The internationalization process in ceramic industry and the rebranding project of Marazzi in Poland

The purpose of this work is to analyze the internationalization process followed by ceramic companies, with a focus on Marazzi and its ongoing rebranding project in Poland. Ceramic companies mostly expanded abroad through foreign direct investments (FDIs), specifically using acquisitions. This because in this kind of business the most important key factor is the know-how: purchasing an already established firm would guarantee to obtain quickly the right knowledge and highly-skilled workforce, avoiding to waste time and capital. However, it happened, even though in few cases, that some companies entered a new market through greenfield investments, namely building a foreign subsidiary from scratch. Obviously, those are well-established and structured firms, without liquidity issues and/or difficulties to transfer knowledge from the headquarter to foreign units. Anyway, to be present and sell everywhere are commonly used also export strategies. These are performed through the establishment of a sales network within the foreign country, managed by area managers and agents. For instance, Marazzi, thanks to its wide network, is actually covering more than 145 countries. Marazzi is an Italian multinational company, leader in the ceramic tile industry, which produces and commercializes ceramic products. In 2013, the company has been acquired by Mohawk Industries, the worldwide market leader in flooring. This purchase allowed the American group, dealing with ceramics only in US, to expand its presence into the global ceramic market. The rebranding project that Marazzi is developing in Poland is consequent to the Polcolorit acquisition in 2017. Its main reasons were the strategic position, close to the German and Czech boarders, and to exploit lower labor and energetic costs. The polish company, who was selling through Marconi brand, used to have a bad reputation around the country, because it proposed meaningless economic conditions. Also, it produced random formats and there were always internal issues, both among workers and financial. That is the reason why, when Marazzi took over, it rescheduled all the production: small formats and decors are now moved to Bulgaria while in Poland are produced mainly 20mm tiles. The aim of rebranding is to completely replace Marconi with Marazzi. This will not involve only the logo but all the distinctive marks and marketing tools that are used to promote the products. There will be the gradual disappearance of Marconi: the remaining stocks are on discount price with the aim to deplete them. What the management wants is to incorporate the foreign subsidiary within the existing organization, eventually renaming it as Marazzi Poland or Marazzi Polska. However, this process will take time. Despite the fact that Marazzi is well perceived among the customers, it is not within the end consumers. For this reason, branded-new merchandising has been created and shipped to the clients, along with a specific Poland Selection catalogue. Moreover, marketing department has studied new strategies to penetrate deeper into the market. In this environment the largest market shares are held by polish producers. Consequently, Marazzi needs an important effort in terms of resources and promotion if it wants to obtain a consistent market slice. Polish people, by nature, are colder and more introvert than Italians. Therefore, patience is required to be perceived reliable and to establish mutual trust. Today, since rebranding is still in a developing stage, customers are promoting Marazzi products but still they do not have stock. They prefer to be cautious waiting and evaluating the demand, thus how the consumers will react. However, important clients are starting to place orders related to some collections, a sign of willingness to pursue the business relationships. Furthermore, turnover and quantity sold are increasingly improving, testifying that the project is going in the right direction.