Regents University London EBS EMG464.

R_T2 - Family Business Case Study Revision 1 Marianna Sgherri

Lmmin When Made in Italy embraces Finnish design Winter 2013: Daniele and Marianna went out to have a beer together during one of the rare weekends they could spend together: Daniele worked in London and Marianna in Italy. Even though they were in Italy, the weather was extremely cold and Marianna was wearing a thick white wool scarf her mother handcrafted and gave her a couple of years before. It was not a simple scarf: it was decorated with a hood. Daniele was immediately fascinated by the particular accessory his girlfriend was wearing. Thats how Lmmin came to life. Indeed, the young couple started in a while to think about the possibility to actually produce and sell the accessory. At first for fun and then as a challenge and a real passion, the idea evolved to actual production and commercialization of the modern and original hooded scarf. 1. Who are we? The first ever made hooded scarf this is how the accessory will be called onwards was made as mentioned before by Mariannas mother Minna, a Finnish textile designer. Even though the idea was started from one of her handcrafts, Minna decided to take a step back since the beginning of this story and offered her help for any future textile and manufacturer consultations. Once realized the idea of creating their own brand was simply thrilling them, Marianna and Daniele started to brainstorm about the name and corporate identity of the company. Marianna had her own idea clear in her mind: she had the vision of an Italian company selling high quality products, designed in Finland. On the other hand, Daniele thought a more pop and urban identity (and name) was needed in order to appeal the customers. The two entrepreneurs engaged a discussion that would have been lasting for a couple of months.

Finally, in May a name was chosen and a logo created. Lmmin, that means warm in Finnish, was the picked name and despite its origins, didnt sound odd in other languages. Laura, Mariannas sister, was engaged for the creation of the whole graphic identity of the brand: she designed a logo and the not-yet-existing website. Marianna had to liaise between Daniele and Laura, who had quite different views and working methods. Being Daniele a business consultant, he had already a structured and processes oriented way of thinking, working, behaving. Instead Laura was just graduated from Graphic Design and Photography Schools; therefore her business attitude and mind set had still to develop. Creative and business people relationships are never easy but in this case, Marianna felt the opposite working methods were exasperated. However, at the end of a process that seemed to be never ending, Lmmin name and logo were registered, and all Marianna, Daniele and Laura were satisfied. 2. What do we sell? Things didnt get better when the prototyping process started. Indeed, the accessory designs that Daniele and Marianna fancied were the direct transpositions of their different views on brand image. Daniele wanted to improve the shape and experiment new possibilities he believes there is always space for improvement in order to make the hooded scarf more pop and urban, whilst Marianna though her mothers design was already perfect: cosy and functional. A silent and expensive the manufacturer charged the entrepreneurs for each sample they asked to be produced war started, and the couple used their sporadic occasions to talk discussing about Lmmin. This leaded also to some problems with the manufacturers and time to market issues. Due to the opposite views of Lmmin creators, Claudia and Lorella, the founders of Maglificio LadyB told straight to the guys to came up and quickly with a single and consistent idea of the hooded scarf design, as time was running and fall/winter season 2014 was getting closer. They added they had nor time or resources to waste in creating prototypes differing just few cm from one to the other. Even Minna tried to help the guys in this process giving tips and suggestions, but the cold war seemed to have no end. When all hope seemed to be gone, the summer was hot and it was already July, a definite design was agreed and the final sample created.

3. Where do we sell? At least, since the beginning, Daniele and Marianna agreed on one thing. They wanted to sell their hooded scarves online. In that way, they believed they could give an international breath to the brand. To build up the website, Daniele called one of his University mates: Carlos. Together with his colleague Andrea, he created the website www.lamminhood.com and the business emails for us. Even though the website design was already created by Laura, the IT guys struggled to follow the graphic designers directions. This caused further tensions amongst the Lmmin team: Laura felt her work to have been a waste of time because IT guys were not following her instructions, Daniele apparently was defending his friend and Marianna her sister. After a month, a nice, modern and original website was created. 4. What is our direction? So, the hooded scarf model was defined, the brand name and logo were established and registered, the website created. Marianna and Daniele agreed to register Lmmin as a sole trader company in the name of Marianna, to avoid huge levels of taxation, bureaucracy issues and possible problems for Daniele, who was working abroad. Though this was the cheapest option, it still cost them 1.000 just to register the company, and other instalments would have been due soon. Anyhow, what was still missing was the actual production. Marianna created an online marketing campaign for Lmmin, still hoping the production was possible to be launched and first products to be sold for the fall/winter season 2013-2014. But her optimistic attitude didnt help Lmmin to find the economic resources, and all the processes where slowed down because in September she decided to move to London to study Marketing at Regents University. 5. Kickstarter Then in November, when the whole team had already developed bad feelings towards the future of Lmmin, Daniele was told from one of his colleagues, Martin, about kickstarter.com (KS), a crowdfunding website helping startups and small enterprises to rise funds. The Lmmin team decided to try to upload its project on KS, with the help of Martin, UK citizen.

Lmmin Kickstartetr project was launched 27th December 2013 and lasted 50 days: until 15th February 2014. Lmmin managed to raise 22.000 even though pressure between Marianna and Daniele went high again during the month of January. They spent their weekends (the only timeframe they could spend together) programming and planning next actions and strategies aiming to attract people and money to their project. Finally, the 15th of February arrived and Lmmin Luxurious High Quality Hooded Scarves raised 22K. Everything seemed to be ok, the manufacturer was already aware of the quantity of pieces to produce, the backers ready to receive their rewards when Kickstarter announced that one of the backers was not going to give them the money. And it was not an average backer; he had pledged Lmmin for 5.000. Suddenly, of the expected money was missing.