The perception of Italian products by Indian consumers

Abstract

Despite the vast research on the attitudes of Indian consumers toward foreign brands, little is known about how Italian products are perceived by Indians. The purpose of this study was to conduct brand analyses on Italian products in India taking into account both the Indian consumers’ and the Italian companies operating in India perspectives.

The research was conducted with a CAWI (Computer Assisted Web Interview) method. Quantitative data included a sample of 2 Italian MNEs and 113 Indian subjects.

The survey submitted to Indian participants was mainly focussed on asking respondents what they think about Made in Italy products and on checking their detection capacity towards Italian products; while the questions asked to Italian MNEs were focussed on understanding how being Italian has helped them to enter the Indian market.

The results of the study confirmed the good perception that Made in Italy products have among India consumers. Italian brands were perceived to be generally premium quality and luxury products, in particular products belonging to the apparel, food and construction industries. Italian companies confirmed that the Italian products’ good reputation helped them to acquire market shares in the Indian market, improve turnover and achieve local recognition. One of the most interesting findings is that, despite Indian consumers’ attitude towards Italian brands, most of them have problems to detect real Italian products from Italian-sounding ones.