National Furniture has developed a product mix which capitalizes on it’s reputation and focuses on it’s core competencies.  For seventeen years, National Furniture has been in the furniture business as a leader in well-designed, classic, durable, and affordable hardwood furniture.  It has considered other furniture materials such as plastic, steel, and glass, but rejected the possibility of diversifying this way.  Some of the reasons include:

>  The expense necessary in initiating new production facilities,

>  The increased demands this would place on it’s sales personnel,

>  The market in the tri-state area not being firm for alternative furniture designs,

>  National Furniture designers lack proficiency in creating these types of designs,

>  Formidable competition in the alternative furniture materials market, and

>  The much smaller margins than exist for wood products.

National Furniture designs distinctive furniture products.  The basic design of their products has remained almost the same since Bob Wood Sr. started the company.  Recently, the use of Computer Assisted Drafting has allowed small refinements for efficiency as well as the development of a few new products, but the basic look remains the same.

This “look” continues to sell in the tri-state area.  National Furniture has the advantage of being the only real wood furniture manufacturer for it’s market in that area.  It is also small enough to avoid capturing the attention of national manufacturers.  It’s product designs have never been copied, and is not anticipated that they will be, unless National Furniture tries to expand and market it’s products beyond the tri-state area.

National Furniture has been careful to avoid creating too many product designs in order to eliminate cannibalization of it’s own products -- a real danger since it has committed itself to a single, limited category of furniture style.  They have essentially created two product lines, one based on cherry with a rich stain for a look of elegance, and the other based on oak with a light stain for a classic look.  The two looks have almost the same design, but are distinctive enough in appearance that they do not compete with each other.  Rather, they offer the client a choice between styles thereby helping to sustain sales.