We spoke to Sadhana Vipat, owner of an Import-Export Company based in Italy. Her company deals in “Made In Italy” Furniture. She can be reached at furniture@vipatindustries.com

Question – The first thing that people think when they here Italian furniture is, “it must be expensive”. Don’t we have affordable price range within Italian Furniture for Indian homes.

Ms. Sadhana–Well yes you do have Italian furniture that are available for good price range, especially for Indian Homes where space constrain is the major issue.

Let, me share some facts of Italian furniture Industry with you here,

Better the Marketing Strategies, bigger Brand you are

Italian Furniture is usually retailed by big brands like Calligaris, B&B Italia, Edra, Designitalia and many more thatare universally accepted.

They have very well planned good marketing strategies that make them big and visible. Well bigger the brand, better has to be its marketing and batter the marketing, the brand will grow bigger. I mean the Brand name and marketing strategy hereby go hand in hand. And this is why Italian Furniture of big brands are expensive. But you also have affordable Italian furniture has made its place in furniture market that sells easily.

You do have smaller companies or brands who manufacture good quality Italian Furniture, but are not well known due to lack in marketing strategy.

Well Russians love classic Italian Furniture’s. They absolutely love the gold and silver bordering, motifs, that Italian Furniture entails. They lobe the concept of extravaganza, larger than life style feeling. But not all of these companies or brands have been able to reach India.

But, not that unbraided or locally available Italian Furniture is of low or poor quality.

Unbranded or Locally available Italian Furniture

Actually for Unbranded or locally available Italian furniture I would like to emphasis on two points,
i. On unbranded products
ii. How just a brand tag changes the view of the product

With an example,

A Gucci leather handbag for women. A Gucci brand bag it surely is going to be of very good quality, good finishing and styling. Let’s say a local maker has made an attempt and was successful in making the same bag with same finishing and styling and costs around 300 Euros. If this bag is given the Gucci Branding/ tag, the cost automatically goes high let’s say 3,000Euros. So you see how branding matters. Well this is not only with handbags or apparels, but with furniture and other home interior related products too.

What I want to emphasis here is that it’s not only brands that deliver good quality an finishing. The non-branded items (here furniture maker) deliver equally good quality, good finishing, styled products.

If you visit Italy, you may even come across companies that specialize only in chair but aren’t a big name. But the style and quality they deliver is unmatchable by big brands.

I would say that Branding has become a question of status in todays, modern world.

Question – What do Local Population of Italy Prefer buying Branded or Non-branded furniture?

Ms. Sadhana –That’s a very good question.Most of the Population in Italy usually prefer buying unbranded or locally available Italian furniture rather than branded ones. Chief reason is that they are available for economical rates.

Only the higher class or very few prefer Branded Italian Furniture for their homes. One reason for buying branded furniture or products is the trust that the products are going to be of best quality.

Well by saying this I don’t mean that unbranded products are of poor quality. Like I said before even they deliver furniture of good quality and finishing. It’s just that they lack marketing their products for it to reach the masses like Branded products. Nor out of Italy. But this is one of the reasons why there are available for economical rates.

Lastly I would like to say that the know-how of Italian Furniture and its design, the craftsmanship behind it, its details, etc. is sadly not understood or reached India.Especially the way it is understood in Italy or other countries with active design culture.