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(Once Upon A Time In Italy)
(INTRO) In historical film titled "Ferdinando e Carolina" (by Lina Wertmüller, 1998) a very young King of Due Sicilie shows his preference for mundane pleasures rather than for duties at the court. He does his best in courting pastime... And above all he shows about 18 years old, i.e. his real age! During that XVIII century Italian states were always hostage to Spain, Autriche and France and their established state models ready to import and suffer, including improvising and impudent kings and queens coming down to follow a lot of working armies engaged in changing the destiny of the indigenous bourgeoisie. Actually there were no kings on the country, only princes...
Pizza as we know it (1) wasn't yet the symbol-plate of the united Italians and had not had its ultimate appeal to the nobilty --see the Margherita (2). Indeed its Italian origin has been going back to the period following the unity of Italy...
Only the great Neapolitan inventiveness should have improved the simple pizza by a commercial side, if it's true that some "pizze a oggi a otto" were paid cash only eight days after their consumption. Realize that this did encourage, spur and give the power to the consumer because so much could happen during eight days (from L'Oro di Napoli by Giuseppe Marotta).
Now I'm going to review --with the same historical severity-- products, ad messages and values of foreign brands that hit the mark of the Italian consumer class, the same way the pizza has by now entered the food heritage of all the world, until even the pizza has lost his Italian nationality forever.
...E sfogliava i suoi ricordi, le sue istantanee, i suoi tabù (Rino Gaetano).
SET1The Good, the Ugly and the Bad of the Foreign Brands.
Made in the USA. First time Uncle Sam sent his branded products to Italy was probably in July 1943 when some troops came down to earth in Sicily. Their tootpasthe, chewing-gum, cigarettes and coffee did enter the sideboards of some Italian families under counter... About a decade later brand names like Colgate, Palmolive, or Dash, had turned that clandestine status into market leader position across the country. Let's say American heavyweights like Coca-Cola and Pepsi came to Italy thru a needle of dreams and needs!
Almost all most important authors of marketing are used to pay tribute to 3M (www.3M.com) as the prototype of the innovation business. Why? Basically under this flagship brand you can find all about t_a_p_e, its core business. Adhesive tapes are worldwide known as Scotch... and magnetic tapes are in high density Imation diskettes... black plastic tapes are barriers on the main streets... not to say tapes in hospitals, on road signs, in schools and firms, or the original Thinsulate(tm) insulation you find in handwear, headwear, footwear. In other words tapes everywhere... and that makes a business really without bulk! Not to say about 3M pride, a.k.a. the Post-it(r) brand, since its creation is truly a business legend. In short, take an employee and let him free to do what he wants to do with the firm resources, but watch what he's doing or has done and copy him and distribute worldwide the best idea as he has invented in his job place. You could invent the next Post-it, it's silly no?!
Post-it scriptum for up and coming marketing authors. Maybe it's time to save us this fine story on your next business books. We all are exhausted of hearing that, thank you!
Made in EU. A good product coming not from a single country but from the European Union is SuperAttak, that is not a fighter but a strong adhesive gel. Its label is warning the consumer because it's irritating... The bad fact is this registered brand belongs to the Loctite(r) products range, that belongs to Henkel(r). So you can understand how much this is irritating an Italian middle consumer!
Braun and Bosch giants are the best brands of German consistency. 'Technology for the life' tell us the ads claim of one, but it's worth for another. Now do they merge one another in the name of the European growing thickness?
Royal Brand. The noble nature of a brand comes forward to us from the history... Royal Philips Electronics was originally the name of the brand nowadays simply known as Philips (www.philips.com), almost an inventor of the light bulb! Today this brand's inventory consists of all kinds of electronic media from shavers to computers, from television sets to hi-tech consumer gadgets. A royal brand tracked down in every Italian household and just buoyed by the stylish effectiveness of an enlightened sovereign... even though a stranger. And 2006 one of the first 50 global brands by net present value!
Excellence. Excellent products recall extra performances to the customers. Energizer promises to last up 7x longer. Their executives only want our extra time --or even our kiss? With regard to kisses, French products are champion of lust, sorry... luxury!
I don't mean medium positioning brands as Garnier, Cointreau and Danone even if they are prime reference products in Italy. The country of navigators loves the seasonal competitions where big sail boats, beautiful people and the finest wines are always present. Now it's time of Louis Vuitton Cup (regatta) as hors d'oeuvre for the America's Cup where the victory and joy and pleasure of living large have been fully expressed by a flooding of Moët & Chandon, the America's Cup official champagne!
Nothing like that show of luxury comes off in the Netherlands, that Italians persist obstinately to call Holland. Leerdammer remembers us they are able to make cheese careless of the dams... and a curly Dutch flag is curiously present maybe as reminder on Aquafresh, a toothpaste brand in hot water. Only from a commercial country a wholesaler named Petrus Boonekamp could export a liquor made of imported medical herbs and hope two centuries later the advertisers would have presented it to Italians as 'the bitter taste of success'... Just off the boat.
1988 I visited a brewery in Denmark, whose green flag did recite "probably the best lager in the world" (www.carlsberg.com). Twenty years later Carlsberg has migrated from beer bottles to casual wear for reaffirming the brand culture is always you want it to be, no matter what the prime business was! That "probably" put into its motto remains like a mistery of modesty towards the consumers... and probably a defeat for that brand junkie!
Swiss brands are successful masters on watches and chocolate --see Tag Heuer, maître d'avant-garde, or Lindt, maître chocolatier.
Beautiful faces and healthy skin need serious brands, well established in the greatest cities of the world! So the excellence for the body care products is guaranteed by Rimmel/London, Maybelline/New York, L'Oreal/Paris. Very Important Product/Place. VIP got you under her skin!
Redundancy of red passion?
(1) Pizza:: [uncertain etymology] food referring historically to the focacce, azzime o lievitate, typical of the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean Sea.
(2) Pizza Margherita:: Its excellent nutritional balance is showed by these nourishing components
Carbos 50.1%
Fats 34.6%
Proteins 15.3%.
SET2 Back to Basics.
1992 Italian stylist Franco Moschino, after the promotional launch in the USA of fashion products made in Italy, said about the pizza that "mi piace come alimento e come argomento estetico. Innanzitutto ha i colori della nostra bandiera. e poi trovo che sia una combinazione di elementi data proprio dalla loro semplicità, dalla loro basicità. È abbastanza speciale che ci sia una formula diventata buona e famosa in tutto il mondo".
By the way, one of the most effective advertising campaign aiming to push the consumes of Coca-Cola into the daily habits of Italians was a series of typical Italian common dishes --pizza, spaghetti, freid eggs-- that were pictured and presented in the shape of a Coca-Cola traditional bottle (on billboards, 1990s)!
As I had already paid my little tribute to the short noble brand inventing useful and revolutionary cheap products --see
(OUTRO) In the Italian movie industry slang, 'pizza' is also named the thin round metal box containing and protecting the film reel. In order to beautifully close this trilogy of magazines written as guide to acknowledge your brands, I would like to consider an Italian nasty movie which was rank in laughing at the TV power and its role as the one king of Italy. Signore e Signori Buonanotte... (1976) --featuring the best actors of the Italian filmed comedy all at once sick and tired to be Italians. Oh why?