Maurizio Arrivabene, one of the world’s leading experts in marketing and communications, explains how respect for the past, and a focus on the present and future are vital to nurturing the life and image of any brand. Every last detail has a role to play in this modern communications-conscious world
If you surf, even if you’re very good at it, sooner or later you fall in. If, on the other hand, you are the wave itself, there’s no danger of falling in. That’s the difference between following a trend and creating one.’ Maurizio Arrivabene, at a hotel in an Italian ski resort after an event to introduce the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers to the global media, is talking about what a career in communication has taught him. This conversation – with a man who, after studying architecture, managed to bring together professionalism, curiosity and passion in his working life – fits right in with the theme for this issue: style. Style, in fact, is nothing but the combination of all the elements that characterise an era. And the era in which we are living is emerging as a vital junction in the course of human history, precisely because of the continuous changes in the means of communication. ‘It isn’t true that brands and products stand the test of time.
In fact, the opposite is true,’ says Arrivabene. ‘In my life I’ve seen many brands that seemed both solid and unassailable, and yet in the space of a couple of generations [they] disappeared. The values which helped to create a brand aren’t enough to make it last. Being a surfer means riding a trend. Being the wave means creating it and this can happen only by knowing how to innovate and, as time passes, to constantly renew the product and all the elements that can transform it from a ‘thing’ into a whole world. ‘Consumers aren’t stupid. They can easily spot signals that don’t gel with what they think and dream about a particular product. Ferrari is a perfect example of this, as is Apple, and all those brands that have been able to create a world around their products.’
Toward the end of the second millennium, several events of historical significance transformed the social landscape of human life says Manuel Castell, a renowned sociologist from the University of California and author of an in-depth book on the birth of the network society. A techno logical revolution, centred on information technology, began to re-shape the material basis of society at an accelerated pace. Economies throughout the world became globally interdependent, introducing a new type of relationship between economy, state and society, in a system of variable geometry.
From the way in which Castell describes the above, it’s as if the network revolution is an era being described to our descendants in a history book. In reality, however, this statement is about the world we live in now, the boundaries of which we are only just beginning to understand. Humanity’s new revolution is one being carried out by technology, and that technology contains within it a weapon with devastating power: information and communication. In practice we have put people, cultures, religions, traditions, customs and, in a sense, language itself into an interdependent system. Suddenly we can distribute the words, sounds and pictures of our different cultures worldwide, breaking down all borders. Ultimately, this means that brands and companies must adapt to a new playing field – a global one with no rules. ‘When I see Luca di Montezemolo presenting a new Ferrari, be it an F1 [car] or the 458 Italia, to the world – or Steve Jobs demonstrating features on the new iPad – I think that this is the way to measure oneself against the world we all are part of,’ continues Arrivabene. ‘Ferrari, like Apple, does no advertising and can create huge expectation in the media and on the internet about the date its President will unveil a new car.’
Among Arrivabene’s many strong points is the fact that he always dedicates himself to his work for Ferrari with a passion that goes beyond what a normal job would require. For him the Ferrari brand has always been a world in itself and this conviction has enabled him to bring to fruition a very difficult project, that of making the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro Philip Morris’s only F1 team. After 38 years of collaboration between the two companies, and in spite of visual advertising restrictions, this link remains strong and is a sign of their shared passion. ‘Motorsports are innovative by definition. And they cause a rush of adrenalin; they have a distinct sex appeal,’ says Arrivabene. ‘This is true of Moto GP, too. And because Ferrari and Ducati are Italian, these characteristics are accentuated.’ This view is enlightening. If we look at the history of great civilisations, we can see how decadence goes hand-in-hand with the renunciation of new technologies. Before the Ming and Qing dynasties the Chinese were at such an advanced technological level that they were on the point of predating the Industrial Revolution by 250 years. By turning on themselves, however, the Chinese lost their vocation for creating new things. Only today, as we know, have they found their way again. The same fate befell the Soviet Union, which failed to exploit the enormous stimulus of competition with the United States during the Cold War – an advantage it could have carried forward into the post-Communist era. The willingness to innovate, on the other hand, has driven the growth of countries like Japan, which was able to unite its experience with a rigorous approach to quality. The Americans, too, were able to adapt: offering financial encouragements to young people so they could invent what is today the world of the internet and information technology.
‘It is both easier and more difficult to communicate today,’ says Arrivabene. ‘Today you are communicating with a generation that has a wide knowledge but one with little depth. So you have to pique someone’s curiosity in order to capture their attention. It’s interesting to look at the reference models: a couple of generations ago the male one was the strong, fearless macho type. Today it’s charisma that is attractive. Obama and Putin are looked up to because they use their hearts as well as their heads. And that’s where their leadership comes from. Obama ran his electoral campaign with a strong use of the web. It is a powerful and effective tool. But not a definitive one: the credit that one gets must be then confirmed by the facts. [This is] exactly the same for products.’ It’s no coincidence that the new network civilisation is extremely volatile. Phenomena are created instantly and spread globally. Yet they are just as quickly forgotten, replaced by others that flood the web with similar speed. This is disorientating and leads to a need in individuals to search for an identity that an avatar cannot guarantee. ‘There’s a need to make the virtual real,’ says Arrivabene. ‘The role of men in a company is, for me, fundamental today. If they can get their own involvement and passion across to those outside, it is a sure way of winning over a public constantly assailed by transitory stimuli.’
This observation is so true that one wonders how it can be that global business pays so little heed to it. If one looks at advertising, often orientated towards promotions and offers based on a drive for consumption motivated by immediate convenience, one notices how company bosses are obsessed with quarterly results and annual bonuses rather than driven by real strategies about image and long-term positioning of brands and products. ‘This is the case with sponsorships,’ concludes Arrivabene. ‘More thought is given to how many square centimetres your brand will have on the single-seater
than to how much people will be able to see it, at the right time and in the right way. And choices of that kind have to be strategic and long-term, creating a true partnership with the team with which you are working. ‘[By] working in this way we have contributed [to] some significant company decisions. I’m thinking of the pits, as they appear on TV during the Grand Prix, that have been transformed from garages into stage sets from which F1 and the team are presented to the world. I’m thinking of the metallic colour of the single-seater, which is the same tone of red Ferrari used in 1947, and of several details about which Ferrari has consulted us and about which we have put forward ideas and suggestions.’ In a world dominated by the media and the internet, where it’s so easy to communicate quickly, is it better to invest in a team or in its drivers in order to get a message across? ‘You have to concentrate on the team,’ says Arrivabene. ‘Ferrari is a world, the driver is one man…’
PUBLISHED IN HOME, PEOPLE BY ANTONIO GHINI ON 04.13.2011
Credit: Ferrari S.p.A. (www.ferrari.com)
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