If when you read the title of today’s post, you thought of Ferrero Rocher, you’re not wrong, if you didn’t think about it, but now you say: “oh, sure”, you’re not wrong either, and if when you read the title you didn’t think of Ferrero Rocher but you felt some curiosity to read the post, Thank you, I hope you like it. Today, this post is dedicated to Michele Ferrero, the father, among others of Ferrero Rocher, Nutella, kinder eggs, and Mon Chéri, among others. I also want to dedicate this post to Fernanda and Mirentxu, who loves Nutella. They know who they are.
Michele Ferrero was the father of Nutella, he died in 2015 at the age of 89 and has been succeeded by his son Giovanni, aged 51. In 2011 he was interviewed (www.lastampa.it) which I was able to read a few days ago and I found out “things” I didn’t know before. Obviously, I thought it deserved a space in this blog. Let’s see what you think.
Michele Ferrero managed during his entrepreneurial life to lead and manage for more than half a century the consumption of Italians with his products; to turn the patisserie he started running in Piamonte (Italy) into a multinational confectionery company, and to turn over 8,000 million euros; and, despite the fact that “everyone” thought that Italians could not even think of going to Germany to sell chocolate, he managed to make Germany Ferrero’s first market.
He said that his secret was to always do things differently from others, to have faith, to endure, and to put Valeria (the consumer) at the centre every day, because as he said, she is the one who decides the success of an idea and of a product, because if one day Valeria changes her mind and her idea, and no longer comes to you and no longer buys from you, then you are in danger. It is Valeria, your audience, whom you should never betray but understand to the core. Wise words, no doubt, Michele’s. What or who does that sound like to you?
Michele did things differently from others when, for example, he decided to produce creamy chocolate like Nutella, when everyone else was making solid chocolate; he started selling “elegant” chocolate units, when everybody was selling boxes of chocolates (this is the case with Ferrero Rocher); he decided to sell eggs for every day (kinder eggs) instead of the traditional Easter eggs; he decided to use more milk and less cocoa instead of pure, dark chocolate; and later he produced iced tea, cold and without a bag, the famous Estathè, which he did not launch on a market other than the Italian market because the market studies he carried out did not suggest that it would do well. This is, according to Michele, the only thing he regretted in his life.
I invite you to trust in your ideas, but, above all, to do things differently, to trust in your possibilities, to work hard, and to opt for something different.
Enjoy these last days of May. Next post I will introduce you to an entrepreneur who has just achieved her second dream. Don’t miss it.