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Past Events: 2000
Strategic marketing for design-oriented small businesses: To plan or not to plan?
Tuesday, December 5
Presented jointly by Furniture New York and the Product Forum, and hosted by the Municipal Art Society.
Most small businesses that design and/or manufacture furniture and accessories do their marketing the ad hoc way.
For many, design is the real passion, and marketing comes second. Often the business is an extension of the owner's personality, and
strategy - if any - evolves along the way. Yet it is conventional wisdom that a growing business should create a strategic
marketing plan which, in one comprehensive effort, roots out its potential customers and the best methods to reach them.
Can strategic marketing work for us? Is it worth the time and money? Or is our hybrid industry too idiosyncratic?
A panel of designer/producers with varying views of strategic marketing will present their experiences. A marketing
professional will moderate. Your questions and thoughts will be welcome.
Panelists:
Dianes Barnes, Metropolitan Furniture
Sandy Chilewich, Raybowls
John Kelly, John Kelly Furniture
Moderator: Beth Dickstein, Beth Dickstein Enterprises
Tuesday, November 8
Celebrate or bemoan the day after the election at a presentation and focus group
at the Municipal Arts Society. Details to follow.
Tuesday, October 10
FNY member Loren Sherman of Inova LLC will host our October meeting.
He will lead a discussion of how he is taking his new company and new product past the "one-off"
phase into serious production and market pricing. His new on-staff director of development and sales,
Paul Feniello, will bring his expertise into the discussion as well. This meeting should prove to be a
valuable prelude to our joint Product Forum/MAS panel discussion on strategic marketing scheduled for
December 5th. (This was previously scheduled for November 8, but had to be changed)
We will also have some FNY items rounding out the agenda: a preview of the FNY website
(full members, bring your images - up to three, digital or print, no slides - and up to a 200 word
description so we may add it into the site), a co-op advertising proposal, and other upcoming business.
6:30 pm. Inova LLC is at 685 West End Avenue #1B at 93rd Street. Please bring something to eat or drink.
E-commerce in Furniture and Accessories
Monday, September 18
Presented jointly by Furniture New York, the Product Forum, and the Parsons Center for New Design.
On-line furniture companies are coming and going faster than we can keep count. This new-economy frontier
is a tumult, with each company testing a different business model and many failing. As these companies evolve, however, they
surely present (or will present) some potent sales and promotion opportunities for the designer/producer/entrepreneur. The
question is, with each on-line company offering so much promise and so little proof, how do you choose among them?
Representatives from three important on-line companies, HomePortfolio.com, SpecSimple.com and Cityflair.com, will each
present their view of the evolving marketplace and their goals within it. Timothy Jack Ward, a prominent design writer
and brief e-commerce executive, will moderate. Your questions and thoughts will be welcome.
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