Culture e impresa n. 1

Interview with Giancarlo Gonizzi (G.G.) – Person-in-charge of Barilla Historical Archives – 26th February 2001 (updated 15th September 2004)
by Maria Chiara Corazza (M.C.C.)

Enlarge text

Reconstructing an archives
The archives today
Classifying a wide variety of records
The archives collects, preserves and communicates
Business culture organizations

M.C.C.: We’ve already talked about the acquisition of documents from other businesses. Would you describe some of the series that are in the archives?

G.G.: Let’s have a look at the classification of the historical archives. We have a photographic library, with photographic material – original pictures, negatives, slides, plates and so on – documenting and recording the life of the company. The library is divided into sections: a «historical» photographic library, where the unorganised material produced until the end of World War Two is kept; and a «modern» photographic library for the material produced from 1948 on. We were able to organise the modern library more chronologically by identifying various company events that were filmed or photographed.
There is a service or a safety copy of all photographed material to as to use the originals as little as possible. There are also other copies, in negatives, slides or large-size plates, as well as a virtual copy inside the computerized system, again to save wear and tear on the original items.
We also have several attached photographic fonds of great interest. For instance, the fonds of the Milanese photographer Ballo, who worked for Erberto Carboni; or the fonds of Vaghi, a photographer from Parma who worked in the fifties and who photographed the building of Pedrignano building. Another example is the fonds of Montacchini, a photographer working in the pre-war period; we bought this in 2000.
These fonds have their own specific arrangement, precisely because they were acquired as fonds. We then have what we call the press review; a collection of all the articles from newspapers and periodicals where Barilla or any of its trademarks are mentioned. Even the slightest reference means that the article must be kept. If instead there is no mention of Barilla, the article is not kept, with rare exceptions such as a dossier on pasta where the trademarks are not mentioned, but the topic obviously concerns us.
Each press review is made up of several linear metres of binders with about eight thousand newspaper articles. We have put them together with the original documents covering the period up to the beginning of the eighties. The electronic press review covers the period from the end of the eighties on. We are now thinking about digitising everything and giving up the paper copies, given the sheer volume of material. All these documents are filed and indexed so that they can be retrieved easily, thanks to the thesaurus of key words.
Our small nucleus of books, specialized in cereals, bread, pasta and other foods; but also advertising, considering the important role Barilla has always played in Italian advertising. Afterwards, there is the company accounts series, and the honours series – awards or certificates that Barilla has received during its lifetime.
The press catalogue series allows us to follow the evolution of a product. While the situation is pretty static and well-established in the world of pasta – in all, we are talking about a hundred products more or less– in the world of bakery goods, products change rapidly in a year’s time, and the catalogues allow us to find products that no longer exist, the launching of new ones, the launching and the re-launching of a same product in different periods, etc. There are also other instruments like the postcards, which were commonly used as commercial advertisements in the pre-WWII period, while today they are only complementary elements. We also have a series dedicated to the business brochures; all those small publications issued by each trademark to promote specific operations, products and lines, or just to document institutional initiatives.
Our archives include a section dedicated to cookbooks, basic instruments to spread the culture of a product, especially in the world of pasta. Pasta is an essentially Italian product. You cannot just sell pasta abroad: you have to «sell» it with the culture of that product, because otherwise you won’t communicate what we Italians mean by pasta. The cookbooks play an important role. We have some original manuscripts that were used to create printed copies that Barilla began to issue -starting in the fifties- to its customers, both in Italy and abroad, especially nowadays. I would like to recall that the archives’ structure is defined by country. The same classes and categories of cookbooks exist for each nation: Italian cookbooks, French cookbooks, German ones and so on.
Now we come to audio and video materials. We consider interviews or tape recordings regarding the life of our company as «oral testimonials» that make up the audio library. Instead, the video or film recordings of facts, events or broadcast reports about our business form the video library. There are hundreds of units, and new ones are added in large number every year. I have already mentioned those documents connected with the world of advertising: press advertisements, billpostings, as well as radio, television and film commercials. Television advertising is divided into series and trademarks; arranged by year and then coded. Afterwards there is the series of advertisements for Barilla, Mulino Bianco, Pavesi, Voiello, Tre Marie.
The promotional objects series consists of all the objects that Barilla produced (from the beginning of the 20th century) and offered to its faithful customers as rewards for regular purchases, loyalty points, contests and other incentives. This series is huge, especially objects from Mulino Bianco, the well-known baked goods, directed especially to children. We are talking about over than six hundred small surprises inside the snack packaging. Other more valuable objects for the table and the kitchen offered over the years include dishes, cutlery, cups, dinner services, etc. They are interesting for their design and their message to our customers. These objects signal changes in taste over time. We also keep all documents and forms relevant to the distribution and communication of the promotional objects Some of these are prototypes – if time has preserved them. Last in this series are production tests, carried out by the firm to certify the quality of its products.
From 1996, Barilla changed its commercial strategy by giving up promotions with prizes and other objects in order to focus on price cuts and giving the best quality at the lowest possible price. In the years that followed, other types of incentives replaced the objects. For example, the printed box for a children’s snack became a board game. The incentive is not something to win, but is something extra added to the product itself. In any case, these records are kept .
The archives also include the product packaging series, both for pasta and bakery. The packaging is kept laid out; starting from the date of their production; for pasta, the packaging series starts from the end of the fifties, while the ones for bakery date back to the middle seventies. They all are kept by typology and in chronological order. This series enables us to review packaging changes over time, and find the elements that help us to identify the growth potential for the future.
Finally, there are the archives dedicated to Barilla family, containing documents relevant to the family’s history. This core archives includes the surviving documentary groups, either recovered or dating after the sale of business. These groups are arranged progressively. There we find the archives of the chairmanship and of the managing director, the record groups of marketing and of other offices.

M.C.C.: What about the collection of objects associated with traditional working methods?

G.G.: We have created a type of museum, where all the objects that are connected to the world of pasta are kept. Barilla became the leading trademark of pasta, not only Italian or European, but worldwide, too. And the worldwide leader of pasta needs to talk about its product. For this reason we created this small collection of objects explaining the production and the history of pasta. Barilla aims to spread the culture of the product and not just to sell it. The collection includes presses, historical machines from a pasta factory of the 19th century, a complete mill; but also small objects for traditional home-made pasta, like pastry cutting wheels, rolling pins and other materials. Other types of objects are associated with our business or advertising history. We have Snow White’s tea-pot, Cindy Crawford’s fork, White Rabbit’s mask: all distinctive elements of various television commercials. These objects are now stored, but may one day be part of an exhibition.

go to next paragraph