To produce an Italian Sounding product, it means to produce and/or market products that at a first glance may seem of Italian origin, but in reality they are not.

These products are marketed using deceptive marketing strategies that rely on the use of images, colors, names, brands and logos that are typically traced back to Italy.

Italian Sounding is used for a category of products and services that are found in all sectors where Italian products exist

The advantages for businesses that produce Italian Sounding items are evident. By shifting the focus on the appearance and not on the quality, these businesses:

  • produce at a lower cost, but still achieve a very high profitable margin by selling their items/services at similar prices as the Italian products.
  • increase the productivity in an uncontrolled manner, for instance by jumping basic production steps to produce larger quantities at the expense of quality and compliance of the product.

The growing presence on the market of Italian Sounding products hurts several figures such as:

  • The Italian manufacturer, which suffers unfair competition and therefore serious economic losses.
  • The end customer, who thinks to have purchased a product that is Made in Italy, while instead bought an imitation.
  • The “Made in Italy” itself. Consumers that are unaware of purchasing a non-genuine product, will automatically match that misleading quality to a regular “Made in Italy” marked product. This will have a major loss of prestige, as well as damage to the reputation of the “Made in Italy” marking itself.