Hartl / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Volume 9, Issue 2, 2006
country, because we need scale economies. When we entered the US market for
example, in the US pasta market were 3000 producers of pasta. The retailers said
we do not need another pasta company. We argued that we have 100 percent Italian
durum wheat pasta, which would be better. The retailers replied that the
consumers are happy with what they have. We took the challenge and we made a
whole educational campaign of eating the real Italian product. Five years later we
became the market leader. So it was a success story of educating the consumer, not
giving the consumer what the consumer wants. Because if you if I ask them what
they want, if you do that kind of research, consumers say they are happy with what
they have. Since they do not tell you what they want, you have to watch consumer
behavior. In the end consumer behavior is predictable, but you need to use new
tools to predict what the consumer wants. It is very challenging and it is becoming
more psychological than technical.
Conclusions
This report gave an insight how consumers’ behavior in particular with regard to
Italian food changed from the perspective of Gianluigi Zenti, executive director of
Academia Barilla. Two points are of particular importance.
First, consumers developed more differentiated views about Italian food over time.
However, they often do not get the full information regarding real Italian food
versus substandard imitations. So the central mission of Academia Barilla is to
preserve the cultural identity by educating the consumers about real Italian food.
Second, to communicate and be recognized by the consumers, it is more and more
important not just to rely on the physically components of a product. Increasingly,
consumers often want more than just food; they want to identify themselves with
the product. Thus, for manufacturers it is becoming essential that consumers link
their products with emotional and aspiration values. Gianluigi Zenti emphasizes
the importance to build equity in the area. Barilla took that challenge and builds on
emotional and aspiration values by promoting authentic Italian food, lifestyle and
image.
The need to preserve the identity and to build stronger on emotional and aspiration
aspects of products is reinforced by globalization. Thus, in globalized systems it will
become essential for manufacturers like Barilla to differ from the average product
by building on the cultural associations.
Reference
Zenti, G. (2005), Interview at the 15th Annual World Food and Agribusiness Forum,
Symposium and Case Conference, 06/27/05.
© 2006 International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IAMA). All rights reserved.
93