreciates the brand for its attributes as he finds that it responds to his desires) and situational (an on-the-spot decision to buy triggered by a particular circumstance or environment in which the buyer finds himself).

 

ELEMENTS OF BRAND

NAME- The name Benetton comes from the four members of Benetton family who founded the company in 1965. The name United Colors of Benetton indicates that people of different racial backgrounds should come together and live in harmony and unison.

URL- www.benetton.com

LOGO- 

United Colors of Benetton represents in a perfect way the unity of a modern logo with a traditional one, making it everlasting. This logo’s beauty is based on the importance of its empty spaces inside the body’s shape. The logo United Colors of Benetton Is executed in such a precise way that including it in any place will never result a problem.

SLOGAN- ‘All the colors of the world´ was one of the first slogans to appear in Benetton ads, and was later altered to ³United Colors of Benetton.´ The concept of united colors was such a strong one that for the first time in its history, the company adopted the slogan as its actual logo.

DAVID AAKER’S MODEL

CORE IDENTITY

PRODUCT THRUST- colorful clothing

USER PROFILE -all age group ranging from kids to adults who likes style

EXTENDED IDENTITY

BRAND PERSONALITY- Innovative, Rebellious, daring, Provoking/provocative, full of energy

SUB BRANDS- Under colors of Benetton, Sisley, playlife

ORGANISATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS- Customer oriented, reliable, unity of different races

 PRODUCT SCOPE- Apparels, accessories, footwear, fragrance

UCB AS A PRODUCT

United colors of Benetton include the consumer products as brightly colored lines, accessories, shoes, baby clothing lines, each collection with its own personality adapted for a larger consumer as possible. The UCB products designed for young people of all ages, colors, nationalities, with the desire to have more color in their life.

 

PRODUCT SCOPE- Apparels, accessories, footwear, fragrance PRODUCT ATTRIBUTES- Respect for diversity, anti racism QUALITY/ VALUE- Comfortable and good quality USAGE- casual and funky wear as well as formal and party wear USERS- all age group ranging from kids to adults COUNTRY OF ORIGIN- Italy

 

 UCB AS AN ORGANISATION

The Benetton brand can successfully for making a strong statement about the world, Benetton brand is talking to customer about current events, it can makes the customers feel sensitive and appreciative, Benetton can makes away of giving the brand that sense of being current, it's important to fashion brands, especially, Benetton brand can succeed to build up the branding to brand awareness. It provides the same merchandise through the globe.

ORGANISATION ATTRIBUTES- Customer oriented, reliable, unity of different races

LOCAL VS GLOBAL- Global presence

UCB AS A PERSON

The brand as a person is the one who likes style and is colorful and fashion conscious. This one is elegant and at the same time it is cheerful. He knows how to have fun and is innovative with his style. He is an extrovert and is moody. He has a vibrant personality and is creative in his own way.

PERSONALITY- : Innovative, Rebellious, daring, Provoking/provocative, full of energy

BRAND CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP: Reliable, Unity, Equality, friendship

UCB AS A SYMBOL

United Colors of Benetton represents in a perfect way the unity of a modernlogo with a traditional one, making it everlasting. This logo’s beauty is basedon the importance of its empty spaces inside the body’s shape. The logo United Colors of Benetton Is executed in such a precise way that including it in any place will never result a problem.

Back in the 80’s when Benetton launched its new product line, based then only on clothing and accessories, under the brand name United Colors of Benetton nobody knew how much this will grow.

Today United Colors of Benetton is one of the best known world brands, with daring campaigns and new, innovative and high quality products this brand stayed in the top for more than twenty years. Anything done under this brand proved to be successful from the start. The mix of

products made under the brand name United Colors of Benetton include the consumer products as brightly colored clothing lines, accessories, shoes, baby clothing lines, each collection with is own personality adapted for a larger consumer scale as possible. The organizational products include licenses and franchising. The UCB products designed for young people of all ages, colors, nationalities, with the desire to have more color in their life. As a ‘clothing services company’ Benetton through United Colors of Benetton stated that no one was excluded from their targeted consumers, united meaning just that. This multiracial theme was repeated in succeeding years with the slogan ‘United Colors of Benetton’, a slogan so successful that it became the trademark of the company. United Colors of Benetton is rich with meaning; it suggests, among other things, the United States, united races, a united Europe and a united world. This is consistent with the philosophy of the company, which is truly global and generates the majority of its revenues and profits outside Italy.

The creative department of UCB is made entirely of young graduates from art schools all over the world, 200 young designers create more and more new colorful and diversified products, maintaining like this UCB as one of the world’s most successful brands. But still after the departure of Oliviero Toscani in 2000 the brand maintained the same success as ever.

Objects don't have an identity unless they are branded. One brand stands out from the others not by so much by product design but as by marketing strategies. And one of the companies responsible for this is United Colors of Benetton. By choosing not to directly advertise their clothing and apparel, and by approaching social issues such as racism, AIDS, child abuse etc. they wanted to show that this is one company that is not interested in the products but in the people wearing them. That they were available for anyone no matter their skin colour, class, living region, social background or sexual preference. To talk about Benetton’s promotion and advertising means talking about one person: Oliviero Toscani.

When it comes to promotion, Benetton are in a class of their own. Since the company was founded in 1965 it had no real advertising. All this changed in 1985 when Benetton hired Oliviero Toscani as marketing director, and, furthermore, gave him complete control over the advertising strategies. Benetton offered their billboards as blank canvases for his art.

Toscani had a very simple recipe: take a powerful image, stamp the logo in a corner and there you have it. The ad will work by itself from that point on. He wanted no marketing research, he saw no need for ad agencies. Toscani single-handedly built and established the image of Benetton as one of the most recognized brands worldwide. This made advertising people from around the world look at him with admiration and envy at the same time. ‘I take pictures, I don’t sell clothes’, he claimed. He did not try to seduce the buyer with smooth, heart-warming imagery or by whispering sweet little nothings in the subconscious.

This type of passive-aggressive advertising pushed Benetton from a small-time sweater manufacturer somewhere in Italy, to a worldwide corporation, handling billion-dollar contracts. No campaign has ever come across un-noticed. Some might say that this has not done well to the image of the company. Others say that as long as the company brand was heard of, that was enough (the same people that say there is no such thing as bad publicity).

Toscani’s most well known motifs were:

• Dying AIDS patient

• Priest kissing nun

• T-shirt of Bosnian soldier (with bullet holes and blood stains)

• Military cemetery with Star of David

• Ship with refugees

• HIV positive tattooed

• Oil polluted duck

• Newborn child

Benetton Group looks ahead with the young eyes of the future. Its story is built on innovation and seeing where others fail to see. Always at the cutting edge - with colour, with its sales outlet revolution, with an absolutely unique production and commercial network and with a universal form of communication, creating both a phenomenon and cultural debate - Benetton was global before globalisation, but in its own way.

From the start, Benetton saw fashion as a global village where young people of every race live. It travels at the world’s speed, overcoming geographical, political and ideological boundaries.  

Benetton is a responsible Group, receptive to the present time and attentive to the environment, to human dignity and to the transformation of society. It creates value and aims at growth, not as

Benetton creates desires and makes them achievable.  Its style department is far more than the name implies. It is a permanent observatory covering five continents. Its designers travel the world to seek out ways of dressing, living and loving ahead of time: a global vision of style. Its inspiration comes from life as well as art, architecture and the world of the Internet.

The search for new raw materials, is in turn, based on key concepts such as functionality, durability of the garment, ease-of-use and care. The essential objective, particularly with dyeing and finishing methods, is towards production with a lower environmental impact.

 

Consistently high quality is one of the fundamental characteristics of the Benetton production process from the raw materials to the finished garment.

A constant commitment to innovation, a crucial factor for development, has always characterized the Group’s business organization, from communication to IT, from research into new materials to integrated logistics. Special attention is given to innovation in production, where all systems and equipment are constantly renewed.

 Benetton’s universal communication has accompanied the Group's global expansion. When companies export around the world, they normally adapt their advertising to suit different areas. Benetton chooses a single, universal message that is valid for all: beyond borders, skin colour and language.

In the early 1990s, corporate campaigns were developed that represented a new approach to communication: no products, just civil, social and political themes, which every wise advertising

executive of the time would have been careful to avoid. This is because here too, Benetton strives to cover new ground, look ahead, experiment and anticipate the times.

By choosing social themes, actively promoting freedom of speech and giving visibility to humanitarian causes, which otherwise would not have been communicated on a global scale, Benetton has given meaning and value to its own brand, building a lasting dialogue with customers – with people – across the world.

Benetton Group has sponsored the Treviso rugby, basketball and volleyball teams for many years, underlining close links with its origins and its city, through a vision of sport that is both competitive and social. The Benetton group has the same philosophy to sport as to business: i.e. passion, challenge, competition and results.

In parallel with this professional, competitive approach to achieving victory in championships and cups, the construction and development of La Ghirada, a 22,000 m2 public sports complex on the outskirts of Treviso, has lead to the development of a vigorous social activity. This has increasingly responded to the needs of the area, spreading the culture of sport and promoting sporting activities and wellbeing for young people, children and families.

Today, the Benetton Group is present in 120 countries around the world. The company has a worldwide network of over 6,400 stores and it offers high quality customer services and generates a total turnover of over 2 billion euros.  The development of the commercial network, characterized by privileged locations in historic and commercial centres and the high quality services offered to customers, is supported by a major worldwide investment programme. Benetton stores carry complete collections, as well as a wide selection of accessories and clothing, offering a global Benetton style and quality. 

The Benetton Group has a strong presence in countries with Western style economies, which represent 75% of total revenues.