September 11, 2006 | Recommend this Article »

Collective trademark

The European “NATURAL STONE” logo highlighted at fairs

The constant increase in adoption of the “Natural Stone” logo, a collective trademark for companies Europe-wide, is also due to the growing visibility it is getting at major sector events.

“Natural Stone” (“Pietra Autentica” in Italian) is the European logo distinguishing authentically natural marbles, granites and other stones from the artificial or fabricated, and is an idea born in 2004 to safeguard the stone sector and promote its products.
In Italy, use of the trademark is successfully handled by Assomarmomacchine through its promotion work and dynamism at sector tradeshows. And the latest edition of CarraraMarmotec was an occasion for revving up the whole promotion machine to give the logo broad visibility among operators.
Every company present and participating in the “Pietra Autentica” project was able to display distinctive signs, from simple stickers on the stone material being shown to posters for stands and badge holders with the white and blue logo colors.
The logo made a fine showing through various means of communication and reigning over them all was the banner in the heart of the new hall inaugurated right during this latest edition of Marmotec, highly visible to all exhibitors and visitors.

In addition, in the various expo areas Assomarmomacchine organized a number of “Pietra Autentica” info desks, giving out gadgets and literature concerning the logo in its Italian version, such as a new informative leaflet designed just for this tradeshow and offering exhaustive logo presentation.

Promoting “Pietra Autentica” not only brought on board new companies eager to adopt the logo but also attracted the attention of the media and numerous journalists. And an important press conference was held by Prof. Gerd Merke, secretary-general of EUROROC (the European Stone Industries Federation).

This event, organized by the European federation in cooperation with the Carrara Fair Board and Assomarmomacchine, had big pull for the press, interesting in learning the aims and state-of-the-art of the European trademark and its adoption in the various EU countries.

In their introductory remarks, Carrara Fair Board president Giancarlo Tonini and its general manager, Paris Mazzanti, stressed the importance of the presence of Prof. Gerd Merke, Euroroc secretary-general, who returned to Carrara after a several-years absence specifically to inform the press of the projects and initiatives connected with the logo.
Important to the success of the conference was the support and cooperation that Assomarmomacchine gave Euroroc, testifying to their excellent relations. And so it was no surprise that Assomarmomacchine president Flavio Marabelli, together with vice-president Stefano Ghirardi, presided over the conference together with Prof. Merke.

At fair’s end, the “Pietra Autentica” project could consider itself a double success: on the one hand, many new companies adopted the logo, testifying to successful promotion work, and on the other, numerous articles on it were published in newspapers, giving the European trademark further visibility and bringing greater knowledge of it to stone operators and the wider public.