Italian Focaccia vs Mc Donald's. Who won?

This story began in a city of 65,000 residents in the south of Italy called Altamura.
This city is also known as  "The city of bread", due to the quality of the bread that bakers make every day fresh, following an ancient recipe.

In 2001 Mc Donald's decided to open a fast food in there, but the company did not consider the cultural aspect that characterized this place.

At the very beginning people saw the fast food as a news and they tried it, some loved it and others hated it. Nevertheless the income did not match the expectations.
Suddenly a small bakery opened next to the Mc Donald's. Traditions were face to face with modernity and in less than two years the fast food was closed. A small bakery won against a global company!

People prefered the traditional "focaccia" to the American burgers. The company did not realised that, somehow, these people were attached to their traditions: they eat hand made and fresh food every day and the idea of eating something different was considered unhealthy.

At the end, the moral of this story is that it is important to understand the culture of the place where you are going if you want  to introduce a new product in a new market. It is always suggested to carry out a marketing research, in order to have a deep awareness of your future consumers.

This story will not be the latest news about marketing, but it is still current. It helps to learn from previous mistakes and do not make them again.


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