Bloody branding: the Italian anomaly

 By Gonzalo López Martí @LopezMartiMiami

• Last week I pointed out a fact which, at least in my humble experience, is a self evident truth: our Latin Catholic inclination to do business with family and/or friends is a recipe for disgruntlement and, eventually, failure.
• Family companies are a mess.
• They always end up mired in bad blood and doom.
• As usual, I got a considerable amount of pushback from my beloved readers.
• Some hate mail too.
• I will concede though that there are exceptions to my theory.
• As good ol’ Aristotle well pointed out, it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
• An articulate thinker has the ability to hold in his or her head two opposing ideas at once.
• Welcome to Italy.
• It doesn’t get more Latin, Catholic & family obsessed than this.
• A relatively small country.
• 70 million inhabitants and change.
• Yet it is the nation with the most successful premium world class brands per capita in the world.
• Think of it.
• In every single market category there’s an Italian leading top-of-mind brand.
• Automotive: Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lamborghini, Pagani, IVECO
• Food & beverages: Ferrero Rocher, Nutella, Barilla, Buitoni, Parmalat, Segafredo, Illy, Disaronno, Pellegrino, Campari, Aperol, Peroni
• Motorcycles: Ducati.
• Boats: Ferretti.
• Clothing: the list is endless.
• Guns? Beretta
• Sports franchises.
• Cinema.
• Architecture.
• Home appliances? Don’t get me started.
• Italy, after all, is the HQ of a brand with unmatched resonance and longevity in the entire history of man & womankid: the Catholic Church.
• The question is, why?
• Three millennia of history?
• Possibly.
• A vibrant culture?
• Sure.
• Yet this is a country with a political and business sector pervasively infiltrated by the mob, which, allegedly, pretty much controls half of its territory (the south).
• Encroached, belligerent left-wing unions? Check.
• Swarms of idle government employees? Check.
• An enormous welfare state bleeding the perennially bankrupt government dry? Check.
• A private sector boasting a chronic aversion to paying taxes? Check.
• Can you think of a more dismal business environment?
• How about this: Italian advertising creatives rarely win trophies at award shows like, say, Cannes.
• Did I say rarely?
• I meant never.
• Can you mention an Italian advertising agency?
• Off the top of your head.
• Come on.
• Still waiting.
• Nothing?
• What’s the last Italian ad campaign you liked?
• Let me rephrase: when was the last time you actually saw an Italian ad campaign?
• Italian advertising, if we judge it by the usual standards, is invisible.
• In other words, it sucks.
• Still, the ability of Italian companies to masterfully brand their products is second to none.
• The products of Italian industry are admired, sought-after, beloved, household names all over the world.
• People happily pay top dollar, euro, yuan and yen for Italian-branded stuff.
• A “Made in Italy” seal commands a premium.
• They own Chrysler now.
• And Jeep.
• How come?
• What’s the explanation?
• Why?
• Gonzalo will tell you why: family.
• If you pay attention, you’ll notice that pretty much all Italian companies are branded after a family name: Armani, Ferrari, Ferrero, Buitoni.
• Ladies & gentlemen, we might be onto something here.
• This might be the explanation.
• When your family’s last name is the brand name of your company, you don’t drop the ball.
• You work hard and you fight tooth and nail.
• You protect it & you nurture it, literally, with your life.
• When your family’s last name is the brand name of your company there’s nowhere to hide.
• I ain’t saying a family-run company is immune to intrigue and backstabbing.
• Management by blood can get nasty (as in rule by bloodlines, pun intended).
• It certainly is vulnerable to cross-generational conflict, growing pains, nepotism and slackocracy.
• Nevertheless, family seems to work miracles when it comes to building a brand.
• I’ll leave you with a quote from the movie The Third Man, released in 1949 and starring the immortal Orson Welles: “… in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”