At the table with Dolce&Gabbana: Is branded Food our Future?
Italian design language and a love of Sicily have meant that the distinctive look of Dolce&Gabbana lends itself well to different and unexpected collaborations with other brands.
Luxury brands have decided to focus on strategic partnerships to expand their notoriety. Dolce & Gabbana is just one of the cases of co-branding in food & beverage.
The italian feeling
Passion, flavor, taste, territory: every fashion show in recent years, every season presentation rests on a territory, a concept, a subtle thread to which all communication activities refer. The Sicily “bedda” of moro heads, rounded pine cones, Opera dei pupi, carretti, acanthus leaves, majolica and ceramics. The Sicily of bright colors, strong flavors and obvious contrasts of yellow, blue, green and orange.
Over the years, the designers wanted to carry on the name of Sicily through geometric and colorful Sicilian iconography. A love for their homeland, from Milan to Polizzi Generosa, reflected not only in the masterpieces of Giuseppe Tornatore, director of most of the brand's TV advertising campaigns, or in the lush shop windows of more than 40 countries around the world, but also in the packaging of a wine, a pack of spaghetti, an Easter dove. Through co-branding in the food and beverage sector, D&G has successfully implemented its strategy.
Donnafugata
Bringing together brands from different histories and sectors means courting the general public. Because while not everyone can afford a designer dress with provocative laces and bold prints, everyone can enjoy a limited edition bottle of Tancredi IGP 2020 Donnafugata. An unprecedented blend of indigenous grape varieties with packaging that draws inspiration from the iconic Sicilian carts, an unmistakable symbol of craftsmanship and culture. The elegance of pink hints at the bouquet of jasmine, wild strawberry and peach. A precious and delicate color that the designers have chosen to emphasize in the name itself and in the en pendant packaging.
Pastificio di Martino
What is the unquestionably most beloved Italian food product, if not pasta?
Their avid but sought-after hunger for co-branding led them to launch another important collaboration, this time with Pastificio di Martino, which has been blending the best Italian durum wheat with local spring waters since 1912. From Gragnano, history repeats itself: the colorful and sparkling gift boxes are filled with Italian-ness, with tricolor bows and traditional culinary dishes.
The goal of the two brands, though distant, is common: to portray the Bel Paese, to export it, to make it recognizable to those who do not yet know it by filling pantries with goodness and elegance.
Fiasconaro
On the occasion of Christmas 2022, the creativity of Dolce&Gabbana and the confectionery art of Fiasconaro come together, creating panettone cakes with a clear Sicilian inspiration, in which ingredients and refinement are carefully blended.
Dolce & Gabbana signs five different variants, from the most classic Sicilian almond panettone to a more refined one with glazed chestnuts and gianduia. The panettone collection is also enriched by jars of spreadable creams with almonds, pistachio and chocolate strictly from Sicily.
The search for the good and beautiful to which the two designers aspire also takes shape in the tin boxes with bright colors and geometric patterns, to tell traditions and please the most loyal and demanding collectors.
Smeg: Sicily is my love
Dolce&Gabbana and Smeg combine their artistic souls, giving life to unique, original Made in Italy projects such as Sicily is my Love. The new collection of small appliances is created by Smeg and unmistakable creativity by Dolce&Gabbana They are all symbolic of an aesthetic strongly linked to Sicily, to Italy and its cuisine, of which Smeg has always been the interpreter of excellence. Food, typical products and traditional dishes are the roots to which the mind and heart cannot help but return when looking at these precious objects, the fruit of Smeg's long experience in the design appliance sector in collaboration with Dolce&Gabbana.
Baci Perugina
Dolce&Gabbana signs the creativity of the new Limited Edition Baci Perugina Dolce Vita: taste, craftsmanship and color come together in a journey into the tradition and quality of Italian excellence.
The result of the craftsmanship of the expert chocolatiers of the Perugina Chocolate School, Dolce Vita is a new harmony of flavors and textures: gianduja heart, lemon-flavored granola and crunchy whole hazelnut, all wrapped in delicate white chocolate with hints of vanilla - a taste experience that brings with it Mediterranean scents and atmospheres.
Bialetti
Two icons of Made in Italy meet to celebrate the beauty of the Italian coffee ritual. This is how Moka Express Bialetti Dolce&Gabbana was born: a colorfully designed coffee maker, full of symbols that express the wonder and artistry of craftsmanship.
Moka Express becomes a tribute to the art crafts, landscapes and unique colors of Sicily, evoking the decorative motifs of the Sicilian Carretto: an element of the island's folklore that, with its traditions, has always been at the heart of Dolce&Gabbana's aesthetic. Moka Express Bialetti Dolce&Gabbana transforms the coffee ritual into a celebration of style and a doubly Italian pleasure.
A company of design, not product
The co-branding strategy in food & beverage, signed Dolce&Gabbana, reflects the trait d'union between Italian companies that want to evoke the beautiful even before the useful. An effective and original communicative aspect supported by targeted storytelling that consists not of words, but of shapes and colors. It is clear that the two designers have a clear strategy that has nothing to do with losing the integrity and reputation earned over the years.
On the contrary, the goal in putting one's signature on a package of pasta serves to strengthen that bond and trust with loyal customers, prospects but also with those who will never enter the boutique. The strategy stems not from a need for radical repositioning on the part of a luxury brand like Dolce & Gabbana, but from a desire to get one's name out there as much as possible even where a tight-fitting black lace sheath dress cannot reach.
While advertising a perfume reaches the homes of all Italians for free, it is not everyone's cup of tea to pour luxury pasta into the cooking water. The consumer who aspires to the sheath dress but cannot afford it will automatically place a high value on even a package of spaghetti, justifying its higher cost.
Co-branding is symbolic rather than functional, the result of cognitive associations, expectations and emotions. Designers know well how powerful their brand recall is, thanks to the notoriety and quality perceived by their buyers.
