The seventies: a great beginning
After finding the financing and the staff to handle all the orders taken at the Mipel fair, Paolo and Pietro embarked on a period of enormous change and success.
Back in the Seventies, Mandarina had just launched Utility and chosen Mandarina Duck as the brand name for its products.
They had said a final goodbye to clients that sold trinkets in favor of leather wholesalers.
Paolo, however, was still not completely satisfied and decided to try something new. He went out on his own to sell directly to stores, beginning in Tuscany. Although some of them didn’t recognize the brand name, they were interested in the new materials and unusual shapes of the products. After having success in Prato, Montecatini and other Tuscan towns, Paolo felt that his new method could be very effective and, for the first time ever in Italy, a fashion company had hired and paid sales agents as well as giving them a small commission on goods sold.
The first person hired was a champion 100m sprinter from the region. He was their sales agent for all of northern Italy. For southern Italy, they chose to continue working with wholesalers.
That same year, Paolo went on holiday in a trailer and was very enthusiastic about his new traveling experience. So, he decided to create the first ever traveling showroom. They cleaned out the trailer and filled it with bags.
I enjoy listening to Paolo and Pietro reminiscing about the stir they created in Milan when they’d show up with their agent and the trailer in Piazza Duomo.
Paolo assigned a sales agent to each region of Italy and kept Tuscany for himself so that he could keep tabs on the situation.
They devised a new, innovative and coordinated communication strategy with Giorgio: they put the same images on their advertising pages and in their store displays. Many people still remember those Mandarina displays because they were colorful and creative.
Ceresa, a famous leather store in Rome, was one of the first to have an innovative display. They dressed the display area by putting a bag from their newest collection on a bicycle and a pile of red bags beside it. For this first display, they used an assistant who then became Mandarina’s first ever visual merchandiser.
All the sales clerks fell in love with him. He was quite noticeable because he was so handsome and drove a colorful California-style van with the Mandarina logo all over it. The most striking part was the writing on the front, where Mandarina Duck was written backwards like on ambulances. That was a Paolo and Giorgione’s idea!
Technorati Tags: Seventies, Paolo Trento, trailer
