The Vespa in the United States: the cultural transfer of an Italian product

di Thomas Brandt
in Memoria e Ricerca n.s. 23 (2006), p. 129

In the 1950s and ’60s the Piaggio company attempted to export the Vespa into the American market, but met with relatively little success. The author suggests that differences in the urban transport environment, as well as those in the socio-cultural context between Europe and America account for this failure, as well as structural problems with distribution and service networks. Although the Vespa was highly successful in becoming a symbolic icon of an Italian lifestyle, this was not regarded as appropriate to the USA.