Valeria

""Work, work, work; always be connected to work; make a good product at the right price, out of respect for the consumer; never speculate; invest in research, lots of research to discover the latent desires of Mrs. Valeria, the prototype of consumers and the ideal CEO that Michele considers at the top of the company. And have patience because sometimes we would continue for years doing tests. This was a constant characteristic of the entrepreneur Michele. His philosophy was certainly not that of someone who squeezes a lemon until they get a drop, and then throws it away, without any vision; no, he took care of every product with dedication, gradually, trusting in its potential: if the first two years it doesn't make money, it doesn't matter, one must think in the span of five, six years. Think big.""

"To those who ask why this choice was made, Ferrero replies: "I never wanted to have to justify my choices to anyone. If you want to be free, you must have financial autonomy. My budget is prepared by the economic director and my real CEO who is Mrs. Valeria, the typical consumer.""

""The creation process was complemented by marketing, based on five fundamental principles that Mr. Michele conveyed to us in almost daily contact to focus on the consumer, the famous Mrs. Valeria: a) The consumer is the end point and the judge of all our actions: defending the consumer means defending our work. b) Our relationship with the consumer takes place through the product: our company is strong if our products are strong. c) If a market is interesting (size, rate of development, know-how) we must become its leader. d) Our company is a multinational, fighting with other powerful multinationals: we must think and act in terms of 'global market'. e) Our products are launched, managed, cared for, and defended by the men and women who work in the company: our human resources are as important as our products."

"- Easter every day. What was the intuition that seemed the craziest but gave me the most satisfaction? It happened years later, in Italy, when I thought that the chocolate egg could not be something that was sold and eaten once a year, at Easter. But something smaller was needed, that you could buy every day at an affordable price, but it had to replicate that experience, and so the surprise was needed, but in miniature. I thought of Valeria as a mother, who could reward her child for getting a good grade at school, of Valeria as a grandmother who gave it away to be told, "You're the prettiest grandmother in the world," or of Valeria as an aunt who managed to get that kiss and hug from her nephew that always seemed so hard to win. But so much chocolate could worry mothers, so I thought of reversing the traditional assumption by advertising that there was "more milk and less cocoa," what better feeling for a mother than giving more milk to her child? So, I decided and ordered twenty machines to produce small eggs, but the company thought they had misunderstood or that I had gone mad and did not start the order."