Italian Brand Names through their Associations: Current Trends

Italian brand names for cosmetics and cleaning agents (class 3 of the Nice Classification), pharmaceutical products (class 5), food and drink (classes 29 - 33) published on the site of the Ufficio Italiano di Brevetti e Marchi in 2004 and 2008 are the topic of our analysis withrespect to associations from the domains “Power and Might”, “Tradition”, and “Security”. The results are compared on the one hand with a parallel study on German brand names (cf. the paper by Elke Ronneberger-Sibold andSabine Wahl in this volume), and on the other handwith previous investigations on Italian and German brand names registered throughout the 20 th century. In the latter studies certain shifts in the distribution of the associations became visible, for instance the stress on local production (Madeinmarche, 2008, Class 29), or Il buon vitello della terra trentina (‘The good beef from the Trentino land’, 2008, Class 29), or on national true production (Very Italian Food, Class 29, 2008), and finally on the old Italian and Latin tradition (Creme cavascura Antiche Terme Romane‘Cream of the dark clay from the Old Roman Thermae’) despite the pressure of the globalizing market. From this point of view it is remarkable that other associations like SENSORY PERCEPTIONSare growing or are combined with the connotations of TRADITION and RELIABILITYwhich are typical for the Italian market. Our aim is to show which shifts are short-lived or of long duration, indicating far-reaching changes in the way of life and behavior of customers