The subject: United Colors of Benetton's campaign to promote its clothing, using photos and stories about death row prisoners in U.S. It's what journalist James Bone of Times of London called "latest in a string of deliberately provocative campaigns".

In an age when most advertisers try their hardest to avoid offending anyone, this company takes a clearly contrarian approach. A cynic might call it a cheap trick to get attention and free media coverage (like this article). But, Benetton has run campaigns like this for quite some time, and important communication lessons come out of them, regardless of how we feel about subject matter.

Let's start with focus. Obviously, if company willingly offends moral sensibilities of many potential customers, it must focus on a particular part of market, specifically people with liberal social and political attitudes.

In marketing terms, that suggests Benetton segments with psychographic criteria. Psychographics refers to lifestyles, values, and attitudes of consumers, including social and political viewpoints.

Given that it has run campaigns like this one for some 20 years, we have to believe that Benetton knows this segment well and focuses on it intently.

Turning to positioning, just about every other clothing company uses warm and fuzzy advertising themes. Advertising that makes you feel good about yourself because you look good, which makes you attractive to others, and therefore popular, and all of that should satisfy some of your important goals.

Hot Dope #1) The more that your potential customers see your name in front of them, more likely they are to call your number (and not someone else’s) when they need services you offer.

Many marketing efforts go unrewarded, not because they were off target but simply because they weren’t given enough of an opportunity to work. Showing your TV commercial one time, running an ad in newspaper once, or doing one mailing of postcards may not be enough to grab and keep audience’s attention.

Get your name out there, do it on a regular basis and people will remember you when they need someone in your line of business. Actually, this particular “Hot Dope” cannot be stressed enough – and failure to adhere to it is #1 reason new businesses fail.

You should also know that taking time to really see which pieces will generate response you want will pay off. Don’t just totally give up when a response is low – persistence is vital.

Hot dope # 2) Measure your Return On Investment (ROI) in terms of actual MONEY not response rate. An advertising vehicle is working when MONEY that it brings in has more value than MONEY and time that is spent on marketing.