Long wait for Italian bew

Italy’s Luigi Lavazza, which bought into the Barista café chain in 2007, is phasing out the Indian brand but the transition is moving at a snail’s pace. Abraham Koshy, professor of marketing at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, says Barista didn’t invest in taking the brand forward after the initial years of existence. “It’s now a sleeping brand and staying with it will make Lavazza a half-asleep brand too. For experiential brands, change can’t happen in a trickle.” But R. Shivashankar, director, South Asia, Barista Coffee, argues that it is as strong a brand in India as Lavazza is worldwide. The move to being Lavazza, Shivashankar adds, is happening in a phased manner “to first build on the values that Lavazza stands for”. Two cafés modelled on the international Lavazza Expression format have opened in Delhi and Bangalore.