Estrategias de exportacion de productos italianos con Denominacion de Origen.

The present study is an attempt to identify the foreign trade strategies adopted by the Italian companies producing some of the main Designation of Origin products and their Consortiums, analyzing them from the viewpoint of marketing to the purpose of contributing to problem solving in theoretical but specially in operational terms. Developing the study necessarily must reconsider the theory of international marketing in the light of the peculiarities of products with Designation of Origin. In fact, these products show important differences with industrial brand ones from which marketing derives, and so they seldom have been examined in depth in literature. Once a more precise reference framework is achieved, sector organization for the products considered and the strategies adopted for domestic markets are analyzed because supply structure and domestic market evolution have a determining influence on strategies adopted for exports. Then, an analysis of international trade flows is performed, considering trends for some indicators of the D.O. products examined and the sector to which they belong: exports, export/production ratio and standardized export/import balance. This analysis permits to dimension the phenomena object of the study in absolute terms as well as in relative terms referred to its sector. Next, the strategies of Consortiums and Italian companies in the main foreign markets are analyzed by integrating secondary information on the social-economic situation and the consumers behaviour in the different countries with primary information obtained in deep interviews of about 60-90 minutes. Being a qualitative analysis, the sample does not respond to strategic significance criteria but attempts to involve experienced operators in the problems to be solved. Finally, certain considerations are advanced on general theoretical aspects and specifically operational ones.