Ligurian Slate at “StonExpo 2007”, Las Vegas, Mandalay Bay, October 18-20
In the United States, one of the main markets for the Italian export of stone materials, the construction market has been expanding significantly for several years now in particular as regards residential construction and renovation.
In 2006 the US’ imports of stone materials increased 17.93% with respect to the preceding year, reaching $3.14 billion. In the same period the imports from Italy increased 5.6% from $609.94 million in 2005 to a little more than $644 million in 2006.
Italy continues to hold first place among the countries supplying the US but, as has been noted for several years now, the Italian market share continues to decrease (from 22.87% in 2005 to 20.49% in 2006) in favour of the imports coming from developing countries, in particular Brazil (19.62%), China (13.74%) and Turkey (13.49%). In fact, since the US has the only economy recording continuous growth in comparison with other more stagnant western markets, the numerous competing countries are responding with ever more aggressive trade and advertising in an effort to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the US market.
Italy is adapting to the global changes in the sector by accentuating its strong points. Its strengths include the production of materials which are renowned world-wide, the ability to work according to historical traditions, and the high quality and technological production which allows for the provision of products requiring complex processing. In addition, naturally, is the production of slabs and semi-processed materials which are the most subject to the competition posed by developing countries. Nevertheless, the competition from other producers will continue to expand in the highly technological stone sectors as well.
The US remains a favourable market even though the appearance of varied and diversified product lines and the growing number of enterprises operating in this sector have significantly increased the competition, and, consequently, the necessity of adopting a more aggressive marketing policy oriented toward the satisfaction of consumer demand before the competition.
Stonexpo, the sector’s main tradeshow on the west coast of the US, is a fundamental opportunity to promote Italian stone companies with US and international importers and distributors. At this year’s tradeshow more than 250 exhibitors from different countries participated. The show was visited by approximately 7,500 operators in the field.
Within the terms of the agreement between ICE (Istituto
per il Commercio Estero; Foreign Trade Institute) and the Region of Liguria, an elegant stand covering an area of approximately 150 square metres was set-up to promote the Italian slate production district.
To represent the production of Ligurian slate the following companies participated: ARDESIT, GARBARINO & CUNEO, L.E.A.N.I. SLATE, Consorzio LVL/LA VERA LAVAGNA/LAPIS, and LE PIETRE DI DONDERO GIULIA.
Participation at Stonexpo 2007 offered an opportunity to experience the manner of doing “business” in the USA, leading to a greater knowledge both of the distribution network and the specific needs of the local market. In addition, the show offered the opportunity to create new commercial relationships and/or strengthen those already existing, through personal contact that, as a fundamental instrument to increase trust between vendor and customer and, consequently, to increase the volume of transactions, is otherwise difficult to create in international sales. Moreover, during this important tradeshow the trends of the stone sector and the machinery for its processing are delineated.
The Ligurian companies were assisted, during the entire show, by the staff of the Los Angeles ICE which provided services including interpretation, recording visitor’s data, distribution of illustrative materials, etc.
In order to promote the participation of Ligurian companies in the tradeshow the following advertising initiatives were conducted:
1 advertising page in the sector’s main publication, Stone World, in the pre-show issue (September, 2007) and the issue distributed at the show (October, 2007)
Electronic invitations sent to more than 500 architecture and design offices operating in the States of Arizona, California and Nevada
The success of this last edition of Stonexpo confirms that this tradeshow is proving to be an important event in the Western USA for companies dealing in stone materials. The presence of the stand provided by the ICE/Region of Liguria was a point of reference of the show where American representatives of the sector were able to see both the modern and traditional designs coming from Italy.
Participation in the tradeshow has turned out to be very positive for the Ligurian companies confirming the trend by architects and designers to prefer innovative Italian products.
THE “ARDESIA LIGURIA” (LIGURIAN SLATE) TRADEMARK
In 2006, within the scope of the ICE-Region of Liguria Agreement, the “ARDESIA LIGURIA” (LIGURIAN SLATE) trademark of origin and quality was created. It is a strongly visual graphical mark: a light blue brush stroke stands out on the black and rough surface of the stone, which recalls the sea and the sky. The “Consorzio Ardesia Liguria scrl”, which is located in Via Isolona 11, 16040 Orero (GE) Italy, has been created in order to protect the trademark and allow manufacturing companies to use it. Its President is Mr. Fabio Arata. The Consortium is registering the trademark in all European Union countries and in the USA. The manufacturing companies who request to use it must guarantee the Ligurian origin and quality of their products, according to the procedure established by the Consortium. This is yet another instrument that is used to counteract the competition coming from new manufacturing countries that have appeared on the international market in recent years.
