#156 Barilla, not for everyone?
In 2013, one of the most successful multinational Italian companies, privately held past maker Barilla, almost stumbled over the comments of its chairman, Guido Barilla. When interviewed on Radio24, a national radio station, he expanded on how Barilla is rooted in traditional family values and why they would therefore never show a homosexual couple in their promotion. To make things worse, he added that gay customers who wouldn’t agree with Barilla’s position, could just buy their pasta from another brand. And so they did. Social media exploded with outrage, celebrities publicly shamed the pasta maker, and sales started to drop. While the immediate financial impact of consumer boycotts for the company that sells $2.4 bn worth of pasta annually was not too dramatic – fast-moving consumer goods like pasta move more by price than anything else – the long-term damage to the brand appeared to be potentially devastating. Especially in foreign markets of the West that care about diversity and about gay rights, but also in smaller pockets of the global LGBT community worldwide. Barilla has learned from this experience lemon and made lemonade from it. It launched a diversity and inclusiveness initiative. As Bloomberg Business Week reports, Barilla’s CEO, Claudio Colzani, has worked hard over the last few years to embrace the fact that love comes in different forms – as different as the dozens of types of pasta in Barilla’s factories…
April 4, 2020 @ 5:29 pm
Long story short: it does not matter if you want to enter a new market, if you want to gain new market shares or if you want to keep your current market position, when acting in a specific market, companies have to adapt to its particular culture and values.
Barilla’s mistake reminds me of a series of similar advertising campaigns and of the related – all equal – outcomes, all involving big brands like Dolce&Gabbana (disastrous advertising campaign in China) or H&M (the racist “coolest monkey in the jungle” hoodie on an US advertising poster).
Still, companies often find themselves in the unpleasant situation of having to apologize for their marketing campaign, due to the same – unfortunately very common – mistake: thinking that the market and the audience will adapt to their irony, habits or way of thinking, thus, in one word, adapt to their culture.
As a matter of fact, markets and customers rarely – or rather never – adapt. On the contrary, companies have to spot the specific cultural trends and sensitivities of their target audience and adapt to them, be it for an advertising campaign or for the next company expansion in a new region or country.
April 20, 2020 @ 4:39 am
Ouch! Another gaffe made by a high profile company in the age with the biggest visibility for diverse demographics and inclusion.
Just as we discussed in chapter 5 when selecting a target market, companies have to be mindful of demographic shifts amidst other factors. Population shifts impact economies significantly and economies with favorable demographics will enjoy continued growth. Naturally since firms are looking to enter these healthy economies they also have to adapt to the consumer market. In 2010, US held the highest GDP ranking in the world according to World Bank. US is also one of the western countries with the most progressive consumer populations. The state of California alone ranks as the fifth largest world economy and is an epicenter for the LGBTQ+ community. It’s a no brainer that if a firm wants to enter the US market they should keep in mind the aforementioned demographic information and adapt its advertising initiatives to reflect the foreign market.
April 20, 2020 @ 11:08 am
Barilla is not the first company where the owner makes inappropriate comments about ethnicity, sexual or religious views. Normally, companies tend to make excuses, promises to be more open-minded, diverse or whatever may feel appropriate. This is often the reaction to a certain decline in sales, social shitstorm or just bad publicity. However, sustainable change within a company through changing the culture, values or leadership behavior, is often lagging behind.
In this case, Barilla seemed to derive the right actions out of this issue. In 2014, news reported that the company has scored a top rating on the Human Rights Campaign’s list of employers who are LGBT-friendly and is actively engaging with the LGBT community. Such a positive reaction is not often seen in a time where many politicians, companies and the like demonstrated that you can “dive through such crisis”, simply by waiting and let the time work for you. Sustainable change out of this position is not often seen and should be valued as well.
April 26, 2020 @ 11:45 pm
This blog entry is making me wonder in which world some executive levels are living? Making such a statement in this time can only have a dramatic effect on the business. Most of the time it is not important what you as a person think, instead you have to go with the flow and respect the changes that are happening in the world.
This is a perfect example to see how vulnerable markets are in reality. With only one bad comment you can drop sales drastically, damage the image and lose customers. Furthermore, customers will start a social media “war” which spreads 10 thousand times faster than “good news”.
I think in some cases executive levels are not in agreement with employees. I would assume that most of the barilla employees have been shocked or ashamed by their chairman’s live comment. Having this difference between executives and employees can be very dangerous but once again, company size matters. The bigger the companies the more far away executives get from “reality”.
June 28, 2020 @ 7:24 pm
„Failing forward! “Luckily Barilla was, at the end, able to make a turnaround. I have just learned that the company created a diversity and inclusion board. It should serve as a training program for employees and contribute to LGBT causes. So, one can say, that Barilla went from the worst to the first when it comes to gay rights.
The mistake first let to a boycott. But interestingly, after having taken note of the failure, Barilla took his chance to launch a unique advertising campaign– embracing diversity and respect! Teaming up with the fashion brand GCDS and the Italian diva Sophia Loren, Barilla was able to attract customers from all ages… and genders! On the top of that the noodle package didn’t came in the standard-blue but in pink.
Having offended gay people was a huge mistake – but fortunately Barilla learned his lesson and turned the mistake into a marketing scoop!
July 19, 2020 @ 11:48 pm
So just think about the impact of those comments if they had been made just last week? With everything going on in the world, people spending more time on social media, and topics of diversity being globally shared and scrutinized by everyone with a cell phone, this could have spelled financial ruin for Barilla. I think that companies are trying to do the right thing each and every time that they expand into another foreign market. With the changes going on worldwide, companies have to adapt to be successful in target markets. I feel that the current CEO of Barilla has done a great thing by forming a diversity and inclusion initiative, this shows more than a company just trying to be successful and sell products to customers. It shows that they are taking a stand for what is right, are open to changes, and have a vested interest in their customers whoever they may be. It also shows that they are looking to the future in that foreign market and not looking to make a quick buck and bounce out.
July 31, 2020 @ 7:45 am
Mr. Barilla’s comments highlighted the inability to see beyond one’s own cultural views to adapt to a new market or to be more inclusive through a company’s target market and diverse marketing plan efforts. It is important for companies looking to enter a market or brand itself in international markets to develop and cultivate a relationship with target markets through effective marketing campaign strategies targeted to attract people to their product from all different walks of life.
In Barilla’s case, the expansion of gay rights throughout the globe in numerous countries and their buying power as well as political involvement make them a significant demographic to attract to your product. A blunder of this extent dramatically impacted the view of the company in the eyes of the target market for their product. In addition, it shows a loss of disciplined leadership and demonstrates insensitivity or lack of adaptation as well as tolerance of different views by the organization as a whole. The insensitive and inappropriate comments did allow Barilla to set up a diversity and inclusion initiative which they might not have done but for the blunder which was a real positive. It allowed them to look a little more introspectively at ways they can do more within the culture to promote themselves by building trusting relationships with all of their consumers who are a diverse group.
Having a marketing plan, embracing diversity, and a crisis communications plan for international business efforts are critical components of any successful organization was my takeaway. Hopefully, Mr. Barilla learned from this mistake.
January 16, 2021 @ 12:16 pm
It truly irritates me that a CEO publicly announces homophobic statements. What did he expect after such a message? In the age of social media, such statements spread like wildfire. Clearly, the reputation of the pasta manufacturer was gone. Culture and value have to be treated respectfully. Barilla products may have targeted the ‘classic family’ in the past. However, within nowadays fast-moving world the 4 Ps of the global marketing mix have to be adapted continuously. Brand awareness and reputation are key elements to succeed. Consequently, thorough promotional activities which may be modified in foreign markets due to different consumption patterns, cultural values and opinions, are vital. Finally, I believe that this misstep resulted in a steep learning curve for Barilla. Millions of dollars were invested to polish up the image again. Barilla was lucky enough to be able to afford it. Many other companies would not have recovered from such a severe action.
January 16, 2021 @ 1:01 pm
Ready to go (or operate) global when traditional family values collide with foreign market values? For Barilla I would answer yes, as they managed to turn things around in a key moment by realizing their failure, confessing the fault and taking counter measures.
However, in general I would say that we are all humans and therefore making mistakes belongs to the procedure of lifelong learning. In particular, diversity – a hot topic that polarizes – seems to be a battlefield, where companies can loose significant portions of their image and customer base. Various companies showed how it should not be tackled in the past few years – it is now time to learn from the mistakes. The Barilla sample clearly indicates that openness as well as management skills are among the cornerstones for operating in global markets, while at the same time there is no necessity to give up traditional family values.
I absolutely cheer that Barilla did finally go for a campaign that emphasizes the different forms of love, as for me personally the quality aspect of the product clearly stands out and the love of great pasta with a delicious sauce should connect people aside from demographic or cultural issues.
January 16, 2021 @ 1:04 pm
Ready to go (or operate) global when traditional family values collide with foreign market values? For Barilla I would answer yes, as they managed to turn things around in a key moment by realizing their failure, confessing the fault and taking countermeasures.
However, in general I would say that we are all humans and therefore making mistakes belongs to the procedure of lifelong learning. In particular, diversity – a hot topic that polarizes – seems to be a battlefield, where companies can lose significant portions of their image and customer base. Various companies showed how it should not be tackled in the past few years – it is now time to learn from the mistakes. The Barilla sample clearly indicates that openness as well as management skills are among the cornerstones for operating in global markets, while at the same time there is no necessity to give up traditional family values.
I absolutely cheer that Barilla did finally go for a campaign that emphasizes the different forms of love, as for me personally the quality aspect of the product clearly stands out and the love of great pasta with a delicious sauce should connect people aside from demographic or cultural issues.
January 23, 2021 @ 12:25 pm
The example of Barilla shows how adaptable companies can be, when they face financial losses and drop in their revenue. Unfortunately, it is not about changing their real mindset, but “how can we fast rescue our company from having a bad record”.
Barilla is an Italian pasta maker, with a brand awareness globally.
As we have learned in week 4th class, it is extremely important that the company performs on a regular basis an external environmental analysis, to understand the cultural differences, to have a gender-neutral vision and mission, to be open-minded with diversity and to have an environmental awareness.
Barilla worked on improving their weak point. Colzani spend around $ 5 million a year to turnaround their bad image. With their approach they could earn the highest possible score on the Human Rights Campaign’s corporate equality index.
In my opinion Barilla learned over the past years from their mistakes and have a huge focus on analyzing the target markets. To bring an example, I am since more than 15 years vegan. Looking a few years back Barilla didn’t have a vegan line, but they adapted here as well. It seems they are moving in a right direction.
February 6, 2021 @ 8:13 pm
In times when we talk about same-sex couples but where there are now “transgender” ads without end, it surprises me a lot, even if the article is from 2013, that such a faux pas can happen to a CEO. Naturally, every article is sifted through and prepared by legions of press spokespersons anyway not to offer any surface for attack. We live in such a fast-moving age where information has been spreading worldwide in real-time for years. The damage to the image of a “wrong” sentence can run into millions of USD because the spoken word can no longer be taken back – it is now digitized for all eternity. One learns by making mistakes and will try to go into the next interviews and press conferences with more tact and more preparation. Of course, a course correction can be initiated with the corresponding advertising campaign that precisely addresses the error correction, but this must credibly reach its target audience. I think Barilla has managed this exceptionally well.
June 17, 2021 @ 7:56 am
Diversity has received a greater attention in the last few years, which is a major step in the right direction. The chairman of Barilla, Guido Barilla, made a big mistake in 2013 that, of course, had negative effects on the company’s reputation. Homophobic statements like this have no room in our society anymore. Especially in the more developed, western countries such a rash and discriminating point of view is rightly criticized. This shows that a company must adapt in different, foreign markets.
After this scandal, Barilla has worked on their strategy and advertisements in order to show that they care about diversity and gay rights. This was the right decision and will hopefully be successful and continuing for the company because a Pasta-Lover like me wouldn’t be happy to give up eating Barilla pasta.
December 10, 2021 @ 4:12 am
This is a perfect example as to why is it so important to know the cultures of other countries before you expand your business or products. If Barilla was so adamant about its culture and not promoting or accepting the gay community it should not have moved into the Western markets. As a CEO it is important that a company keeps its values and traditions, however there are certain social and political topics that some companies should not bring up if they are not comfortable. There will always be values and visions that may not align with a company, but it is the responsibility of the C-Suite and PR team to be guided in a better direction when addressing certain topics or cultures. I do commend the CEO for trying to take a better step in the direction of diversity and inclusion as far as accepting the LGBTQ+ community, however it does make me wonder if this change was an actual change of heart or sales driven. This is very interesting and as a customer of the Barilla brand, it really makes you think twice before purchasing or supporting a brand and if you truly know their values or traditions.
January 7, 2022 @ 9:01 am
I am honestly surprised this is the first I am hearing about this publicity mishap. While it is very important for companies to stick to their values, especially values that make the company “them”, it is also just as important to reevaluate those values as the times change. If Barilla had made a comment like this in the 1950s, I sadly do not think that anyone would really bat an eye. While Italian culture is heavily rooted in family values, this “value” was taken too far in this case. Barilla made the mistake of thinking that they could make this statement and still receive the same support that they had in the past. One positive side of this saturation- Barilla now knows a bit more about their impact and market segmentation of their buyers. The bad news-it took loosing them to find out just how many LGBT+ buyers they had. The proof of their successful comeback is in the fact that-as I mentioned above- I had no idea this had happened. With the heavy impact that social media holds in decision making in buyers, this same situation might not have been so easily recovered from if this had happened today.
February 3, 2022 @ 8:04 pm
It is the same process for us American’s to learn about cultural norms abroad just the same as it is for foreigners to adapt to our general value systems. Coming from a long line of Italian heritage, Guido Barilla was probably not aware of how offensive his statements made on Radio24 were. As a leader of his company, however, better precaution could have been taken. Corporate leaders are the face and the voice of their company. They also set examples for charismatic value behaviors for their subordinates to follow and practice. Barilla was definitely lacking in agreeableness with both societies and from how his colleagues most likely told him to behave on the radio. It is unfortunate that Barilla pasta has to take such a big hit, but the responses from the global community were most likely necessary for Guido to alter his mindset. His self-efficacy was very apparent as he made it his goal to turn around the views of the company and actually support these common discrimination issues, which was definitely a huge task at hand. Guido wanted to achieve something important to him, so he set goals, motivated the behavior, and implemented the culture. “Barilla has learned from this experience lemon and made lemon from it”. He was fortunate enough to launch and fund a diversity and inclusiveness program, hoping to demonstrate his change of heart and effort to make the world of love a better place.
February 5, 2022 @ 5:21 am
This is crazy. I had never heard of this story before reading this article. It’s surprises me that a chairman of such a large organization would ever make such damaging remarks. Not only is it a bad idea to say such a thing on the radio, but it does absolutely nothing for the company. I certainly damages their brand image and as a result takes away from their profits. Now it doesn’t take much research to know that this is not how you represent an international company. In addition to this, companies should try and make sure that all of their executives are trained to speak to the media. Not only so that they make the company look good, but also so that they don’t tarnish their brand in such a manner.
February 10, 2022 @ 3:33 am
I think private companies are located in a gray zone, just halfway between private and public. It is okay for individuals to have negative opinions about such diversity and LGBT issues. Various opinions should be allowed for each person. But when it comes to the size of Barilla, that biased claim is considered offensive. In fact, LGBT people may feel fear and inequality. This is a problem that cannot be overlooked. Also, many people today are sensitive to this problem. This one in Barilla made it clear. Society should accept diversity. But on the other hand, for a small company, making such a biased assertion may be a business opportunity to attract people who agree with it. Creating and entering a niche industry is an effective strategy. In this case, the risk is too high, but it may be considered as a strategy.
February 10, 2022 @ 5:08 am
I think Guido Barilla made a huge mistake with his comments. I think it is inherently wrong to go against any group of people, but then double down and say that they should take their business elsewhere? Now that’s just wrong. I appreciate that now CEO is doing her work to make a statement and clean up the mess, but it won’t take away from the already done damage. I think Barilla can only make the situation better Guido himself releases a statement.
March 8, 2022 @ 12:32 pm
Even traditional companies make mistakes. The Barilla case showed that they learned from their mistakes. At least they had started a successful campaign afterward to make up for the failure. In my experience, the LGBT rules are not that well established in Europe. However, as a manager and especially as a CEO of a company, you should keep an eye on and pay attention to the current trends and developments in society. Even if you personally have no opinion on such topics, at least as the head of the company you have to agree on how your own company deals with these topics respectfully. Especially in today’s digital network, controversies start very quickly and reach new heights. It is therefore not surprising to me that the Barilla company suffered an enormous drop in sales. But the company was saved thanks to clever marketing strategies. I have always had good experiences with Barilla products and will continue to buy them. However, it should have been a lesson for the company.
March 11, 2022 @ 3:00 pm
This case perfectly reflects the fact that even highly appreciated and successful people do not always know how to behave in the public comments and attitudes affect their future business. Even the interview was nearly ten years ago, it seems that Mr. Barilla didn’t arrive in the 21st century. A century where homophobia has no place, a century where diversity and colorfulness play essential roles, and finally, a century where respectful and mature behavior should already be established.
Nonetheless, the company reacted appropriately and fixed the issues Mr. Barilla caused. Furthermore, it illustrates that even a chairperson should be briefed by his communications department before giving interviews since the market effects can be tremendous and can cause sustainable damages.
It was pretty interesting that relevant markets reacted fastly, which on the other hand, shows that there is no acceptance for such mindsets given in the society. Many companies nowadays make huge efforts to train their employees ethical and moral mindset, which is also necessary to create awareness and retain the company’s reputation. Hopefully, also BARILLA has established such programs.
March 12, 2022 @ 10:13 am
This is a very interesting story about Barilla! I did not know about this incident before, which is also why I think that their diversity initiative has done a good job. The company’s website says, „Barilla is on journey, and our journey has been one of introspection and discovery. Along the way we have stumbled, but each and every step of the way we saw opportunities to accelerate and consolidate our commitment toward diversity and inclusion.“ I really like this statement because instead of covering up what happened, the company portrays itself as a learning company. The company also received an award from Catalyst in 2021 for its initiatives to increase the inclusion of LGBTQ+ employees and women within the company around the world. They also achieved gender pay equity in 2020.
However, apart from all that, I don’t think the number of women in leadership positions has increased significantly – from 33% in 2014 to 37% in 2020, so I would say there is still room for further improvement.
April 16, 2022 @ 4:42 pm
Wow, I never heard about this issue before and would never expect this to be said on a radio station or anywhere in general so straightforward, especially coming from a successful multinational Italian company like Barilla. Unfortunately, there are many other companies where higher executives made insensitive comments toward different demographics, which only hurt the company’s image. It is crazy to see how one bad comment that may have seemed appropriate to the chairman can lead to a huge decrease in sales and a loss of customers and company reputation. The good thing about this situation is that Barilla took fault and learned from this experience, and decided to take action by launching a diversity and inclusiveness initiative. This shows that they are open to changing their culture to what is right. Companies need to learn from this experience to take demographics and culture into consideration and adapt to their local preferences when entering a foreign market. Things are changing around the world daily, so it is important for companies to adapt to those changes in order to be successful in foreign markets. Higher executives need to think before they speak so they do not make insensitive or inappropriate comments like Barilla’s chairman. Hopefully, this was a learning experience for Barilla and for companies to not follow in their footsteps.
June 20, 2022 @ 9:24 pm
Oh, I’m actually a fan of the Barilla brand, but this statement makes me think and rethink. Here you can see again what power words have. It is only the opinion of one person that is being spread, but with damaging effects. In my opinion, these are statements that should no longer find favour in our progressive world and the Barilla brand was rightly punished. It is a pity that many of the employees may be more liberal and are now being defamed by the statement of one individual. I think it’s a pity for me, too, because I like the products very much in principle and I’ll definitely have to think about it the next time I buy something and probably go for a competitor’s product!
July 5, 2022 @ 3:36 pm
I have not heard of this incident before and it sounds unbelievable to me that such a large and successful company allows itself such a big mistake. Especially making this statement on the radio, where everyone all around the world can hear it, can backfire as you see.
Personally, I think that the statement is completely out of place nowadays and the reaction of the people understandable. Societies and their views are constantly evolving, and companies should also grow with them. What I think is very questionable, is that it took this incident and the boycott to make Barilla start rethinking and moving away from this outdated opinions. I see the company certainly in a slightly different light, but I’m sure that they will not allow themselves such a mistake ever again.