2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 11:20
It seems that Grom you study them at night to be talked about continuously. To the benefit of the "artisanal" company, its visibility with its income statement.
In fact, it seemed that with the acquisition by Unilever the soap opera entitled "GROM", subtitled "story of two good guys who invented the best publicized ice cream in the world", was definitively and sadly over.
After the setback of having had to hurry up, thanks to those sinister, perfect Codacons, the misleading "artisanal" writing from all the mighty communication machine, and then with the total transfer of the shares to the multinational giant, it seemed inevitable that the parable of the two guys who came up out of nowhere had finished, with the definitive placement of their ice cream "made as it once was" among thousands of other products distributed by Unilever, together with whitening toothpastes and industrial ice cream croissants.
But no.
As the phoenix rises from its ashes, so Grom returns to make people talk about himself through the clean and winking face of Guido Martinetti and Federico Grom, the two initial partners who, we recall, are left with the management of the brand, with a further "bombshell" news:
Grom enters the large distribution. Indeed, in the largest distribution of all, the one that has reduced every other distribution giant, alias Carrefour, to a minimum, certainly not known for being an artisan ice cream company.
Grom, in fact, will be present inside the Carrefour spaces to sell its designer ice cream, but not in the refrigerated counter among other industrial ice creams, thrown in liter tubs or croissants in family packs.
No: Grom ice cream will have a location and space worthy of such a brand within the Carrefour markets.
In fact, it will be available in the "Grom gourmet shop in shop", that is to say in the elite line of Carrefour stores (for now only in Rome and Milan), contained in takeaway trays freshly prepared so that it can be immediately identified and defined which product of excellence. Complete with ice cream blast chiller provided on loan for use.
And also for this new Carrefour - Grom adventure the communication and marketing machine model Panzer has started, which is the one that made its fortune, under the guise of a pleasant tale that remembers so much the history of "artisan" ice cream, that "Made as it once was".
In fact, Martinetti says:
"Finding Bettelmatt cheese, produced in 8 or 9 summer pastures, gave me the perception of the pursuit of excellence, but above all of how large retailers are evolving towards a type of demanding consumer who does not give up on quality".
Practically, wanting to take this pleasant tale seriously, Martinetti enters a Carrefour, is struck by the vision of the rare Ossola cheese and in a flash of patriotism his synapses elaborate the winning combination "Grom-Carrefour".
Not to mention that, moreover, the anecdote has the vague flavor of a priori justification, a putting your hands forward as if to say "if at Carrefour you can even find the Bettelmatt," produced in 8 or 9 summer pastures ", you don't want can our ice cream be there, artisan like Bettelmatt?"
In short, the always winning rhetoric of the niche product, ancient, healthy, “as it once was” has already started, to the cry of Bettelmatt and Grom for everyone and, we are sure, will hit the mark as always.
Because if Grom's ice cream hasn't shone for a while for its softness and creaminess - given its intimate nature as a semi-finished product, frozen and subsequently defrosted in all points of sale worldwide - it has always, on the other hand, always stood out for its communication and marketing strategies,, when right, they are the ones that determine the success of a product, even a mediocre one, right from the initial stages.
It would be wrong not to recognize the Martinetti-Grom duo as having an extraordinary entrepreneurial skill that would have led them to success even if, instead of ice cream, they had dedicated themselves to the production of cast iron bars in continuous casting.
And this is the real success of Grom: having had an idea, having masterfully created it and having made it grow, enlarge, in a perhaps not accidental path that has passed from the small "artisan" ice cream parlor (enough, we can't stand it anymore merit, moreover, we had already expressed), to the sale to a giant of mass consumption and, finally, to large retailers, indeed, to the largest.
Thesis that seems confirmed by the words of Martinetti himself, when he states that: "this is only the beginning. Grom could also arrive abroad in the leading stores dedicated to food ", he says," I am thinking of Harrods or Galeries Lafayette, extraordinary gastronomic contexts. It could be a beautiful expression of Italianness “.
This is the real goal, this is the final goal. “Extraordinary gastronomic contexts”. Harrod's. Lafayette Galleries.
And then we can finally say "Grom ice cream: 90% marketing, 10% ice cream". With all due respect to the artisan ice cream parlor.