Essay: Bed room furniture market industry

1. Introduction:

This research report determines a brief profile and rationale for the bed room furniture market industry. This report which also analysis buyer behaviour within the bed room industry and evaluates various strategy like market information, business planning etc. Finally this research explains the research objective and method of gathering information using primary data sources.

2. The marketing plan:

Marketing plan is a document which elaborates a plan for marketing products. Marketing plan which has formal structure but both formal and informal can be used according to flexibility to the product. Marketing plan can be used for preparing a statement for new product, to restore or renew the existing product. (Westwood 2004).

2.1 Market size and trends:

The UK bedroom furniture industry which shows marginally increase in the overall share. This is due to availability of more range and designed product at variable rates and increase awareness among the buyers about the bedroom furniture and their sleep.

The following table brought from the Mintel shows the steady growth in the bedroom furniture industry and the sector improvement in the recent years and the forecast of following years are also shown,

YEAR	£M	INDEX	£M AT 2004	INDEX
2004	950	100	950	100
2005	930	98	924	97
2006	971	102	952	100
2007	1000	105	958	101
2008	960	101	890	94
2009(EST)	900	95	830	87
2010(FORECAST)	887	93	812	86
2011(FORECAST)	919	97	841	89

SOURCE: Mintel

The following graph illustrates the increase in bedroom furniture over other furniture sector. This reason is growing awareness and importance of good night sleep among the people.

Value at current price (£1000m at retail selling price), 2003-2007

SOURCE: Keynote

Keynotes also notes that the medium budget houses which contributes greater improvement in the growth of bedroom furniture. The other factors which improve the size of bedroom market trend are watching television and using laptops in bedrooms, increased time of children and adults spends in the bedrooms and innovative designs at low cost budget.

Thus some of the significance trends which lead UK bedroom industry to growths are,

• Housing market which has significance effect on bedroom furniture industry. People who moving to new houses are in need of purchasing large furniture and this also covers bedroom furniture’s. Thus the housing market helped the furniture industry in past years
• The influence of media such as television, magazine, newspaper which has huge impact on furniture market. Media which encourages the consumers to buy new range of household furniture and to replace the old furniture.
• Availability of wide range of furniture at various prices. This furniture is also available at several design and size. Then increasing awareness among the bedroom consumes about good night sleep.
• The shop retailers and consumers reports that bedroom are often neglected in the past years but at present consumers are spending more on beds and other bedroom related items.
• Keynote quotes consumers are now changing from hard to soft beds because it provides more comfort to sleeper. Double beds which sales account 60% of total sector and king-size beds which gaining fame at recent years.

2.2 Competition and market share:

The furniture industry is one of the difficult one to analyse. This is because large industry still has disunited markets. The market share of small furniture industry plays an important role and it makes over 50% of total market share. However the arrival of small industry and impact of successful chain will leads to greater degree of success in the future. (Mintel 2010)

Some of the main challenges and competition faced by furniture industry are

• Gentler housing market in many countries is reducing to invest in home industry
• The furniture market people facing tough competition from departmental stores, grocers and some clothing industries.
• Purchasing of big furniture items is slowing down due to economic recession.(Mintel 2010)

3. TARGET MARKET SEGMENT:

The target market segment includes target market which focuses on different age groups people and buying process which help in making decision about buying the product.

3.1 The target market:

Target market is process of marketing the particular product in an industry. This target market is often based on age, gender and socio economic groups. In this target marketing proposed actual markets are defined, evaluated and analysed before the final decision is made. (Grossman and Livingstone 2009)

The target market of this research is based on bedroom industry and this process includes:

Children’s beds: looking for good comfortable sleep. Wide range of beds size and style are available which affords space saving and attractive prices.

Teenagers: looking for freedom and needs more space. In this age group taking decision and freedom are the topmost priority. Thus the bedroom for teenagers includes inexpensive accessories, some creative ideas, chairs, extra seating for friends etc.

Youngsters: this age group people looking for full relaxation. Sometimes this age group uses laptops and study materials in bedroom. So the bedroom must include table and chair for the usage. Apart from this bedrooms must provide good sleep and extra space for single and couples.

Old singles and couples: looking for good quality of sleep. This age group needs extra king-size beds for their sleep and relaxation. The bedroom furniture should provide full comfort as this age group spend most of their time in beds.

3.2 The buying process:

The buying process which is also known as decision making unit. The buying process is responsible for taking major decision which is usually involved in purchasing the product. This buying process involves several roles which depend upon the type of business. (Aubuchon 1997)

The following table illustrate the buyer process in bedroom furniture market sector,

DMU	SINGLES	COUPLES	FAMILIES
USER	Individual	Couple or individual	All family members
DECIDER	Individual	Single or couple	Single or group of family members
BUYER	Individual	Single or couple	Single or group of family members
INFLUENCER	Colleagues Family members Partner Health communication	Colleagues Family members Health communication	Children’s Partners Health communication

Some of the consumer buying decision making process and its influence factors are explained below,

The problem recognition:

The problems in bedroom furniture are of both internal and external. The factors in external problems are market competitors. These competitors already provided the large bedroom furniture at affordable prices. The problem in internal factors is based on unhealthy or damaged furniture, looking for cheap furniture etc.

Information search:

The bedroom furniture falls under the category of high involvement products. People spend more time on selecting the furniture like looking for price, quality etc. In some cases people also search information for favourable brands and top retailers.

Information evaluation:

Information evaluation performs the best criteria based on collected information. In bedroom furniture people look for door delivery, large quantity of furniture available etc. At this stage people looks for some good design and evaluate the furniture used for making the beds and sofas.

Decision making process:

Decision is the process of making the customer to buy the product. In furniture market the decision will always depends upon women more than men. The decision in bedroom furniture will always depends on good quality of furniture and brand names.

Post purchase evaluation:

Post purchase is the process of purchasing the same brand items if it suits the buyer. Thus here after purchasing the bedroom furniture like bed, sofas, table and when it provide full comfort to the buyer like good sleep, long life etc., the customer go for same brand or retail section.

4. Market research requirements:

Market research requirements are basic needs to develop and launch the new product. Here three market research methods are analysed along with primary research method. The analyses are,

Market research 1:

Market research explains the plan of making comfortable resizing beds. This means the bed size can be reduced by folding and making it easier to move. So this type of bedroom furniture will create great success in furniture market.

This plan in bedroom furniture will be success because it helps for those who often change their place and it will also help the retailers for easy door delivery. By these foldable beds users can save their money in means of transport and it will also help in saving great space in room when the beds are not in use.

The primary research used here is questionnaires. Here questionnaires are selected because questionnaires will help in gathering information from more people and it suggests better marketing research. The target group for this research is youngsters and family members. Their views help more comfortable for this research.

Market research 2:

The second research objective is making electrical power beds. This research includes making beds which has remote system. In this plan beds can be moved and adjusted by using remote like using remote in television. This plan will leads to success because user can move the beds to any place without manual handling. It creates more convenient and comfortable for the bed users.

The primary research used here is interviews. Here an interview is chosen because interviews help in gathering information according to our choice. Interviews will create more ideas and questions for research process. The target group focused here is couples and young individual. The reason is this age group has knowledge about handling the power system.

Market research 3:

The third market research objective is making beds attached with computing tables and dining items. The plan is nowadays people spend their time more in bedrooms. Usually youngsters and family members taking their work like laptop to their beds. So a bed which is fitted with computing table makes more comfort to the consumers. Also beds with dining items helps for people to take their food by carrying work and sleep.

The primary research used here is surveys. Surveys which helps in gathering more information and views of different kinds of people. The target group focused here is youngsters because they spend more times with computing items and taking their food items in the bedroom.

Reference:

1. Aubuchon,N (1997) The Anatomy of Persuasion, AMACOM,USA
2. Grossman,T and Livingstone,J (2009) The Portable MBA in Finance and Accounting (4th Edn),John Wiley & sons Inc., Canada.
3. Manley,J(2008) Market Report 2008 (18th Edn),Key Note Ltd, Middlesex
4. Mintel (2010) [online] (cited 23rd March 2010) Available from  http://www.mintel.com/>
5. Westwood, J (2004) The Marketing Plan (3rd Edn), Kogan page limited, London