Everybody wants innovation, but...
Carole Sloan, Senior Contributing Editor -- Furniture Today, July 2, 2007
It all starts with the design and the fabric in the world of upholstery. At least, that's the way product development is supposed to start, then move through production to retail floors and finally to consumers.
But in the current combative industry atmosphere, retailers, with or without credentials, are making demands on suppliers that many times have nothing to do with design directions or the realities of product development and production.
In today's highly competitive market, creativity is taking a back seat to having a best-seller that a competitor supposedly has. Emulation, or dead knockoffs, is the highest form of flattery.
This unfortunately dovetails all too well with a growing epidemic of offshore knockoffs. Somehow, the same constructions, colorings and yarns pour out of many "non-related" plants.
Meanwhile, corporate honchos consistently point to a lack of design direction and innovation as reasons their business is either soft or just plain stinks.
As key retail players have built their "product development and design teams" — once known as buyers — they also have developed enormous egos. A design-driven supplier's blue "isn't the shade we want" or "the flower is turned the wrong way." Thus is innovation effectively derailed.
Yes, price points are important. But there's plenty of evidence that American consumers WILL pay a bit more for something they really like because it's well designed and bespeaks quality. Our price obsession really reflects stale retail habits and a rigid internal focus. Much of today's home textiles are delivered to Mrs. Jones as the result of what retailers see as competitive challenges, not what she might want or like.
All this certainly was evident at last month's Showtime. And the sameness on retail floors simply creates greater consumer ennui — a true no-win for all.
