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Italian Firms Are Still Lacking Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

, by Sara Mitterhofer - SDA assistant professor di Strategia e imprenditorialita', translated by Alex Foti
Only 76% of companies operating in the food and beverage industry have their own website, and they only use them for traditional push communication without exploiting the opportunities offered by social media to create consumer engagement and community building around brands. The time has come to face the digital challenge and win it

Before making a purchase, 60% of Italians relies on online reviews and 32% on social networks (Nielsen data). These numbers show how the web has become the primary trusted source of information. The digital challenge is thus a strategic priority for firms, in particular for those operating in the food & beverage industry, where emotions and trust are the main drivers of purchases. The user is no longer content to have access to the huge amount of existing content, he/she wants to become an active participant, by leaving a trail on the web and choosing a given community to share his/her content. Internet is no longer experienced as a technological medium, but as a social place. To manage and valorize all this, firms need new CRM models, new marketing strategies, and new investment priorities

The digital channel is no longer a choice a company can forfeit while planning its marketing strategy: it is a necessity for the long-term survival of a given brand. Even a company that takes a passive stance, by choosing not to invest online, is anyway subject of people's conversations online. Italian firms need to make a step forward and interact with social media, either to have an information base in the early stages of the development and launch of a new brand or product, or to measure brand awareness and assess the effectiveness of the marketing strategy being adopted. Identification and interaction with interest niches, and attention to shared content are ways to understand the consumers' wishes, needs, criticisms, evaluations, so that products that are ever closer to their preferences can be developed.

Digital channels are then a great opportunity for Italian food & beverage firms, especially SMEs, which represent a significant part of entrepreneurial and economic activity in the industry. In spite of these considerations, Italian firms are loath to follow the digital trend. From an analysis conducted on 300 Italian firms selling either foods or drinks, it emerges that 15% of food companies and 22% of beverage companies do not even have their own web site. Only 76% in both sub-sectors have a social media presence. And if this weren't enough, companies tend to adopt a traditional communication style, the push approach of mass media marketing. By doing so, they underestimate the distinctive potential of social media: developing engagement with the audience of consumers, by inviting them to establish an active relationship with the brand. Developing dedicated strategies to seize this potential is what's needed to touch the soul of today's consumers.

If Italian food & beverage companies want to look beyond the conclusion of EXPO on October 31, 2014, they need to turn the World Fair into the beginning of a new phase in engaging consumers and addressing international markets. In order to do so, winning the social media challenge, by adopting a new marketing logic and bringing in new skills, is absolutely crucial.

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