Designing a new product line for N.M Furniture: An effort to control deforestation

Abstract

This report consists of a detailed business plan for a Furniture Company named NM Furnishers. The company is operating in Pakistan and is one of the top furniture brands of Pakistan. NM Furnishers deals in wooden furniture and home furnishings. It has been engaged in manufacturing and retail of furniture. It has showrooms in all big cities of Pakistan. It provides one window furnishing solutions to its customers at premium prices. Main products include bed sets, sofas, tables, chairs, carpets, curtains and rugs etc. NM Furnishers has been very successful until now and is likely to grow at the same rate in future. It has a large and loyal customer base. In this competitive business world, successful companies go beyond just selling and marketing good products. A lot of companies exercise content marketing and other ways to engage customers and that results in strengthened brand name and customer loyalty. Other companies relate themselves or their products to different causes like awareness for breast cancer etc. NM Furnishers also wanted to relate itself to some natural cause which is why, NM Furnishers is now planning to launch a new product line i.e. furniture made by non-wooden material and portraying it as a CSR to control deforestation caused by tree cutting. Since NM is a premium brand and its target market is well educated and up to dated, and so they care to contribute in measures taken to save the planet, so it is planning to target such customers and cater them. So, the purpose of this business plan is to twofold, one to generate revenue by selling non-wooden furniture and second to exercise CSR to control deforestation. Apparently, this task will be a bit easier as NM Furnishers is an existing business and already has a large and loyal customer base but the more the better, it will try to increase its market share by adding new nature sensitive customer base. The business plan contains major requirements, analysis, research and feasibilities etc. that are necessary to be conducted in order to start this new product line. It contains, most importantly the deforestation section in which, deforestation has been discussed in detail and deforestation rates have been discussed both internationally and in the context of Pakistan. How deforestation is effecting this planet, what causes deforestation and How Pakistan is being effected by deforestation. Moreover, it contains international furniture industry analysis and international furniture industry statistics, trends and figures. It contains Pakistani furniture industry analysis, statistics and trends. NM Furnishers’ own assets and competencies have also being discussed and the fact that it already has a production plant, warehousing and its own transportation. Other than 8 that, we have also discussed SWOT and PESTLE of NM Furnishers. The product line extension has been discussed in detail. All the kinds of feasibilities have been conducted and discussed in detail. Feasibilities include financial and other feasibilities like product/market feasibility, industry/target market feasibility and most importantly organizational feasibility. We have also discussed forces that drive product line extension and reasons why product line extension is important to strengthen the brand. Similarly, requirements for product line extension have been discussed. This section contains all the requirements for product line extension. There are phases of product development like idea generation, screening, concept testing, product development and commercialization. A very important business model now a days is business model canvas, we have discussed it in detail. Business model canvas breaks down core competencies and major value propositions of any business. All the business aspects can be screened well via business model canvas. If we talk about the management of operations, the 10 OPM concepts are very important to carry on successful operations because if the operations are taken well, the business automatically grow and sustain. Moreover, the financial section is very interesting. We did not make proper forecasted cash flows, income statements and balance sheets but we have provided a very clear financial breakdown of individual products. This breakdown breaks down the individual raw material cost of let’s say, a 250,000 PKR sofa or bed. Followed by company’s previous sales routines and sales reports, sales projections have been forecasted for first three years. Marketing is a very important aspect in business field. Latest marketing strategies have been defined and proposed in the marketing section. Today’s business industry roams around innovation. Successful companies are adopting continuous innovation and innovation in every part of business. We have discussed types of innovation and most importantly design innovation which is quite critical, important and necessary in furniture manufacturing business. We have attached a lot of latest product design in form sketches made on 3D max, in the annexures. We hope that after going through the whole business plan, you will be able to understand why and how this product line extension is important, and to what extent it will strengthen the brand.