Challenge:         

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The company, based in Italy, came under attack from U.S. gun manufacturers after winning several major American gun contracts including the U.S. Armed Forces.  The television program 60 minutes called wanting to do an interview with Ugo Beretta, head of Beretta Firearms.

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Research & Strategic Advice:          

 

We believed this would be a no win situation especially with the reputation of the program having a confrontational approach to most of their segments.  However, we knew the company must respond to reduce the noise around costing jobs in America, etc.

 

We advised a more strategic and controlled response through written articles in the key gun trade publications.  We reasoned that the global market for gun contracts could be explored without emotion as the U.S. manufacturers yelling the loudest also bid for gun contracts throughout Europe, including Italy.  It also allowed us to expose the rigorous testing process that led to the contracts being awarded.

 

Result:               

 

In the next twelve months, Beretta was on the cover of 14 magazines and received positive coverage in over 400 pages of written articles.  The crisis evaporated.