Bloody branding: the Italian anomaly
October 7, 2014
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.”