A trip to a Sicilian store

Either I'm crazy or I just can't turn off my marketing brain or maybe it's a little of both. Whenever I travel, one of my big excursions is to go to the grocery store to check out the "marcas" (brands) to see what is the same, what's different, what could be the same product just repackaged differently. 

Today, I went to the supermarket to see what I could find. It was interesting as I walked down all the aisles I noticed that there were a few global brands but more regional than global. Of course, there was "THE" global brand, Coca-Cola. My students get tired of me talking about Coca-Cola but it is for good reason as they are one of the companies that has figured out how to effectively market their product around the world. 

Another discovery today, it's true, Barilla is the pasta of Italy. In an aisle of nothing but pasta, Barilla occupied 3/4 of shelf space. It was nice to know that there is "truth in advertising".