Can you recognize a fake news when it comes to belts?

One in three Italians stumbles upon fake news at least once a day.

One in two, in the last year, believed in at least one hoax, but above all 82% of Italians do not recognize a true news from a false one. 82% of Italians.

This is what emerges from a Doxa survey and an analysis by Statista, the most important data platform at European level. And it is immediately alert.

These frighteningly high percentages are the result of the way in which Italians inform themselves: according to a Censis research, in fact, social networks, and Facebook in the first place, are the main source of information for 31% of Italians: almost one in three Italians.

Most likely the same unfortunate Italian who stumbles upon fake news at least once a day.

Why am I telling you about it? Because fake news is a virus that infects our way of thinking, that influences our behaviors and our choices and makes us perceive as true and valid something that is not.

It may also happened to you to come across the so-called online hoaxes: if you are lucky, even before you start reading you can find a useful clue to unmask the fake news.

The first suggestion, in fact, may be the name of the site: Gazzetta della Sera, for example, a site on which fake news on various topics are published, resemble Corriere della Sera, or in any case it has the air of being a reliable journalistic source. This is an example of "photocopy sites", that is to say sites whose names ape known and reliable publications. This similarity creates in you a feeling of familiarity with what you already know, and if you're not more than careful, it's easy to mistake the site that publishes fake news for a real newspaper. Shocking title, suggestive image and facsimile site are only the most superficial aspects of the architecture of fake news.

You may be wondering why a belt manufacturer is telling you about fake news. Think about what fake news is: after all it is nothing more than manipulated information. And the same impulse that leads you to believe in fake news also leads you to believe the words of your customers and suppliers; and this impulse is called trust.

If you think about it, trust is the feeling that moves our days: in the morning we are confident that the alarm will sound, we open the tap to wash our face and we trust that water will flow, we turn the handle and we are confident that the door will open… We could go on like this indefinitely. And trust is also the feeling that leads us to believe what people tell us. But as the fake news phenomenon teaches us, sometimes trust is not enough.

It may have happened to you too to blindly trust someone and get burned: a bit like when as a child you told a secret to your friend and then he blatherd it to everyone during recess. How did it make you feel? And that little hiccup was enough to make you completely lose faith in him. When you have to choose a partner or a collaborator, trust is not enough: after all you don't know him and you need something more to base yourself on.

Surely there is the impact in person: if you don't like someone by instinct, he can also be God on earth, but you will never choose him. Think for example of Valentino Rossi: when he changed team from Honda to Yamaha he brought his entire team of mechanics with him. Do you think that the Yamaha team was not able? No, he simply had confidence in his mechanics and rebuilding trust with a group from scratch is really difficult.

And I know very well how important this is also in our world: as a belt manufacturer I also have my suppliers and every time a new one comes up it is a challenge.

Changing supplier is scaring: on the one hand it could be the turning point in your working life, that reliable person who will never cause problems and who will make your life very simple; on the other hand, it could turn out to be worse than your worst enemy. And above all, the risk is yours: it is you who must make this difficult decision and all the consequences it will bring.

In my small way I decided to make this little revolution: always put my face to it (literally in the case of the videos on my Youtube channel) because as I told you also in previous articles I am tired of the bullshit that some of my colleagues shoot and of the negative consequences they do suffer from companies like yours. And here we return to the topic of fake news.

A few days ago I was surfing the net and I came across some blog articles that made my skin crawl: the theme of these blogs was how to recognize a leather belt compared to a synthetic one.

According to these "experts", the most effective test to unmask synthetic belts is to pour water on the belt and see if it is absorbed or if it slips off. If the water slips away for them it is irrefutable proof that they are faced with a synthetic: it is a pity that there are also bycast and leathers specially treated to be water repellent. In fact, there is only one type of leather that absorbs moisture, and that also stains when it comes into contact with water, and it is full grain vegetable tanned.

Another bullshit I've read is that synthetic belts have regular edges while those of leather belts are jagged. Of course, right: who would buy a belt with irregular edges like the Monza track? Nobody. Obviously, leather has its own structure and fibrousness, but to be sold it must be worked and finished to prevent the belt from having defects. Otherwise it might be made from the most expensive, tough, coolest leather in the world, but no one would ever buy it. And our goal is to sell. And so we have to work accordingly.

The last bullshit I read is that another indicator to check whether a belt is in leather or synthetic is the price because leather belts cost more: that's not true, or rather, it's not at all! There are some very bad leathers, mostly from the Far East, which have a very low cost per square meter. But the cost is low because the quality of the product is low and the production costs are low. And there are excellent synthetics that in comparison have a higher cost, because of the higher cost of processing and of the quality of the raw material.

Price alone is not an indicator: it must be justified. You have to explain to the customer why the price is high or low. Otherwise, if he has little availability he will always choose the lowest price or if he has a high spending capacity he will choose the brand.

And stop.

But why am I telling you all this? Because as I told you in the previous articles I much prefer to work honestly with my customers, without cunnings and without being the top of the class because, let's face it, the top of the class have always been a jerk.

All I care about is that my clients are safe and sleep soundly: I see all my clients as collaborators, as a team and there is a reason why among my clients there are brands that collaborate with me and mine staff for many years. But precisely because, as we said before, trusting a new person is difficult, I decided to give all my customers a guarantee: the identity card of the belt.

As you can see it is a real identity card where you can find life, death and miracles of the belt: from the type of material used both for the upper layer and for the lining to the origin of the rough, from the type of metal used for the buckle to the its finish as galvanic.

And all this for every belt sample that is ordered from us and without you having to request it: I prefer to send it regardless, to avoid even the slightest doubt about me, my team and our collaboration. Now, since my goal is to help you improve the sales of your brand, I want you to be honest with me and that you decide to contact me only if you are really ready to take that extra step that has allowed many of my clients to increase their sell-out and their margins.

Such as? Simply by establishing a collaboration that goes beyond the mere supplier-customer relationship.

My staff and I want to be the reference point for our customers, advisors who can be at their side throughout our relationship also because I cannot promise you that there will be no unexpected, but I can promise you that we will face them together.

For this reason, as I told you in the "Who I am" section, the first step of every new collaboration is to get to know each other because I study each collection tailored to a specific customer based on its values, its DNA, its target audience and at the optimal price range.

Now the choice is yours. Will you continue to dream of your ideal supplier or are you ready to have one for real?

RICHIEDI UN APPUNTAMENTO TELEFONICO