Week 4: Enough Market to Go Around - Ryan Tom

http://dzinedirections.squarespace.com/blog/2011/9/13/discount-furniture-should-be-marked-use-by.html

Keld Korasager, Director of the Danish Furniture Association in 1998

I wanted to put a face to the name of the man who helped a Denmark industry full of small business owners into a specialized, niched, and differentiated market. What an awesome dude.

I see a lot of parallels between Denmark's early furniture industry and agricultural industries in a lot of developing countries. Denmark had many small business owners; there are over 25 million small lot coffee farmers. Denmark had an equal distribution of discount, basic, and design which changed to integrated companies and specialized companies; For coffee, there will be discount coffee growers/ manufacturers for the masses, huge specialty corporations controlling quality from farm to cup (integrated), and there will be boutique growers, exporters, roasters, brewers. In terms of business models, I believe there is a lot of potential for Vietnam to differentiate their coffee farmers (not everyone can have a boutique plantation) and this makes it so companies from the same country do not have to compete with one another.

I wish the article, Internationalization of Danish Furniture focused more on how the marketing was accomplished for reaching the desired customers, as well as any legal policies that helped in establishing the industry. Many key companies / CEOs were mentioned which emphasizes the industry aspect of the national aesthetic framework. Need more information on government & people.