Name game: Are you committed?
Carole Sloan -- Furniture Today, April 19, 2004
Name mania appears to be spreading as quickly in furnitureland as it is across other segments of the home furnishings business.
This week's market should see more names, whether well known or not, than ever before.
What the names bring to the table often is questionable, if not occasionally laughable. Does the "name" really know anything about home furnishings, are they merely supplying a name and a smile for a fee, or do they really have a sense of home and furniture?
It's becoming clearer that some of the players in the name game are participating to bring a distribution channel distinction to one name or another. So-and-so will be available only to department stores, others will be targeted at discount stores, while others will be slated for mainstream furniture specialty dealers.
It's obvious that, as the market share of non-traditional furniture retailers creeps up each year, manufacturers and retailers are looking to protect their turfs.
And as is happening in other home segments with the proliferation of offshore sourcing, pre-commitments are increasingly important, whether for a basic assortment or a name collection.
What will be shown on the show floors this week may or may not ever see the light of day. But the light of day with production across the water will be on a very different timetable from even the most far-out first-cuttings of a decade or so ago. During those earlier times, four months post-market was the norm for many manufacturers, And the week of the following market was not unusual.
With the offshore factor factored in, collections that buyers commit to at market this week could be arriving well after the following market. Hardly a just-in-time scenario.
All in all, it should be an eye-opening week.
