Italian Consultingextracts from the portfolio

of communication activities

May 2016

BACKGROUND AND ACTIVITIES

Italian Consulting communication activities offer an inter-disciplinary, holistic approach to marketing and communi-cations backed up by a very specific competence in the field, and by the established background of its business partners.

It gives a professional advice and support to every company which wants to expand its communication activities and/or enter into the new, promising markets of South East Asia and China.

Italian Consulting - ICON in short - focuses itself in the areas related to high-end/luxury products, and we are specialized in the field of house/lifestyle: architecture, furniture (com-prising lighting, kitchen, bathroom...), houseware, building materials and design objects and lifestyle.Especially, design furniture and its creation, production, marketing and distribution.

We also sport a very good knowledge of other areas adjoining the house/lifestyle: that is, we know quite well the dynamics of high-tech, electronics and appliances.

Here follows a brief extract from the portfolio of our most recent works.

They are of very different kinds, but show a consistent the-me: our personal focus and commitment to bring out the best of our projects, following a saying by one of our friends and gurus - the iconic Nasir Kassamali, owner of one of the best retail stores in the world - the Luminaire showrooms in Mia-mi and Chicago:

“Being good is not good enough.”

MALAYSIAN FURNITURE PROMOTION COUNCIL - 2015, ongoingPublic relations, marketing, social media, content

This PR and marcom project - three years in the making - features an intervention by the State of Malaysia to kickstart a creative revolution to shift the paradigm of the Malaysian furniture business from OEM into OBM and ODM.

To sum it up, it involves matching four European professional designers with four leading Malaysian companies to realize a line of design objects which has been successfully presented in EFE Kuala Lumpur 2016.

The projects is in its Pilot phase, and should become a regu-lar feature in the Malaysian business for the next five years, and assert Malaysia claim to keep his place as one of the most important furniture manufacturers in the world.

OASIS GROUP - 2013, ongoingPrint, web, social, PR, content

The Oasis Group, operating in luxury furniture and fur-nishings (living, bathroom and contract/professional) is one of the main clients of ICON at the moment.

We are covering the whole spectrum of communications and marketing activities here, and the company is operating 80% in the global markets (especially Russia and Middle East).

Between the latest projects we have been working on, the coordination of the redesign of its website along the brand image, implementing it in Wordpress (still not online), and the creation of a blog area to be filled with contents, as well as social media activities.

Between those, we have worked with proprietary techniques to raise its Google ranking. Last year, during the Salone del Mobile, it reached position four in Google for “Bathrooms” - without any kind of Google campaign investment.

ELCHIM - 2012/2013Print, web, social, PR, content

Elchim had been one of the first manufacturers of professio-nal hairstyling equipment, and market leader for a long time, but it was collapsing. A new CEO came over and tried to relaunch it. We worked on the company image for two years, helping to narrow the gap from Parlux, the current market leader (a company founded by a previous Elchim employee).

The relaunch involved a heavy intervention in every area related to design and exhibits, as well as web, direct relation marketing and social media.

Through a careful work of seeding contents, and publishing perfectly tailored announcements and PR launches, we more than doubled the “likes” of the Facebook page, but also broadcasted the image of the company through Pinterest and Twitter.

Its competitors were feeling the pressure so much that, in the end of 2013, they had to hire a new communication com-pany to maintain their positioning.

FEDERMOBILI - 2002, ongoingPrint, web, social, PR, content

Federmobili, the official Federation of the Italian Furniture Retailers (18.000 strong) needed a new strategy and image.

We worked to revamp its magazine and provide content and business opportunities throughout the world.

After a thorough redesign and editorial work, the magazine has become the most important Italian B2B resource in the field - not only for the furniture retailers, but also for the ma-nufacturers and local and international journalists as well.

We also applied the same storytelling techniques to other published data: focus reviews, business guides, and online material (e-newsletters and website) creating a global system to spread the information about the B2B distribution topics in furniture and furnishings.

SICIS - 2005/2010Print, PR, content

Sicis is one of the most important manufacturers of luxury mosaic tiles in the world, recently branching out in other areas of the furniture and furnishings field.

We have been active in their support, working on their image, texts and global image through different ways, mainly in print media. Between the different projects for them, we can name several books and booklets for brand image and communi-cations, as well as the house magazine “King Me” edited in three different languages, which featured articles to present the Sicis best realizations to a business audience of architects, media and contractors.

Singapore Furniture Industries Council - 2010Public relations, marketing

SFIC is the official federation of the furniture manufacturers of Singapore, contacted us in to manage their PR and marke-ting activities for the 2010 edition of the Milan furniture fair.

The brief was to insure a series of contacts with the local trade, and help setup political/institutional contacts with the Italian stakeholders operating in the business.

Through a careful use of our contacts, we secured some top-notch interviews with media, invited a list of over 500 buyers and 150 journalists, and operated so to establish a MOU between SFIC and Federmobili.

Despite the global economic crisis - then in its worst - and the flight access problems caused by the eruption of the Iceland volcano which caused a heavy hit on the affluence to the fair, the final results were extremely satisfying: +100% of the business generated after the fair by the companies vs the 2009 edition.

Eurosearch Consultants - 2009Web design, content

We were asked to redesign the institutional website for the HR company Eurosearch Consultants, specialized in hea-dhunting.

We developed a very clean, straight visual interface based on a few key facts and matching color code studied to enhance the user experience.

The site was purposely kept mostly free from animations, so to help with the indexing in Google, except for some small in-terventions used to underline key facts (like in the headlines).

The links in the sidebar, too, were conceived to be more than a single button, but as a key to tell a story and explain an experience - showing a company value through a more “human” and warm approach.

Webmobili - 2003/2009Print, web content

Webmobili is the most known Italian furniture web portal.

It offers a connection between companies, retailers and their public, and helps people find the furniture object they seek, and where is the closest shop to buy it.

We have been working for Webmobili, taking care of its contents - that is, the WM magazine, and its advertising and graphic elements for about six years.

Design Singapore Council - 2008Public relations, marketing

During the Salone del Mobile 2008 we organized the event “Blueprint 2008” on behalf of the Singapore Design Singa-pore Council.

The event has been followed in every aspect, from technical and operative issues to PR to catering - and more, we have been charged to manage a design placement job, presenting the six designers of the show to a range of Italian design fur-niture companies.

Our efforts achieved an exceptional result, with the pu-blishing of one suspension lamp by Driade.

DIXE News - 2005/2007Print, content

On behalf of DIXE, a chain of distributors working in the field of home electronics, we created the DIXE news, a new concept of catalogue mixing hard selling and content.

This “catazine” - catalogue-magazine, published quarterly, offered the detailed list of the items on-sale at the retail stores belonging to the chain, along with a series of attention-get-ting, useful articles showing (when possible) the items in use.

The magazine was distributed freely in the in the different shops of the chain in over one million copies per edition.

RelaxArt - 1999/2001Print, web, content

Made for Gardenia Orchidea - the company manufacturing the Versace bathroom tiles and fixtures, RelaxArt.com was one of the first online magazines available on the market de-dicated to the culture of the bathroom and spa.

Available on paper, web and CD, its efficient design involved the online distribution as a standalone product, and it was art directed so to be effective when seen both as a spread and as a single page.

We worked on the concept of the magazine, its graphic ele-ments, as well as in the art direction and production of the content of the articles.

Graphic design and communicationsPrint, web, social, PR, marketing, content, design

Our professional background in the area of communications dates back almost 30 years - from 1988.

ICON’s founders of the company have worked for the most iconic brands worldwide (between which Amnesty Interna-tional, Apple Computer, Auchan, DuPont de Nemours, Fiat, Interni, Iveco, La Stampa, Nokia, Olivetti, Philips, United Distillers) in almost every field, from automotive to FMCG, from banking and finance to fashion, from F&D to culture/associations and governments.

We can take care of every aspect of your corporate image

and communication, and provide our input on your marke-ting strategies to reach new markets and clusters. The fol-lowing are some samples of logos, illustrations, packaging and graphic material designed during the last few years.