The third category is the small business, who in many cases cannot afford a single chair from Herman Miller due to the high price relative to incomes of these smaller companies. The famous Aeron chair for example, a favorite for large-scale enterprises is often too expensive for the small business owner. Instead of this high-end chair, small business owners look at the stand, off-the-shelf chairs for their offices.
Capturing a Business-Based Segment Through Consumer Marketing
In devising a strategy to capture one of these segments, the low-end of the market is the most accessible for a consumer-based chair company. Targeting the lack of customization for office furniture the marketer could concentrate on a build-to-order manufacturing strategy to gave small business owners flexibility in defining the exact type of chair they wanted (Sharma, LaPlaca, 2005). In addition many small businesses are actually in peoples' homes, so creating a build-to-order strategy at an aggressive price point that took into account the margin requirements...
Finally the development of marketing strategies that concentrate on illustrating how the small business owner and home office worker including telecommuters, can get the same benefits of the larger, more expensive company's chairs at a fraction of the price would strengthen the marketing to this segment from a consumer standpoint.
References
Ed Christman (2007, March). Retail Track. Billboard, 119(11), 19. Retrieved November 28, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry database. (Document ID: 1239029211).
Heike Dieckmann (2007, April). New lease of life. Office Products International,1. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry database. (Document ID: 1262470541).
Arun Sharma, Peter LaPlaca. (2005). Marketing in the emerging era of build-to-order manufacturing. Industrial Marketing Management, 34(5), 476-486. Retrieved November…
