What: The Italian department store opted for other terms to communicate its values in its latest advertising campaign which will continue for the upcoming two years.

Why is it important: The company’s latest advertising campaign rather resulted in an illustrated manifesto mirroring the shift the retailer made from defining itself as a “house of brands” to a “house of values.”

“We had all our vision and history very clear in our minds but we never narrated it,” said Rinascente’s CEO Pierluigi Cocchini. “We started from the word ‘sustainability’ knowing that we didn’t want to use it because it has been an abused term and I personally consider it a word belonging to the last decade. Today, the concept has been enriched with so many new values that this term alone isn’t enough to express them all.”

For this reason, the company picked five words representing its pillars and grouped them under the common payoff “Keep It Beautiful,” illustrating the retailer’s commitment to preserving and perpetuating beauty. The terms appearing in the ads are: respect, creativity, research, emotion and diversity.

Respect is referenced it to the Italian territory. In fact, what sets Rinascente apart from its competitors is the location of its units, which are all integrated in the city centres, therefore playing a key role for these urban areas not only commercially but also culturally and socially. Cocchini particularly highlighted how the stores are not housed in new constructions but in historic buildings the retailer has revamped.

“We like to define ourselves as a collection of department stores rather than a chain, because each unit is unique in its design and offering,” said Cocchini. “And that’s why our second word is creativity.

As for the term “emotion,” the executive underscored the importance of offering constant entertainment to consumers, becoming “a stage for unique experiences,” while he highlighted how research permeates every aspect of the retailer’s activity, from scouting new brands to studying new ways to approach customers.

Finally, for “diversity,” Cocchini stressed that the department store is an inclusive, democratic spot by definition, where everybody is welcome to partake in the experience of shopping, having a coffee or just visiting the spaces.

Without disclosing exact figures, Cocchini confirmed that Rinascente closed 2020 with sales down between 30 and 40% compared to the previous year, when it registered revenues of EUR 800 million and reported double-digit growth compared to 2018. Launched last year after a 20-million-euro investment, the e-commerce site is helping to partly offset the losses, but it’s the on-demand service’s performance that has surprised Cocchini the most. Introduced four years ago, the service enables sales assistants to support customers’ shopping experience remotely via WhatsApp messages and accounted for over 10 million sales in 2020.

Rinascente releases ad campaign, which doubles as illustrated manifesto