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Malaguti USA
Breaking
into the Market:
The New School
Entrepreneurs
By Vert James
Published August 2001
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In
a time when gas prices are driving the
masses back to the days of carpooling
and public transit, a name like Vespa
is reforming itself to mean more of
a transportation alternative than a
piece of nostalgia. Scooters are
just beginning to receive major attention
right now in the US and for more reasons
than our tradition of stealing anything
that is cool and European. With
gas prices and traffic through the roof,
the scooter market is set to explode. |
| All
pictures courtesy of Malaguti USA |
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Many
Americans have already heard about Vespa
coming back into the market with a new
corporate feel and slick boutiques featuring
classic models and cappuccino machines
at every location. However, the hot
topic in the scooter scene is the name
Malaguti. Unless you are a fan of elite
motor engine and body models, or a connoisseur
of sought after Italian quality, you
are probably unfamiliar with this brand
of scooters. This will soon change. |
Malaguti is Italy's third largest scooter
brand and was recently introduced into the
US market by a group of young, energetic
college grads from the University of Florida.
Apparently, college got boring after the
first two years and it only seemed logical
to these real-world newborns to start a
business. Today, their communal attitude
and youthful spirit continue to drive Malaguti
USA forward at a mind-blowing rate. The
company's focus is to stick to the young,
growing scooter crowd and offer Italian
Scooters at American prices. While Vespa’s
new US models start at $3,000, the Malaguti's
average $2700. They have also embraced the
traditional scooter crowd, ensuring an incredible
amount of street credibility, something
the young executives noticed that Vespa
lost when it sued small Vespa shop owners
last year for name infringement. “Sure
we want to make a buck,” said Ian Kirby,
a Malaguti USA marketing executive, “but
we’ve seen not only the scooter market,
but most all of America, turn into a pathetic
corporate wasteland.
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At
Malaguti USA we’ve embraced the
extremely simple idea that if everyone
is happy, from my coworkers to our customers,
then we can’t go wrong.” This
philosophy seems to be carrying Kirby
and the rest of Malaguti USA to the
top of their game faster than they realize. |
Growing up in Miami, Joel Martin recognized
scooters, a vehicle analogous with a European
lifestyle, as part of his everyday being.
Helping father Froilan and grandfather Manuel
run a small scooter outlet in Miami, Martin
became a natural expert in motor scooters
and the related business. In college, he
was approached by Malaguti and was asked
to do American market research for the Italian
firm. His college career was already highlighted
by marketing internships at companies like
Coke and Sony and so it came naturally to
him to try to find a market for the Italian
scooters. After consideration and the following
realization of the huge potential for an
American scooter market, Martin asked his
friends Chris Esposito and Ian Kirby for
help in looking for marketing opportunities
for scooters in the US. Immediately, Esposito,
Kirby and Martin turned their small DJ entertainment
company that they ran for extra cash into
a PR firm for the Malaguti scooter empire.
In January they launched the Malaguti USA
brand and have been hard under pressure
to keep up with demand since they started.
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When questioned about the birth and development
Malaguti USA, Esposito said, “Most
of our friends left college regretting the
fact that they didn’t drink enough
beer. I left regretting that I didn’t
turn my DJ business into a PR firm that
handles international accounts earlier.
I couldn’t have asked for a better
situation—my hobby has turned into
my career.” Kirby added, “Everyday,
we wake up and know that we are making our
living doing exactly what we want to do.
California is whining about the energy crisis
but we’re loving it. It's funny,
people didn't think scooters would sell,
but now that gas prices are up everyone
wants an Italian scooter."
Since Graduation they have been turning
down jobs left and right. The trio has omitted
positions at marketing firms and youth-oriented
websites. "The temptation’s always
there—job security, company cars—that
sort of thing, but that’s submitting
to the rat race. Where’s the
adventure?” Joel Martin, president
of Malaguti USA asked. He continued,
“We’re actually pretty lucky that
we haven’t hopped on any of the corporate
opportunities that have been offered to
us. All my friends who left for the dot
com field are now looking for jobs; we followed
our hearts and were doing okay. It’s
not about money."
While the classically trained businessman
would most likely frown upon the Malaguti
USA marketing and promotional strategy,
many established marketing experts are highly
impressed by the innovative approach the
young firm uses to promote itself. Their
first event was the Indiana Motorcycle show
at the RCA dome in February. While companies
like Yamaha and Harley Davidson had expensive
and flashy setups, the Malaguti team knew
they would need something more if they were
to attract the attention they were looking
for. Using industry connections, their
booth included a light show and a constant
live performance by DJ Factor E who recently
went on the road with the MTV Campus Invasion
Tour. The Malaguti booth received national
rave reviews and was voted one of the best
booths at the event.
Their second event soon followed in March
with Playboy Magazine’s Spring Break
on South Padre Island, Texas. Playboy Playmates
paraded around the island for the entire
week on the hottest new scooter brand around.
Esposito, Kirby and Martin personally escorted
the Playboy limousine wherever the Playmates
went on the island. The event received international
headlines in the motorcycle and scooter
press, on top of being featured on Playboy.com.
 |
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Malaguti USA opened its US headquarters
in Miami, Florida where Martin's family
scooter shop was located. Malaguti SpA has
been so impressed by Martin's work, it extended
Martin’s contract and asked him to
set up all of North America to receive the
giant scooter brand. His first mission was
to send out Kirby and Esposito to open up
the West Coast offices. Before this could
happen, the Malaguti events reached the
ear of Playboy's president Cindy Rakowitz
who offered to take on the Malaguti cause.
She hired Chris Esposito as her Event and
Program Coordinator for a new Marketing,
PR company called RakNRoll (www.RakNRoll.com)
Thanks to the new PR firm Malaguti is now
making a name for itself outside of the
scooter crowd. "With RakNRoll's help
we will be able to develop the brand to
the point where it’s at in Europe in
a shorter time. People know that Italian
scooters are the best there is in style
and quality, and it’s up to us to show
them there's more out there than just Vespa,"
commented Esposito.
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The next large event featuring Malaguti
will be the Ducati World Weekend in Nevada
this October. Hundreds of thousands of motorcycle
fans will flock to the Vegas racetrack from
all over the world to participate in the
event. Malaguti USA just reached an exclusive
licensing deal and promotional agreement
with Ducati North America to be its official
scooter. Malaguti will also be launching
a line of limited edition US Ducati replica
scooters for collectors this fall, all of
which will have high exposure at the World
Weekend.
In the meantime, Esposito, Kirby and Martin
continue to run Malaguti USA in their own
particular manner. Said Kirby, “It’s
not an issue of Malaguti adjusting to the
business and consumer here; it’s an
issue of us retraining the American market
to embrace the product we have and the way
we do business. And it couldn’t
be going better.” With that Kirby
had to excuse himself. He said that
he was on his way to the beach to meet Esposito—in
the middle of the business day. “That’s
what we do. We run our business on
the precept that if we’re happy ourselves
then everyone else will be happy with us.”
Martin emphasized this in a separate interview
saying, “At Malaguti we like to think
that if it’s not getting better, you’re
not doing it right.” After a
laugh he said, “Well, it’s getting
better.”
Not bad for a few kids who three months
ago were looking for change to order a pizza.
You can learn more about Malaguti USA by
visiting www.MalagutiUSA.com
online.
A novelist and scooter enthusiast, Vert
James' one goal in life is to be credited
with inventing the bumper sticker slogan:
I'd Rather Be...
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