This assessment requires you to identify, analyses and evaluate the Essay

This assessment requires you to identify, analyses and evaluate the micro-external environment of two (two) international market - Essay Example Fitted bedroom furniture can help customers to place their bedroom furniture in systematic and space efficient manner. Non fitted bedroom furniture Non fitted bedroom furniture includes wardrobes, dressing tables, chests of drawers bedside tables which can be assembled by customers. The product offers the opportunity to assemble and customize bedroom furniture in accordance with the convenience of customers. (Source: Mintel Oxygen, 2012) Market line (2012a) has reported that bedroom furniture segment contributes a significant portion to furniture & floor coverings industry of Germany. Brief snapshot of the industry can be explained in the following industry. Market Value Value Forecast Category Segmentation Market Competition Value of furniture market (including living & bed room, kitchen, office and floor covering) in Germany is $47.5 billion. The market is growing at a rate of more than 1% and value of market is expected to touch $50 billion by 2016. Living room and bed room furnit ure contributes 51.7% of total value of the furniture industry in Germany. Market for bedroom furniture is highly fragmented due to presence of large number of retailers. (Source: Market line, 2012a) Value bracket for German bedroom furniture industry can be segregated on the basis of consumption pattern. Bedroom furniture contributes 13% of total market composition. Only 10% of buyers of bedroom furniture prefer high priced premier and luxury products in the country (United States Agency International Development, 2006). Brassington and Pettitt (2007) have stated that customer segmentation is required in order to define significant differences between customer groups which help marketers to design more focused marketing strategy. Customers can be segmented on the basis of their buying pattern. It has been reported by United States Agency International Development (2006) that two major customers segments are present in German bedroom furniture market such as 1- customers who prefer fitted bedroom furniture and 2- customers who prefer customized and non-fitted furniture. Following diagram can be used in order to segregate the customer group in accordance product consumption. (Source: United States Agency International Development, 2006) United States Agency International Development (2006) has reported that more than sixty percent of the transactions in the German bedroom furniture market can be characterized as business to consumer (B2C) type of transactions. Although the trend is different for categories like seating/upholster, parts etc. Political condition of Germany is stable which creates favourable environment for bedroom furniture companies planning to invest in the country. Lynn (2010) has pointed out that Euro zone crisis has decreased gross domestic product (GDP) growth of Germany which has affected the demand for furniture products in Germany. Lifestyle trend of Germany has segregated the consumer segment into â€Å"singletons† and â€Å"bes t agers†. Singletons are young professionals with high purchasing power who prefer to purchase customized non-fitted bedroom furniture due to space constraint while â€Å"best agers† are couples with children who prefer to purchase fitted furniture for their family home (CBI, 2006). German government provides specialized benefits like tax rate reduction, funding to manufacturing companies who emphasize on research and development