 / Courtesy of www.boscaarredi.it |
By Park Sung-hee
The greatest merit that Italian products may have, whether it is food, drinks, leather goods, or clothing, are the positive brand image of the three words in the consumers’ minds: “Made in Italy.”
Five Italian furnishing companies specializing in lights, doors, and household furniture are well aware of this fact when they look to enter the Korean market that has quite a healthy appetite for high-end products.
“Our products are dedicated to the high-end market,”said Valeria Sotera, the area manager for Asia of high-end furniture company, Modenese Gastone. “I notice that here in Korea there is good appeal for the classic, baroque style, and overall high standards that our products can give to consumers.”
Amidst tendencies to concentrate on driving down prices, these five businesses are focused on “custom-made quality,” which may have been forgotten among many mass manufacturers of today.
While highlighting the Italian attribute, these businessmen and women remain open in accepting advice to better suit the Korean palate.
“There are differences in the style and preference. For instance, the height of the tables is much lower than that adopted in Europe, and it seems that Koreans prefer furniture in solid wood,” said Sotera. “That is why the collaboration with (local) retailers is important for us because this is crucial information to developing a specific connection with the Korean buyers.”
Yet in the eyes of others, there are similarities that transcends among national borders.
“We do have products for specific countries,” said Luca Scapin from Bosca, a company that provided doors for some of the top hotels. “But there are more similarities among consumers with high purchasing power. This (similarity in style) is the culture of the rich.”
But perhaps a question more pivotal to the overall situation is how these mostly small to mid-sized firms will first be perceived among the domestic retailers as big Italian furniture businesses have already established a presence.
Will these firms become a favorite among local retailers and consumers providing products more affordable in price while retaining the “Italian standards” or will they be left in the ambiguous category where they cannot supply products that are competitive in price nor live up to the quality bar that many established Italian furniture firms have set? This question is still up in the air.
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