Abstract:
The dissertation will analyze the Italian wood-furniture
sector. In particular, a definition and understanding of design as a
concept and its relationship with innovation will be given in the
first chapter. In the second, there will be a focus on the Italian
market trends, on the manufacturers of furnishing products and on the
importance of internationalization as a strategy to reach foreign
markets. In the third, I will expand the lenses of the analysis by
trying to focus on the markets in which the Italian furniture export
is stronger. Countries such as USA and China represent the two main
export destinations for what concerns the furniture industry. As a
consequence, those are the two markets I will mainly focus my
attention to. Finally in last chapter, three different italian
furniture manufacturers will be analyzed (Arflex, Cassina & Natuzzi),
taking the sofa as a reference, in order to understand how the same
piece of furniture (the sofa) is presented, in different
countries/markets. It will be interesting to analyze the similarities
or differences in the strategies that these companies use to penetrate
different markets, the pricing strategies they adopt, and the behavior
and tastes of the consumers that purchase them. Moreover, the
interview with the operation manager of DzineNY (the exclusive
distributor of Arflex for the US market), will be reported at the end
of the chapter.
