Spanish designer wins Promosedia prize

UDINE, Italy — Spanish designer Tomas Alonso has won this year’s Promosedia International Design Competition — Caiazza Memorial Challenge for his Nube chair.

Three hundred designs were entered in this year’s contest, which recognizes architects, designers and students younger than 40 for their designs of wood chairs.

One first prize, two honorable mentions and three special mentions were awarded. Promosedia, the chair exhibition held here annually, will display the winning prototypes at its upcoming show Sept. 13-16 in this northern Italian city.

Promosedia judges called the Nube chair, which uses steam-bent wood, “a cutting edge project, though reinterpreting tradition; its reference to the classic Thonet chair and its use of curved wood is refreshed in form, color and proportion.”

Alonso has traveled extensively from his native Spain to work in America, Australia, France and Italy, and now lives in London, where he established the Okaystudio with five other designers.

Honorable mentions went to Daniel Fintzi of Israel for his Askew chair and Paolo Cappello of Italy for a design called IRI.

The judges also awarded a special mention to Ricky and Tommy Yuen of Hong Kong, Aleksej Sabirullov of Russia, and Akin Bacioglu of Turkey.

Model name: NUBE Chair Designer: Tomas Alonso Reason: The project was cutting edge even in how it reinterpreted tradition; its reference to the classical Thonet chair and its use of curved wood is refreshing in form, colour and proportion. The modular structure of some of its parts and the introduction of contemporary lines make the Nube Chair a new item. We also took its feasibility and construction stability into consideration.

Model name: IRI Designer: Paolo Cappello	Model name: ASKEW Designer: Daniel Fintzi

Model name: ALSO Designer: Akin Bacioglu	Model name: (0.5)C Designer: Ricky and Tommy Yuen	Model name: BLIZZARD OF AUGUST Designer: Alexey Sabirullov

Hispanics still a growing market furniture

Buying power will top $1 trillion, AHFA members learn

ATLANTA — Hispanics number 44 million in the United States and represent $928 billion in annual buying power, according to Jackie Bird.

She is president and CEO of Winglatino, ranked by Advertising Age as one of the fastest growing Latino ad agencies in the U.S. in 2006, and spoke to an American Home Furnishings Alliance marketing meeting here about how to reach the Hispanic consumer.

Bird said that the Hispanic population is growing rapidly, and its buying power is expected to reach to $1.2 trillion by 2010. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that by 2020, the U.S. Hispanic population will reach 60 million, or 18% of the country’s population.

Bird said that selling to Hispanics has moved from mass marketing in the 1970s to specialized marketing in the 1990s, with companies like Procter & Gamble, Citibank, H&R Block and others targeting messages to that population.

Other trends Bird cited:

+ Seven of the 10 fastest-growing states owe their population gains largely to Hispanics, and some 665 U.S. cities have Hispanic majorities.

+ Hispanic consumers are becoming more affluent as U.S.-born Hispanics strive to become educated and achieve. “They know what their parents went through coming here,” Bird said, “and they’re going to show they appreciate it.” Because of that, Hispanics will be buying more luxury brands, she said.

+ The average age Hispanics leave home is 28, which may have some effect on buying. But Bird said they have more disposable income at that age, and are likely to buy furnishings for their parents.

+ Hispanics still trust newspapers and other traditional media, but in any given day some 18 million are online. Sixty-eight percent use instant messaging, 63% share photos and 52% read or post blogs.

Hispanic Americans' spending power increasing

Any way you slice it, America is becoming more Latin. There are approximately 43 million Hispanics currently in the United States. According to Jose Cancela, founder of the marketing and research firm Hispanic USA Inc. and author of “The Power of Business En Español,” they will represent $1 trillion in spending power by 2010.

Jose Cancela

Readers who follow the current immigration debate might be under the impression that this trend could be reversed by immigration policy changes. However, according to Cancela, who spoke to Furniture Style in December 2007, “In the 1990s, the number of Hispanics born here overtook foreign-born immigrants as the leading source of Hispanic population growth.”

Indeed, the current wave of anti-immigration sentiment could actually amplify the benefits of outreach to Hispanics, Cancela said. The more Hispanics feel marginalized, the more loyalty they’ll show to companies that try to speak to them.

Cancela said that communicating with Hispanic consumers in Spanish is an important key to unlocking the Hispanic market. “Even for third-generation Hispanics, who are English-dominant, Spanish is still the language of passion, family and heritage … of emotion,” he explained. “And, in the end, what you’re looking for as an advertiser is how to push emotional buttons.”

Cancela also pointed out that the purchase leader in a family usually is the grandmother. While her grandchildren may be successful, college-educated, luxury consumers, they still show loyalty to the brands that have won their grandmother’s traditional heart.

When asked if the furniture industry is serving the Hispanic market well, Cancela held out the Casa Cristina Collection by Pulaski Furniture as a step in the right direction. He pointed out that not only are Hispanics very brand loyal—85 percent will pay more for a familiar brand—they also tend to put greater weight on trusted resources, whether it’s their abuela (grandmother) or a TV personality, such as Cristina Saralegui.

Fairmont Designs is in the process of increasing its Hispanic outreach, according to Vice President of Merchandising Ken Fonville, who said Fairmont’s “traditional, carved, slightly over-scale product” is a natural fit for the Hispanic — and, he noted, the Asian — community. A Web site revamp may be part of the company’s plan to strengthen its Hispanic outreach.

Brazil Baroque’s President and principal designer, Andrea Fonseca, said that her company’s Imperial and Rosewood Collections are especially popular with the Hispanic community. “Hand-carved pieces and Jacobean legs have great appeal for the Spanish population,” said Fonseca. “We only work with recycled antique woods. Rare, antique hardwoods with dark finishes appeal to our Hispanic clients. Rosewood is a deep, unique brown. We also use some gold finishes that are very popular.”

By Thomas A. Prais [at] FurnitureStyle.com