Cheese trademarks: Italian dairy firms’ practices during the 20th century

Abstract

Trademarks have recently become a very useful source for business historians. This longitudinal analysis of the twentieth-century trademarking activities of the most important Italian dairy firms of the era, namely Galbani, Invernizzi and Locatelli, demonstrates that trademarks were used both as a protective weapon against competitors and as an innovation carrier to open up new markets. This article also argues that trademark registrations had another dual purpose – not only were they used as buffers against negative shocks but they were also used to support periods of economic growth. A fundamental finding of this work is that trademarks, across various types of registrations, were closely connected to the features on which the companies based their sales strategies.

Keywords:

• Trademark
• food sector
• dairy industry
• Italian family business
• market strategies
• product design
• longitudinal analysis

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Notes

1. See Lopes and Duguid, ‘Introduction: Behind the Brand’, 235; Higgins, ‘Forgotten Heroes and Forgotten Issues’, 261.

Furthermore, for an exam of the business history of brands in Europe see Bonin et al., European Business and Brand Building, and for a historical review of the concept of branding see, for example, Bastos and Levy, ‘A History of the Concept of Branding’, 347–368.

2. This is the main point underlined by Teresa da Silva Lopes and Paul Duguid in their book entitled Trademarks, Brands, and Competitiveness.

3. The relationship between trademarks and the issue of imitations and counterfeits is analysed in Lopes and Casson, Brand Protection.

4. Several studies highlight the role of brands and trademarks for firms. For example, see: Higgins, ‘Forgotten Heroes and Forgotten Issues’, 263; Sáiz and Fernández Pérez, ‘Catalonian Trademarks’, 239; Lopes, Global Brands, 5, Lopes, ‘The Growth and Survival’, 595, Duguid, ‘A Case of Prejudice?’, 312.

See also: Wilkins, ‘The Neglected Intangible Asset’, 66–95; Petty, ‘From Label to Trademark’, 129–153.

Moreover, for a long-term study on the concept of brand see: Moore and Reid, ‘The Birth of Brand: 4000 Years of Branding’, 419–432 and Jones and Morgan, Adding Value.

Finally, for some insights on the cultural approach of brands see: Cayla and Arnould, ‘A Cultural Approach to Branding’ and Askegaard, ‘Brands as a Global Ideoscape’.

5. Lopes, Global Brands, 5. So, it is important to note that ‘brand and trade marks are closely connected’. They are similar because they ‘help producers differentiate their products from rivals’, but they differ in some aspects. In particular, brands do not give property rights and they convey specified messages; Barnes and Higgins, ‘Brand Image, Cultural Association and Marketing’, 4. So, companies converted their products into brands with ‘personalities’ that expressed what the ‘consumer wished to be’, Fitzgerald, ‘Marketing and distribution’, 397. For more details in the distinction between brands and trademarks see Mercer, ‘A Mark of Distinction’.

6. Lopes and Duguid, Trademarks, Brands, and Competitiveness, 1.

7. Sáiz and Fernández Pérez, ‘Catalonian Trademarks’, 239; Duguid, Lopes and Mercer, ‘Reading Registrations’, 10.

8. Higgins, ‘Forgotten Heroes and Forgotten Issues’, 263. More details in Wilkins, ‘When and Why’, 25–26.

Examples of other studies on food history include Lopes, Global Brands; Duguid, ‘Developing the Brand’, 405–441; Battilani and Bertagnoni, ‘The Use of Networks in Marketing’, 31–57.

9. Source: IMITA.db – Archivio Storico delle Società per Azioni Italiane; cfr. https://imitadb.unisi.it/.

10. Ibid.

11. In general, for an overview on the Italian economic development see Zamagni, The Economic History of Italy, 1860–1990; Cohen and Federico, The Growth of the Italian Economy, 1820–1960. Other information about the Italian economy can be found in Toniolo, The Oxford Handbook of the Italian Economy since Unification.

Furthermore, on the evolution of the Italian enterprises see: Colli and Vasta, Forms of Enterprise in Twentieth Century Italy; Giannetti and Vasta, Evolution of Italian Enterprises in the Twentieth Century; Amatori and Colli, ‘European Corporations’; Aganin and Volpin, ‘The History of Corporate Governance in Italy’; Colli et al., ‘Mapping Strategy, Structure, Ownership and Performance in European Corporations’; Colli and Vasta, ‘Large and Entangled: Italian Business Group in the Long Run’; Colli et al., ‘Long-term Perspectives on Family Business; Toninelli and Vasta, “Opening the Black Box of Entrepreneurship’.

12. Besana, Tra agricoltura e industria. See also Fumi, Una grande impresa cooperativa.

13. On Italian dairy development see Ferrari, L’industria del latte in Italia; Besana et al., Cheese Manufacturing in the Twentieth Century. For Lombardy see Mandressi, ‘La nascita del caseificio industriale in Lombardia’ and Besana, Tra agricoltura e industria.

14. It is interesting to note that the Galbanis were related to the Locatellis.

15. It therefore moved to lower altitudes, beginning to manage a modest facility in a town near the Lombardy capital, with access to the Milan–Venice railway. The new headquarters of the Galbani business was located in an area where the dry Lombardy plains, a realm of sericulture, began to benefit from the advantages of irrigation, in a city that represented a point of transfer of the bergamini transhumance to the mountains. For some time, Galbani continued to send packaged cheese to the small hillside town of Ballabio (Como), for aging in the Pre-Alps – Grigne caves. In 1898, its dairy factory was equipped with a steam boiler and a refrigerating plant. It was still a plant with limited production capacity that probably processed 50 hectoliters of milk per day, a rather small amount, but one that produced more than eight times what a traditional hut dedicated to the production of butter and grana cheese could produce; Colli, Galbani Egidio, 363–367; Mantegazza, Locatelli, 345–348.

16. Sicca L., L’industria alimentare in Italia. Instead, on the role of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) see Stranieri and Tedeschi, ‘The Influence of the European Institutions’, pp. 95–111.

17. Mediobanca, Dati cumulativi.

18. Ifil was a holding company owned by the family Agnelli (Fiat) with diversified investments in many companies including some foods firms; Besana and Locatelli, ‘Italian Family Business and Multinationals’, 123–128.

19. Source: elaborations from https://dati.acs.beniculturali.it.

20. See: https://www.uibm.gov.it

21. For example, on 16 January 1970, a biscuit industry named Bistefani Biscottificio Santostefano S.P.A. deposited the trademark ‘Chateau Doré’ for the first time, with the number 255,050. On 27 November 1992 it was renewed and it was registered with the number 581,133; Source: elaborations from IPTO, http://www.uibm.gov.it.

It seems also useful to add that the trademark number is a serial number. The first mark registered refers to a ‘castor oil’ produced by I.G. Schmidt fu Giorgio, in 1869. Opposite, among the first cheese trademark there is that of the ‘etichetta con impressa la parola Fromage des Alpes ed altre iscrizioni relative a tale prodotto’ [label with imprinted word Fromage des Alpes and other inscriptions relating to that product], deposited by ‘Ditta Molli G.A. e C.I.’ in 1880; Source: elaborations from ISA, https://dati.acs.beniculturali.it.

22. See: ISA, https://dati.acs.beniculturali.it. In particular, this figure refers to trademarks the description of which incorporates the words: cheese, dairy and butter. The ISA database doesn’t facilitate a historical sequencing of dairy marks, but it gives useful information about the total amount of registered trademarks in this sector.

23. In the IPTO database the cheese marks are identified with the class number 29, but a large volume of other goods is also included in this class. So, it is difficult to assess the real quota of cheese in number 29 group; Source: elaborations from https://www.uibm.gov.it

24. The series of cheese registrations included each trademark, i.e. each number of trademark recorded in the ISA and in the IPTO databases. This means that, for the moment, there is no distinction between new brands and renewed trademarks.

The data were collected from the ISA database using specific keywords, such as cheese, dairy and butter, and by name of the owner.

The IPTO database was searched by owner or by text: by owner including the three company names and by text including specific words, such as Galbani, Locatelli and Invernizzi. Supply information has been obtained using others key words, such as Nestlé, Kraft Food, Danone. Finally, only brands identified as 29 and 30 classes are taken into consideration; Source: elaborations from https://dati.acs.beniculturali.it and www.uibm.gov.it.

25. Among these 800 trademarks, 45 were already present on the ISA database. Thus, the analysis which follows will be based on 755 IPTO registrations.

26. Sources: elaboration from ISA, https://dati.acs.beniculturali.it, and IPTO, www.uibm.gov.it.

27. There are currently a number of trademark requests which are in the process of being registered: Invernizzi is waiting on two requests, Locatelli, four and Galbani, eight. The data are updated to November 2016; Source: personal analysis of sources.

28. Source: elaborations from ISA, https://dati.acs.beniculturali.it, and IPTO, www.uibm.gov.it.

29. The lack of brands in this database could be the result of a delay in its completion. Furthermore, because of the nature of these historical sources, it is possible that part of the data was dispersed. Future research into this material might be able to remedy this.

30. In fact, this data (51 brands) refers to previous renewals of trademarks registered only after 1980 in the UIBM database.

31. More figures and data on Italian economic development are in Brandolini and Vecchi, Standards of Living, 227–248.

Furthermore, for an overview on the history of consumer culture in modern Italy see Scarpellini, Material Nation.

32. Source: elaborations from ISA, http://dati.acs.beniculturali.it.

The delays were similar for the others two enterprises. For example, for Invernizzi there were more than 1000 days of delay before a request made in the second half of 1943 was fulfilled. However, this phenomenon was even more severe for Locatelli in 1944, from which point they experienced a 1,134 day delay; Ibid.

33. Source: elaborations from IPTO, www.uibm.gov.it.

34. They should not be confused with the Invernizzi who owned the Invernizzi cheese industry. The Lecco entrepreneur remained honorary president of the company that he had founded and developed until 1928.

35. The incorporated Egidio Galbani was created with capital equal to two million lire and its headquarters were in Milan. Egidio and his brother Giuseppe owned two thirds of the shares. Egidio was named President, but the role of CEO was given to Rinaldo Invernizzi. Rinaldo entered Galbani with his own brothers Achille and Ermenegildo. The Invernizzis were part of a family of bergamini from the Valsassina who were permanently established on the plateau: they worked in their father’s company, Antonio Invernizzi s.a., which managed a plant that had served Galbani for many years in the Pavia area. Furthermore, the company capital was increased to 10 million lire, thanks to help from a consortium of banks led by the Banca della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano.

36. Indeed, the sector was still led by Polenghi Lombardo; Fumi, ‘The Rise and Decline of a Large Company’, 337–362.

37. It is interesting to note that Locatelli’s factories also controlled a cured pork meat factory, which manufactured meats from pigs raised on by-products from the dairy industries.

38. The plant was located in Caravaggio in the Lower Bergamo area, bordering the Cremona area.

39. That strategy was essentially due to the collapse of international trade, but it turned out to be beneficial to Locatelli’s development.

40. This plant was established by one of Locatelli’s competitors: Egidio Galbani.

41. Taking advantage of the strong competitive advantages cheese factories enjoyed over milk producers, the firm continued to record substantial profits, accumulating resources used for the purchase of rural land and farms.

42. That was the result of deficiencies in competitive skill compared to rivals from larger companies which, in this period, were better organised in terms of production and commerce; Rama and Pieri, The European Dairy Industry. Nonetheless, Nestlé assigned executives roles to various members of the family at Locatelli.

43. Furthermore, when considering these values it is important to note that Italian family-owned companies usually underestimated their capital. So, it is likely that these three companies had greater capital available to them than is listed here.

44. Galbani was already in this list in 1921, in ninth position. Six years later, it was third and from 1936 it gained second position; Fumi, ‘The Rise and Decline of a Large Company’, p. 357.

45. Galizzi and Linda, ‘Strategie di internazionalizzazione dell’industria alimentare’, 23–45.

46. Bianchi and Leroy, International Handbook on Industrial Policy. See also Goto, ‘Business Groups in a Market Economy’.

47. At the same time, the firm abandoned the production of cured pork meat in Moretta (Cuneo).

48. Brioschi, Strutture proprietarie e comportamento concorrenziale del sistema industriale italiano, 67–89.

49. Alò and Bedetti, Il business in tavola, 48–56.

50. Bertelè and Brioschi, Il sistema agricolo-alimentare; Ceccarelli et al., Typicality in History: Tradition, Innovation and Terroir.

51. These remarks are based on personal processing of the evidence presented at https://dati.acs.beniculturali.it and at www.uibm.gov.it.

52. The following analyses are based on elaborations from ISA, https://dati.acs.beniculturali.it and IPTO, www.uibm.gov.it.

53. There are a total of 194 Invernizzi brands; Source: elaborations from ISA, https://dati.acs.beniculturali.it and IPTO, www.uibm.gov.it. The following analyses are based on the same sources.

54. In general, the data of this section are based on data included in ISA, https://dati.acs.beniculturali.it and IPTO, www.uibm.gov.it.

55. In this typology are included both images and designs.

56. Source: elaborations from ISA, https://dati.acs.beniculturali.it and IPTO, www.uibm.gov.it.

57. Source: ibid.

‘Duomo’ and the word ‘ambrosiano’ both mean something linked to Milan. Moreover, other references to Milan and the production area of Melzo include: Duomo [Dome – as associated with Milan], ‘Stracchino Duomo’ [Dome stracchino] (1961), ‘Fontina di Melzo’,’Il Bel Paese di Melzo’ [The Beautiful Village of Melzo] (1931), ‘Verde di Melzo’ [Green of Melzo] (1939).

58. Source (for all the citations): elaborations from ISA, https://dati.acs.beniculturali.it.

59. Source: elaborations from ISA, https://dati.acs.beniculturali.it and IPTO, www.uibm.gov.it.

60. In several cases, the company name was added as the product name, creating a trademark in which both aspects were covered. For example, Locatelli registered both ‘Moregal’ and ‘Moregal Locatelli’, in 1947; Ibid.

61. Ibid.

62. In general, the data of this section are based on the ISA and IPTO databases; cfr https://datiacsbeniculturaliit, and www.uibm.gov.it.

63. For example, ‘of the approximately 6000 trademarks applied for residents in Catalonia between 1850 and 1905, 60, or roughly one percent, were still in force in 2010’; Sáiz and Fernández Pérez, ‘Catalonian Trademarks’, 257.

64. Remember that neither of the two databases includes registrations for this period, but they have been derived from the history of the brands filed after 1980 in the IPTO database.

65. Invernizzi, in fact, also registered its own ‘Taleggio Invernizzi’.