Welcome to blog post #1 from someone who probably has no business writing a blog. We’ve recently added to our marketing team here at Barletta Pontoon Boats – she’s a rockstar in case you’re wondering, joining my other rockstar co-worker – and somehow through multiple emails about social media, and post types, and contests, I inadvertently agreed to writing a blog for our site. Pretty sure that my two co-workers were conspiring against me and are trying to teach me a lesson about my more-than-usual “over-writing” for advertisements and communications.
Nevertheless – here we are.
In thinking about what my first topic would be – I go back to our last show season, this past winter and early Spring. In all my travels to boat shows, one of the top 3 questions I was asked no matter the show was “What is Barletta?”, or “What does Barletta stand for?”
Funny story – when I joined the Barletta team just shy of two years ago, I had that same question. As an experienced marketer, the name was a vital piece of our product’s identity and what we were going to aspire to be as an organization. It would be our first “touch-point” with the marine industry and boating communities across the country - maybe around the world. The answer I received, and the same answer I tended to share with prospective customers, was that Barletta is the name of a city on the southeastern coast of Italy. Why choose an Italian city? Our President and Co-Owner, Bill Fenech, is of Maltese heritage and in all honesty, Italian words/names roll off the tongue and scream luxury. They had gone through a list of several hundred Italian words/names and this was the one that felt right.
Good enough reasoning, right? Nothing to write home about particularly, and I wouldn’t consider the process completely flawed. I did however begin to frantically search the internet for translations for the word Barletta, just to be safe. For example, Kotzen, a small town in Brandenburg, Germany, literally translates to “vomit.” As competitive as the marine industry is, our fellow manufacturers could have a field day with something like this. Luckily, the Barletta search came back clean.
Anyway, I digress…the important thing to take away from my rambling is that a brand name is important. In fact, a name can be everything. And while my answers this past boat show season were spot on, as time goes on, I feel like I might have short-changed the person(s) asking the question.
What is Barletta? What does Barletta stand for?
Barletta stands for quality, for customer experience, for integrity, for ease of business…where doing the right thing is the norm, not the exception. Barletta stands for mutual respect and consideration for everyone we meet – answering phone calls, responding to emails, supporting and empowering, and closing communication loops. Barletta is family - our immediate family that supports our sometimes long hours and exhausting days; our family of co-workers who strive to support each other personally and professionally every day, looking out for our own and others when needed; and our extended family of dealers and Barletta owners, who in the end are really the lifeblood of everything we do.
I’m surrounded by the best team in the marine industry, building the best product, and selling to the best customers. I’m humbled to be here, and there’s no two ways about it.
At Barletta, we don’t worry about being the biggest – we worry about being the best. We obsess over it.
That’s what’s in OUR name, and this is my new response the next time I’m asked.
Learn more about Barletta's story and get to know us, we look forward to meeting you on the water.