SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES

Furniture Marketing and Product Development

Peter Starchon ¹ , Milos Hitka ² , Andrej Miklosik ¹ & Lucia Kocisova ¹

¹ Comenius University in Bratislava

² Technical University in Zvolen

https://doi.org/10.5817/CZ.MUNI.P280-0197-2022-23

Abstract

The furniture manufacturing industry is facing several challenges that it needs to respond to and deal with. There are sustainability issues that translate into all stages of product research, development, production, and supply chain. Companies need to focus on their CSR activities. Consumers are changing their preferences in favour of green products. Also, their anthropometric characteristics are evolving, which requires a new approach to furniture design, fuelling product innovations and supporting inclusive design. In this paper, we identify the current issues related to furniture marketing and product development and the steps and methods of gaining more insights into these issues in the V4 countries applicable in the future research.

Keywords : Furniture sector, furniture manufacturing, furniture marketing, product development

1 Introduction

The furniture sector has traditionally been a resource and labour-intensive industry characterised by the co-existence of both local craft-based firms and large volume producers (Chobanova & Popova, 2015) . In this respect, the adoption of new technologies can represent a challenge to the manufacturing companies. Digital transformation of all processes within the business represents a significant challenge due to the complexity of its processes. Also, in terms of their ability to sustain the employment levels as more and more activities will be automated and robotised, deploying state-of-the-art computational and manufacturing technologies (Ma et al., 2021) . The EU furniture sector is predominantly made of SMEs, with around 85% being micro enterprises (fewer than 10 employees) and another 12% of companies being small (10 to 49). Medium-sized companies account for 2% (Chobanova & Popova, 2015) .

2 Furniture manufacturing industry in Slovakia

In Slovakia, the furniture manufacturing industry has been growing steadily since 2011. The turnover of the industry has however peaked in 2018, reaching 959.9 mil. euros and since, has started declining to 882.1 mil. euros in 2019 and 813.9 mil. euros in 2022 (Statista, 2022b) . The production value of the furniture manufacturing industry in Slovakia has also been growing since 2011 (694.5 mil. euros) and reached its peak in 2018, with the production value of 959.9 mil. euros. In the two following years it has declined (see Figure 1). The value of production is defined by Eurostat as the amount actually produced by the unit, based on sales, including changes in stocks and the resale of goods and services (Statista, 2022a) .

Figure 1

Production value of the furniture manufacturing industry in Slovakia from 2011 to 2020

Source : Statista, 2022 a

2.1 Current issues of furniture marketing and product development

In the EU, companies from the furniture sector are facing a number of challenges. In 2008, the Commission Communication on innovative and sustainable forest-based industries identified these as i) growing global competition, ii) the availability of energy and wood supplies, and iii) the role of the sector in limiting climate change (Chobanova & Popova, 2015) .

In terms of the current issues in furniture marketing and product development, six main groups have been identified that resonate in the literature: i) Sustainability issues, ii) Corporate social responsibility, iii) Green consumption behaviour, iv) Evolving anthropometric data, v) Product innovations, vi) Inclusive design. The first three issues all relate to the third challenge named by the EU Commission, mentioned above. In terms of sustainability, the literature focuses on access to sustainable raw materials (Chobanova & Popova, 2015) , preparing sustainable development plans (Chobanova & Popova, 2015) , waste management practices (Daian & Ozarska, 2009) and evaluating and assessing the sustainability performance of the manufacturing process (Feil et al., 2022; Hartini et al., 2020) . Corporate social responsibility is closely tied to the emerging concept of industrial ecology (Yanglei, 2011) that is connected to sustainability. The focus on sustainability issues is driven by increasing consumer interest in green products and sustainability values (Suandi et al., 2022) . The average height and weight of both women and men are increasing over time (Sedmak & Hitka, 2004) . This represents a challenge for product design and development, fuelling innovations that would cater for oversize and overweight consumers, making the design more inclusive. These changes also need to reflect in furniture marketing (Reh et al., 2019) .

2.2 Digital transformation challenges

Digital transformation refers to improvements in business models, processes, activities, customer experience, and competencies, by taking advantage of the opportunities offered by digital technologies. It is imperative for businesses to create the vision, strategy, process, divisions and culture that can encourage their employees to innovate and experiment with new technologies and business models (Mhlungu et al., 2019) . Mancha and Gordon (2020) suggest that all organisations should consider using a digital multi-sided platform business model to remain competitive in the sharing economy. Digital transformation creates numerous challenges but also opportunities for both furniture marketing and product development. Some of them will be identified in the Results part of this paper and represent future research agenda in this field.

3 Method

The main aim of the wider research project is to define dimensional characteristics of selected types of wood-based furniture and wood-based furniture constructions for overweight or tall users in relation to the dimensions of current Slovak population based on anthropocentric measurements and strength analysis of selected models and types of furniture structure and the effect on the selected business processes.

The primary goal for this particular stage of the research was to identify current issues related to furniture marketing and product development and the steps and methods of gaining more insights into these issues in the V4 countries applicable in the future research.

To achieve this objective, the method of systematic literature review has been used to identify relevant literature dealing with the topic of interest. Methods of analysis, synthesis and deduction were applied to determine the key issues related to marketing processes of companies producing and selling wood-based furniture.

Five research methods were identified as appropriate for future research and the following part of this paper describes the parts of the research project where they will be subsequently applied.

4 Results

The following key areas that require further attention were identified and defined as next steps in the research project to gain more insights into these issues and identify new ones: i) Discussing the potential issues with selected furniture manufacturers and resellers; ii) Analysis of consumer online information search, iii) Social Media Marketing: Selected KPIs and content strategy, iv) Content analysis of websites of selected resellers, v) Analysis of in-store customer shopping behaviour.

4.1 Furniture marketing: Key issues

The aim of this part of the future research will be to get insights from relevant executives and marketing managers in relation various aspects of furniture marketing strategy and key issues in relation to successful furniture marketing. Qualitative research will be used with the method of structured in-depth interviews. This part will serve to gain more knowledge about the already identified six key issues that were defined in the Introduction, specifically its part Current issues of furniture marketing and product development. The research team will also try to learn about other important considerations.

4.2 Consumer online information search

Consumer preferences are shifting not only in terms of their preference of green products. Due to the widespread availability of mobile devices and internet, they also have changed the way they search for information in relation to their future purchases. The research team will aim to identify key search terms in relation to identified key issues of furniture marketing, and determine which issues are relevant to consumers. The following methods will be used in this part of the research project: Keyword search, clustering, trends identification. Selected tools will assist the team in reaching their objectives, such as Google Trends, Google Ads Keyword Tool, Ahrefs, SE Ranking keyword tool.

4.3 Social Media Marketing: Selected KPIs and content strategy

This leg of the research project will deal with defining and measuring selected Key Performance Indicators on social media profiles of selected furniture manufacturers and resellers. Content analysis of selected profiles in relation to their content strategy and incorporation of key relevant issues (keywords) in their content will be performed. Content analysis is often referred to as a method on the verge of quantitative and qualitative research.

4.4 Content analysis of websites of selected resellers

Researchers will perform Content analysis of selected websites of furniture manufacturers and resellers. Determining keyword frequencies, keyword clustering and confirmation of relevant topics resonating in their online communication strategy is the next step in the research project. The team will then compare the findings against the identified consumer preferences and search trends. Determining search rankings for relevant keywords and assessing the overall search marketing strategy and performance will be done as part of dealing with this research topic.

4.5 In-store customer shopping behaviour

The following tasks are expected to be dealt with in this part of research: i) Assessing defined parameters of the point of sale and sale personnel in selected retail venues; ii) Observation of the behaviour both of the personnel and customers, iii) Mystery shopping as the method of qualitative/quantitative research, and iv) Detailed analysis of logs and reports to produce meaningful insights and provide recommendations.

5 Discussion

The identified opportunities for further research do not only serve the research team but can be useful for the wider academic community. Thanks to the provided details on partial aims and methods for each of the give areas, researchers from other organisations and other countries can work on these issues, enriching the state of the art with new relevant findings. Thanks to this, new knowledge in the field of furniture marketing and product development can be generated, the research can progress quicker, and collaboration between various organisations can be initiated using the provided research framework.

Acknowledgements

This paper is an output of the research project APVV-20-0004 The Effect of an Increase in the Anthropometric Measurements of the Slovak Population on the Functional Properties of Furniture and the Business Processes.

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Corresponding author

Prof. Mgr. Peter Starchon, PhD.

Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Management, Department of Marketing

Odbojarov 10, 820 05 Bratislava, Slovak Republic

starchon1@uniba.sk