Diesel vs. Benetton: Brand Image and Fashion Advertising

Introduction: Clothing, Identity, and the Premium Brand

On a purely functional level, clothing is a basic necessity, just like food and shelter. But very much like these commodities, clothing can command a diverse range of prices based upon a brand's reputation, quality, and above all its style. Diesel and Benetton are two clothing companies that have used edgy, trend-setting advertising and brand images to draw the eyes and dollars of the highly coveted teen and twentysomething crowd. These consumers spend a great deal of money on fashion, follow trends closely — and thus revise their wardrobes frequently — and may be willing to spend a hundred dollars or more for a label based on what it conveys about their identity.

The research question, when examining the success of these two companies, is both simple and profound — much like the advertising deployed by each brand. In short: how does one convince a consumer to spend in excess of a hundred dollars on a garment that might cost twenty or thirty dollars at the local mall or Walmart? The answer is image.

Diesel: Company History and Brand Overview

Diesel is a type of fuel, and the fuel that propels this trendy Italian-based company is the creative talent of its founder, Renzo Rosso. "When Renzo Rosso founded the company in 1978, he wanted it to be a leader, a company which took chances and carved out a niche for itself in its field. He surrounded himself with creative, talented people — innovators who rejected the slavish trend-following typical of the fashion industry." ("History and Background of Diesel," 2006) According to Rosso, he created clothes that he himself would want to wear, not what he believed consumers wanted to buy. He attempted to use his marketing to shape future trends rather than follow them. His ads were artistic rather than openly commercial in focus, looking more like works of art than photographs purveying a product.

His gamble paid off. In 1996, Renzo Rosso and Diesel received the "Premio Risultati" award from the Bocconi Institute in Milan for being the "best Italian company of the year." This was an extraordinary honor for a company mainly known for creating jeans, watches, and casual wear, rather than the couture previously coveted by the institute. Then, in a nod to his American business savvy, Rosso was also honored by Ernst & Young as the "entrepreneur of the year" of 1997 for the company's commercial dominance in the United States market. ("Renzo Rosso: Interview," Design Boom, 2002)

Rosso has said that although Diesel doesn't "outsell Levis in terms of quantity," competing with such a firm is not one of his goals, "because I've never thought of being a company that produces large volumes. I've always wanted to create a cool company." ("Renzo Rosso: Interview," Design Boom, 2002) Diesel is considered cool — and that is why it commands such high prices from consumers, because they wish to buy into its image. Simply wearing a pair of Diesel jeans is considered a statement, and that is what Rosso wants.

"From the very beginning, Diesel's design team turned their backs on the style-dictators and consumer forecasters of the fashion establishment and let their own tastes lead them. It is for this reason that Diesel immediately became a leader in developing styles, fabrics, manufacturing methods, and quality control, guaranteeing an outstanding quality product. The company views the world as a single, borderless macro-culture." ("History and Background of Diesel," 2006) On Diesel's official website, the naked torso of a man in jeans cavorts with a scantily clad woman. Both young, strapping figures have wings like angels. The texture of the website background resembles a pair of black, stonewashed Diesel jeans. It is as if the jean-clad figures inhabit a world made of Diesel denim, embodying the free, sexual, yet cool and dark spirit of the brand.

Benetton: Company History and Brand Overview

While Diesel attempts to create a macro-culture of cool that is unifying, Benetton has built a corporate image founded on eye-catching racial diversity, a willingness to confront controversial issues, and what can only be described as quirkiness rather than "cool." Like Diesel, Benetton is an upscale clothing marketer based in Italy. But instead of Diesel's brooding palette and abstract images that relate only tangentially to its products, Benetton's website is fittingly colorful, reflecting the company name: "The United Colors of Benetton." The forty-year-old company proclaims: "The company's philosophy has always been rooted in an informed consumerism, its aesthetic ambitions calculated to evoke a utopian rainbow at the end of a storm. Benetton's futurist hopes recall the philosophical aims of the Bauhaus and De Stijl artists, who felt design could unite the world via an international visual language." (40 Years Press Release, Benetton, 2006) In short, Benetton sees itself as more than a company — it sees itself as part of a design and social philosophy, creating a vision of the future. Hence the socially conscious emphasis of its marketing: by portraying images of racial diversity, Benetton seeks to change consumer minds about social issues as well as what to wear.

The company was born during the heady, idealistic days of 1965 — just as the bright colors of Pucci and the youthful styles of the latest miniskirts were revolutionizing the way people viewed fashion. Benetton opened its first store in 1969. The bright colors that characterized the line during the 1970s proved popular and paved the way for the company's expansion in the 1980s. The first company image was more preppy and clean-cut, though always healthy, youthful, and future-focused. Benetton really honed its unique identity in the mid-1980s, with edgy, colorful ads using models from a diversity of backgrounds, countries, and cultures — some of which did not even feature the clothing itself, only the brand name. Benetton featured couples of different races, persons from tribes in parts of the world that had never seen a store much less a pair of Benetton jeans, and the ads often seemed as intent on raising awareness as on informing the consumer what the Benetton style was all about.

Conclusion

The ability of both Diesel and Benetton to use such advertising is partly due to the fact that both companies have their own stores. So long as consumers are curious, they may stop in a store to look more closely at the image created by the brand-based and deliberately obscure nature of the company's advertising. Benetton's approach runs the risk of alienating more conservative young consumers, or simply failing to convey that an image of an African tribesman is in fact an advertisement for clothing. Diesel's approach, meanwhile, may risk pretentiousness or obscurity. In both cases, the beauty of the advertisement may overwhelm the practical selling message for a more pragmatically minded consumer.

But at the higher end of the fashion market, when selling casual clothing in specialty stores, no consumer will make a special trip simply to try on a generic pair of jeans, or pay a premium price for fashionably distressed denim or a bright alpaca sweater, on purely functional grounds. The consumer must wish to feel that they are making a statement to the world — that they are Diesel cool, or part of the United Colors of Benetton.

Works Cited

"40 Years Time Line: Benetton." Benetton Official Website. 2006. [29 Oct 2006]

Benetton. Official Website. 2006. [29 Oct 2006]

"Benetton: 40-Year Press Site." Benetton Official Website. 2006. [29 Oct 2006]

Diesel. Official Website. 2006. [29 Oct 2006] http://www.diesel.com

"History and Background of Diesel." Brand History. [29 Oct 2006] http://www.fragrancex.com/products/_bid_Diesel-am-cid_perfume-am-lid_D__brand_history.html

"Renzo Rosso: Interview." Design Boom. 2002. [29 Oct 2006] http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/rosso.html