Benetton Clothing Is Classified As Fast Fashion Or Luxury Market Has The Final Say.

Due to its slow listing and high cost, Benetton's clothing can not be classified as fast fashion, but it is not enough to be classified as luxury.

A family controlled European Group uses innovative, automated and smart branding strategies to create clothing for picky young customers through shops in shopping streets and shopping centers all over the world.

This may be a description of modern fast fashion Champions: Zara of Spain's Inditex or Hennes&Mauritz of Sweden. But 25 years ago, it was Benetton, a company that my teenage fashion loving daughter had never heard of.

In 1994, I was a journalist in the financial times in Milan. One of the first tasks I received at that time was to interview Luciano, Luciano Benetton, who had a lion's hair in the villa near Treviso, an elegant villa built in sixteenth Century. He was the boss of the four brothers and sisters who founded the company in 1955. Luciano supervises the operation of many factories and 7000 stores in 110 countries at headquarters.

But Benetton did not maintain such success, and its global imprint and brand recognition declined. In 2000, it ranked seventy-fifth in the world's best brand list of Interbrand, and dropped to 100th place in 2001. By 2002, it had withdrawn from the list. Zara and H&M ranked the top 30 this year.

Benetton is now trying to reclaim its momentum. Although Luciano's brothers have recently passed away, Carlo died in July of this year and Gilberto (Gilberto) has just died soon, but it has a wealth of innovative heritage for reference. Five factors are striking:

1. teamwork. Family partnerships are crucial to Benetton's early success. Giuliana, Giuliana of four brothers and sisters, provided the key creative impulse and made the first colorful sweater for Luciano. Carlo became the production manager of Benetton while Gilberto was the financial planner of the family.

2. brand building. During the heyday of Benetton, the family gave Oliviero Oliviero Toscani an unprecedented freedom to design controversial advertising activities focusing on social issues such as race and religion. These advertisements include images of a nun and a priest kissing, or an image of a black woman breastfeeding white babies. They were decades ahead of their own times, when they could not see colorful sweaters.

3. retail. Benetton broke the rigid mode of Italy's retail industry and formed a brand store network. Franchising enables it to directly distribute and expand rapidly. It uses commission driven agents to supervise areas, usually setting up several shops in the same shopping district. Benetton once had six stores on Fifth Avenue in New York, some of which were almost visible to each other.

4. automation. Benetton has built up a complex data network to track sales to inventory levels, and use robotics in Italy to automate its factories and warehouses. In Luciano's words, "upgrading fashion from handicraft to industry".

5. speed. Benetton aims to deal with changing tastes and needs flexibly, as Zara and H&M did today. It is proud of its ability to produce, distribute and sell the popular "flash" product line.

Now let's talk about the alarming part of Benetton's story. Competitors have learned how to copy or defeat these advantages. Families are struggling to cope with generation change and the introduction of external managers. Shocking advertising activities (for example, the Pope kissed Imam) began to appear to be meaningless provocations. Facts prove that the flexibility of its franchise.

Benetton is like being trapped in an unmanned area. Its clothing market is too slow and expensive, so it can not be classified as fast fashion, but not enough to be classified as luxury goods. In 2012, the family privatized the listed company to rebuild its brand.

However, the story of the Benetton family does not reflect the proverbial decline. This partly depends on Gilberto's financial foresight. Not only did he sell his bicycle in 1955 to help buy the family's first knitting machine (Luciano sold his accordion), 40 years later, he led the family holding company Edizione diversified business into toll roads, airports and digital infrastructure.

Regrettably, this success culminate in the fatal collapse of a bridge in Genoa in August of this year, which is part of the concession of toll roads. This tragedy has tarnished the reputation of the Benetton family in Italy. It is reported that it also accelerated the death of Gilberto, just as Luciano and Juliana led the brand revival.

For pioneers who once led the new trend, the strategy is partly ironic based on nostalgia. Benetton is reviewing the 30 year old product line and emphasizing durability rather than speed. Luciano, now 83, is the leader again. He realized that the clothes bought last year were out of date and felt like "robbing your home". But thanks to his brother, he has at least one family to launch the second fashion movement. My daughter said she might even buy her first Benetton sweater.

Translator / PEI