In my contribution I will present some of the results of my study of the perception of pseudo-Italian product names by German consumers. The Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index, ranking nations as brands since 2005, could show that Italy’s scores are particularly high for fashion and food. So, it is understandable that German manufacturers are trying to make the most of this ‘added value’ given by consumers to Italian food. Therefore, in German supermarkets you can find not only Italian traditional brands as BARILLA or LAVAZZA, but also pseudo-Italian product names. In the following, the reader will find a general linguistic description of these pseudo-Italian product names and some remarks about their brand-strategic aspects, before I will focus on the perception of pseudo-italian product names by non-Italian speaking Germans. In particular will be shown the relationship that exists between the classification of a name as more or less Italian, and its identification as – from a subjective point of view – a known Italian word. With no high profile words, in contrast, the motivations for the ranking display surprisingly concurring ideas about phonetical and formal characteristics of the Italian language.
Wie viel Italianità braucht der deutsche Lebensmittelmarkt?
RIEGER, MARIA ANTOINETTE
2012
Abstract
In my contribution I will present some of the results of my study of the perception of pseudo-Italian product names by German consumers. The Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index, ranking nations as brands since 2005, could show that Italy’s scores are particularly high for fashion and food. So, it is understandable that German manufacturers are trying to make the most of this ‘added value’ given by consumers to Italian food. Therefore, in German supermarkets you can find not only Italian traditional brands as BARILLA or LAVAZZA, but also pseudo-Italian product names. In the following, the reader will find a general linguistic description of these pseudo-Italian product names and some remarks about their brand-strategic aspects, before I will focus on the perception of pseudo-italian product names by non-Italian speaking Germans. In particular will be shown the relationship that exists between the classification of a name as more or less Italian, and its identification as – from a subjective point of view – a known Italian word. With no high profile words, in contrast, the motivations for the ranking display surprisingly concurring ideas about phonetical and formal characteristics of the Italian language.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
