Fundamental Tenets of the Foundation: The Valorization of Borsalino’s Cultural Heritage and the Development of Corporate Communication
The Birth of the Borsalino Foundation
The Borsalino Hat Museum
The Foundation's Relationship with the Company and its Management
The Foundation's Global Development: "its heart in the village and its eyes on the world"
G.D.L.: The different collaborative efforts with the universities, the creation of the Museum and the various cultural projects promoted by the company were a sort of rehearsal for the formulation and the creation of the foundation itself. But now, what is the relationship between the museum and the foundation? Is the first one part of the second one; How does it relate to the company …..could you tell us a little about that?
R.G.: The Museum was quite difficult to create. In 1992 when we bought Borsalino, we found a file named "The Hat Museum " This contract provided for the donation of the entire collection of furniture and historical archives to the Municipality of Alessandria and delegated the formalization of all aspects to a future agreement. As soon as I arrived, the Municipality called me and we started to exchange documents and hold meetings. It was an endless stream, through three different administrations each one with a different political stance. There were many changes in strategies and cultural policy but finally, we managed to open the Museum with our project and an investment of 600 thousand Euros to set it up.
G.D.L.: Therefore, the Museum was created thanks to Borsalino Spa.
R.G.: That's right,, the Museum opened thanks to 600 thousand Euros that Borsalino invested and to an agreement with the Municipality of Alessandria that pledged to give us the use of these pieces and they took charge of the management. We dealt with all the preparation work, carried out by the Masoero-Tondo Architectural Studio. We really believed in this project; otherwise no-one would have ever taken on such an operation. It was difficult to get it ready after so many years of preparation and now we have this controversial relation with the Municipality of Alessandria. We believe we are very proactive and accommodating; however we are constantly confronted with certain dynamics of public administration that we find difficult to share but we cannot ignore. Everything is very jumbled and bureaucratic and this is one of the main difficulties the foundation encounters in its efforts to valorize Borsalino's cultural heritage as well as to make it economically viable for the company.
G.D.L.: When you say economically important for the company, do you mean as a vehicle to communicate the products and the activities of the company?
R.G.: The foundation is the most effective instrument to carry out marketing and public relations. First, because we do not merely tell stories; we have a "history", we have a tradition of longstanding craftsmanship, made in Italy, and our brand is well-known all over the world. Second, if the Borsalino Foundation is part of Borsalino Spa and is completely financed by it, all resources that the company puts into the foundation stay within the company itself. Through the foundation, we don't have to use the usual methods to communicate; for example, we don't have to buy pages in the newspapers. If tomorrow morning, we decided to stop advertising in newspapers, we could do it because we have the foundation and we invest through it (although, of course, we wouldn't do it quite so drastically). I don't have to invent some new fashion product in order to be seen; instead I have to make an extremely cultural product become "fashion".
G.D.L.: So, are you saying that the Borsalino Foundation can also be seen as an innovative element of the company's advertising policy?
R.G.: Yes, this is what we have been trying to do since the beginning of 2009. If the foundation addresses a target of people who, instead of buying a hat because they read an advertisement in a fashion magazine, buy it because they went to an exhibition, or participated in a conference or some other event that we created, we have achieved the same result with the advantage of having enlarged and increased Borsalino's field of action. We have taken a brand – the Borsalino brand is always linked to that of the Foundation – into a cultural domain, but addressed it to a target that is very similar to the potential Borsalino client in terms of age, spending power and standard of living. In this way, we have the possibility of increasing the number of our potential clients. In other words, the Foundation is the right instrument to present the brand and the company in an original way to new people and potential clients.
