Siam Rungreung enlists cartoons

FURNITURE / NEW MARKETING STRATEGY

Siam Rungreung enlists cartoons

CHADAMAS CHINMANEEVONG

Siam Rungreung Intertrade Co, the owner of the knocked-down furniture brand Mee Style, sees big potential in a new furniture line that incorporates designs from popular Japanese cartoon figures.

The new product line aims to capture family customers. The colours and designs should impress children, said Chanchai Piyawatcharavijit, the company's managing director.

The company wants to diversify because the influx of Chinese furniture, much of it priced 30-40% below comparable Thai products, has affected local producers catering to the middle and lower-end markets.

''The company must look for new markets that are still 'blue ocean' markets to survive amid high competition. So we decided to buy cartoon character licences to make our products different from others,'' said Mr Chanchai.

The company has invested more than 10 million baht to buy the licences to the characters and build a management team. The licences give it the right to paint the Japanese cartoon characters on its products such as chairs, tables, shelves and wardrobes. The agreement covers popular characters including Doraemon, Hello Kitty, PostPet, Mask Ryder and Ultraman, according to Mr Chanchai.

The company introduced the cartoon character products in the middle of this year and they have been popular, with sales of 40 million baht so far. Next year it will focus more on the cartoon motifs instead of other knocked-down furniture products.

Its mainstream products have a margin of only 10%, compared with 40% for the new cartoon designs. In 2008, Mr Chanchai said, the sales proportion between cartoon-motif furniture and knocked-down furniture will change from 50:50 to 70:30.

The company expects revenue of around 80 million baht this year and hopes it will double in the next years. The new products are being sold through its dealers and department stores.

Mr Chanchai said the children's furniture market was worth one billion baht a year, and Mee Style aimed to capture 10% of it next year.

The company set a budget of 18 million baht to promote the cartoon-motif products. The product prices range between 600 and 20,000 baht.