Promoting Italian manufacturing before the Made in Italy

Abstract

From the Second Industrial Revolution to the beginning of the Second World War, when the brand name Made in Italy started to be used, one of the most popular ways to promote industrial productions was by way of presentation during Industrial Exhibitions. These events gave the possibility to companies and producers, coming from different countries, to send their main products and show them to all visitors. The subjects of this thesis are Italian manufacturing firms with strong artisanal identity, located in specific cities and also connected with the surrounding environment, whose guide was an entrepreneur who was able to introduce the innovations of Industrial Revolutions without compromising their core and distinctiveness characteristics. These factories were not characterized by advanced technologies or large productivity, however they could be part of these Expositions. The possibility of their participation has been given first of all in 1851 by Prince Albert, when, in London, during the Great Exhibition, he said that the goal of the event was to show the level of refinement of tastes, style and productions of countries in order to promote the concept of beauty to English people. Thanks to this concept the participation could be extended even to countries like Italy, whose production was backward compared with other countries, but which had an ancient and important artisan tradition. After the analysis of this method of promotion and the consequent other communication media triggered by that and their impact on the performance of these firms, the research will provide a geographical assessment of all the Italian factories involved in such an effort to promote their production by means of the reference to an artistic tradition.