nterview with Enzo Urbani, managing director CALP

What led you to plan a new business strategy?
The crystal market is evolving rapidly: whereas crystal purchases have decreased in Europe, new considerable opportunities are arising elsewhere in the world. We decided accordingly to apply market segmentation in Italy and to strengthen our presence outside Europe”.

What are the basic contents of this global strategy?
“CALP is a global leader in the crystal market, wishing to promote the charm of crystal.
We intend to convey the idea of a customer-oriented company with leading technological expertise and design potential.
Therefore CALP gives a contemporary rendering of crystal through cutting edge design, basing on high ethical and environmental values.
To increase its competitiveness, CALP will strive to stir up emotions relating to the house and the table among customers, while responding with flexibility and coherence to the market needs”.

How do you plan to further pursue your fundamental principles, i.e. research, innovation and quality?
“They will still be the core of our philosophy. A successful brand is the result of:
- an optimum quality-price ratio
- timely production
- the ability to keep abreast of the times
- focus on the value of shapes and emotions.
Innovation and creativity play a major role, as does the ability to communicate desirability and to make the most of sales points”.

Leading know-how and long-standing expertise are your strong points. How are you going to promote these values?
“History, know-how and the value of “made in Italy” are what marks out CALP from other crystal manufacturers. Since CALP’s predecessor La Piana began producing pure crystal objects and started up crystal automated production in Colle di Val d’Elsa in 1967 for the first time in the world, CALP’s history has coincided with crystal industrial production in Italy. We had the first electric furnace, and cutting edge technology is still at the basis of our production process, with developments in automatic finishing and packaging. CALP is based in Tuscany, where it voices its passion for crystal through the typical inventiveness and elegance of our country.
We now wish to strengthen our DaVinci and RCR brands through projects aimed at relaunching the cultural and professional heritage of Italy and Tuscany. Among these, let me mention the CALP Centre for Design, which will be based in Colle di Val d’Elsa”.

Interview with Laura Bucci, communication manager CALP

What is your strategy for upgrading CALP’s identity and why divide your products into two distinct brands?

As a world leader in our field it’s our job to make crystal appealing and trendy. CALP is adapting flexibly to mark-et needs offering consumers great emotional appeal with a very clear, consistent image. As a logo, CALP will be found alongside Cristalleria Artistica La Piana to help it keep its artistic associations.
CALP as a name will have its own institutional value, as a ‘container’ for the various brands it endorses: be-hind DA VINCI, RCR and Freelife lies a solid industrial base.
DA VINCI and RCR have very precise rankings. DA VINCI has a particular cultural component, linking in with the social pleasures of Tuscany and Italy generally, but playing also on the multi-sensorial qualities of crystal that add to the enjoyment of life.
RCR, Royal Crystal Rock, which is 24% crystal, offers excellent value for money and comes in many styles to suit different occasions, which all make it an “everyday luxury” item.
Newcomer Freelife, finally, is also a product to enjoy on any day, but with an informal, trendy slant compared to the classier RCR”.

The new approach adopted with RCR and Freelife has involved an overhaul of the entire corporate image (catalogues, packaging and website). How is product communication being organised, with the various instruments aimed at trade and consumer tagets?
“Product communication will more than ever before be about brand communication. CALP’s conceptual and stylistic revolution and the new positionings of RCR and FreeLife are designed to show the products as springing naturally from their brand concepts. The new packaging for RCR and FreeLife is no longer about belonging to a “product family”, but strictly about brand. All the new pa-cks will share the same graphics: only the photograph and name will change. The new RCR packaging will be in red (the colour of passion and celebration) and black (suggesting elegance and prestige) to set off the gleam of the crystal. FreeLife does the same, but in the less formal colours of white and silver.
Similarly, the company literature conveys the brands’ underlying values. The CALP book has been completely revamped to convey the emotion, passion and experience of a group famous for its design skills and unparalleled knowledge of crystal.
The all-new RCR and FreeLife catalogues are designed like magazines that are nice to leaf through, with attractive, eye-catching photos, along with all the technical information and price lists (complete with product sil-houette) needed to place orders. The website has also been made more consumer-friendly. The RCR and Free-Life catalogues are now also available on CD Rom, from which the photos can be downloaded”.

What marketing aims do you hope to achieve with the two brands?
“The first marketing target is clear, concise communication. The brand restyling must enable us and our world partners to communicate the new RCR and FreeLife concepts easily and directly, in a way that pro-mpts people to buy.
The other two objectives are to increase turnover and improve profitability. The idea is to use the concepts of value, variety and accessibility to shake up a market which, disoriented by low-cost, low-quality products, has lost the sense of emotional appeal a truly beautiful object like crystal can offer”.

What part will your two brands play in reaching these objectives?
“A fundamental one. RCR and FreeLife are the aesthetic realisation of our work in the wonderful world of crystal. Our brands must convey to consumers a series of values associated with the history of the product and the firm.
RCR and FreeLife are guarantees of quality and worth, and facilitate contact between manufacturer, seller and buyer.
RCR, for example, makes any occasion seem important : it creates the feeling of treating yourself to something special in everyday life, with products certified and guaranteed by Italy’s leading crystal concern.
FreeLife has similar values, but aimed at younger consumers, who nevert-heless want a stylish home. The inf-ormal FreeLife range of products make life fun and elegant at the same time. RCR and Freelife instantly communicate basic values for life”.

Interview with Mauro Costanzo Product Manager RCR of Calp

What criteria will be adopted for RCR and Freelife?
RCR has been completely revamped to focus attention on the values of brand identity and help strengthen the positioning of its crystalware as an exquisite item to be enjoyed on a daily basis. FreeLife is a new informal and trendy CALP brand addition that links in with the more formal, classy RCR brand, though its values and ranking remain the same”.

Will the two brands retail differently?
“Yes, FreeLife is an RCR-guaranteed product sold through exclusive direct outlets. RCR, meanwhile, remains a cross-channel seller that uses services guaranteed by our distributors”.

What are the flagship products of each brand?
“I prefer the term flagship “ranges”.
The historic Opera, Laurus, Aurea and Impero lines form the backbone of RCR, with the more recent Oasis, Recital and Modus additions, providing stylistic variations.
FreeLife revolves around the Aliseo, Lilium, Intrigo and Milione ranges of everyday, but innovatively classy ite-ms”.

What are the new products for the two brands?
“The new products keep the same ranking. RCR features a new, comprehensive tableware series, Oasis, adding to an already brightly elegant, classical range; we will also be adding to the RCR lighting range with 8 candlesticks and votives (Laurus and Recital) crystal and light being a major combination in this field. We are also changing the commercial formula.
The three candlesticks (25, 23 and 21 cm) are sold separately, while the votives have an original tilting feature, for added lighting style.
One major new feature of FreeLife is a modern collection of goblets and accessories called Fusion, which “fuse” together the square and the circle. FreeLife also offers a set of 5 lighting ideas: Solaris and Stone (an original stone-shaped candle holder) and two practical, informal new goblets in the Toscana range, and two mini-carafes (Sidro and Enotecnica), catering to the new fashion for half bottles of wine”.

What’s changed on the product logos and packaging?
“On RCR there’s more continuity: the brand redesign is an evolutionary process designed to convey the concept of everyday crystalware more clearly. The trademark remains circular, retaining the “gold seal = pure crystal” idea. On the outer edge there’s a black crown with the words Royal Crystal Rock in gold to create the idea of a royal crest and play on associations of preciousness.
The crown has been stylised and the lettering of RCR enlarged for better legibility. The middle C is larger, standing as it does for Crystal and CALP. The words Made in Italy have also been enlarged to draw on the term’s accepted associations of elegance.
The packaging has been stylistically transformed to strengthen the brand image, using uniform artwork based on two colours: the passionate, celebratory red - the colour of life - against a background of black, which elegantly highlights the brilliance of the RCR product.
FreeLife’s packaging is totally new but still It has clear points of contact with RCR: the words Royal Crystal Rock appear on the outer crown, and gold and the words Made in Italy are also used. But the name is designed to create a trendy sense of informality to appeal to young buyers.
The artwork is the same on FreeLife, but the colours are silver and white, which convey more a sense of practical simplicity”.