Mediterranean shoes conquer the world. Global branding from local resources: The Camper case

Brand management literature is often based on the implicit assumption that there are general rules and common principles for globally building and exploiting a brand’s potential. According to this view, brand meanings and values can be “adapted” to the international setting according to the target markets’ characteristics. Moreover, adaptation usually presupposes domestic (country of origin) and international markets’ intrinsic characteristics. In this section, we describe the Camper case: this company succeeded in positioning the brand according to its local meanings and values, influencing the market to accept them, thus contradicting the “adaptation” paradigm (glocal: think global, act local) and following the opposite way (locbal: think local, act global). Furthermore this experience demonstrates that management rules, especially when they involve cultural interaction, can be critically assessed and “transformed”. Subsequently, original, innovative, and successful strategies can be developed by interpreting the brand’s role in its cultural background and in the target market.