There is a deep thread that combines the Marches to Detroit, the hills of the Marches to the industrial heart of the Midwest. A thread made of family, work, vision and authenticity. It is what emerges from the intervention of Miro Marcelli to the microphones of New York, in the podcast Portraits led by Claudio Brachino, a dialogue that tells not only the story of Ernesi 1978, but also a way of understanding Made in Italy as a cultural project before commercial.
The origins of Ernesi 1978 sink in the second half of the seventies, in the Marches, and are born from a family history marked both by intractiveness and pain. “Comincia in Marche, in San Benedetto del Tronto, thanks to Virgili Silvana, who is a bit my second mother”, says Marcelli. “The co-founder, her husband Ernesto Cappelli, dies very young, at 39 years old, and she then goes with my father. It is also for this family bond that, at some point, I made her an offer to detect the company and bring it to this part of the world”. A story that takes shape from the daily work of two professionals, an esterist and a hairdresser, dissatisfied with the existing products and decided to create new, more natural and effective.
From the beginning, Ernesi 1978 was born as a concrete response to a real need. “They didn’t find the products they really thought fit for their work on the market,” explains Marcelli. “The principle was clear: we make natural products that really work.” To this artisanal vision is immediately added to the awareness of its limits and humility to seek skills of the highest level. “They immediately understand that they need more technically prepared people. So they call Dr. Salvi and Dr. Ceresa.” It is the entry of science into the laboratory, with leading figures of the Italian pharmaceutical company that give solidity and credibility to a still small but ambitious project.
Today Ernesi 1978 is a company that maintains an artisanal heart but looks decisively at innovation. “We started with what was then called pharmaceutical cosmetics: cleansing milk, masks, tonics”, explains Marcelli. “This is the historical heart of the company”. In the most recent years, this soul has sided with food supplements, with a very precise continuity. «The link between these two souls is collagen. We were, in our little one, among the pioneers of its use”. Not a choice dictated by fashions, but by coherence with a long history decades.
The link with the Marche region remains central even while the company prepares for internationalization. «In the formulations we use the water San Giacomo dei Monti Sibillini. As I prepare internationalization, I am strengthening even more the link with the Marche region”. A choice that overturns the logic of delocalization and transforms the geographical origin into a distinctive, cultural value before it is commercial.
Detroit’s choice as an American base is neither casual nor emotional. “I fell in love with Detroit”, admits Marcelli, “but this love is also born thanks to another great “mother”, which was Fiat. I was lucky, in the years of relaunching with Marchionne, to be among the few to come here, between 2010 and 2011. I’ve been living this territory for about fifteen years. Detroit taught me a lot, even from the corporate point of view. I think of some Marchionne’s choices, such as the launch of the new Chrysler with Eminem’s music and the pay-off “Imported from Detroit”, ignoring the great marketing consultants who said that Detroit was not a payable brand. That vision, that soul, I carry it behind even today”.
For Marcelli, Detroit is also a powerful symbol of complex identity. When asked to represent his soul, he replied: «I would say Eminem. It is a white born in one of America’s blackest contexts. This mix, this identity tension, is deeply Detroit.” A city made of contrasts, where different worlds live a few minutes away, and that is why it becomes an ideal laboratory also to test a brand like Ernesi 1978.
From a strategic point of view, the Midwest is a lucid choice. «New York is an extraordinary city, but it does not represent America», says Marcelli. «The Midwest, however, yes. This is why market tests are often done here. It is easier than a product that works in Detroit or Chicago then works in the rest of the United States. I then joined my personal love for Detroit to a very rational strategic choice: launch the product in a micromarket that is highly representative”.
The first encounters are encouraging, although Marcelli reasoned with the prudence of the great entrepreneur: “It’s too early to say. The main limit is that we produce few pieces”. A desired growth, controlled: “We are completing the new laboratory in Smerillo and we made precise choices, such as voluntarily jumping on Black Friday. What I can say is that the approach is very “American”: we did a first round of funding that went well, the second will leave next year, and it is based on tests that are giving very encouraging results. It is a product that, incoming, reacts very well”.
At the center of everything remains the concept of authenticity, key word of the path of Marcelli. “It is the part on which I am more demanding, inside and outside the company,” he explains. «“Authenticity” is a complex word, difficult to translate into Italian: inside there are transparency, genuineness, but also provocation”. To tell the truth even when it goes countercurrent, do not pursue trends if they are not founded, carefully choose who represents the brand: these are the pillars of a vision that rejects shortcuts.
Looking at the future, Miro Marcelli does not speak of exits or strikes. “For us the short and long period coincide,” he says. “We think about where we will be in twenty years, not in five”. The objective is ambitious and profoundly identity: “I would like the Made in Italy to become increasingly synonymous with authenticity in the world”. A path made of small steps, such as the Beauty Made in Italy program planned for 2026, which will have moments of exposure also in New York, but guided by a clear, rooted and consistent vision, just like the history of Ernesi 1978.
L’articolo Miro Marcelli, from Marche to Detroit, the authentic soul of Ernesi 1978 comes from IlNewyorkese.
