Takeaways And Synthesis My initial research was in three parts: other brands, Furlenco’s initial research report and reading articles on/related kids furniture. These take aways are a summary of the information collected from these categories. The most important thing that surfaced from Furlenco’s report was that there is a demand for kids furniture as parents are really keen on creating special rooms for their kids. Moreover, they are willing to shell out a little more money for this kind of furniture as it is considered to be a specialized furniture. Indian customers want long lasting furniture and they have a perception that wood is the only material that would suffice this. Hence, they can’t relate to a concept where they buy furniture and discard it within three years. This is the major reason that parents don’t invest in kids furniture as they grow out of it quickly according to the responses collected.
44 Heta Shah • Furniture Design • B. Des 2017 • NID
From the brand analysis done one pattern that I could notice is that most of the furniture associated with kids are bright and gaudy visually which isn’t the case with the international brands. I feel that maintaining a colourful look in kids furniture is appealing, however, they do not need to be so vibrant as they take away the premium factor. This could be one reason that a lot of parents keep Ikea as the benchmark for kids furniture. Also, going through the catalogue of different brands it was apparent that international brands had a wider range of permutations and combinations to choose from. The kid’s furniture is too generalized in India. They aren’t user-centric. The furniture has stickers of numbers and animals but it is advertised for teens also. There is no distinction between age groups. This I feel is a gap in the market that can be taken up by Furlenco.
One has to address the fact that in terms of cultural context the requirements are different in India. This includes factors like the size of the house, the functions around a particular furniture as well as the colours. A factor like compact spaces has been addressed well by the Godrej Ispace range as they are all compact solutions. To conclude, an ideal way forward for this project would be to consider kids as the center of design in respect to their needs according to their age. As well as making it suitable for the Indian household context.