March 2021

Perception of the “Made in Italy” in the world: a case study for the Farnesina

Historically, Italy has enjoyed a strong evocative capacity for the values of creativity and product excellence summarised in the “Made in Italy” expression.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in collaboration with Eurilink publishing house, with the aim of strengthening its competitiveness and setting up an effective strategy for promoting Italy, conducted a wide-ranging survey and entrusted the analysis of the perception of the “Made in Italy” label on the world network to Cultur-e.

Through an advanced Social Intelligence methodology, we set up our analysis in an unstructured listening mode with reference to what users spontaneously express and share online.

How much, where, who and how do people talk to about the “Made in Italy” in the world? Our methodological challenge was to select significant clusters from within an impressive amount of content to be analysed in order to identify trends and insights on the perception of our country on the international network. The ultimate goal of the survey was to offer interesting and useful elements for reflection to open a constructive debate and set up an effective future promotion strategy, capable of attracting investment capitals, talents and tourism.

The collective analysis work, published in the manual “La promozione integrata del sistema Paese” (Eurilink University Press, 2020), was set up starting from the development guidelines identified by the Directorate General for Cultural and Economic Promotion and Innovation of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation: economy and product, science and university, culture and heritage. Our contribution was to trace an initial analysis and measurement of the country’s brand awareness, useful for defining the context in which to effectively insert a long-term Nation Branding strategy, able to guide decision-makers in the governance and development choices of the “Made in Italy” label.

Read our Farnesina case history